Elif Cadoux ~ répétition, rehearsal

Elif Cadoux's "répétition, rehearsal" was presented before live audience at Centrale Fies, Dro, Italy on August 2, 2024 as one of 38 AEROPONIC ACTS of CHAMELEON ORBIT curated by Elisa Giuliani & Giulia Crispiani.

Here you will find the documentation of Elif Cadoux's presentation as filmed by Baha Görkem Yalım. The written report is by  Bethany Crawford and it includes a summary of the comments by esteemed guest respondents.

répétition, rehearsal

Elif Cadoux's question: Can we count on losing the count?  

Elif's introduction: A rhythm lulls, individuates, and subsumes us in its world-making, common-sense 1-2. It insists “nothing else can be heard, that nothing else need to be felt.”* Its momentum creates inevitability—a loss of future. An inability to speak in the future tense.

On a stage, characters rehearse cadences, choreographies of alternative time.

Can we count on losing the count?

*(Harney and Moten, All Incomplete, 55)

Bethany's report: The performance opens with the audience gathering outdoors, greeted by the soft, evocative tones of a song sung in French. Scattered performers stand on an outdoor platform, dressed in contrasting white and black, their faces painted with mime-like expressions. They cluster, holding each other, and begin tapping their feet in unison, creating a rhythmic beat. Three performers on the corners of the platform announce words in French, and the audience follows along with a provided script. At the center of the stage, a drummer anchors the rhythm, while performers shift into formations, moving in sync with the beat. Words are exchanged back and forth in French between the announcing performers, as the dancers lean forward, covering their eyes, subtly altering their movements in each repetition into a dance that enhances and sustains the rhythm from the drummer.

The performance delves into concepts of structure, regulation, chaos, and control, presenting a fluid and cyclical movement between order and disarray through the shifting patterns of the groups of dancers, the dances and movements, and the spoken words of the announcing performers. Initially, the synchronized formations and shared rhythm evoke a sense of control, reflecting an organized and unified logic. Yet, as the beat intensifies, interactions layer, overlap, and the performers start to lose synchronicity, a-rhythmia begins to show. As performers and speakers move out of alignment, creating fragmented, overlaying beats and words, the presentation suggests that the structure of rhythms are vulnerable to breakdowns in uniformity,  in which lies the potential for new, divergent rhythms to emerge—patterns that coexist in dynamic tension. The difficulty of falling out of sync with the dominant rhythm becomes a metaphor for resisting imposed structures, highlighting how systems and norms can transition into unpredictability.

The speakers join the dancers, introducing vocal expression into the movements, almost as if teaching them. Audience members are invited into clusters, attempting to learn the complex movements and vocalizations. The action spills off the platform into the surrounding space. Amid the chaos, one performer remains on stage, laughing hysterically as the drummer maintains a beat, capturing a frenzied joy. Movements quicken and intensify, colliding in chaotic patterns until they begin to merge, with one lead performer collapsing on the platform in laughter tinged with distress. An audience member steps forward to comfort her, breathing together in unison. The two begin singing, their voices harmonizing, and gradually, the dancers stop, hum, and re-engage with one another, now more muted and to a gentler rhythm.

In its final moments, the performance offers a tentative return to harmony as the singers and drummer join together, echoing the refrain, “It’s not the end of the world… see you tomorrow.”

Antonia Majaca: Antonia starts by celebrating that this was such a joyous moment—a powerful end to the day. It feels almost unscriptedly, scripted. It draws on the orbit of associations—the concrete poetry tradition, cabaret elements, and stylistic performance. But all of that becomes secondary to the pure joy of collective expression. It's like a "swarm intelligence," where joy itself is the intelligence. I celebrate you for this; it’s an incredible crescendo to the day.

And a big congratulations to Giulia and Elisa for curating this program with such precision, grace, care, and attentiveness to each work, creating this beautiful call and response. I’d also like to congratulate you both.

Inti Guerrero: Inti starts by playing a song in response to the work. He clarifies that it’s not so much about the content of the lyrics as it is about the structure of the song. The score examines how language functions here, how it becomes almost self-cannibalizing, forming a multi-channel narrative. He reflects that Elif’s presentation explored a kind of “end of the world” from various perspectives throughout this presentation, with many points of view of, aesthetics and the aftermath, and how to defy the idea that there is an end of the world. He references the song he just played starts with a coherent narrative, but the composer plays with its structure, bringing parts of the song from the beginning into the middle, and what was at the beginning reappears at the end. This reordering creates a cacophony of meaning, forming new interpretations, and he thinks that’s reflected in the multiplicity of characters in Elif’s presentations, showing how multiple perspectives coexist.

Ramon Amaro: Ramon says he’ll keep it short because everyone is tired and hungry; it’s been a long couple of days. That’s why it’s even more extraordinary that so much effort was put into this final performance, encased within ideas of joy, rhythm, and resistance. It makes everyone think about systemic logic, about the rhythms of life and our responses to them.

Ramon also sees the deeper narratives emerging, even beyond computational frameworks, as they’re applied to social spaces. It makes him think of social manipulation, the so-called “natural” or mathematical processes that inform community organization, movement, negotiation, and swarm behavior. These are foundational in game theory, war, and early computation, reflecting how rhythms perceived as natural can be externalized, appropriated, and used to organize us. What’s remarkable about this project is that it’s not just a decontextualized intervention; it’s thoughtful and rooted in references to thinkers like Harney and Moten, considering the rhythmic. This has roots in sonic performance studies through scholars like Jared Sexton. He was watching from outside, and he thought, “Wow”, he  always assumed that rhythm is accessible and innate. But even foundational theorists discussing rhythm’s ruptures and staccatos don’t challenge rhythm itself. He appreciated how this performance enters with the premise that rhythm itself can be questioned—not only as a source of joy but as something that can destabilize joy, especially when our collective rhythm aligns too neatly. The unraveling and neurosis on stage, followed by a joyful release, creates its own kind of rhythm. This is the limitation in some theories; these are the same ideas that shape war strategies, city planning, and more. To Ramon, the performance shows that we’re often only told half the story: we learn how rhythm can be manipulated, but not how breaking from rhythm can create new ones. And despite attempts to subsume rhythms, something else always emerges when one person is brave—or unwillingly courageous—enough to break from convention.

Ramon thanks Elif for framing this within a context that’s both theoretically rich and deeply performative. He says the Elif has given us something to think about for a long time—and, perhaps, something to dance about for even longer.

About: Elif Cadoux

Elif Cadoux' "répétition, rehearsal" was presented before live audience at Centrale Fies, Dro, Italy on August 2nd.

Find the overview of all 38 AEROPONIC ACTS 2024 here: Chameleon Orbit