Ana Dance

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Another scratch.  This time at Pegasus organised by ODF.  I am experimenting with approaching performance with no anxiety/stress (extremely limited preparation).  I think I am going to find there is a good reason to worry and exert oneself.  But this scratch I now discover is charging an entrance fee…Is it right to be relaxed and casual if people are paying money? Is it right to be relaxed and casual when presenting any work (read sloppy/unfinished).  Shouldn’t I always have to go through the ordeal of fear, dread, anticipation of failure, sleepless nights, endless searches for and reworkings of snippets of sound and movement?

Last night, in preparation I watched lots of videos on homelessness, slave labour, exploitation, poverty.  In this country (let alone the rest of the world).  I feel more and more that as a society we are heading  in a very wrong direction.  As an individual I only manage with the privilege of support, family, community.   It is criminal that house prices/rent are so expensive and wages for many so low, that people who are working  hard (with families or not) are condemned to a relentless poverty,  left homeless or in totally inadequate and temporary accomodation and often far away from any support network of family -if they have any.  Things are out of balance.  There are whole sections of our society who have little hope of getting out of the deep hole we have allowed to grow.  It is growing bigger and the gap is growing wider and that is something very ugly, uncivilised and dehumanising.

A great session on Tuesday evening for October choreocollective.  Three different processes and ideas.  Really good to hear and then try out.   A first airing of a long brewing choreographic idea, an improvisatory exploration of a concept and the use of image and sound as stimulus for another.  Felt productive and varied.  I must book some more dates!

Good news that ODF have agreed to  support choreocollective with contribution towards space costs till March.  Hooray – means I don’t have to be filled with anxiety that I will be out of pocket if one person less makes it to a session.  Looking forward to more opportunities for us to venture out with our choreographies and ideas, build confidence, practice, be inspired  and learn from each other’s techniques and approaches.

Lovely chance to work with Yael Karavan this week when she came to  Oxford.  First with her as mentor  helping me to develop my latest piece ‘tuning’ and then in the daylong workshop she gave for Oxford Dance Forum.

I had been waiting for Yael to be available in order to begin work on a section  which would use sounds and words – something new and rather scary to me.  Hopefully now I have a bit more confidence to try and take it forward.  Words! sounds!….meanings.  But besides this she took the time to listen to the ideas and motivations (wide and rambling as they are) and watch and work on the parts of Tuning I have just developed.

The next day we were at OFS – a small and select group treated to Yael’s unique blend of humour, discipline and the visceral.  A thorough work for mind and body that gave us many tools in opening our creativity and found us surprising ourselves with what emerged in movement and voice.

Hoping more Oxford dancers can get the chance to work with Yael in future workshops -she is great at prodding us out of our insecurities and challenging complacency with humour,  sensitivity and energy.

What a fantastic way to spend the day.  Today (Saturday 12th Oct) Cafe Reason had the privilege of a workshop with Liz Aggiss.  After a fascinating account of Liz’s personal journey and influences we were thrown into some quick thinking action.  (May be slow by others’ standards but all new to us and joyfully challenging).

We used time, pulse, voice and image in a series of crafted exercises that really  illustrated the power of these elements when used with precision and focus.  Scary and exhilirating at the same time.  A really good learning experience giving a flavour also of some of the absurd and hilarious outcomes of layering rules.

German Expressionist dance , butoh, punk, the grotesque and the surreal.  Threads of international connections and the accumulation of lifes experiences and influences  in the search that we share for a way of dance that communicates something real.  Inspiring.

Last night I went to see the inaugural performance ‘Bound’  by ‘Justice in Motion‘.  A new company set up by dancer Anja Meinhardt to combine her love of dance/theatre with her passion for social justice. With a commitment to partnership with charities directly involved in the issues she is exploring so that the impact of her work can spread wider and extend beyond a ‘night at the theatre’ she wants to enable audiences to actually have somewhere to go and ‘do something’ about issues presented.

I went hoping it would be good but rather fearing that it might be a bit heavy, ‘earnest’ or simplistic. Instead I was impressed, moved and despite the subject matter entertained.

The piece used dance, acrobatics, spoken text, props, projection, lighting, recorded sound and music. These were skillfully woven together so that each element contrasted or worked with others to create variety with cohesion. (script writing by Gareth Cook, sound and video work by Ben Johnston). The individual qualities of each character (Anja Meinhardt – Ivanka, Matt Mulligan -Simeon, Emma Webb – Nadine) and their stories were differentiated both by set, props and location on stage as well as the specific movement languages employed. Connections and links between them emerged as the piece progressed and the use of shared motifs, timing, props and choreography made these on a visual as well as an emotional level.

The show was followed by questions and answers with the cast and also Oxcat a charity which has been trying to raise awareness on human trafficking for a number of years and was available with information and leaflets.

I was impressed that Anja and the team have managed to make a piece which you can truly enjoy for its artistic craftsmanship and performance skills but which also tackles an uncomfortable reality in society which exists beyond the eye catching headlines. There were no answers in the show, but glimmers of resilience and hope. The answers are for the audience to work on with the guidance and advice of experts in the field.

Thought and emotion provoking work on a socially relevant issue of today. I look forward to more.

Here is a review by Erin Johnson of  the  Go live Festival which happened to fall on the evening slot that I was performing ‘Tuning’.  It is  nice (if precarious) to have the acknowledgement of your existence and work through a review and seems often to be a very hit and miss affair -eg  performing badly when a reviewer is there or performing well with a small audience and no reviewer, or being reviewed by someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about.  I am glad that on this occasion the festival, venue and performers have been shown a positive sign of appreciation. Hoping there are other fortuitous attendances and write ups of the festival.

This week the DEC group will pitch at Create – Oxford’s new(ish) peer to peer micro  funding initiative.  We hope to raise funds for renewing equipment, to support a new series of drawing dance workshops and to enable us to continue our research in cross art collaboration and share with more people!  Hoping for a good result but we don’t know who else is pitching or for what!

Besides that I need to put in applications to try and develop more of my own work, have mentor support and finally get some advice and strategy in place for myself.  Then with Cafe Reason we need to apply for funding to support the Heart’s Desire Project.   Finally I’m also hoping to apply for some funding to support ‘Meeting Points -cross art session’ starting in January and Choreocollective.

That’s a lot of work…. That is not ‘making work’.

Well, I have emerged the other side of my performances at The Giant Olive with my big rug.  It was a long day with a tech start at 11 am.   So we had a good lunch at a fantastic place serving real homecooked Turkish food to keep going through the evening for the 6pm and 8pm shows.  A great distraction to stop me from reworking my soundtrack ad infinitum,  making a new costume or dwelling too much on all the possible variants of the piece.

It was great to meet Angela Woodhouse whose work I have admired at Burton Taylor theatre and to meet dancer/creator Henrietta Hale who also performed with Ben Ash as Dog Kennel Hill Project

Unfortunately I could not see the works – just experience them from the little back stage room – an absolute and absorbed hush so I didn’t dare move and creak the floorboards in Angela Woodhouse and Henrietta Hale’s – ‘I will take you with me‘ and snippets of bangs, rhythmical word play and loud audience laughs in ‘Exorcism in the usual off-centre quarter of the way back’ with Henrietta Hale and Ben Ash.  I’d love to see their work -seems clever, funny, precise and absurd. (which made me feel quite inadequate)

Having felt thoroughly defeated, disappointed and depressed by my piece  in the 6pm show,  I was, thank goodness, much happier with my performance in the 8pm show.   Was it the audience?(nature and quantity) was it having a second chance?  was it the playful and vibrant Adriana Pegorer and Caroline Waters making us all laugh backstage with their flashing? was it Donald Hutera reminding me to take a proper bow?  Whatever,  all the anxiety and despondency lifted.  Still plenty to do to rework/refine ‘Tuning’ but at least there is some hope.

Grateful to Efthymios Chatzigiannis for creating soundtrack for me to use and abuse and to Paul MacKilligin for all the support on the day.  Thanks also to Yael Karavan for initial rug explorations, Malcolm, Flavia, Anne and Lizie for feedback during rehearsals and to Pegasus Theatre and Russell at Oxford Brookes for crucial practice space.

Only a few days to go and I am still struggling with my monster rug and what this piece means/is trying to say -although there are a whole multitude of thoughts/ideas rumbling around.  Just got sound from Tim (Efthymios Chatziggianis) but still some tweaking to do and I dyed my costume the wrong colour green.  Feeling distinctly nervous about what I will end up presenting at The Giant Olive Theatre on Sunday.  What is the right level of anxiety/apprehension to experience in order to do a good job?  Is it possible to create a good work without it?

Just had this link sent which includes a photo of Cafe Reason in the Cafe at The Old Firestation during the Playground on fire event at the weekend.
Below are some pics taken by Paola Esposito on the same day.