“Destroy//” is the destruction of dance material through the means of complexity, disorientation and exhaustion. It is a durational work that generally lasts between 45-75 minutes. In each city, a group of dancers assemble in order to learn four sections of choreographed material which are, in performance, put through prescribed tests and feats that challenge the material’s execution.

Dancers are essentially unable to perform the work “as intended,” and the dance deteriorates, or rather evolves, under the duress of the destruction mechanisms. This plays out in the performance in a number of ways. Dancers are given authority over their path, each dealing with the material and score individually but also within the container of the whole. The resulting action includes: dancers get lost in the material, nausea makes for pauses, dancers physically or psychologically hit walls, choreography un-tethers as actions of survival take place and the live music or other performers emerge as new tethers. In these cases, the material changes itself to support the physical and psychological needs of the performer. At the end, the dancers choose when to “tap out,” therein ending their journey.

All this occurs while live musicians perform aggressively, drawing from practices of noise and/or free improvisation. Their score is structured with movement and spatial landmarks to track the dancers. It is loud and ritualistic. Together the group progresses through the four sections which steadily intensify. The audience is wrapped in the looping and sonic world as well, focusing them likewise on the unveiling. The dance reveals itself as it destroys itself.