With Holding Present, Ula Sickle and Ictus will be collaborating on a piece that combines not just music and choreography, but where listening and acting are one movement. With instruction scores fashioned by Pauline Oliveros and Alvin Lucier among others, the musical approach promises something out of the ordinary, reviving the American (avant-garde’s) dream in a new light.
Here we are not simply talking about being present, but of holding this present, as we would hold space. It is a resistance piece, an intervention that addresses a growing sense of global injustice. Ula Sickle, choreographer and conceptualiser of the piece, finds inspiration in this collective and historical struggle:
“Holding Present speaks about the human need to resist oppression and the mechanisms involved in assembling towards becoming a collective body.”
While the culture of dissent is under threat worldwide, Sickle boldly reinstates its importance. In this interview, Sickle describes the protests that influenced the gestures in her choreography, her outlook on global conflicts, and the relevance of Deep Listening today.
PAN M 360 : The title Holding Present suggests a contradiction: holding onto something that is always here. Can you tell us about the initial concept that sparked this piece?
Ula Sickle : In 2018 I made a work called Relay, a solo for a large black flag that is kept in continuous motion for hours on end, by a group of performers. The work was commissioned by Nuit Blanche in Brussels as a reflection on the 1968 student protests in Paris, which sparked similar protests around the world. Half a century onwards, there is a certain feeling of inertia. We go out again and again into the streets for the same reasons. Some of the freedoms my parents fought for back then are now being put into question. After touring Relay in many different contexts, I decided to make Holding Present as an affirmation. Rather than a relay, this performance is built around a principle of accumulation; one performer is joined by another, then another. There’s a power in being many. This work is more about the need to come together and to hold our ground, particularly in the face of rising fascism.
PAN M 360 : The piece uses three distinct sound meditation scores by Pauline Oliveros. How did you approach interpreting the more abstract scores, like Teen Age Piece, compared to the more literal Rock Piece?
Ula Sickle : Pauline Oliveros pioneered Deep Listening, an approach to sound and composition that requires focused listening. Her life’s work was about being present in the moment and starting to compose from what is already there. Her work Environmental Dialogue (1996), which inspired the performance, proposes taking the environment as a basis, players reinforce perceived sounds either mentally or vocally, so that the player merges with the present moment. Teen Age Piece follows this basic approach, but is boisterous and loud, with yelling and cat calling, while Rock Piece is quiet and meditative; but both scores belong to the same deep listening approach, that’s what I find interesting.
PAN M 360 : We see gestures of combat and resistance in the work. What would you say is the focus of this protest?
Ula Sickle : The work takes protest as a social choreography, emphasizing the collective momentum that can be built by gathering together around a common cause. Like Relay, the piece is not about one single issue. The gestures in the work are sampled from different protests, both past and present, such as occupy Wall Street, where hand gestures were used to signal agreement or disagreement and to communicate across the crowds. Or the gesture of holding hands in a line, that comes from the Baltic Way protest, where over two million people peacefully held hands across three Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania; an action that contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union. Gestures are by nature both generic and inhabited, they move from one body to another. They are easily transmitted and can speak when words fail or get drowned out by ambient noise. Holding Present speaks about the human need to resist oppression and the mechanisms involved in assembling towards becoming a collective body.
PAN M 360 : This piece was developed in 2023. Since then, the world has continued to shift. How does the work resonate with you now, and how does your art engage with the present moment?
Ula Sickle : At the time when the performance was created, we were going onto the streets to protest the climate crisis, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the reversal of Roe v. Wade. Then came 7 October, and the retaliatory strikes on Gaza, which have completely destroyed the territory over the past three years. The ongoing genocide in Gaza has marked a shift in the way wars are waged, in the role of international law, and in the very possibility of protest itself. Around the world, citizens and students have been arrested, artists silenced and institutional directors dismissed. The work resonates differently in the wake of this shift, which I believe we will one day look back on as a turning point.
I think the role of artists is not necessarily to react to what’s happening in the present moment, but it is our role to hold space for the values we feel are under threat. We can tune our work to the present moment by consciously connecting to the surrounding context. Our medium as performing artists is not only the human body, music or sound but also attention, awareness and connection.
PAN M 360 : There’s a common assertion that “all art is political.” Do you agree with this, and how does that perspective influence your creative practice?
Ula Sickle : I don’t know if I agree with the statement. There is also very unpolitical art, in the sense of art that remains unengaged. Art is also not the same as activism, though there are artists who are also activists. One could also put it another way: all art participates in the politics of aesthetics. Some works reinforce the status quo, or the aesthetics and voices of the majority—for instance widely accepted conventions and norms—while others question the status quo, by showing disagreement, making other forms of beauty visible or different voices audible. In my practice I try to do the latter.
PAN M 360 : As you prepare to present Holding Present again, is there a specific feeling or question you hope the audience leaves with? Ula Sickle : In the times we are living in now, it is so important that we do not feel helpless. In the face of ongoing war and the breakdown of international law, the violence we are witnessing or experiencing at this moment can be debilitating. I want the audience to leave feeling empowered to protest and to keep constructing ways of being together that reinforce our sense of community and inclusion. I think Pauline Oliveros’ listening practice offers such a possibility. It asks us to remain open to what is there, reinforcing with our own voices the rhythms and tones we resonate with and want to amplify.
