The Furies
Porscha Spells in The Furies.
The Furies (2017)
Written by: Julie Keck & Jess King
Directed by: Jess King
The Furies is an experimental anthology dance series exploring how women might express rage or frustration that often gets suppressed because of societal norms.
“Rage is positive,” Jess King said at the screening. “I think it's like the muscle of the rebel, especially when I can talk about righteous indignation or moral indignation. Like when we get angry about stuff it points, it's an arrow pointing at things we care about. Which is why I think that it's especially problematic when women are shut down from being angry, because we have a lot of things to be angry about. I would say the same thing is true; queer people are not allowed to be angry, people of colour are not allowed to be angry.
“I think that's problematic, because I think to make change or to make a better world it’s the things that outrage us.”
Each episode of The Furies is named after a woman and accompanied by a robust character description that guided the bespoke choreography in the episode. Choreographers Paige Caldarella, Erin Kilmurray, and Kaitlin Webster contributed to the series. The characters and choreography are varied, some vigorously expressing, some toggling in between vibrant moments and tense restraint, all embodying struggles of life under patriarchy. Each character responds to different situations, some specific – like the struggles of being a mother or an object of the male gaze – and others more abstract.
The Furies was Jess King’s second series working with dancers, the first being Full Out, with many of the dancers returning.
Kaitlin Webster as Dani in The Furies
“I’m a word person. I’m a heady person, and I actually like getting out of that part of myself and accessing how the body experiences and expresses our stories,” Jess said.
“I speak with my body better anyway. So it was really really fun to make,” said choreographer and dancer Kaitlin Webster. “With Full Out, because I had to act, and dance, and choreograph all at the same time, so it felt like many hats. But I think with The Furies the characters were really beautiful and clear.”
Choreographer Paige Caldarella related how rage can take women by surprise, even in contexts where there is also deep love. In regard to The Furies character Elle, “I know this woman. She's been working with me for a long time, and I know how hard she works. [She] works like five different jobs and dances her ass off in everything. And so I saw a little bit of myself in her in my twenties and still never being able to say no, and so that felt really natural.”
Each episode is based on a series of feelings rather than a specific narrative. “My interest as a maker is generally picking kind of essential feelings or energy and just selecting one to three. And then like mining into that, and letting those three essential ideas bloom rather than kind of over complicating them,” Erin Kilmmuray said.
Ultimately, The Furies is an invitation to catharsis. Without dialogue, it invites viewers to reflect on how they express their emotions and how to let out what society may unconsciously tell them to hold in.