Particularly compelling was the discussion between Molissa Fenley and Cassandra Trenary about the transmission of the piece. Technology entered directly into the process as they began working together over Zoom during lockdown, while Elliot Caplan’s documentary State of Darkness Part Four (2024) explores a further chapter in the work’s life and its archival and artistic legacy. Known for his innovative video collaborations with Merce Cunningham and John Cage in the 1980s, Caplan pays close attention to the exchanges between the two artists, their onomatopoeic language and their almost magical mutual understanding, as well as to the breathlessness, sweat and exhaustion produced by the choreography’s relentless physical demands.

In a plain pale-blue studio, Molissa Fenley and Cassandra Trenary return to a recording of Fenley performing the solo in 1990. They refer to the figure on screen as “she,” as though the choreography existed as an external presence. Through Caplan’s camera, we watch the two women watching the earlier recording, creating a subtle game of mirrors. Wearing a Nico T-shirt, Trenary absorbs the steps. Deliberately or not, the room, the clothes and the atmosphere, together with Caplan’s fixed camera and infrequent changes of angle, evoke a distinctly American culture of experimentation and the New York avant-garde. Choreographer and interpreter appear remarkably attuned to one another and to the music, until Trenary begins to resemble a strange double of Fenley. The rehearsals culminate in Fenley’s declaration, “I think you’re ready,” followed by warm praise for Trenary’s technical solidity.

Seen live, “State of Darkness,” set to Antal Doráti’s recording of Stravinsky’s score, becomes an extraordinary test of stamina and mental fortitude. Trenary first appears within a warm circle of reddish light, which gradually shifts into deep, saturated colours. Her movements adhere to, or anticipate, the music: bursts of acceleration give way to sudden restraint, before gathering force and erupting again. The choreography hovers between the feral and the mechanical, combining something archaic and almost shamanic with exacting physical precision. As Fenley explained in the post-show conversation with critic Elisa Guzzo Vaccarino, the stage is divided into imaginary territories associated with figures or conditions such as ancestors, rejuvenation and warriors. Above all, it is an extraordinary tour de force, and Trenary’s performance was met with an enthusiastic reception and a standing ovation.