“In/Tense,” billed as “an embodied exploration of displacement and vulnerability,” was choreographed and performed by New Zealand-born, New York-based artist, Alexa Wilson. Before even stepping into the auditorium—if you were feeling astute—you’d have picked up that the title of the work was a pun on “in tents,” as the work used the tent as a prop and symbol for displacement and homelessness. Another obscure and striking connection is that the artist shares her name with Google’s AI persona Alexa, who she “interviews” on critical humanitarian issues towards the end of the piece, asking the AI “what is vulnerability?” 

Choreographic elements of this embodied “displacement and vulnerability” included wriggling and writhing under the tent canvas, chaotically trying to pitch the tent on top of a pile of chairs, holding an apple between her teeth, squishing a tomato, swinging around a hubcap and holding a beggar sign while pouring a bottle of red wine over her head. The significance of the latter gesture is explained as symbolic of the blood spilled through genocide.  

Wilson used a soundscape of hip hop music, which (she tells the audience) is intentionally “stolen,” “the way land is from Indigenous people” combined with vital heartbeat sounds add to the tension. The piece is teeming with irony and Wilson uses humour (retelling sketchy encounters she’s had on the streets) to emphasise the scope of the twin problems of homelessness and displacement. It is an energetic and thought- provoking performance.

At the end of the work, Wilson explained the layers of meaning in the piece in a presentation, that included links to related charities. This gesture (for such a politically and contextually detailed work) felt novel and unassuming. It was great to see a choreographic work that demonstrates the inclusiveness and activism it soliloquises.