Time governs every aspect of our life, whether we allow it to or not. Time still passes, we cannot stop it, slow it down, or reverse it.  As Henri Bergson states in Matter and Memory (1896) “What I call ‘my present’ has one foot in my past, and one in the future.” Our present is constantly changing and quickly becoming our past. However in performance we can play with time. We can choose how long a piece is going to last, what time it will start, how long each section will last and what speed the performers will move.

Unlike any other art form, live performance cannot usually be controlled by the audience. As discussed in Pitches and Popat (2011) we can decide at what speed we read a book. However we cannot choose the speed at which we watch a live work, we cannot rewind it or pause it if we need to go and powder our nose mid performance. This is only possible in rare cases, interactive performances which call for the audience to control the action.

With the use of technology we can travel through and distort time even more, with film we can slow movement down, speed it up, reverse it or pause it. This technology has been used within dance performance either focusing the attention to the film or as a means to play with time, layering different effects. For example you could have a performer dancing on stage at a normal speed. However behind them could be a projection of other people moving quicker, making the live performer appear to be moving in slow motion.

This video demonstrates the slowing down technique. As this performance was shown on television it has slightly different applications than a live performance as the editors can choose what the audience sees.