Parallel Pain - Video Project for To the AWE - 2021

Parallel Pain is a creative interpretation of the ways in which the suffering that exists in individual psyches is reflected in the suffering of the planet. It points to the ways in which our pain keeps us from seeing the interconnectivity of all living beings, which causes further destruction to our communal planetary home. The film alters between shots of Marie-Claire reciting her original poem to the camera, contrasted with shots of her embodying the practice of Authentic Movement. In Authentic Movement, the mover is asked to access sensation as it connects to emotion, thought, and imagery. The mover follows impulses that are inspired by these sensations, while suspending any judgements, interpretation, and projections about the content of the movement. For the filming, Marie-Claire connected with what it was like to experience the emotion of "pain", and let this guide her movement practice. The shots of riverside movement are entirely based on these sensory impulses and the discipline of Authentic Movement.

// Written, Performed, and Directed by: Marie-Claire O'Donoghue // Video and Editing: Geneviève Paré // Music and Sound: Braden Lyster (Troo Knot) //

Photos from Ecstatic Dance with Marie-Claire O’Donoghue at Esker Foundation.

Presented with the exhibition of Neil Campbell’s Wheatfield and Jeremy Shaw’s Quantification Trilogy, 26 January – 12 May, 2019. 

Photos by Allison Seto.

"When I Dance" - Short Film

Produced by Guy Mason Siewert - Music by Climb & Ruin (Rachel Giek) - Written by Marie-Claire O'Donoghue