Same Thinking, Different Country!

I have spent the past week in a small, beautiful village called Dingle on the Republic of Ireland working on a youth theatre exchange. I was dreading being away for a whole week knowing the amount of work that is coming up with funding applications, writing proposals and creating new work. But, with the youth work I am involved in during the day I have actually managed to do quite a lot. Planning for the new piece of work i going well and I have access to very good Wifi which means I can spend hours on ITUnes searching for new music.
I have met a wonderful woman this week called Aine who runs the theatre we are working at. I discovered quite quickly that we have much in common and she is very interested in dance, the Alexander Technique, and Psychosomatics. This last one in particular has enabled us to talk quite alot about my current practice and the Research Partnership and she very kindly edited my Proposal which has now been sent off. This is a task I have been trying to complete for ages and I never thought it would get done this week so I'm very pleased!
There is something about being away from home that alters your patterns/habits and I think this is why I have got so much done (as well as being away from the constant office goings-on). I've even awoken early to take some studio time at the theatre before work starts and I've not had the energy to do that for a good while.
Its been an interesting week and I'm glad I came here after dreading it for months!

Has it really been 5 months?

After several attempts of trying to remember my password, I have finally paid a visit to my blog which I have neglected yet again for 5 months!
A lot has happened in 5 months so I need to catch up and get some thoughts on here as this blog is now going to be a research tool, used for reflection and as an aid for a research application.
Am about to dive in to creating a new piece of work which I know will take up much of my time, energy and head space but must keep writing along the way!!

Working with Rhuddem - the older dancers company

My work over the last few weeks with my older dancers company has been refreshing, interesting and exciting. For the first time in a while we are not meeting to create a piece of work so have had the luxury of focussing on process instead of product!
I have taken the dancers through different experiential-type tasks each week emphasising that we are experimenting and I am not expecting specific outcomes from the work. They now refer to themselves as my guinea pigs!!!
The tasks have focussed on different aspects of witnessing and observing, muscle-memory, sensing and reading another's movement. Much of the work has taken place with eyes closed for a deeper sense of the experience. One of things I love about working with Rhuddem is their readiness to reflect on what they do. We can talk in depth about their experiences and their feedback is always really interesting and they use the process to find out about who they are as dancers. They become aware of what aspects of work can engage them more than others, how music can have an effect on how they feel when moving and what their experiences are during the work.
Meeting with this group is an absolute joy to me and feels like a positive and successful collaboration between all of us. I become involved in 'the moment' along with them and feel more than a facilitator or teacher. I know this happens because when I carry out my own reflections when the session has ended, I regularly realise that I spend the entire time with them, literally thinking about nothing other than what is going on at that very moment. It feels like such a great partnership! : )

Rethinking, Reflecting and Stepping Back!

Well, I've not done very well in keeping the deal I made in my previous blog!! The work is constantly in my mind, yet sometimes other projects ar given my complete focus and there have been alot of those in the last few months!! But I have found moments, usually before or even sometimes during, sleep where I come back to thinking about this project.

For the past few months I have struggled with what exactly I want this project to be. Its no longer about exploring Welsh Folk Songs which means I do need to change the title of my blog. I am interested in looking further into this idea of Somatic based movement as material for choreography and its use in bringing forth what is embedded within us and how I might use this process to guide dancers in developing a movement vocabularly. The feedback I have received is that its too academic as a project outline. I can see the point. I'm really interested in the theory side of dance but looking at what I've written now I can see I need to look at it again. Plus it really makes the project look like its stuck up its own backside!

So while rethinking the project basis, I am also considering the next few months. The plan was always to do this project alongside running my Dance Programme but never to let it take over. Therefore, I have to do some careful planning knowing how full on the Dance Programme is going to be next term. I've been thinking about putting off trying for the award until next year. But I think its a case of now or never which is why I'm taking some time out to really get my head down and get this application done!! A friend and colleague reminded me last night of some useful advice - to step away from the work and go back to it refreshed. So I am going to take a few days to do just that - to do some walking, training, catch up with friends and eat sushi!!

Hopefully by this time next week I will have a much better written proposal and know what the hell is it I am doing! Actually scrap that last bit - I dont think I ever feel like I know what I'm doing.........

Shame on me!

How I have neglected this blog! Well the project I was blogging about has been and gone and what an interesting, enlightening and sometimes overwhelming one it was! I had decided not to blog about my time with Rosie as it was an intense and somewhat personal experience that, while has been shared with some close colleagues, I didnt wish to blog - mainly because I dont think I will find the right words to do it justice!

Anyway, this project is far from being shelved I am pleased to say! I am currently in talks to develop the project further through a major award. This work will further explore the notion of cultural embodiment, community, self identity and its relationship with the choreographic process and this idea of connection that is constantly playing on my mind. I aim to keep blogging thoughts as and when I can. I think maybe I should find a new title aswell - while the project started as an exploration of Welsh Folk Songs it is now so much more.
Bye for now!

Relections on Workshop 2

As preparation for an improvisation task, I asked Sian to bring a Folk Song that I was not familiar with and had never worked with or sang, but that she felt would be interested to work with in movement terms. I felt that I wanted to set a challenge for myself and discover what would happen when I was literally having to respond to messages 'in the moment.' With the material I had been working with prior to the workshop, before beginning any physical work, time had been spent studying the songs at length - the story, the characters, the emotions and the history behind them. Then I took this knowledge I had acquired into the studio to start the improvisation process.
I was interested to see what would happen if I didnt have this knowledge prior to the improvisation. Where would my responses come from and what would they be? The experience was quite interesting but unfortunately we didn't have the time to really get our teeth into it!!
Sian chose the song 'Ffarwel i Aberystwyth' (Farewell to Aberystwyth) a traditional songs that tells of a young man's decision to leave his home town after having his heart broken by a maiden who fell in love with someone else. Sian played the song to begin with while I listened and visualised and then we discussed briefly the story behind the song. Before attempting the first improvisation, I had thought the response would not come from anything more than the music, which then made me wonder whether I would actually get anything from this task. I thought it would make me realise that in order to respond to the material I would need to have to have done this big study beforehand.
I began to realise something interesting. (Putting this into words is going to be interesting!!). A lack of sources present such as music or words does not mean there will be a less of a response. There is this other response - this non-visible connection to the work that drives me and guides me to find movement. What I wanted to know was, is this an experience of responding to something that is already there, something culturally embedded? I dont think I know enough about this to be able to delve into this thought further at this stage but the task definately evoked this idea of responding to something that is already embodied.
Rosie - I doubt this makes much sense. I need to spend time to think clearly about this as essentially its this experience that is driving the work. Maybe we can spend time talking about this? Its the root of the creative response isnt it?
I'm going to stop now! I didnt discuss any of this with Sian which I should have. I think her take on it would have been really useful for me. But I've noted it as an experience of the work and hopefully we can find a way to come back to it in the future.
Bye!

Reflections on Workshop 1

To give the workshop a kind of structure I had decided to 'prepare' 3 pieces of work. I'm not using 'prepare' here in the sense that I had set choreographed 3 pieces of work as I had decided during the process that I would no longer aim to set work. This preparation involved exploration through experiencing, feeling and going along with the messages I was receiving through moving - those messages coming from loads of sources at the same time - text, music, voice, stories, characters and their emotions, my emotions, my environment etc etc. This allowed the work to change every time I 'rehearsed' it which is exciting and scary and liberating! The possibilities are endless. I originally found this idea quite mad - how was I going to manage this? Would something ever emerge?
It sounds like a strange thing to say because essentially, this is how we create work. You create, reflect, throw away, adapt, keep material and the work starts to form. I didnt use this process in my usual way for this work. I haven't really spent time documenting the work through video or writing notes. I became interested in the fact (and this is going to sound incredibly naff!) that my body started to document the work! (See-naff!). Material started to emerge through repetition of the improvisation - certain patterns, moments and movements stayed with me without comprimising the rest of the improvisation and then some kind of shape started to form.  Its not large chunks of material - little snippets here and there but enough for me to feel there was some kind of structure to the choreography.
I discussed this way of working with Sian at the start of the workshop to give context to what she was about to observe. One of the 3 songs/pieces of work I had chosen was one of Sian's creations 'Branwen a Blodeuwedd.' (I think I'd sent you a brief explanation of this song Rosie in the email for the photos link). It was this she asked to see first. During the first performance Sian observed and filmed the work! During her feedback we discussed the realtionship between the choreography and the song and discussed the song itself and how this could help develop the choreography. The portrayal of the 2 characters was quite important to the discussion and how a clear change in movement quality could demonstrate the fate of the 2 women.
After each discussion, I went back to working physically on the material and found that it was started to develop further with each bit of information I was receiving from Sian who had by this time, not only taken on the role as witness, but was able to direct me. We stayed with this piece of work throughout the whole of the morning session as we were finding that, after each performance of it, there was constantly somewhere to go with it. Even though we had these 2 other pieces of work, I felt that we needed to carry on with this one. There was too much happening to leave it be.
We didnt discuss the work much at all over lunch and when we arrived back at the space we decided to pick up where we left off. That hour away from the work was needed it seems, as when I came to perform it again a shift had happened. It was still unset (is that a word?) but something had changed. I felt I had managed to stay in the moment throughout the entire piece. It felt strong and I felt rooted and conscious in the work - like there wasnt one moment where I felt dis-attatched to what was happening. I felt I would often come across fleeting moments of dis-attatchment during improvisation where I was moving but not responding. I felt like I had made a breakthrough and began to understand much more, this creative process I was working through.
This has brought the work onto another level again and now I need start thinking more about how all these things link up -
Creating through 'listening to the messages'
The realtionship of these messages with cultural roots, history, folk, community
Material that stays in the body and material that doesnt - and why?!
Working in the moment - remaining conscious within the work and dis-attatchment.

I'm not even going to attempt blogging the second half of the workshop now. This is already turning into a thesis! I'll come back to it! x