All posts by admin

Theatre

A spotlight On Technical Theatre by Connor Strange

Leave a comment

South Wales came alive to the sound of Panto in Winter 2019 with Jermin Productions’ dazzling production of Cinderella, seeing performances across Carmarthenshire & Neath Port Talbot. Performances were held in Port Talbot’s Princess Royal Theatre operated by NPT Theatres, Carmarthen’s Lyric Theatre and Llanelli’s Ffwrnes Theatre operated by Theatrau Sir Gar.

And that is where I come in!

In this article, I will be giving you an in depth look into the roles that I worked on through the course of the production, and how important technical theatre is in the world of pantomimes and theatrical productions.

But first, let me introduce myself. My name is Connor Strange, I’m from Ammanford in Carmarthenshire, and I was very fortunate to work on Jermin Productions’ Cinderella South Wales Tour as a Follow Spot Operator & Lighting Technician. I’ll go on to explain more about those roles later.

My journey into the world of technical theatre all started last year. I volunteered during Swansea Pride back in 2019. During this event, I met Mark & Nia Jermin for the first time which gave me an insight into the world of entertainment. This made me think about my future aspirations and made me eventually decide to want to pursue a career in technical theatre & drama. So, I made contact with Jermin Productions and expressed interest in working on their 2019 pantomime – Cinderella.

Mark & Nia Jermin

As someone who is relatively new to the world of technical theatre & drama, I was very excited to receive an email in August from Jermin Productions offering me a position on Cinderella. This was such an exciting moment for me as I had never worked on a professional production before. This gave me an opportunity to develop new skills and create connections in the entertainment industry.

Fast forward to November 2019 and it was time to start work on the most ambitious production that I have ever worked on – Cinderella. As with all major productions, first comes the get in. This involves bringing set pieces, costumes, lighting etc – everything that is paramount to a successful production. Then comes assembling sets, rigging lights, preparing costumes for cast & dancers.

As with any production, you need a team & I was very fortunate to have worked with an amazing team of people throughout my time working on Cinderella. This included Mark Jones who was Production Manager, he has overarching responsibility for the safety & security of cast, crew & equipment on site as well as ensuring that the pantomime runs successfully.

Other colleagues included Grace – Deputy Stage Manager who has similar responsibilities to Mark. Alice, Bryn and Jordan were Assistant Stage Managers. ASM’s are tasked with ensuring props are in their correct positions, costumes changes happen when they should and overall operation of the show.

Now earlier on, I mentioned a very important role that I held during the production – Follow Spot Operator.

For those that do not know, a follow spot operator operates a specialised stage lighting instrument known as a followspot. A followspot is any lighting instrument manually controlled by an operator during a performance. I worked alongside a second follow spot operator, Luke, where we both had to follow a professionally orchestrated cue sheet and following commands issued by stage management and lighting operations. All in all, the role of a follow spot was something that I had never done before but was a fascinating insight into lighting.

Technical theatre has such an important part to play in the running of a pantomime. There are so many elements involved behind the scenes to ensure a pantomime can run successfully & efficiently. These include the Lighting department, Stage Management, Sound & our Musical team. Without these departments and the people working in them, a pantomime could not exist. All of those elements work hand in hand, very much like parts in a car. Without one of those elements, the production does not work as efficiently.

But we must also pay tribute to the Cast, without the cast a pantomime could not exist either. Technical theatre combined with a cast ensures that a production works successfully and delivers a fantastic performance to the general public.

This year’s cast thrilled audiences across South Wales and gave amazing performances time and time again.

The cast of Cinderella:

Nicole Seabright – Cinderella

Adam Byard – JJ Buttons

Lewis Brimfield – The Prince

Jordan Bateman – Bree

Ryan Edmunds – Tree

Bethan Searle – Fairy Godmother

Working with this amazing cast has been an absolute pleasure & has been a real eye opener to how much work goes on to make a pantomime happen.

I spoke to some of our cast & crew about what they got out of working on Cinderella and their experiences working on a Jermin Productions pantomime. I also asked them what they would say to people wanting to start out in performing arts.

Here’s what some of them had to say:

“I got lots out of Cinderella, experience and social were my main ones! I hadn’t worked on a touring theatre show like this before, and I was really lucky to be offered a job by Jermin Productions. I learnt new ways of doing things, tips and tricks to make things easier and even a few life lessons! Socially, I made so many great friends, people I’d work with for the rest of my life. It can get difficult when you’re working together, living together and sharing rooms, but with Cinderella I didn’t get any of that.

If someone asked me if they should go into Theatre tech, I’d definitely say Yes! It’s good fun and you learn a lot of stuff on the job, so if you have a lot of experience beforehand it doesn’t matter! There’s a lot of variety in this industry, which means you can try out different jobs if you’re not sure what to do.” (Ollie Gordon-Rump, Lighting Operations/LX1 – Cinderella 2019)

“What I got from it? I got a great sense of accomplishment from doing Panto with Mark. It’s my second year working for him and it was an amazing experience. It was personal for me as I got to perform in my hometown and even in the place I went to uni. It was a brilliant cast and they are like my second my family. To work with people who were so dedicated and talented was just exceptional. The script was hilarious and we were allowed to add our personalities in the characters and give it our touch.

I’d say to never give up because if you really want something then keep going. I’m a simple boy from Port Talbot whom acts for living. Anything is possible if you believe. (Ryan Edmunds, Tree – Cinderella 2019)

South Wales will come alive once more to the sound of Panto with Jermin Productions’ Beauty and the Beast coming this Winter 2020.

Tickets are on sale right now for Beauty and the Beast in  Port Talbot’s Princess Royal Theatre, Carmarthen’s Lyric Theatre & Llanelli’s Ffwrnes Theatre.

Tickets and show times are available on: https://jerminproductions.co.uk/event/beauty-and-the-beast-pantomime-2020/

A big thank you to everyone who supported me in the creation of this article!

Theatre

Review Winners, Nova, Sherman Theatre By Vic Mills

Leave a comment

out of 5 stars (5 / 5)

‘Get It While It’s Hot’ is a good vehicle in various ways for Lowri Jenkin’s honed, clever and at times visceral comedy, ‘Winners’.  It tells the old tale of how difficult is it to keep it ‘hot’ – whether that is the vegan dishes or the sex, fuelled by the aphrodisiac of the aptly named Dan Biggar and the colossus of Alun Wyn Jones.  You should know though that they succeed, in this warm-hearted, life-affirming and love-affirming piece, they succeed in keeping it hot – though we had to learn to change our minds a little about what that comes to mean for Cassie and Dafydd.

The stage is stripped to two very ordinary chairs and the production to a very simple and stripped lighting and sound plot.  This works very sympathetically with the stripping of the two characters as they face a ‘couples counselling’ session, an anniversary present from Cassie to Dafydd.  The device of the counselling session works beautifully too, as it allows for audience interaction as we become the counsellors for these two engaging and deeply sympathetic figures.

Jenkins’ is very well served by Samantha Jones’ direction and Garrin Clarke’s design – less is certainly more in this case.  We are allowed access to characters and actors who have nowhere to hide.

And Cassie and Dayfydd do certainly attempt to hide.  There is wonderful humour in the writing and in the performances of both actors from the first moment of the play.  Timing is crafted and almost every mark is hit.  Dafydd is warm, garrulous and very engaging from the outset.  Cassie is initially more poised and sophisticated – looking for the process to solve Dafydd’s problems whilst she makes suitable noises of support.  The play works, as these things do, to peel way the layers of her social pretences as the increasingly complex roots of the problems in their long term relationship are exposed.

The piece could have felt very familiar, safe and predictable had it not been for the quality of the comic writing, the beautifully honed and pacey dialogue and the genuine charm of the characters and above all the actors.  This is not challenging, groundbreaking theatre in any sense but it is an extremely well-crafted, warm, clever and engaging play, done wonderful service by two compelling and lovely performances.

Lowri Jenkins understands comedy and dialogue.  There are moments when the interchanges are too rapid fire and when we feel the writer trying too hard, but they are few and fairly insignificant.  She understands lyrical cadence and silence as well as crowd-pleasing belly laughs.  She looks honestly and unflinchingly at contemporary relationship issues and familiar gender tropes and there is a warmth and affection for both her characters and the audience responds with the real affection and engagement that this piece requires to succeed.

This play is a winner; it is a crowd pleaser certainly but it deserves to be.  The performances are very, very good and that they are equally good is rare.  Genuine chemistry on stage is the Holy Grail of theatre and these two have the cup of Christ in their grip.  Get to see it if you possibly can on one of these wet and wintry nights – it’ll warm you right through – it is hot!

The production plays at Sherman Theatre, Cardiff from 11 – 15 Feb 2020; 6.30pm

Dance

Review Company Danza PUCP present Laberinto. Choreographed by Lea Anderson by Becky Johnson

Leave a comment

A monochrome Zoetrope of cross- continental imagery.

“Created in collaboration with Peruvian artists and long- time collaborator, composer Steve Blake, ‘Laberinto’ continues Anderson’s work around misconstruction of reimagined lost dances, leading the audience on a serpentine journey into the labyrinth, into worlds beyond death.”

The piece was performed at Bristol’s Old Vic in their Weston
studio, an enchanted yet cosy space which fit the themes of Laberinto
perfectly. This meant the dancers were really amongst the audience, almost
close enough to touch but certainly close enough hear and maybe even feel their
breath.

The dancers begin the piece with grounded movement which
seems heavily influenced by Capoeira, an afro-Brazilian martial art form. They
create strong shapes, providing visual imagery for the audience which is almost
like a caricature or cartoon. This makes characters for each performer within
the monochrome zoetrope of cross- continental imagery that emerges on stage.

The dancers hold their own persona within the piece, each
with their own personality and therefore, their own characteristics. This allows
the audience to form a relationship with each, creating space for light- hearted
comedic moments which feature regularly within the piece and to the very end (including
the bow). These add to the theatrics of the performance and provide breaks from
the intensity of the images throughout. Also making the piece accessible for
those, who are not necessarily from an arts background.

I adored the stark contrast between the characters, whether
that was being devilishly camp or oppositely, stern and unphased. The posture
of these really played true to the role. They often carried a Parisian
‘laissez-faire’ attitude which occasionally indulged us in their inner
flamboyance. However, that isn’t forgetting the shift in physicality when
performing sections that deemed more heavily tribal influenced. The dancers
would then adopt a curved and more grounded approach, contrasting the seemingly
European personas they were previously carrying. Sadly, as the performers
tired, it did seem as though the sparkle of what were such strong, captivating
personalities had become more distant and less embodied by the dancers.

The costumes, all variations of monochrome catsuits, hold
reference to French icons such as Marcus Marceau as well as to Incan or Native
American masks. This fusion of European and Latin American aesthetics is
constant throughout the piece, both in imagery and movement. The use of face
paint on the face enhances the characters in which the dancers play. With
strict monochrome and neutral expressions, it is their physicality which tells
us of their individual stories. Only to be broken with exaggerated facial
expressions or the use of the tongue which strikes contrast to the sullen
monochrome otherwise. Imagery like the sticking out of the tongue and piercing stares
relate to that often seen in tribal rituals. This is heightened in the
penultimate section of the trio. The trio is made up of a solo and a duet. The
soloist seems to be trapped within a shamanic ritual between the other two
dancers. The two dancers appear to be chanting around the soloist but not
verbally, physically. The shamanic chanting is created via the use of hands and
gestural movements, almost like a text. Repeated, over and over, each time with
more power and vigour, growing in strength and intensity.

Throughout the piece the dancers’ hands will never be seen in a fist, but always splayed or stylistically positioned. Often the hands and arms will make references to whacking or vogueing foundations, often crossing over with that of 1980s catwalk models or magazine covers. This shape of movement is always precise, with transitional movements from one shape to the other. These shapes provide the context for the audience, often presenting imagery from familiar historic images. Not only supermodels but mimes, jesters, court dancers and circus performers. I did question at times which images have been used to make the choreography, as although some were obvious in their links, others not so much. There seemed to be expressions that linked with that of ‘Uncle Tom’ propaganda from the 1950s but whether that was purposeful or solely my connections, I am unsure.

The choreography itself relies on a mixture of devised games
(such as freezeframes or adding to the picture) as well as the use of strict
patterns playing with timings, canons, shape and poise. The accents of the choreography
tended to swap between ‘hits’ and breaks’, meaning sharp held movements and
sharper movements that then blend into something softer. The pathways of the
piece were most intriguing and formed a key role within the piece. The
characters would glide past each other, whilst in strict canons but along
unusual pathways meaning as the audience, your eyes were constantly drawn to
different areas within the stage.

The set simply details a square of flooring which is matched
by a dangling box light above. This cube of parameter provides ample space for
the performers to move and with their grounded movement quality, they seem
encased within the space and we the audience are peeking through the looking
glass. The strict spacing provided by the set allows the structure of the piece
to provide breath and more importantly to reset from scene to scene. Almost as
though when the dancers aren’t within the set, they are offstage (although they
continue to pursue their characters and to respond to what is emerging on
stage).

I was fortunate to witness the Q&A at the end of the
performance which added further insight into the process of creation and how
such a project came about. I was happy to learn that photographic images had
been one of the core ways in which the piece had been created and that the
piece focussed on these shapes and imagery throughout. It’s wonderful to see
such open ways of creating and these types partnerships taking place. I look
forward to seeing more from such an emerging professional company and wish them
the best of luck on the rest of their tour.

Film & TV, Museums & heritage

Review The Snowman at The National Museum Cardiff by Rhian Gregory

Leave a comment

I love that the National Museum, Cardiff is starting to put on more and more special events. It makes it even more exciting to go along to a trip to the museum. Museum entry is free, with some additional events requiring to buy a ticket beforehand.

I volunteered for the Museum Late Space. It was in evening after official closing time, with multiple entertainment, bar and drinks, DJ and music, lots of different acts on around the building and more! Great night! I noticed there is Museum Late Dippy Dino theme in January, early 2020. I may see if I can volunteer for that too.

Leading up to this Christmas, a weekend in December, the museum has been putting on the classic The Snowman screenings in the Reardon Smith Theatre, located on the side of the museum.

Walking down the side of the museum, I was a bit miffed at first as I saw steps and wasn’t sure how to get to the side door, eventually with some more st’roll’ing around the back of the museum, there was area with no steps to the Reardon Smith lecture theatre entrance. Maybe a sign would have made it more clearer.

We were greeted by cheery helpful staff, pretty lights and trees, and given a popcorn each. They also offered help to carry them to our seats which was very thoughtful. We were given white fluffy snowballs too, which they said to keep for a surprise at the end.

We went into a door that avoided the steps, that led to the very top of the lecture theatre which had an area for a few wheelchair users.

They made the atmosphere so cosy, blue lights to have that cool cold effect, and projected falling snow on the sides, Christmas music playing, on the stage they had it set up with a few Christmas trees and presents, with the big back screen where The Snowman would be shown.

I’m sure everyone enjoyed digging into their popcorn, a lovely space to watch the snowman, some giggles from children when the cat is scared of the snowman and when the snowman makes fruit faces. My children stood up and put their arms out for the ‘Walking in the Air’ song and scene, pretending to fly.

At the end they had a snowman come on stage for a snowball fight and photos.

Definitely a hit with the children and adults alike!

I look forward to more special events at the National Museum of Wales Cardiff.

Thank you for the complimentary tickets.

Film & TV, Music, Musical, Theatre

Review Les Misérables, Cameron Mackintosh, Wales Millenium Centre By Becky Johnson

Leave a comment

An eclectic evening of wonder, passion and skill.

What an incredible first experience of the infamous Les Misérables.
So much thought and care had been given to each and every part of the evenings’
performance. It was this specific attention to detail that really drew the
audience into the world of pre-revolutionary France.

Firstly, the set, Wow! The set used a mixture of visual
effects alongside moving structures to create an immersive experience for the
audience. The onstage set, predominantly wooden, was etched with details. From
small engraved phrases to the layering of different components. The visual
effects truly brought the set to life by adding intricacies to things that
would otherwise be forgotten. Such as the water rippling and the stars twinkling.
But only ever so slightly, just enough for you to question whether it’s really
there at all or just your mind playing tricks on you.

The lighting played such a crucial role within the piece.
Alongside the projected visual effects, it would bring a sense of realism to
what was occurring on stage. An image of the meeting of the revolutionaries
comes to mind. The light seeping through the barred windows, reflecting off the
faces of the Males whilst they walked through the shadows making small talk
with one and another. It was also with moments like the gunshots, where a
bright light would suddenly glare, making the plot more accessible to the
audience.

Even in the way the actors spoke it was evident the clarity
and precision in which they gave out their words. Those deemed more common were
usually paired with a Northern accent and those of a higher class with a more
queens English. The use of different accents and dialects allowed clarification
for the audience but also context as to the stereotypes and opportunities in
that era.

The use of detail was also not only evident in the voices of
the performers but most predominantly in the ensemble. Each performer held
their own character, with their own physicality and own storyline. One could
easily get lost watching the ensemble, with so many options to engage with. It
was often the more hidden moments happening in the background which would cause
me to smile or question things more deeply.

It wasn’t usually the way in which the text was presented as
to how your emotions were driven. The text tended to set the pace, which kept a
high engagement for the audience throughout the piece. Instead, the orchestra
were key to how you responded to what was occurring on stage. At the moments I
received goose bumps, I realised it wasn’t from the solos. Instead, from the
accompaniment and the resonant quality that it echoed around the theatre
creating an atmosphere unlike no other.

Each member of the cast was incredibly talented and without
one, the piece wouldn’t be the same. It is truly the fine details which make
this piece so magnificent and I predict it’s one of those where regardless of
the amount of times you watch the performance, you would be drawn to different
characters and their own tales each time. There are limited tickets available
for the remainder of the performances but if you do get the chance to go, you
are certainly in for a treat.

Dance

Review The Storm, James Wilton Dance By Becky Johnson

Leave a comment

A storm of the mind as well as in temperament.

The piece opens with the dancers rooted to the floor, in
what seems like the foundations of a tree. As tensions build, the tree begins
to sway by the wind which causes a ripple through each performer. The storm
builds taking hold of the dancers swirling them through the space like leaves
drifting through the wind. Thus creating, an autumnal flurry of movement and
immersive sound. It’s imagery like this, that forms the development of the
storm throughout the piece. The dancers utilise this as well as breath to
create the effect of the ever-growing storm around us. It’s their skill and
power as performers that really drives the audience with them through the storm
that’s created.

The movement used was often self-indulgent allowing us to see the performers not as performers but as people, with their own desires and limitations. Even when taken by the wind and shifted through the space, the performers remained as themselves, not characters. Their own emotions drove them to move and create, with the ensemble often echoing the soloists state of mind in the backdrop of the stage. At times, swirling and spiralling across the space whilst the soloists remained still, reflecting their inner turmoil although their own appearance remained static and unphased. The first half of the piece focuses on simpler values to portray the story of the storm, imagery via use of line and shape within the movement and allowing the knock-on effect from dancer to dancer which creates this ever-building tension.

https://youtu.be/8nYxYRDltGs

However, the second half, relies heavily on theatrics and storytelling to get this point across. The timing of movements and the beginning of phrases becomes predictable, which with such fascinating, detailed music (composed by Amarok / Michal Wojtas which I shall be purchasing once released) becomes frustrating. There seems a loss of detail in the realness of these people, which was previously so enchanting. Facial expressions become forced and lose their authenticity, with an absence of realism in their hands and reaches.

Although, with this being said, the theatrical elements
really did provide food for thought. Especially the initial solo by Norikazu
Aoki. It approached the theme of mental health with self – destructiveness and
the desire from those around him to help fight this addiction. These things are
extremely important to be visualised in work on stage and such a difficult
topic to explore well. By leaving the solo so simple, it allowed the audience
to resolve their own interpretation of what was happening. It sparked a real
understanding of these issues from the point of those witnessing someone
deteriorate and how we can and should assist in those moments of self-harm.
This sharing of help was continued throughout the piece with simple, gestural
motifs such as that as the unfolding of hands.

The role of the observer stands as its own motif throughout the piece. This played by the choreographer James Wilton. He is present in almost all the scenes providing stillness to the continuing motion on stage. This leads me to question, is this piece the story of one man? Are the performers on stage sharing his own personal experiences to the audience? And was this his journey to self help and how he overcame his own demons?

Dance

A Response to Écrit, Choreographed by Nikita Goile, NDCWales Roots Tour by Sean Bates

Leave a comment

I feel this track captures the ebbs and flows of Roots, NDCWales specifically Écrit by Nikita Goile. The performance started with a lone female dancer moving fluidly, almost like a crisp packet in a melancholic wind.  A muscular male was positioned behind a white screen, mirroring her movements. To me this suggested he may be out of reach in some way; another women perhaps, even though the synchronisation implied an obvious connection.  I feel the performance brilliantly portrayed the struggle that every human being must go through: a quest for true love. The company made brilliant use of the space, and the eerie lighting provided an excellent back drop to the performance. The dancers used sweeping movements and emotive body language to visually represent  their potential romance, although love must always be reciprocated and sometimes we have to cut off a part of us and let go in order to reach the highest peak.

https://soundcloud.com/user-763014624/slow-build-450-a-response-to-ecrit-by-nikita-goile-ndcwales
Theatre

DYMA ADOLYGIAD criw brwd, Yn ei blodau. (REVIEW CRIW BRWD, YN EI BLODAU LOWRI CYNAN IN THE WELSH LANGUAGE)

Leave a comment

“Yn Ei Blodau” yw cynhyrchiad cyntaf Criw
Brwd a drama gyntaf Elin Phillips. Cwmni newydd mentrus Elin a Gwawr
Loader yw’r cwmni ifanc yma ac maent yn awyddus i leisio barn merched sy’n
goroesi bywydau anodd yng nghymoedd y De. Mae’r ddrama’n olrhain hanes Fflur,
athrawes ifanc sy’n rhy barod i blesio ei mam a’i chariad Scott. Mae’n ceisio byw
y bywyd traddodiadol benywaidd – swydd barchus, perthynas, priodas a phlant – ond
yn dawel fach, mae’n dyheu i wrthryfela a thorri’n rhydd. Mae ei mam yn dyheu i
weld ei merch yn setlo a chael plant, ond yn dawel fach, mae Fflur yn dymuno
byw bywyd heb gyfyngiadau, cyfrifoldebau na disgwyliadau. 

Mae’r
ddrama ar adegau yn llawn hiwmor deifiol a sefyllfaoedd doniol, ond ar y cyfan,
mae caethiwed a rhwystredigaeth Fflur yn ein sobri. Mae’r wên deg sydd ar
ei hwyneb yn fwgwd i’r tristwch oddi tano. Daw hyn yn amlwg wrth iddi
geisio ufuddhau i reolau ei phartner Scott yn ogystal â’r euogrwydd mae’n
wynebu wrth iddi wrthryfela.  

Portreadodd
yr actores Kate Elis y cymhlethdodau hyn yn effeithiol drwy arwain y
gynulleidfa drwy amrywiol sefyllfaoedd ac argyfngau ym mywyd Fflur.  Roedd
ei gwaith corfforol (dan ofal medrus Eddie Ladd) yn dda, ond hwyrach byddai
deunydd ehangach o’r llwyfan a’r gwagle wedi ategu at y perfformiad. Defnyddiodd
yr actores rhywfaint o’r offer llwyfan mewn modd symbolaidd, er enghraifft, y bêl,
ond nid oeddwn yn teimlo bod angen cymaint o’r offer hyn ar hyd y llwyfan.
Serch hynny, hoffais y deunydd o olau a sain a oedd yn ychwanegu tipyn at
awyrgylch y ddrama. 

Er
bod cymeriad Fflur yn teimlo ar goll ac yn fregus, yr hyn sy’n rhoi gobaith
iddi yw y plentyn mae ar fin geni. Dyma fydd ei ffocws, ei dyfodol newydd gwell
mewn byd sydd weithiau’n greulon a ffug. 

Llwyddodd
y dramodydd i ddefnyddio hanes Blodeuwedd – un o ferched mwyaf arwyddocaol ein
chwedloniaeth – fel is-destun i’r ddrama, ac roedd hyn yn gorwedd yn gyfforddus
o fewn sgript sy’n trafod yr un themâu, sef  nwyd, caethiwed, disgwyliadau ac wrth gwrs rôl merch
mewn byd sydd wedi’i reoli gan ddynion.  Roedd hon yn noson lwyddiannus
arall yn y gyfres “Get it while it’s Hot” ac edrychwn ymlaen at weld cynhyrchiad
nesa’r cwmni, ‘Pan Ddaw’r Haf’ ym
misoedd cyntaf 2020.

Dance, Festivals

Subjective Reflections on Rosalind Crisp, Practises of Disarmament… by Anushiye Yarnell

Leave a comment

(When we enter a workshop or performance
we already carry so much with us, which shapes and resonates perpetually in how
we feel, sense, think witness… and determines what we take away.)

Workshop:

Choreographic
Improvisation

Possibly I enter each workshop dressed
in degrees of resistance and estimated angles of surrender, 

and

I guess… 
definitely un-definitive desires.

Desires secretly aflame stashed as best
I can for another occasion. 

The geometry of these desires has been
formed by my habitats of dancing, which have since childhood most predominately
been solitary experiences, practices and investigations. Flickering into
dancing nights out and occasional classes or workshops.

(Working under or up to a choreographer
or even a teacher never quite seems to fit.) The implicit–explicit hierarchies and
structures involved in the process of ‘becoming a dancer’ contrast significantly
with those of other art forms.

My tendency seems to ‘dip in’ intermittently
to social sites of contemporary dance- seeking conversations, connections with
other dancing bodies- sources of reorientation rather than reproduction.

There is a lot I keep stashed under
wraps in workshop situation.

That I edit out of my dancing in order
to be there.

Perhaps everyone there does.

How thread bear can the fleshy garments
we wear between life and dance?

I continue to find it distracting being
in a room full of dancers ‘doing moves’ -moves which have been shaped by the
aesthetics and conduct of contemporary dance class. There is a strong
determinative current in the room- in some ways experienced as an opportunist ‘expansive’
and fertile energy-  yet also
subliminally restrictive, prescriptive and within determining stylistic
spectrums.

Ever-present (even in absence) is the
omniscient all-knowing mirror in the room- in the held faces.

Sprayed on songs counted in 8.

An inheritance of aesthetics and ideologies.

As such dance classes and workshops are
also a site of renouncement.

Resonance and Dissonance have been as
much a part of my dance quests and navigations as my desires.

Expectations, prejudices,
disappointments, preconceptions. These ebb and flow, merge and submerge,
comforts and discomforts, hopes barriers, openings, shields. Somehow I wear
them all… as in the misspelling the 2nd hand blue sweater I am wearing as I
write this….

ARMOUR 

A_MOUR.

Love and Conflict co-inhabit as Survival
in the way i wear and experience my body- in dance and life.

My anti Ideologies include paradox and
contradiction, which resonate harmonically with dissonance and self undoing.

Everyone has their rules and regulations…to
apprehend…however morphic, unrecognisable, displaced from the establishment
/status quo.

There is a welcome greeting from
Rosalind which extends somehow as a climate, an 
atmosphere into the first actions of the day.

She is throw away with her words and
tasks…as if shooting a tin can with exactitude and disarming laughter. Sending
things flying in disarray… arriving with a perturbingly exacting landing. I
believe in the moment I shall remember everything she says… yet never seem to.

We are invited to wear in-depth, the
fleshy gestures we enact as we ‘Warm UP’.

Somehow there is a dressing and
undressing from our needs- practical, physical, emotional. Which elements do we
self-consciously edit out or adjust in this social situation?

A few years ago I stripped away Warming UP.

It had always been a synthetic add on.
Easy to let go of…and almost made necessary by life’s constraints. 

Anyway my real desire was always to
begin by dancing without expectation. Perhaps what I identified as ‘warming up’…has been
historically identified by what I am not ready, or not yet good enough for.

If any thing I ‘warm down’ – a practical
apparatus to be able to carry my dance back into my life- patterns and
constructs of my body in day to day survival. A kind of savoury dessert. An
elixir of the ordinary. 

It is a chorus somehow strangely echoes …down
the line from Deborah Hay….

“Getting What You Need”

Not here or now this morning… yet
somehow it echoes of its own accord.

When this incantation first resounded in
my radar I had to undress it from associations of affirmation. It seems to fit
easy when I recognise “what I need” as a cellular unidentifiable, morphic,
surprising and self unravelling experience. What I need as a question, rather
than an acquisition. 

An invitation, direction or gesture of
departure as well as arrival.

Somehow Rosalind offered Warming UP as question…. an
invitation to reconfigure ‘needs’…moving within easy to reach field of
movement.

Perhaps if I rechristen Warming UP as acclimatising.

“Warming UP”  could feel like an invitation to
include very practical and ordinary elements of my everyday  body- needs, fears and desires.

Warming UP deciphers beginnings and
endings, invitations, expectations to tuning into tuning out of.

Rosalind describes a musical scale as a
metaphor for Warming Up.  

A series of portals to experience
aspects of feeling and being which appear and disappear.

Warming Up those vital aspects of ourselves, 
dormant, or attired in getting through life, which can dishabille  dancing?

I am aware of how I am tethered by by my
own discreetly oppositional anti establishment ideologies…which have their own
restrictions within civilised  systems.

Rosalind speaks of “Shedding” through the day.

Somehow this Act of Shedding has been the only
way anything has ever formed, accumulated, been generated, or encompassed in my
the habitat of my dance.

There is a freedom and exactitude to “Shedding”.

 She rechristens Warming UP as Noticing.

Like orphaning and rechristening a child
of the establishment as an illegitimate out of wedlock love child…tuning the harmonics and melodics of the

…the exchanging interface between life
body and dancing body.

*Orienting includes of Disorientating
and Reorienting.*

 Rosalind lightly describes years of being in
the studio alone.

And her fidelity to 

“Just One Thing”at a time

…as a Practice.

“Practice” is another word I have orphaned, adopted and rechristened as a Habitat.

After all I always try to untether
activities from Justifications.

In a world where justice can only be a
fleeting or temporal accommodation.

The End of the World?

…Should it be a question any longer?

…So many worlds are ending.

…Yet the world is not a Mono-theistic
Being.

(Even if that is translated into modern
silhouette of Atheism  or sacrificial
altar of Scientific Progress and Salvation. )

…Beyond my fingertips yes but not the
nerve endings of my the reality of my imagination.

…Extinction still seems somehow out of
reach…like the aspirational vote…on the top shelf of the corner shop.

…No-one ever shops there anymore.

…Warming Up as a mammalian being
flickering through other forms of alien earthly life?

…Shedding humanity as a destination.

Destiny?

Salvation.?

Extinction?

Perceptually many worlds not one?

“Whoever says salvation exists is a slave, because he keeps weighing
each of his and deeds in every moment.’Will I be saved or damned he tremblingly
asks…Salvation means deliverance from all saviours…the perfect saviour …who
shall deliver mankind from Salvation”

John Gray STRAW DOGS

***

Possibly sometime ago I would have felt
a sense of inadequacy in attempting to commit to Rosalind’s  “ Just one Thing.” .

Now I seem to realise I have a tendency
towards the inside out.

(My mother who is incredibly
superstitious insists its unlucky to change your clothes if you put them on
inside out…lately she seems to have extended this in recent years to back to
front scenarios.) She is suddenly older.

….I start with a myriad of unnamed
constellations and something strangely specific and singular seems to
crystallise amongst the sensations.

Rosalind seems to start with some
singular, visceral, displacing devotional action- distilling an undefinable,
multiplicity of sensation. Somehow her work reconfigures the relationship
between the dancers nervous and reflexive systems. 

“For polytheists, religion is a matter
of practice not belief: and there are many kinds of practice….

Polytheism is too delicate a way of
thinking for modern minds.” 

John Gray.  STRAW DOGS.

In Rosalind’s practice duality and
multiplicity to experientially unfold through devotion and surrender through
attending a singular perceptual activity.  

She speaks of the duality or
oppositional friendship between her dancing self and choreographing self.

Her 
fidelity to being moved by singular responsive action invites a dynamic
multiplicity created by possibilities of empathetic polarities…movements
between oppositional perceptions, or ways of apprehending experience.

She speaks of resting into/ committing
to the specific initiation of one definitive  
activity – tethering the mind/ brain- keeping it busy- so body can be
free to… perhaps not act as its subject.

Sunday Morning…

We begin with SURFACE(s)….interplays of
exchange, interfaces- membranes  of
sensation…She specifies “SURFACE” not located, dislocated identified as skin, clothing, hair, aura, fat, nerves, space.

This definition is perceptually
inclusive rather than exclusive.

We begin differentiating the sense of
whole body and a body in parts.

We change channel to our VOLUME– Sensations of our how we are contained
within our forms.

“What if the depth is on the surface?” An echo from Deborah Hay.

Our Skin an outer brain.

Our Brain an inner skin.

The skin of a thought.

The mind of sensation/ feeling.

I wonder…What if we our whole being is
surface?… internally externally a site of exchange/ interface, a multiplicity.
Each organ, nerve, vessel, muscle, orifice an intricate accumulation- a series, a family of surfaces. Every cell
of our body…an intricate, responsive folding of surfaces, membranes, skins of
connective differentiation.

I inhabit my Volume. I feel my Surfaces.

I inhabit my surface. I feel my Volumes.

I feel myself one…I become many.

I feel myself as many…I become one.

“Opposition is true Friendship”

Marriage of Heaven and Hell. William
Blake

PERFORMANCE

a
partial lecture about a partial history 
an unfinished dance by a saturated body 
an ongoing practice exposed

Rosalind’s meticulous distillation of
perpetual actions….materialise in her performance. Framed at once by immediate
incremental intervals… and over the history of her dance reaching into other
dance worlds and practices. 

Films are shown as a windows into
different fields of her work- the fluid electrics of her nervous system
seems interconnected as other instruments of attentiveness ….perceptual
apparatus.

My daughter sits on my lap and laughs as
Rosalind enacts a live commentary on her actions- a self reporting journalist.
Each moment and action swallowed up by the channelling of next event. The
struggle between words and forms shaping and shedding..dressing and undressing
of destinies… shedding of destinations.

She speaks about the dancer being
carried away by the dance- like a babe in arms. Perhaps she speaks of marriage-
of fidelity rather than faithfulness. I feel the meaning… yet I fail to
remember the vows….the vowels without consonants…constants. Perhaps she is
speaking about different types of love, liberty and dependancy…all
intrinsically, synchronistically intertwined.

There is an ending…She speaks of riding
through forest, as a girl on horseback…and the revisitation to the devastation
of the wilderness she once was carried by and loved. She shows film of herself
dancing, moving in the bodies of felled trees- laid waste.

It is stark and hopeless in its
endurance and truth.

Her humanity exposed and stranded
between animal and machine.

She is a helplessly human visitation in
a scene of natural devastation. Yet she is dancing. Dancing somehow feels like
an authentic activism- where there is no graspable solution.

I am writing this over hearing a
conversation between the waitress at the Old Boys Club and a customer:

It is about animal life and meat.

It is about the value of life in the
face of death.

He says to her,  “At the end of the day…When the animals are
going to die anyway…Whats the point of them being happy and living a good life?”

It is also about ourselves.

My dear friend has given me… hand inked
in lovely italics…a sign…

ESPERANCE

Hope is more convincing in French…because
I don’t speak french.

Rosalind’s incantations and dances are
untampered by representative justifications. Somehow her work channels with a
truthful and disarming delicacy, with apparitions  of specificity-  a commitment to the beauty and mystery of the
world- of existence. 

Fidelity to incrementals of uncounted
time.

She speaks of hands being at the end of
your feet.

Being carried by the contact we have
with the earth..

The natural world… Out of sight…Out of mind… Out of our hands

But still resounding through our
feet 

turning us on the world’s surface/skin-
through our animal universals, rather than our human specialisations.

Perhaps we live in an age…where
salvation must be reconfigured an act of disarmament…

A shedding of Humanity’s Survival-

A shedding of Humanity’s aesthetics
governed by its fears an desires.

Perhaps this is a dance- as much as
anything.