We’re pretty fuckin’ far from okay

Fear is a human body at its most instinctive, fear is a body in trance. The concrete and basic physiological changes it induces are the point of departure for We’re pretty fuckin’ far from okay, the third performance in Lisbeth Gruwez’ triptych on the ecstatic body (with It’s going to get worse…and AH/HA). 

Fear is not a cultural construct but an evolutionary response deeply embedded in our genetic make-up. It is directly linked to basic survival. Even before we can deal consciously with it, our body starts to react in a drastic way. Our heartbeat and breathing accelerate, we start to sweat and tremble, readying our body for a vital decision: to fight, flight or freeze?

On these bodily reflexes from fear, especially its impact on breathing, Lisbeth Gruwez focuses in We’re pretty fuckin’ far from okay. Difficulty in breathing can generate a panic attack, the right respiration on the other hand diminishes oppression or can even overcome it. The movement of breathing as the source of internal feedback for tension and contraction, repose and expansion - within the body and in relation to the external environment alike: on this tightrope between restraint and release the performance balances. Lisbeth Gruwez and Nicolas Vladyslav aspire to affect their audiences and to draw them into the dynamics of their breathing.

It has been stated that at the beginning of the 21st century we are living in ‘a culture of fear’, that we are in a permanent ‘state of crisis’. We’re pretty fuckin’ far from okay isn’t a political or sociological account of anxiety in our society, it shows what the prolonged exposure to distress does to our bodies.

Sound designer Maarten Van Cauwenberghe uses the performers’ breathing as a unique building block for a sound collage that is in dialogue with their bodies. His soundscape creates suspense, pushes the movement and at other times induces contemplative ease.