Agata Maszkiewicz: Call me Jay

Call me Jay is a pas-de-trois between two dancers and a moving LED light. It is a duet that becomes a trio, a choreography where roles shift, and the lines between human and non-human blur. Who leads, who follows, and who truly has control?

Amidst cables and old-school lamps, the performers navigate a space of interconnection and negotiation. One dancer moves with their own physicality, the other remotely operates the light—yet the light itself seems to have a will of its own. It responds, resists, obeys, and surprises, transforming from object to partner, from machine to collaborator.

This piece plays with different modes of control—direct, indirect, visible, and hidden. The dancers and the moving light engage in a delicate game of imitation, amplification, manipulation, and improvisation. They explore the materiality of their surroundings, allowing friction, fragility, and spontaneity to shape the choreography.

Beyond the technical elements, Call me Jay is an invitation to imagine new ways of coexisting with technology. As traditional stage lighting disappears from theatres, what other relationships between humans and machines could emerge? What happens when we stop seeing technology as a tool and start seeing it as a creative partner?

Through poetic images woven from the simplest materials, Call me Jay invites the audience to reflect on collaboration beyond the human. What new constellations of movement, presence, and influence can we create—together?

Jay: A common given name, a nickname for many names starting with ‘J’—but also a brightly coloured, noisy bird from the Corvidae crow family.

Call me Jay is a pas de trois for two dancers and a LED light machine.

It is a dance piece among cables and old-school lamps.

It is a duet that that turns into a group piece.

It is a piece in which different modes of control are being tested.

It is a game in which it is not clear who is under who’s influence.

It is a choreography in which an object becomes a robot, becomes a partner, becomes a mover, becomes a light, becomes a lover, becomes an inspiration source.

It is a dance piece in which stories without words are being told and poetic images are emerging from basic, technical materials.

It is a piece that invites the audience to fantasize about coexistences and unusual human-technology entanglements.