After the 2001 USA performance of i and i, the show was revisited and re-staged in 1994
Earthfall premiered i and i in a recently liberated Ljubljana, Slovenia, at the beginning of 1994 whilst the Balkan War was still raging across the new border in the other former Yugoslavian states. i and i became a watershed piece in Earthfall’s evolution and has influenced all of Earthfall’s works that have followed. A BBC TV crew travelled with the company to document the premier for broadcast.
In the creation of the 1994 work there were three primary concerns; the story of Admirs Ismic, a Muslim, and Boska Bokic, a Serb, two young lovers separated by the war, who were shot dead in May 1993 in no-mans-land, whilst attempting to escape from Sarajevo. This event, and the image of the dying couple crawling to reach each others arms influenced the work on many levels, causing Earthfall to explore contradictory images of love within violence and hatred, the memories and past relationships of the performers and the relationship of the sculpture to the story, particularly the choreography of war.
Ennis and Cohen decided on a live sound of solo drums and percussion, juxtaposed with Welsh Chapel song; they dispensed with film for this production. Movement and Fine Artists’ Marc Rees and Caroline Sabin and dancers Julien Joly and Margarida Morini became part of Earthfall’s performers collective.
With i and i, Earthfall began its research into choreography and politics. A genre they named Choreopolitik.
i and i toured extensively throughout the UK to include London’s Spring Loaded, Western and Central Europe and performed in major festivals in Ecuador and Brazil to great acclaim. The work was also staged as a site-specific as part of the Arnhem Festival in Arnhem Cathedral, Holland.
