Ana Dance

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Tomorrow will be another in the Oxford Dance Forum  series of professional development training days offered through the ACE supported homebed programme at OFS.

The last one I attended was ‘Getting the most out of mentoring’ led by Joe Moran, Artistic Director of Dance Art Foundation programmed to follow on from  the ‘Giving and receiving feedback’ workshop given in February.  Joe’s workshop drew on models from therapy and counselling as well as feedback methods developed through the experiences of dance artists which emphasise the importance of communication and establishing clarity of purpose and intention.  Underpinning all is mutual respect and the belief that the artist has the means to find their answers and way forward and that these can emerge through a combination of  listening, open questions and challenges offered from a place which is open and supportive rather than judgemental and negative.  For both mentor and mentee there is a need for self awareness, reflection and  honesty.

I enjoyed the structure of the workshop which included demonstration and practice of key elements, the clarity of aims  and the delivery which was clear, open and warm.

I am hoping tomorrow’s workshop will be offering some practical advice, structural help and insights into  ‘working with a producer’.

 

This term with Cafe Reason we are exploring the senses through Butoh and Butoh through the senses.  Friday’s class was another interesting investigation.  How do we move when we pay attention to a particular sense,  how does each sense affect the quality of movement? How does it feel when you give primacy to a particular sense?  What happens when we combine attention to two different senses.    How does it look from the outside?

We noticed a few things. for example – the sense of touch can be received through the whole of the body whereas sight is received only through one part of the body.  We can play with what we choose to focus on how big or small, close or wide our vision, how slow or fast we move our views but it is still through the eyes.  What happens to the rest of the body?  To address this we played with vision ‘eyes’ in different parts of the body- a familiar butoh technique, but it was interesting to shift from the two approaches to ‘sight’ and notice its affect on the body and the shift in quality of movement.

With listening we were reminded of a passive hearing and an active listening , again the ability to focus on particular sounds to receive and /or to respond.  We also noticed how easy /tempting it was to ‘make’ sound instead of listen to what is there.

Today the number 8 bus route in Oxford experienced the boarding and alighting of 5 figures clad in an assortment of red and black items as members of Cafe Reason embarked on a guerilla butoh outing.  Travelling singly, in pairs and as a group.  We waited at bus stops, fidgeted in our seats, leaned with the sway of the bus as it rounded corners, adjusted our hair, scrabbled to find missing items or peered over our shoulders to see what was behind or through the windows.

Part of what butoh is about is making the familiar strange, seeing the world with fresh eyes.  Today, having chosen red as our linking colour suddenly every person out on the street wearing red or carrying a red bag suddenly became more visible to us.  Linked by a coiincidence of colour.   This was an unexpected dimension that emerged from today’s outing.

In terms of quality and speed of movement we realised that we had left  behind some of our butoh so hope that the next trip will see it return more clearly.   This outing will not be our last.  So you may see the bemusing sight of butoh bodies on a bus near you.

 

 

Today I went along to a sharing of the ACE funded research Anjali has been doing with choreographer Lea Anderson.  It was lovely to see the group again and to see how they really work so well together as a company. Anjali  have been working with Lea for the last week assisted by Aya Kobayashi on a reconstruction of a scene from Hitchcock’s film The birds.    The structural device of taking cut by cut created  a stylised and intriguing effect with plenty of dramatic potential.  Light and its use is key to Lea’s vision for this piece and there were already interesting experiments going on with torches and the framing of the dance.  It was clear that both the company and Lea had enjoyed the experience.   I am looking forward to seeing the work  as it develops on its way to performance at the South bank.  So exciting to have Lea Anderson so close by.

Should dance just be dance pure and simple.  Physical,  joyful, technically accomplished.  Should dance just be about dancing? or its relation to music? with a bit of background reference which you don’t need to understand.   Should it tell a story? should it be abstract?

Can we have another definition of a dance which includes text or visuals or ideas.

Would that be dance theatre? would it be physical theatre? would it be art with words and movement? would it be theatre?  Or is it simply too confused and poor to warrant a definition and shouldn’t be daring to present itself on a stage? ( I got this impression reading a recent review by Thomas Stell on Oxford Dance writers)

I think the latest Moving with the Times demonstrated that the label ‘dance’ is problematic when it comes to describing this kind of  work and gives the audience a set of preconceptions which are unhelpful when it comes to appreciating what is being offered.  I don’t blame them being disappointed if they have shown up to see ‘pure’ dance: athleticism, grace, flexibility, beauty, control and fluidity (movement that they themselves know they could not do). I would be too.

Why are Oxford dancers using so much other ‘stuff’? (words, props, projections etc)  Do they lack confidence in their ability to dance or to convey meaning through dance?  Or may be they can’t dance?  What are they doing on stage?  Are they self indulgent? Do they have anything to offer at all?

If you are a dancer and you want to communicate something to your audience (beyond your skill at whatever dance technique you have trained in) can you use dance alone to do that? will your audience ‘get’ what you are saying?  Why are we feeling the need to use words at the moment?

In the past in making work I have not felt the need to ‘say’ something and could be content with the joy of movement, power of presence  and visual imagery.  I found meanings for myself  but did not mind if the audience found them or not.  Today  I feel the need to communicate, to express what is bothering me, to show what we have in common, what is going on.  Although I still can’t quite find the words to express the sense of unease I have at the moment about the way our society works and my place in it with its prioritising of the ‘productive’ the ‘packaged’ the ‘useful’ at the expense of the more nebulous areas of art, time and humanity.

 

 

Lovely day in the studio with Oxford dancers who joined me at The Old Firestation for a day of choreographic exploration and devising.  Very grateful for the opportunity both of the space (via ODF Germinator) and of the dancers who were willing to share their time and skills with me in my first trial of ideas for a group choreography related to the theme of inertia.  A privilege.

Last night I joined a large number of Oxford’s dance enthusiasts to see Jasmin Vardamon’s latest show  ‘Freedom’.  It is always good to see a big turn out for dance productions.  I enjoyed the visual quality of the work: the set, the lighting, the ‘tricks’ ;  snippets of humour and the really impressive physicality of the dancers.  The opening was beautiful and magical.  In typical Vardimon style the peace and tranquility was then shattered by the following scene’s noise and light, setting up the juxtaposition of contrasting elements she likes to work with.  A pattern emerged of an idea extended beyond its happy/free or comfortable limits -both in mood and length. By the end the message seemed quite a bleak one with much more evidence of violence, discord, cruelty, disappointment and discontent than the title ‘freedom’ would suggest.

Here is a review of the Moving with the Times performance, including of Inertia written by Lizzy Spight and posted on Oxford Dance writers. Click here  .   Looking forward to developing the piece further in workshops and rehearsals and with any feedback I can elicit.  Next week I will also begin explorations with the help of  talented willing dancers for a group choreography.  Looking forward to this new venture.

Saturday was the latest annual dance and academia conference organised by Miranda Laurence and held at Oxford’s Old Firestation during the last weekend of Dancin’ Oxford.  This year’s subject was ‘Dance, Body and Identity’.

The morning began unexpectedly and most welcomely with a physical workshop led by choreographer Rosie Kay.  Making ’embodiment’ and the use of the body to communicate through dance a reality.  In this ‘potted’ version we were invited to express  a range of emotions individually as part of a group.  From this we picked our own 3 to ‘dance’ and then communicate/share with a partner (without words) and then with another pair and finally discuss.

This was an introduction to the project she is embarking on with Karin Eli, Caroline Potter and Stanley Ulijaszek which will seek to bridge the gap between anthropological research and contemporary dance practice .  We heard from the team about their aim to create a new methodology using dance and the sensory to communicate with and research people with eating disorders.  Developing  a method of interviewing the body, allowing  participants to create different narratives of illness and finding ways to translate the sensory in to words.

Still in its preparatory stages the project elicited a range of questions both theoretical and practical from the assembled conference goers.

After lunch Rachel Gildea gave a presentation on ‘Dancing to revolt: Women performing the grotesque in 1970’s Britain. With reference to the x6 group and the New Dance movement she described the challenge to notions of the female body and sought to link this with the political and social context of the time and wondered whether artists today, such as Liz Aggis operating in a different climate are a legacy of that spirit of revolt and how much the meaning and reception of the grotesque is changed by the different context.

This led to a discussion facilitated by Luke Pell on Thresholds of Understandings.  The proximity of the historical period chosen in Rachel’s presentation led to some reflection about  the writing of history past and present and also the differences between then and now in terms of documentation and visual records. The place of dance in society as well as (not) in university was also discussed.

As with all workshops and conferences much of the value of the day was also in meeting new people with shared interests from different backgrounds as well as seeing familiar people in a different context.  I look forward to the next mix Miranda brings together with dance and Academia.

 

Tomorrow is the opening of Moving with the Times and the first proper outing for ‘Inertia’.  Looking forward to working on the piece after the show to develop it more.  Curious to see how all the pieces hang together.