Daina Ashbee - When the ice melts, will we drink the water?

“Choreographically, I often make use of repetition, which is a kind of choreographic insistence. Sometimes I use repetition to build movement, becoming increasingly faster and striking and sometimes I use it to create a signature movement that can be seen numerous times throughout the performance, or alternatively presenting variations on one gesture. My work considers what we as humans endure and have the capacity to endure. An example of this is the repetition in my work When the ice melts, will we drink the water? (2016). While this piece, as all of my work, is very abstract, for me it speaks about Mother Nature and what she can endure. The near exhaustion of the interpreter and overall composition of the work helps me to ask important questions such as:

- What do certain minorities endure on a daily basis?
- What have Indigenous people endured over the last century?
- What does a member of the audience endure during one of my performances?
- When we can no longer endure such things, do we become numb?
- Does art re-sensitize us?

I am not ashamed of bringing my personal life into the work as they bring me to the depths of my imagination and creative capacity”.