Ana Dance

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Hosted by Oxford Dance Forum at The Old Firestation, Diane Amans led another inspiring, informative and fun workshop.  I first experienced Diane’s workshop leading at The Foundation for Community Dance summer school a couple of years ago.  As then, she brought a great variety of ideas and practical tips, suggestions and solutions all delivered with a genuine, fun, stress free bounce in her stride.   Feathers, balloons, ball, ribbons and scarves in all colours together with a great choice of music to bring smiles to peoples faces and ease in their bodies.   ‘Exercise by stealth’ and ‘Failure free’ dancing for the elderly and those with Dementia which gave us all a good warm up as well as a chance for creative involvement.

Looking forward to our 5th meeting this Tuesday.  Each session has been different.  The first few where ideas were not brought so much as emerged during the course of the evening from a single ball rolling start.  These last two sessions have seen dancers arriving with their ideas and more confidence to set their own balls rolling from completely different starting points.  A really interesting variety of approaches, methods and outcomes.

What a treat to have Yael Karavan come up to mentor/direct me as I begin work on ‘Inertia’ as part ofthe Germinator strand of homebed.  She managed to conjur light from the darkness, movement from stillness  and give me plenty of ways to develop and work on my many disparate ideas as well as bringing fresh thoughts to the process.  We worked with prop and projection.  I was also grateful to be joined in the studio by Naomi Morris.  A solid start which I hope I can do justice to.

photo: Naomi Morris

Looking forward to working with Yael Karavan at OFS on Monday and Tuesday as part of the Homebed programme.  Hoping she can help me tease through the tangle of ideas relating to my theme of Inertia and help plan a good route forward for both my solo work and group work.  Yael is a fantastic live performer and director combining humour, energy, apparent chaos and enviable technical precision and timing.   Just hoping  a bit will rub off on me!

New territory for me as I embarked on an interview with Physicist Julian Barbour on one of the most fundamental laws in physics as part of my research for my next project ‘Inertia’.  I came  away with a better understanding of the term from a science point of view (as a total science novice) and a range of contexts from car crashes to the movement of the planets.  Now how to turn it into dance and film….!

Tuesday I finally entered the studio to embark on movement and video research for ‘Inertia’ as part of the    ‘Germinator’  Home bed scheme.  Just a scratch.   Still wavering between solo and group choreography and trying to work out how to  manage my favourite elements of light and film projection.  Hoping for clarity soon!

So far we’ve had two sessions of the choreocollective.  Both were productive, friendly and supportive.  The overwhelming feeling I took from the group was the joy of being able to move and create among fellow dancers free from the pressure of producing a show.   Each session has taken its own path with movement ideas being brought or generated and then shaped/directed by different members of the group.  Lots of interesting snippets, thoughts and movement ideas.    Looking forward to seeing how we and the sessions all develop.  Next one next Thursday.

At  OFS today attending the latest  ODF professional development workshop ‘Touring and Distribution‘ led by Tim Tubbs and Joe Bates.  The pair led us through a well prepared session with charm, humour and straight talking.   Unfortunately many dispiriting realities about attempting to tour on a traditional model for small scale independents and the difficulties of satisfying the demands of funders.  The group had plenty of opportunity to raise questions/share experiences (and indignantly despair).  However, Joe and Tim offered a few lateral approaches to consider and plenty of practical tips on networking,  budget writing, organising admin and a portfolio career. Has given me plenty to think about..and act on!

After the workshop I  found myself at MAO and the exhibition of Jenny Saville.  Amazing flesh and bodies, large scale figurative and abstract all at once.  First time I’ve seen her work and I was impressed.

Then back to OFS for my first of experience of ‘Playground’ already on its fourth outing.  Great initiative with its interesting mix of presentations/ideas/interactivity and the opportunity to talk to lots of people!

Looking forward (if a little nervously) to the first session of the choreocollective.  I’ve had a great response which makes me think there are lots of dancers around who really want and need to be developing their work.  Space to dance  and people to create with.   Very interested to see how to manage the sessions so that each can contribute and feel able to develop their work.

Another session exploring ways of interrupting/changing narratives.  We’re also learning more effective ways of using video as research and documentation tool.  Quite a  balance to achieve between action, creation, review and reflection on the path to development of new techniques and work.