a story of a woman in three selves
Solo Dance Performance-Project
ABOUT:
To be “weak” is not to collapse — it is to be human. To be sensitive, permeable, and courageously open to pain, loss, and change. This piece traces a passage from sacred inner struggle to emotional exposure, and finally to a self-aware, self-concealing transformation within the modern world.
A woman moves through three states of herself. Each moment demands that she overcome herself — not by conquering weakness, but by entering it fully. In her story, the ancient and the contemporary converge: a chant dissolves into lament, a lament sharpens into pulse. What remains is not triumph, but a woman who has faced herself — and stayed.
The final pulse strikes. The world outside may be absurd, cruel, even ridiculous. But she has already confronted her own depths. She stands as three selves at once. Weakness is not the opposite of strength — it is its origin: the raw, trembling, unpolished core from which the unshakeable is born
SCENES:
1. The Ritual – Tibetan monks chant
Fearful, resisting, pushed and pulled by the force of her own mind — yet standing, until she can no longer.
She faces a force far greater than herself, and still she remains upright. The pressure intensifies; light presses her downward like an invisible tide. These are not enemies. They are her own thoughts — the truths she has postponed, the world within she has refused to enter.
She peels the coat from her skin as though shedding layers of shame and fear. But eventually the outer force — her inner chaos — hurls her aside. Her line breaks. Her balance shatters. She learns that weakness can strike with the violence of a storm.
2. The Confession: Henry Purcell – “Dido’s Lament”
Quiet. Confessing. Contained within herself — yet strangely, expansively open. In the stillness, she meets herself. She retrieves the coat, no longer as armor but as admission. She removes her boots and places the coat upon her shoulders with deliberation. Enclosed within her inner world, she experiences a paradox: it feels as though the entire world now belongs to her. She is fragile, yet free — breakable, yet widened. She moves like someone discovering that safety and sorrow can exist within the same heartbeat.
3. The Crazy: Sergey Umroyan – “Sound of Freedom”
In the outer world, she wears a mask. She hides her essence to survive — yet she continues to fight for truth.
She becomes outrageous, theatrical, and almost absurd. Weakness disguises itself as wild power. She conceals her vulnerability, but the disguise exposes her even more. What we see is unrestrained, defiant — a woman capable of overturning the world through sheer refusal to yield.
She is hysterical and iconic, ridiculous yet radiant — a scream wrapped in rhythm, a collapse masquerading as celebration.
She inhabits it.
She survives it.
She transforms it.
Not into hardness — but into presence.
Because weakness is not what must be defeated.
It is what must be lived.
- choreography and idea: Rima Pipoyan
- performer: Natella Baghramyan
- music: PART 1 – Tibetan Monks, PART 2 – Henry Purcell, PART 3 – Sergey Umroyan
- filming: Anton Senko
- Duration: 11 min
Rima Pipoyan Dance Company 