Breathing the Unspoken
by Clover Zou
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
“Breathing the Unspoken” is a scholarly text. It explores the connections between bodily memory, ritual, and self-healing, and examines how movement can serve as a language of healing. The text also examines how the body functions as an archive—carrying pain, trauma, and exile that transcend language—and how performance expresses and transforms these emotions. Drawing on performance theory and phenomenology, particularly Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s concept of embodied perception and Édouard Glissant’s theory of relational identity, the work seeks connections between the body and the land, the self and memory, and the individual and the collective.
My creative process begins with repetitive performance exercises. I express abstract emotions through movement, exploring the tension between control and release through breathing, repetition, and stillness. Here, performance does not require a fixed structure; everything flows freely. I allow movement to reveal unspoken emotions, thereby opening up a space for reflection, release, and reconnection.
CLOVER'S BIO:
Clover Zou is a senior at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, majoring in Performance Studies with minors in Producing and Dance. Her work explores movement, memory, and healing, focusing on how the body functions simultaneously as both an archive and a medium of expression. Grounded in phenomenology, feminist performance, and embodied practices, she has created a series of projects that examine ritual, spatial interaction, and audience participation. Her artistic approach blends dance, meditation, and site-specific performance to examine the relationships between the body, the environment, and emotional experience.
In addition to her creative practice, Clover is dedicated to bridging the gap between performance and media strategy, particularly within the entertainment industry. She is committed to developing works that combine artistic expression with audience insights, utilizing narrative as a medium to foster connection, reflection, and cultural dialogue.