Pas de Deux

I wrote Pas de Deux while thinking of a failed long-term relationship that had ended the year before. I was thinking about Hall's 1999 journal, Performativity; she states that performance occurs both on stage and in real life. The everyday ritual is, in fact, a rehearsal or a performance. Is this true too for relationships? In Pas de Deux, a couple meets and quickly falls for each other. However, by using dance to represent both the emotional state of the relationship and time passing in a linear structure, the relationship experiences ups and downs. The narrative itself is inspired by university goers or recent graduates; the experience of a fast-paced but short-lived romantic relationship is common to many young adults migrating through the realms of tertiary education who are not yet fully independent, but not entirely reliant on others anymore either. The narrative in general on purpose: the audience is meant to identify with, relate to, and empathise with Ted and Julia’s relationship. Therefore, the experimental dance element is what is most important about Pas de Deux and what makes this film unique. It is through the dance where they can explore both each other and their relationship. Secondly, the dance is meant to represent how all relationships are essentially one dance. As Erin Stiff (2003) explains in Introduction: Locating Performance Studies, performance is paradigm-driven; it is a pattern of and a replication of a subject or object. This ritual is replicated in how we represent ourselves and repeat these representations in everyday life. I personally found this particularly true at the start of relationships where we rehearse/choreograph ourselves and actively present and represent ourselves for our new romantic partner. I wanted to explore this relationship onscreen. Ultimately, this film will explore a whirlwind 5 minutes showcasing how infatuation can disguise incompatibility through the medium of onscreen dance.