Repetition Island

Mardi is a dancer. He was born on Repetition Island. He grew up without his parents, as it often happens in this island. He was raised in a community with 29 other children of different ages. He’s tall and keeps is hair long. Mardi is the last interpreter of a specific ritualistic dance created in Repetition Island some 180 years ago. An older woman was his teacher, or his companion, as he mentions her. First she taught Mardi how to breathe. Then she initiated him in his process of vibrating – a complex set of actions that allows the body to receive, interpret and transmit different types of messages. Later he learned how to distinct these feelings. Mardi lives from his work in the community. He doesn’t speak any word of any language. When he’s dancing he closes his eyes while repeating his choreography, the choreography he has invented from his daily actions. He doesn’t keep any drawings or schemes of his choreographies; he memorizes them and creates new movements when needed. He doesn’t need music to dance. He performs a dedicate and precise set of acts, physical and intellectual, from which it comes shapes of achievement, a sense of one’s being, a satisfaction of spirit. Mardi still dances every day.