Morituri te Salutant

Company: Black Label Movement

Choreographer: Carl Flink

Date Performed: May 10th, 2019

A note from the BLM Program: “Catalyzing idea: Morituri te Salutant is a latin phrase that translates as “those who are about to die salute you.” It was a phrase that the gladiators reportedly uttered before a contest took place in the ancient Coliseum of Rome.”

“Physical” in this writing means movement that is difficult and vigorous for able-bodied people.

The piece began with movers walking onto stage with large, rubber, German Shepherd dog masks on, backs of the hands resting lightly on their hip creases. The piece ended with one person lying on the floor, everyone else slapping the backs of their hands on their hips and leaving stage one at a time, the dog masks now on posts, lined up like severed heads.

I asked Carl about his research with violence as it relates to “physicality”. He talked about competition sports breeding entertainment violence in society and his interest in the intersection between entertainment violence and the inundation of visual stimulus from technology. With these two concepts coming to a head in this piece, Carl’s intention was that the audience will crave a break.

The dancers started loudly barking as they took their suit coats and pants off. Underneath they wore colored underwear and tank tops with “Morituri te Salutant” drawn all over them. A clear moment of vulnerability shift.

During the piece, we were unable to escape two kinds of violence as audience members: one being physical violence enacted by dancers on stage to each other, the other was the visual and audible stimulus created by projections of negatives of dog heads circling the back wall and loud rock music, all seemingly meant to be overwhelming. Eventually we did get a break, “4! 3! 2! 1!” was shouted (a cue). Colorful and fast-changing lights gave way to clear white; the music stopped. The movers performed a sort of tenderness: looking each other in the eyes and reaching for each other as is figuring out how to embrace. “1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7! 8!” -snapped back into the chaos.

Carl talked with me about the cut that technology can make into our world. It can slice through time and attention and get to our brains. He shared how his children choose not to engage with technology and how that has pushed them into separate groups from their peers. It’s a different kind of cut into their world. Hearing this in context to the work “Morituri te Salutant”, softened my heart to the work.

Here are these dancers, fighting and training without choice (the lack of consent another form of performed violence) and forming relationships due to their closeness, but they see each other as opponents and one of them will be killed at the hand of the other.

I asked Carl if there was present-day horror equivalent to the tradition of gladiators in ancient Rome. He responded: the highly competitive mania to attach names to success because it’s easier to commodify.

Lingering incoherent thoughts:

We never see the force making them fight or train, is that the most evil? Is that Carl? Are we the spectators? Are you giving us what we want? Game of Thrones. Supply and demand.