At South East Dance Studios

This week we are rehearsing at South East Dance Studios in Hextable, working with one of the charcoal images on the wall. The drawing on the wall is created through a movement task: to find a point together where falling becomes inevitable. My aim is to bring the audience closer to the subtle negotiations that constantly occur between the three performers during this task, and to the visual art work that is created alongside. I still have so many questions about the identity and the relationships between these two things that are happening simultaneously. 

We experimented with different colours and materials to arrive at drawings that have some more distinct marks and that still remind us of the movement that just happened. While the drawings are an accidental product we are still searching for something more concise. Even within the limitations of the task there are so many options of how to hold the charcoal and where in the body to initiate movement from, of what and how to trace. A more rigorous and simpler approach seems to lead towards something  more expressive. The drawings begin to appear more systematic. They look like dense, concentrated accumulations of lines. They are extracting some information about the perceived movement of the body without creating any usable notation. However, there is something very exciting about the possibility that each audience member could observe the creation of the drawing, and then could revisit the drawing itself at a later point, remembering their own experience of the performance.

I keep coming back to Toni Orrico's work. I like how he beliefs in and continuosly explores the potential of his  body to find a new form of precision.



Penwald: 5: wrists on walk from Tony Orrico on Vimeo.

Tracing Gestures at The Place

 I started working on the next development phase for 'Tracing Gestures'. I am joined by a new team of performers, Richard Court, Aaron Markwell and Stephen Moynihan. We have been exploring a range of tasks in which we use drawing and video recording as a medium to capture fragments of each other's movements and physicalities. The first two weeks of rehearsal have been a test of our observation and listening ability, searching for detail and precision. I feel quite touched by the performers' quiet and continuous generosity in these questioning interactions. I keep leaving the studio strangely happy at the end of the day, and slightly panicked, wanting to find a good way to share this intimate and subtle process with an audience. And knowing that it might escape me.