I am sitting in a room

A study in movement of the sitting position, I am sitting in a room is performed by four poetic clowns to the eponymous text by American composer Alvin Lucier. This renowned sound work, created in 1969, involves the recording, playback and re-recording of a spoken text. Throughout the course of the work, the sound of Lucier’s voice is gradually transformed by the acoustics of the room, a process that smoothes out any irregularities in the speech of the reader, who speaks with a stutter.

The choreographic work echoes the same process, using Lucier’s musical composition as a score, a guiding thread and also as an instruction booklet. Throughout the performance, the repetative act of ‘sitting’ in its various states and possibilities undergoes a series of transformations, becoming at times sculptural, at times highly performative and burlesque. Portraying the figure of the clown, one of the most reproduced figures in our western world, the dancers engage in this act of ‘sitting’, that of giving and distributing one’s weight and body mass, both individually and collectively, in this witty and iconic dance piece.

“This piece focuses on the complicity that can exist between people in these troubled times, highlighting the act of sharing and mutual support.” JL

/ TEXT
“I am sitting in a room different from the one you are in now. I am recording the sound of my speaking voice and I am going to play it back into the room again and again until the resonant frequencies of the room reinforce themselves so that any semblance of my speech, with perhaps the exception of rhythm, is destroyed. What you will hear, then, are the natural resonant frequencies of the room articulated by speech. I regard this activity not so much as a demonstration of a physical fact, but more as a way to smooth out any irregularities my speech might have.” — Alvin Lucier