reta Gauhe
Choreographer, Dancer, Producer, Researcher
EMERGENCY HIDEOUT (in the event of sensory overload)
If the noise and pace of everyday life feel overwhelming,
if a simple scent distracts you more than it soothes,
or if even your clothes start to feel heavy and uncomfortable—
it might be time to retreat into an emergency hideout.
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I invite you to press play on the soundtrack below and join me on a small treasure hunt. Together, we’ll create a cozy space where you can gently sort through your sensations and reconnect with a place of safety, your imagination.
There’s no need to prepare anything in advance, after all, this is meant for urgent moments.
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If it helps, you’re welcome to interact using a speaker or any hands-free device, allowing you to stay fully immersed in the experience.
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Important: you don’t need to be overwhelmed or in crisis to take part. This is something you can return to whenever you feel the need for a pause.
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When you come back from your hideout, you’re warmly invited to share your experience or even photos of your special space in the comments below.
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If you prefer, you can also send your thoughts via email to greta.gauhe@yahoo.de. Just let us know if you’d like your message to remain private.
Join me for the second part of this performance, where we will come together in our den. I'll share some ideas for activities that you can enjoy inside your newly created space.
For anyone who can not hear or listen to my audio-recordings due to various reasons, I will attach a script below in a PDF format. Please read my instructions and repeat them inside of your den at your own time. You can choose to play the audio-recording alongside reading my instructions.
Part 1
Part 2
According to my mum, I was born a performer! So she was not very surprised when after 12 years running from one theatre to another in France, Canada and Netherlands as an actor, I started a new path as a dancer. I completed a Master of Arts in Contemporary Dance at the London Contemporary Dance School which initiated a research on my own practice. I like to create pieces that showcase my colourful imaginary world, I like the idea of bending the reality and blurring the limits between the different forms of art. When I’m not on stage, I collect plants (my home is now a small jungle) and I do ceramics and embroidery! You may think of me as a serial plant lover with his hands in the clay, his head in the spotlights and his heart as an explosion of polychromatic universes!
"The loud sounds of engines in the background, foreground my reality. I listen to your invitation to hide from my senses, to drift away, far away, to a place where it is silent. Silent and quiet. I enjoy the preparation to collect all these different items. I mostly collect soft items, that allow me to rest later on. I think my unconsciousness is directing me here. I rest. I try to not listen to sounds. I am looking for silence. For a moment I reach that point. But I get interrupted by reality."
​ "It was relaxing and I slept really good that night. Would definitely recommend"
"I felt much more relaxed and calm (physically and also emotionally/ mentally)."
"I was really inspired by Flavien’s performance. In many ways it spoke to my own creative/ aesthetic Building Processes. As I was walking around my apartment looking for things to use- for the bones For the skin
I always came back to my working space and the materials and objects in it. It became obvious to me that my hut would only be around my head- that it was my mind, my thoughts, my ideas that I was needing to have some quiet time from.
I have a stone at the top of it for quieting energy.
There are two postcards -Carson McCullers and John Lennon- spirit guides. These are something I can exchange out.
My headphones are also available to me for listening to music.
So my object is something like a small house that sits on top of my shoulders.
Sensations are visual as I almost feel like my body isn’t there anymore. A place I can go to.
To rest.
To even be in connection to possible guidance.
The more I sat in It, it started to become a place for inspiration, messages. I feel safe, relaxed, focused."
"I really enjoyed finding materials and building my hut. I had the chance to see my apartment and my possessions from a different angle. I was also engaged while in my hut, trying to close out the world around me and listen inwards."
"Touching my skin
Touching objects when collecting materials in my apartment, checking how they feel (soft, rough, cold, warm)
Observing how the materials feel once inside the hut"
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