Off Peak
Off Peak was born around a kitchen table in Tottenham, between 9am-3pm, or maybe 10pm-12am, amidst the squawks of small children, or maybe the screaming laughter of women with a couple of free hours. A collaboration between three artists and mothers feeling the squeeze, the rage, the constant FOMO of women in their 40s who, perhaps alone, refuse to consider themselves irrelevant. How can we contend with the shortened work hours, a patriarchy that plays peek-a-boo, and turning personal and professional roles off and on, on and off? We have, frankly, had enough, and decided to address this feeling productively by making a show. This one, very relevant, performance was developed via remote collaboration and dramaturgy, because of course Off-Peak was impossible to create during peak hours in a studio residency, even if we would love that. Three interwoven solos combine personal storytelling and audience participation, in a hilarious and moving exploration of blood, retinol, desire, death, microphones, eternal youth, pain, powerpoint, and the unbearable animal slowness of mothering small children.
This 50 minute dance theatre work can stand alone or be part of a longer mixed-bill evening. Ready to be performed in English or Italian, it is best suited to theatre or gallery spaces.
Off-Peak is supported by a seed commission from TripSpace (London), part of the Lifespanner project, as well as DanceRetreat Tuscany and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) as part of the TECHNE doctoral training partnership [Training Grant Reference number AH/R01275X/1)]
Team
Irene Cioni is a dancer, movement director and choreographer working in film, theatre, live art fashion, education and virtual reality. She teaches on the BA and MA at Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds and TRY in Lucca. Alongside recent collaboration with Company Blu and Cos – active wear, her own work is focussed on the art of story currently performing her solo Your Story (2022) and In Medias Res (2023). She is the curator of @danceretreatuscany. https://www.irenecioni.art/
Giuliana Majo is a dance artist, producer, teacher & physiotherapist. A founding member of TRIPSPACE, she has been slow-making dances since 1998. Her work weaves narrative, movement, humor & audience interaction to build informal & intimate connections between performer & spectators by breaking the conventional frameworks of performance with lo-fi aesthetics yet meaningful content. https://www.giulianamajo.com
Julia Pond is a dance artist and researcher whose work explores political economy from an embodied perspective. Using movement and text, humour, and sometimes bread dough, she creates performance and writing that engages with themes like value and productivity. Her practice-based PhD uses dance improvisation to consider what bodily conditions and directions might support a sustainable economy. Having previously performed and taught Duncan repertory and technique for twenty years, she considers her current work threaded to these roots in a dance that is for a politics of liberation. https://juliapond.com
Music: Tom Parkinson
Dramaturge: Jess Latowicki