2017
Bespoke leather tap shoes adapted with felt, accoustic platform, three dance pieces as poetry readings made in collaboration with a tap dancer

For the work Felt the Moonlight on My Feet a tap dancer is presented with poetry chosen by Ruscica for reasons including their political and social censorship during the course of their existence. Each poem has been translated into Morse Code, itself further translated and interpreted by the tap dancer into a dance piece. Consistent with Ruscica’s practice to date the collaborative work explores the intersections between language, place, culture, sculpture, sound, theatre and performance, focusing on posing questions related to the processes of translation and cultural representation.

The piece explores language in relation to bodily movement as well as the material properties of felt and its relation to its historic use in industry: as a sound or vibration damper, in machinery for cushioning and buffering moving parts, as well as its uses within art, musical instruments and printing processes. This also relates to ideas about the use of morse (sound) and dance (movement) as means of communication and messaging.