Songs of Chaos

Songs of Chaos is a new collaborative project between choreographer Roza Moshtaghi and visual and sound artist Lykourgos Porfyris, resulting in a dance work that questions the landscape and ownership of land. It’s a reminder that the struggle for love and safety is a fight we are in together.

Songs of Chaos draws on one of Bertolt Brecht’s most famous plays, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, which tells the story of a peasant girl who rescues an infant and raises him as her own. After the war, the boy’s biological mother wants her son back. The question is: who has the legal rights to the child?

Moshtaghi continues to explore the human desire to adapt to systems and structures in society. The ordinary, or rather what we have forced into the ordinary, is the choreographer’s playing field. 

Songs of Chaos consists of five songs, a performance in the theater space, and an installation animated through performative action in public space. Songs of Chaos goes far in its exploration of breaking with the audience’s expectations. Porfyris overperforms the stereotype of the blind wise man and serves as the piece’s narrator and guide. The choreographic material is created in close collaboration with Porfyris’ vision, which is less than 10% sight.

“Sitting in front of a TV displaying a fireplace, trying to understand what does a landscape looks like. Why is it so fascinating for people to look at nature or the city from the top of a mountain or building? Is it because of the horizon, or is it because they feel superior to nature and/or other fellow humans? Who has access to all kinds of landscapes? Who has the time and resources to observe things from a higher position?”

These are among the questions Songs of Chaos seeks to answer. The result is a highly topical dance piece that creates new mythologies and interpretations of common stories.