MANIPULATION — NEGOTIATED CONTROL & CARE

Source / generator

Days 3–5: partner manipulation exercise.

Two performers work together. Initially, one manipulates and one is manipulated. The exercise is not about creating attractive sculptural poses but about physical negotiation. Instructions included maintaining tactile contact, keeping eyes open, reading the partner's intention, not anticipating or completing it for them, staying in one situation longer, noticing weight and gravity, and protecting the head, neck and joints.

Mart said: “Offer your body as a surface to work with.” This does not mean becoming passive matter. The body being manipulated remains sensitive, responsive, responsible and physically present.

The workshop then investigated transitions in leadership. Control does not disappear; it shifts. The change of control should not be a revolution or a fight. It becomes a gradual negotiation. Mart emphasised: “The transition is not a revolution.”

The artistic problem shifts from “Who controls?” toward “How does control circulate?” and “How can a body remain responsive without either dominating or collapsing?” Care is structurally part of the protocol. Physical risk is not treated as an artistic virtue.

What the protocol trains

Tactile attention, negotiation, weight, responsiveness, partner listening, trust, care and power transition.

Artistic problem

How can control be shared without becoming either domination or disappearance? The exercise makes relation—not an isolated body—the place where the performance is produced.