The Kitchen Dance- A House Trance Vocabulary/ Katerina Foti – The Black Matter Productions - English Version

               The Kitchen Dance-  A House Trance Vocabulary 

                               

                                     Katerina Foti – The Black Matter Productions

Fold, gather, stack on top, line up below, close the lids, don’t forget to close the lids. Wipe, fix, wet, pray, don’t forget to pray. Dust, kill the fly, cool yourself, attach the lids, remove the lids. Stir, iron, squeeze, dry, rinse, chop, cook, store, don’t forget the containers. Spill, don’t leave, empty, wipe your sweat, fill, pray, don’t forget to pray. The past is here. Show, stop, turn, scrub. The future is here, you are here. Remember, don’t forget. Don’t forget to forget. Keep going, there’s more work to be done. Remember the entropy. Don’t let it go, hold, fix, gather. Right here, right now, organize, lift, wipe, turn, spin, stop. Do it all. Do it all, keep going, until you forget everything. Until you remember everything.

When you watch “The Kitchen Dance - A House Trance Vocabulary”, what you witness is exactly like the paragraph above: chaotic, hypnotic, overwhelming, and mesmerizing. While domestic labor remains invisible, underestimated, and devalued in today's world, “The Kitchen Dance”, a performance from Greece that meets the Istanbul audience, focuses on this invisible labor and deeply explores how a woman becomes trapped within herself inside the home.

The stage is a kitchen. In the kitchen, a woman is surrounded by everyday objects like an ironing board, storage containers, an iron, clothes, a shopping cart, a mop, a broom, buckets, lace, an icon, a family photo, spray bottles, cleaning cloths, and rubber gloves. Through these objects, she becomes the bearer of this invisible labor.

Katerina Foti places the kitchen and the representation of women within the kitchen at the center of the universe, inviting the audience to become part of this endless trance. There are no words on stage, only body and sound. Every movement, every gesture she makes, every impulse she receives from the sounds and objects transcends words, reaching the audience on a deeper level. Here, you witness how Katerina Foti masterfully commands both the stage and the story through her body, using it as an instrument.

Kaiti’s bodily impulses form the strongest and most direct connection with the universe and space created on stage. She hears, sees, observes, and tries to understand. She becomes confused. She sweats, tires, remembers, fears, and at times crosses herself, as if following a secret command from somewhere above. It’s as if God also wants her to stay in the kitchen.

The performer’s body fills the stage not only physically, but also emotionally and metaphorically. She uses her head like an eye or a mask, searching for the source of threats. Her attempt to protect herself with a broom from an unknown danger, always in a state of defense, deepens her inner turmoil. The kitchen objects, tools, and sounds on stage create a constant sense of alertness for the character. This perpetual state of vigilance, along with the endless tasks to be done, leads to exhaustion, disorientation, numbness, and ultimately, a trance-like state.

The sounds and the music used in the play serve to enhance this atmosphere in a very precise way. Built on a repetitive rhythm, the sounds further confuse the woman. For this body and mind, already exhausted from endless work, the continuous stimuli do not allow for rest or pause; instead, they keep tiring, frightening, and demanding from her until she forgets where and who she is. At one point, the performer hears the sound of water. She becomes confused, unsure whether the sound is coming from the kitchen pipes or if it signals the impending birth of her baby. Amidst all of this, Kaiti occasionally touches her body, checking for pain, monitoring her blood pressure, desperately trying to remind herself that she exists and is well enough to keep going.

Towards the end of this endless cycle, the light above starts flickering, the stage darkens, and the music shifts to a rhythm reminiscent of Eastern melodies. For perhaps the first time, we see Kaiti both angry and joyful at the same time. She throws the storage containers and begins to dance, creating a sense of liberation for the audience. This moment represents an internal awakening, a freedom she discovers within her own body. However, this freedom is temporary, as she constantly pulls back, returning to the endless cycle of domestic chores. When we leave Kaiti's kitchen, we understand that her bodily movements are small, fleeting escapes within a suffocating reality, and the cycle will never truly end.

 

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