Ana Dance

Author Archive

Saturday was Diamond Nights.  We had 6 different acts all different and all good.  I was co organising this with Paul with as always the support and help of the rest of the Cafe Reason group.  We are especially lucky to have Peter Green doing the lighting -he is always the one to work hardest at Diamond Nights as he is involved in every piece! and Peter Jones coming to document  the evenings proceedings.  We are also extremely lucky to be able to access the drama studio without which none of these wonderful theatrical experiments would get seen.  Performing were:Ayala Kingsley in ‘trunk’, Flavia Coube in ‘Child’  followed by Bruno Guastalla and Macarena Ortuzar in ‘slate’.  Next was Segolene Tarte in ‘Splice’, followed by Dariusz Dziala’s film ‘Cabbage’ with music by Malcolm Atkins based on a traditional Polish song.  Finally the Cafe Reason group piece ‘A walk’ inspired by an Ivor Cutlor piece called ‘Life in a Scotch sitting roomVOL2 EP.11’ and performed by Jeannie Donald McKim, Ayala Kingsley, Fabrizia Verrechia, Flavia Coube and Segolene Tarte.  Accompanying them with live music were Bruno Guastalla -cello, and  Janna Ferrett -voice.  For a write up of the evening see Susie Crow’s review at Oxford Dance Writers

Meeting of the DEC group today (Demonstration, Exploration, Collaboration).  I have recently been invited to join this collaborative research and performance group which comprises artists, musicians and dancers.*   Great session today exploring amongst other things ‘stasis’ through dance/music and art.  Challenging ourselves to not repeat, not fall in to pattern, not do anything the same not go on a journey.. almost impossible of course but great for finding more material.  We discussed how we could use this approach constructively in performance and tried some other framing /structuring devices to put the ‘directionless’ action in to a wider context.  Really interesting looking at the artists’ translations of the movement and sound on to paper.  Inspiring.

*DEC was set up by Susie Crow of Ballet in Small Spaces with Malcolm Atkins (musician) and visual artists Clare Bassett, Antonia Bruce, Kassandra Isaacson and Susan Moxley.  I first worked with them as a guest dancer during their residency at OVADA in 2010.

Rehearsal at Pegasus theatre for  ‘A suitcase for all occasions’ was visited by photographer Jon Lewis with Gill Jaggers from Pegasus on Wednesday.  We were able to show snippets of work in progress and have fun with the material.  We were impressed by photographer’s engagement, creativity and positive attitude – a real pleasure.   Lovely surprise to see a shot from the rehearsal on the front of the Oxford Times this morning.

one of the photos also appeared here

Diamond Nights this Saturday 28th Jan at the drama studio, Brookes.   A good mix of new work in progress and experiments.  Just finalising the list of contributors.

Also trying to find/book space to host workshop open to dancers/physical theatre practitioners  18-19 Feb with Yael Karavan.  Looking forward to being inspired, exploring and having fun with her unique approach to dance theatre and performance.

Attended the first part of 2 day workshop on teaching dance to older people organised by ODF,  held at the Old Firestation and led by Rebecca Seymour.  Really well attended with a mixture of people from Oxford and all over the country.  Great to have this training opportunity on our doorstep.  Very useful course with lots of practical ideas and demonstrations as well as discussions about planning, setting up and delivering dance sessions to older people in a wide range of settings.  This was a good follow up to the FCD summer school I attended and I had a chance to meet Diane Amans again who had delivered such an inspiring workshop in Leicester.

Scratch Night at The Pegasus performing a short work in progress excerpt from Paulette Mae’s piece for March 17th with Anja and Paulette.  Good to have the chance to try some of the material out in front of an audience and for the structured feedback for all.  Really enjoyed watching the other performances, meeting the other dancers and seeing the variety of work people are producing.  Great. Well done ODF and Pegasus.  See Oxford dance writers for more detailed write up.

Rehearsal the day before incorporated a very efficient photo shoot out in the street wearing very little in cold January weather for ‘A suitcase for all Seasons’ .  Anja kept traffic jam occupiers of cars on the Iffley Road entertained with orange dress dancing.   Photos by Dariusz Dziala to be used in publicity for the show in March at The Old Firestation.

Getting ready with rehearsals for Paulette’s piece  ‘A suitcase for all seasons’.  A small section of the trio will be shown in the Pegasus scratch night on 13th Jan.

Looking forward to teaching again.  Monday daytimes URC,  Tuesdays at Crisis,  Friday evening Butoh.

Co Organising Cafe reason’s next Diamond Nights  coming up 28th Jan.

Funding applications for projects…

Hoping to begin filming for ‘puppet’

Today I had 2 back to back rehearsals at Pegasus Studio.  The first with Paulette developing material for the show in March.  I am still struggling with getting to grips with a different way of approaching choreography and trying to produce movement from a new range of stimuli and trying to remember…  A challenge! Thanks Paulette.

The second was the first exploration with Dariusz for a film we are planning to make for February.  Camera techniques v  movement ideas.  Very helpfully joined by Flavia.  We tried some stop motion in dance.  Some contrasting stillness and movement to be captured with different shutter speeds for blur effect.  Then an attempt with some different body qualities.  For some reason I found myself on a box dripping off it.  Then squashed inside it.  Then jumping off it.  Thanks Pegasus.

Last night was the final show in the Oxford Improvisers ‘Cohesion Festival’.  There was some lovely music by the improvisers and guest artists and beautiful projections of drawings live.  I danced with Susie Crow, Aya Kobayashi and Jason Maniro.  It is always a challenge dealing with more than one stimulus/point of attention.  Here we were dancing together for the first time but were also trying to relate to the music and the projections as well as each other and the audience.  I think we would do better next time! There was a good turn out and the audience seemed to like what they had experienced though.

‘Boundaries’ at The J du P the night before had a superb quality of music integrating a real range of genres and sounds with some really beautiful singing preceeded by atmospheric and absorbing sound and video work in the foyer by Efthymios Chatzigiannis and Dariusz Dziala.  A real shame there wasn’t a bigger audience for this.  But then it was competing with all the events of winterlight nights.

see review of event posted at Oxford dance writers (comment 5)

see documentation of Cohesion at http://cohesion2011.wordpress.com/documentation/

Met up at The Pegasus this week to see the  space and think about lights and layout for the improvised performance on the 3rd-this coming saturday at cohesion‘s ‘New moves, New sounds’  which will involve 7 musicians, 4 dancers and 3 artists.  All will be decided on the day and created in the moment!  Exciting.   Also caught the first half of the Oxford Improvisers’ concert at The Jaqueline du Pre last Saturday with the specially composed new work by Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith.  Impressive sounds.   I was glad to have caught his preshow talk even if I had to miss the second half of the performance.