Give or Take Dans ve Tiyatro Performası

GIVE OR TAKE is an interactive multidisciplinary performance that explores gift-giving as an act of celebration, alongside unpacking moments when ‘gifts’ are employed as a contract and a transaction. Fusing clown, dance-theatre and live music, GIVE OR TAKE invited its audiences into a surreal re-enactment of their favourite gifts, as the performers asked: can anything ever come for free?

GIVE OR TAKE was performed as a part of the Kyrenia Fest 2024, by Emilia Nurmukhamet and Annie Dearnley. It was a perfect performance to watch on a warm summer evening. The music engulfed the bay just as the sun started to set, with the two performers, Emilia and Annie patiently taking center stage.

The performers addressed the audience, informally, kindly and openly as though they were friends, acquaintances…co-creators of the piece. Because they are. Audience members were asked to write or draw their most favorite or most memorable gift that they have ever given or received on small pieces of paper, that Emilia and Annie would carefully fold and place in a glass jar.

One after the other, the gifts were re-enacted back to the audience, with absurd and hilarious clowning – children and adults trying to guess each gift in wonder and delight.

This gift-giving game effortlessly flowed into magnetic dance, with the re-enacted gifts embedded into the thumping soundtrack. A toy shark, a book of myths and legends, a little sister, all mixed and matched together with electronic synths. The synergy between Emilia and Annie created a nurturing atmosphere that enveloped the space.

 GIVE OR TAKE is a refreshing piece of theater, a poignant correspondence on the topic of memory – what stays with us forever, and what we leave behind.

About the artists: Emilia Nurmukhamet is Tatar theatre maker, performer and creative facilitator living and working in London, UK. Emilia’s work focuses on a multidisciplinary approach to performance: combining live sound, digital media and performance art alongside focusing on autobiographical and documentary style writing. Annie Dearnley is a multidisciplinary artist and Dance Movement Psychotherapist who uses dance, music and spoken word to weave binary-melting stories with autobiographical beginnings. Together, Annie and Emilia co-run an experimental music and performance event ‘Bold Mud’ and embodied listening workshops ‘Shifting Shapes’. 

GIVE OR TAKE has been previously performed at Rich Mix and Royal Docks in London, UK. It has been recently commissioned by Stanley Arts to be 

performed in November 2024.