Artist and choreographer Eve Stainton presents their new choreographic performance, The Joystick and The Reins, accompanied by Ennio Morricone’s haunting score for The Thing (1982).
The Joystick and The Reins explores who is deemed to be, and those who decide what constitutes a ‘threat’ within society, exploring how marginalised groups have been instrumentalised through systems of oppression and authoritarianism.
Cycling through hyper-emotional states of intensity that never arrive at a fixed point, the solo figure and the scene itself become a site for the audience’s own projections. Referencing ideas of power, dominance, perpetrator, victim, threat and interpretation.
Influences for The Joystick and The Reins include historical reenactments, police and riot arrest imagery, and 1980s ‘Crime Watch’ episodes, examining what it means to reconstruct a theatrical scene that draws on truth, and how societal constructs keep people ‘at risk’ of incarceration in a place of vulnerability.
Morricone’s powerful music finds resonance with Stainton’s mutual exploration of societal suspicion, psychological horror, and the devastating potential of individual isolation.
PART OF IPAF 2026
The performance is part of IPAF 2026, Warehouse9’s international performance festival.
IPAF festival is a vital extension of the organisation’s dedicated work to support and present LGBTQIA+ artists and cultural practitioners.
IPAF is a dynamic meeting place that creates opportunities for artistic development, live performances, and facilitates spaces for dialogue and community.
This year, the festival is co-produced with Dansehallerne and presents genre-bending work in Copenhagen that actively engages with identity politics, sexual expressions, and body representations. IPAF is founded on the strong belief that dance and performance can offer new perspectives and understandings of reality, inspire collective imagination, and advocate for better and more just futures.
Warehouse9
Warehouse9 (WH9) is a multidisciplinary arts and performance organisation that supports the development and presentation of work and ideas by LGBTQIA+ artists and cultural practitioners. We’re an organisation that cultivates new thinking and community, and creates space for queer art year-round.
