Falling Down: A Ballet for My Bedroom

Falling Down: A Ballet for My Bedroom is a video work in which Milton staged and performed the gaudy decadence of an emotional breakdown within her own personal bedroom. The video focuses on a female character dusting figurines, fluffing and arranging an absurd amount of pillows and eventually destroying them amid dramatic crescendos of falling down. Pushing the melodramatic tone of the work towards the fantastic, the character soon discovers that an extravagant feather boa has emerged out of the thick pile of feathers that surround her. Utilizing a soundtrack pulled from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, the work explores the tensions between spontaneity and choreography, catharsis and theatricality. Investigating the absurd beauty of melodrama and the tragic-comic tensions of female “hysteria”, this work is the second in Milton’s Breakdown series (which also includes: Soap Opera with Chocolates, 2015 and Cotton Candy Insulation Keeps You Warm and Cuts Like Glass, 2014).