During this residency, Kevin Fay will continue the research he conducted during the ‘conversing with masculinity’ sessions. He will also refine his choreographic tools. With a focus on sensitivity and meaning, Kevin will concentrate on subtext and interstices – spaces between feeling, interpreting and speaking – in order to understand how choreography can promote intimacy in public.

He focuses on the intensity of language from the dancer’s perspective. He absorbs languages that are not his own (by reading the news, studying theory, scrolling through social media or practising technical dance), immerses himself in somatic exercises (pranayama poetry, fascial therapy movement meditations that lead to fluid narratives) and wonders what his choreographies would say if they could speak.

Choreographer Eleanor Bauer inspired him to see dance as a unique form of synesthesia that allows access to multiple, skilled intelligences simultaneously. As a result, he does not view language strictly as a means of communication. Instead, he explores language as a landscape that captures, expands and sometimes misses various sensations of the body.

This work is accompanied by French composer, field recording engineer and sound engineer Guillaume Soula. Together, Guillaume and Kevin depict tangible perceptual geographies in which text and sound overlap, shift, fray and merge. Multiple languages move within the work they create, and the way movement, sound and text shift and relate to each other creates something sensual – a space where words are not the priority, but rather the connection between language and somatic awareness.

Kevin Fay (USA, BE)

Kevin Fay has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Dance and Communication Studies from Northwestern University. During his time in Chicago, Kevin trained in dance at both Northwestern and The Ruth Page Foundation School of Dance.

In 2016, he moved to Brussels, Belgium, and works now as a freelance performer with Veli Lehtovaara, Eric Minh Cuong Castaing, Eleanor Bauer, and Marc Vanrunxt – Kunst/Werk. He also studies voice with Fabienne Seveillac and works independently as a writer, editor, and transcriber.

In April 2020, Kevin joined the team working on SOS Relief, and in September 2020, Kevin received a scholarship from the Flemish Authorities to conduct a research project on the subjects of masculinity, feminism, language, and the body.