Losing/Steam by (love(rocks))

An experimental dance work exploring power, intimacy and resistance

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Losing/Steam by (love(rocks))
An experimental dance work exploring power, intimacy and resistance

Duration: 45 minutes

Rooted in both history and speculative imagination, Losing/Steam draws attention to how sex workers have long existed within the private spheres of powerful men, spaces where political, economic, and colonial decisions are shaped.

The performance asks: what forms of agency emerge in these intimate encounters, and what might it mean to take that agency seriously?

Through a series of evocative scenes, the performers inhabit surreal and subversive characters: sex workers tending to the historical figure of James Watt, slowly poisoning him through steam baths and delicate acts of care.

Domestic gestures, steaming shirts, preparing medicinal vapors, transform into quiet acts of resistance.

Steam becomes both material and metaphor: a symbol of industrial capitalism’s origins and a force that defies containment, slipping across borders and reshaping environments.

The performance shifts between different moods: steamy, creepy, sometimes funny, and sometimes frustrating or seemingly useless. Movement ranges from controlled, ballet-like precision to moments of disorientation and intoxication.

At once poetic and confrontational, the performance invites audiences into a space where power is reimagined, where the seemingly invisible becomes potent, and where resistance may take unexpected, intimate forms.

Short Bio

(love(rocks)) consists of Row Särkelä-Bassett and Shy Verstraete.

row is a performance artist based in Berlin working with dance, textile, video, voice, and land. born and raised in taos, new mexico, their dance training is rooted in social dance and includes intensive periods with Minako Seki and at PERA Gau, Anfibia, and Tic Tac. row is recipient of the Andy Warhol Foundation grant for their collaborative short dance film split mica (2026).

Shy is a belgian dancer, performance artist & make-up artist based in Berlin. They've had training at Motion*s Berlin and Tic Tac Art Center in Brussels. In Berlin, they’ve worked with Ausland, New Fears Gallery and Ponderosa, amongst others. Apart from using dance, text and voice in performance, they have facilitated drag workshops and work as a pole dance teacher.

photo: Arnaud Beelen (1,2) Franziska Brodhub (3)