You might assume choreography starts with the body, especially when creating a piece about resilience. But for Danish choreographer Andreas Constantinou, the kernel of his new work Mass Effect all began with the mind. ‘It came at a period in my life where I was extremely busy but also not feeling particularly great emotionally,’ Constantinou says. He chose to hire a therapist which led eventually to an interest in investigating endurance. In fact, the relationship between Constantinou and his therapist grew so strong they ended up collaborating on a piece, Champions (part of the 2021 online Fringe), which dealt with the emotional fortitude of Constantinou, following his upbringing as a queer child with homophobic parents. 

After it had premiered, however, Constantinou wasn’t done with the idea. ‘Mass Effect became a counter-work to Champions,’ he says. ‘Where in Champions my interest was in digging into emotional, psychological resilience, to literally sit with difficulties, Mass Effect is digging into the physical aspects of endurance and resilience to explore what happens when groups unite to overcome physical exhaustion.’

He became fascinated by sports, running, clubbing and any collective rituals that lead to physical exhaustion, but that also invoke the spirit of community, bringing people together to bolster a whole group’s stoicism. Groups moving together, says Constantinou, ‘essentially create an energy that pushes and transcends people to an altered state’. For the dancers, training to perform a piece deliberately designed to push your physical limits has not been easy. The rehearsal process has seen them take up running on a daily basis, as well as drilling military formations with ‘obscene time signatures’, says Constantinou. They also explored ideas of synchronised animal movements, such as flocking and herd running. ‘We would seek organic formations that fluctuate as the group runs and listens to each other. Pretty much as happens in the animal kingdom.’

And then there is the pulse. Movements that echo the rhythm of the pulse, says Constantinou, can unlock a kind of primal energy that connects us to the power of our own bodies, keeping us going when we are tired. It’s an energy that can even seep over into the audience during performances. ‘When the mass pulse their bodies in unison, very often people can’t help but pulse along with them. It’s very primal. It’s the rhythm of the heart, the breath, the sounds of the feet, the witnessing of exhaustion, the sweat, the scent, their eyes, the humanity.’

Mass Effect, Summerhall, 15–26 August, 12.55pm.