Powered by Emotion is a solo performance created and performed by Mårten Spångberg.
It originates from a desire to dance and sing without having access to the skills and technical capacity that would produce territory and, perhaps more tangibly, notions of identity and belonging. The choreographer takes as his starting point the exploration of two over-determined artistic materials: Walter Verdin’s film of Steve Paxton’s dance to J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations and the songs of Buena Vista Social Club. The performer’s inability and nonplussed relationship to the material urges the spectator to reconsider the notion of aesthetics. What we see and hear both is and isn’t Steve Paxton dancing and Buena Vista Social Club giving voice to sentimental love.
