Hanna Tuulikki:

Deer Dancer

FOYER

LIVE STREAMED DURATIONAL PERFORMANCE
Sat 22 May 2021
12:30-19:00 BST (there will be a break for artists 1530-1630)

Deer Dancer is a live streamed durational performance. Stay for the duration or drop in and out.

ACCESS

This page has been created by the artist Hanna Tuulikki with the production team. It contains background information on the scenes and characters in Deer Dancer as well as audio descriptions. It is a creative approach to accessibility and is intended to enhance the experience of engaging with the performance for all audiences.

Deer Dancer is a highly visual work with accompanying abstract sound & music. Audio descriptions of each character, scene and setting can be played throughout and screen readers may be used.

The Deer Dancer is performed in a black space with a black curtain distinguishing onstage from backstage. At the start of the performance the Deer Dancer title, white text on black, fades out. The performers are seen in the backstage area sitting either side of a table with a long, double sided illuminated, make-up mirror running down the middle. They are dressing into their costumes. After a time, the performers enter the stage and the curtain falls in front of the dressing area.

CHARACTERS

Click on images to expand character information

The Young Buck
The Young Buck

The Young Buck


Character description: The Young Buck is a middling spiker, signified by his juvenile antler headdress. Wearing tweed trews and protruding codpiece with tassels, he taps the ground, flaunting his well-polished copper chest and guns.

Though he’s reached sexual maturity, this youngster is no grounded alpha. He's yet to win his own harem, but he's looking. With sights set on every prize going, his strength and his weakness is his apparent disregard for consequence. It’ll take a few scrapes in the annual rut for this young chap to learn the true way of the stag.

With senses on overdrive, this cocksure, trigger-happy whippersnapper is driven wild by the smell of fresh hind on heat and the temptation to fight any rival he can find. Testing his stature through teasing and intimidating the weak, he rasps and gasps, pants and preens, rushing in, eyes on the prizes, but not necessarily watching his back. He’ll do anything to get his end away, but would he dare approach the Monarch's harem?

Voice: rhythmic panting and repetitive whispered 'yeah' sounds (theme music) Weapon: gun
The Warrior
The Warrior

The Warrior


Character description: The Warrior is an adult male at the peak of his prime. His bronzed chest is hard and strong and over his tartan loins he wears a sporran adorned with tassels. A pair of antlered spears extend from his shoulders and around his body, he carries a golden horn.

With eyes that pierce all weather and ears that hear each tiny valley rustle, this deer-man's razor-sharp senses are tuned into his surroundings. Perceiving every subtle change carried on the wind, he is nimble and quick to respond with feet like well sprung springs, poised to leap and lunge in all and any direction.

Tracking and hunting, he is ready to attack and defend; he's ready to kill. Upon sensing his enemy, he dutifully blows his horn, displaying his power. But can he hold his ground against the monarch of the wilderness? And what about the young upstart who wants to take his place?

Voice: a high single note call, in imitation of a hunting horn (theme music)

Weapon: antlered spears
The Old Sage
The Young Buck

The Old Sage


Character description: The Old Sage was once a graceful adult male, who has left the physical world and is said to be the spirit of a wild hart and ghost of a man. His pearl-grey tassels shimmer in the light, and his skull and ragged horns, are secured with silver.

Sensing the wilderness with his whole body, this wizened being sees with eyes beyond eyes and, tending to the land with hoof and hands, he slips in and out of time, dancing between the petals and the leaves. The sound of his music washes over the earth like water, but what power does this hold?

Only perceived by a few, he sees all.

Voice: multiple soft and delicate held notes that accumulate in clusters to resemble choral music, often mirroring the calls of other deer men / a single trilled note (theme music and live)

Weapon: no weapon
The Monarch
The Monarch

The Monarch


Character description: The Monarch is a mature dominant male. Holding his head high, he displays his sixteen-tine crown and enlarged neck. Over his hide he wears gold. His stance is wide and a bulbous codpiece with tassels enhances his majesty.

Asserting his authority, he bellows loudly to warn off rivals to his harem of hinds. In his natural habitat, he is the alpha. Yet, powerful his standing may be, it’s tough at the top. That which makes him so desirable, leaves him with many enemies vying for his authority. Still, he makes no attempt to hide his esteem. He's worked his life for this position – he's earned it so he may as well display it.

But, while showing off as long-standing leader, he's forgotten just how old his bones have become. His shuffled approach is slow. Could he run if he wanted? Are his eyes as sharp as they used to be? From the depths of his majestic guts, this trophy daddy bellows across the stage, but can he hear what’s right behind him?

Voice: a low, regal bellow, ascending on three notes (theme music)

Weapon: sixteen-tine antler crown
The Fool
The Fool

The Fool


Character description: The Fool is an adult male, small in stature, dressed in copper and grey sparkling ribbons, silver bell-balls and a modest codpiece. He carries a broom with antlers, his hobby stag known as Maurice.

Dithering hither and thither, this skittish staggard isn’t anywhere near the top of the pecking order. Weighed down by his mighty broom, his confused countenance is signalled with the dainty jingle jangle of his middling balls and his bawling alarm call, alerting all the more dominant to his foolish presence.

As if unaware of whether his enemy is in the wilderness or in his mind, he hastily and wildly moves unpredictably, getting stuck in the push and pull of his antlered stick – is this jester's toy talking to him? Is he haunted by ghosts? It’s hard to tell. Some say his delusions aren’t delusions at all, but spangled connections to the other world.

Whatever the source of his bewilderment, this runt of the glen isn’t primed for the rut. But perhaps we shouldn't underestimate this little fella too much. When pushed, how much can he summon the wild rage of the beta male?

Voice: a high-pitch alarm call made up of held notes, alternating semitones and staccatos (theme music)

Act One
12:30-15:30


A red flag appears on screen with the word 'wilderness' in black lettering. The flag lowers and is replaced by another flag with the word 'world'. This flag falls and Act 1, 'wilderness world' begins.

Wilderness World: In an imaginary wilderness world, the five performers improvise an encounter between five deer-men. Their voices are a mix of live and sampled versions of their refrain. The performers slowly discover the dance of their character through repetition and through their encounter with the other deer-men in the wilderness. Sometimes a single performer is seen alone on stage, while the other performers stand still, off stage, sounding in the shadows. At other times they dance with and around each other. The deer-men display their weapons, flaunt codpieces, and size each other up. A general machismo is present during encounters between the Monarch, Young Buck and Warrior. The Fool and the Old Sage bring a different energy. A metronomic deep beat dominates the soundscape, mixed with musical refrains, live voices and other rhythmic sounds. There are also periods of sustained stillness. At times only the echo of the refrains are heard across the space and the reverberation of the performers' voices.
This section is around 2hrs 50mins long.

INTERMISSION
15:30-16:30



The screen is black with the word INTERMISSION displayed in white text. This intermission lasts for 1hr.

ACT TWO
16:30-19:00


Resumption of Wilderness World.

Deer Dance: A Red flag appears on screen with the word 'deer' in black lettering. The flag lowers and is replaced by another flag with the word 'dance'. This flag falls and the ritual deer dance commences. Taking a bow in time with the drum beat, the deer men prepare. Slowly turning, the deer-men perform a parade of parallel walking. Pausing, they return to face, raise dewclaws and begin to fling, raising antler arms, alternating between first, second and third position. Jumping backwards, the deer-men lower their antler arms and begin to lurch forwards and backwards, towards and away from each other, passing through, and exchanging places. Finally they come to a stop, standing side by side in a line.

Death: A red flag is raised in front of the camera and lowers to reveal all five dancers frozen in death poses on the floor. The camera pans slowly over their bodies. The curtain rises. The performers are seen backstage dressing.

Lead Artist: Hanna Tuulikki
Performer-Devisers: Nic Green, Jo Hellier, Simone Kenyon, Fabiola Santana & Hanna Tuulikki.
Character Development & Choreography by Will Dickie, Peter McMaster & Hanna Tuulikki
Dramaturg: Peter McMaster
Movement Director: Will Dickie
Composer: Hanna Tuulikki
Sound Designer & Sound Operator: Kim Moore
Sound Engineer: Kenny MacLeod
Costume Fabricator & Wardrobe Manager: Lydia Honeybone
Producer: Siân Baxter
Production Manager: Nick Millar
Director of Photography: Andrew Begg
Access Editor: Carrie Skinner

Hanna Tuulikki is a critically acclaimed artist-composer-performer working across the visual arts, music and performance. Blending vocal composition, choreography, costume and drawing, her work investigates how bodies communicate beyond and before words, often drawing on traditional practices of mimesis of the more-than-human to offer alternative approaches to making kin. Recent projects engage with what it means to live on a damaged planet, proposing contemporary queer ritual as a way to process the trauma of ecological awareness. Based in Glasgow, she was Magnetic North Theatre's first Artist Attachment supported by Jerwood (2017-19), and shortlisted for the Max Mara Art Prize (2020).

Deer Dancer (2021) is supported by Creative Scotland National Lottery fund, Magnetic North, Take Me Somewhere and Tramway.

The audiovisual installation version of Deer Dancer (2019) was commissioned by Edinburgh Printmakers, funded by Creative Scotland. Research and development supported by Magnetic North's Artist Attachment, funded by Jerwood Foundation and Creative Scotland. Additional support from Hope Scott Trust, The Work Room, University of Arizona Poetry Center, Trees for Life, University of Glasgow, Glasgow School of Art, and CCA: Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow.

Research developed through conversations and interviews with tradition bearers and academics, Felipe Molina (Yaqui tradition bearer/ translator), Larry Evers (American Indian Studies, The University of Arizona), Jack Brown (Abbots Bromley Horn Dance tradition bearer/ historian), Doug and Joyce Gilbert (Trees for Life); by observing a number of dances and participating in rituals, including the Yaqui Deer Dance (Pascua Yaqui Easter ceremonies, Old Pascua, Tucson, Arizona, March 2018), Abbots Bromley Horn Dance (Abbots Bromley, September 2017/2018); and direct learning with Sandra Robertson (Highland Fling), Indalecio 'Carlos' Moreno Matuz (Yaqui Deer Dance), Gary Faulkenberry (animal tracking, March, July 2018), Allan Common (deer stalking at Trees for Life, Dundreggan, autumn 2017/2018).