Rite / 5 March 2022

Over a seven-hour period, Daniel Jaber’s Rite brings together contemporary dance, improvisation, living sculpture and installation in a study of the efforts of suppression and the weight of carrying guilt and shame. Rite is the first of a trilogy of daring new works by Jaber, premiering at Samstag in 2022. Together, they occupy a critically interesting position, and a burgeoning area of crossartform making – not dance in response to visual art, nor simply dance presented in a gallery, but interrogations of degradation, decay and renewal, occupying a nexus of the visual and the physical.

Performance & design: Daniel Jaber

Live sound: Adam Ritchie

Rot / 17 — 18 June 2022

In the second instalment of Daniel Jaber’s triptych of durational performances investigating degradation, decay and renewal, Rot is the living image of a living body decomposing. Over the course of two days, Jaber plays dead in a work that considers the absurdity of art, the precariousness of life, and our inevitable submission to death. While motionless, he contemplates the vulnerability of life, and contends with boredom and the passage of time.

Performance & design: Daniel Jaber

Animation & projection mapping: Alexander Waite Mitchell

Digital media & production design: Felicity Arts

Sound: DJ TR!P

Dirt / 11 — 12 November 2022

Staged over 4.5 hours, Dirt is the final part of a trilogy of endurance-based works by dancer and choreographer Daniel Jaber. Working with dance collaborator Zoë Dunwoodie, Jaber continues his investigation into the impact of religion and moralism on selfhood through a dynamic and complex exploration of the dichotomy inherent in purity and filth. In a journey that traverses five movements which combine choreographed and improvised sections, Dirt posits that, through a process of integration, renewal and transformation is possible.

Performance & design: Zoë Dunwoodie, Daniel Jaber

Sound: Daniel Jaber