Dance recognises the limitations of language and places emphasis on the value of movement to help us experience, rather than logically define, life. As participants in the Springback Academy, we were tasked to do the reverse: experience the dance and then put it into words. Oh, and remember, don’t be a mirror, be a window.

Aerowaves’ Spring Forward festival promised us ‘3 days of jam-packed action’ with 21 artists from 17 countries and a few bonus tracks thrown in, just in case we got complacent. Held in the twin European Capitals of Culture – Gorizia (Italy) and Nova Gorica (Slovenia) – we watched as artists asked us to tune in to the zeitgeist of a generation bombarded by information/disinformation, grappling with a hyper-accelerated rate of technological and social change.

The backlash

So, how can we respond to such monumental shifts in our circumstances? The Spring Forward artists gave us their answer. Rather than jam-packed action, the overarching theme was introspection, transmitted predominantly in slow-motion. It was as if all the choreographers had read Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman and applied it to dance. But that didn’t make the work less impactful: to show something slow in a world where everything is so fast-paced can be a powerful statement.

Moving slow

Waterkind by Land Before Time opened the festival, setting the tone with a slow-paced, meticulously articulated inquiry into our relationship with water and nature. Dominik Więcek’s Glory Game defiantly took it to the next level by portraying the world of sport in slow motion, highlighting the beauty of athletic endeavour while satirising its drawbacks. Watching six dancers ‘racing’ inch by inch, from left to right and back again across the stage was almost a cinematic experience, the snail-like pace only adding to the intensity of the competition.

We were asked to contemplate our own mortality at Solène Weinachter’s AFTER ALL which melded dance, comedy and storytelling in an impeccably crafted exploration of death rituals and their meaning, that moved many to tears. Shiraz by Armin Hokmi – a hypnotic piece with seven dancers – also chose to build momentum through repetition and subtle shifts in posture and rhythm.

Future shock

We were also confronted with existential questions about our society and the future. Performance Xx’s Gush is Great presented a bleak and slow-motion depiction of a society (ours) intent on its own destruction. The final sequence was enacted to the sounds of children playing on a beach, until the laughter and fireworks morphed into gunshots and explosions.

We were urged to take care of our planet for future generations in IHOPEIWILL – a delicately assembled piece by threeiscompany & Jaro Viňarský. Painstakingly, the performer, Soňa Ferienčíková, unspooled a line of flesh-coloured fabric wrapped around her body, stretching it and attaching it to harnesses until the stage became a web of interconnectedness. Matea Bilosnić in Never ALLone used poetic narrative and deft movement vocabulary to forewarn a dystopian future where our only friend might be a nifty mobile machine.

In the body symphonic, Charlie Khalil Prince’s slow build-up of sound and movement gave us a glimpse of life as a Lebanese emigrant. The rituals of motion and sound that he generated captivated and eluded us in equal measure. And Aristide Rontini deliberately took his time to reveal that he was born with half his right arm ‘missing’. Lampyris Noctiluca then took us on an intimate voyage of self-discovery, gracefully challenging our perception of disability.

Take a break

The Spring Forward festival is not just about the performances you see; it’s the people you meet, the relationships you form, and the mutual love of dance that brings us together in a unique moment in time. It’s also about walking, talking, listening, taking the time to reflect and think about the work. Just as the artists insisted we slow down in a world moving too fast, we gradually found ourselves easing the pace, taking a pause between the action to interact as human beings. For some, this meant sampling the occasional Aperol Spritz; for others it was comparing experimental gelato flavours – after all, we were in Italy.