Edmonton RESPONSE: MILE ZERO DANCE performance

Ian Mozdzen — the intruder who enters your silence

Ian looks like a thief who ends up in your home while you’re asleep. But why? There’s nothing here to steal. And yet, the artist isn’t here for that. You sense it instantly, and you don’t even consider calling the police (their sirens rush playfully down a nearby avenue, providing a strangely fitting soundtrack to the moment).

You’re simply too curious to see what the dancer’s going to do.

Ian is an intruder who takes nothing from you — the artist only touches your things. And for some reason, you feel an almost sexual pleasure in the way the dancer does it. A secret space shared between you, a place where you experience emotions you never expected.

Who is the artist?

The dancer is Ian Mozdzen from Winnipeg.

The dancer’s body speaks a language that is crystal-clear yet tells stories that are unclear — and suddenly deeply intimate. The dancer’s movement echoes Ancient Greece, Spanish toreros, Parisian mimes, and at times, sea creatures.

The artist has mastered the art of shadow: at one moment surrendering to its inevitable presence, at the next ruling over it with almost totalitarian precision. Ian is here and now, the one who rearranges your life for forty minutes into a sequence of expected-unexpected moments.

(NOTE: this version is gender-neutral)

ORIGINAL