CONNECTION

People want to watch other people. But more importantly, people want to watch other people connecting — in love, rage, attraction, repulsion, sorrow, friendship, curiosity and a myriad of other states.

Between us is a space we need to cross. We use simple greetings to do this every day. Sometimes we use touch, like a high-five or a hug. In the post-Covid world, the customary Western handshake is being replaced by a fist or elbow-bump. Increasingly now we use greetings without touch, like a wave, a nod or the salutation namaste. In Nepal, people used to greet each other by sticking out their tongues.

Actors cross space with thoughts, words, feelings and gestures.

Va is the space between, the between-ness, not empty space, not space that separates but space that relates…

That is how novelist Albert Wendt describes the Samoan cultural concept Le Va. In Samoan culture (Fa’a Samoa) Le Va is all of space and all of time. It is the space between Saturn and Jupiter. It is the space between me an…