Line Maria le Fèvre
Animating Materiality
Public engagement workshop, April 25th, 2025
The Playground, Rambert HQ, Southbank, London
Public engagement workshop at the Rambert, April 2025
The Playground,
Rambert HQ, Southbank, London
Dancers: Delicia Sefiha and Sofia Pomeroy
Photography: Ben Paul
Public engagement workshop at the Rambert, April 2025
The Playground, Rambert HQ, Southbank, London
Dancer: Delicia Sefiha
Photography: Ben Paul
Excerpt from revised poem
A Selkie story retold
Far up north in the Arctic, where hunters glide their silent vessels intuitively through ice, a story is told of a shape-shifting, mythological sea creature who, when the moon is full, breaches the surface of the icy water to glide her velvety skin up onto a shining rock, rising to a stance, shedding
her seal-like features to take the shape of a human for the night. Here, these creatures commune above the surface to dance, nude in the moonlight, until the moon sets, when they once again robe themselves in speckled skin, shapeshifting keenly to slide discreetly back into the black sea. This is one such story of the Selkie, narrated this time — for her.
She just wanted to dance in the world of matter,
for a moment,
on that small piece of rock
— the in-between.
To feel the solidity
of hardened minerals,
under the softness of her temporary human skin.
To taste the salt
—
through breath.
To witness the rapture of her sisters,
in their glistering form;
Skin and bones reflecting a monochromatic moonlight
—
obscuring the contour of their bodies,
and the pulsating surface of the black sea,
from which they had so naively risen.
But density, was never meant for her.