Ruth Mills Dance Spring Intensive

This wasn't my first experience of dancing with Ruth, but it was my first time at one of her intensives...and my girls weren't telling me lies...it was everything I needed and more!

The technique classes were exhilarating  exhausting, inspiring, energising, demon-butt-building, side-stretching hours of bliss. Starting with Mills' own technique and then moving onto release gave a great start to each day, my body soon remembered where those muscles were that I only use when I dance.

The afternoons were themed on duets and partnering, and this is where I felt out of my depth. I have danced my whole life, but apart from rock n roll, I have always been alone. Working with someone else, with my eyes closed, feeling them move with and against me was a strange but amazing experience. At times it really didn't feel like we were dancing at all, I worried that I was moving awkwardly and nothing felt like it flowed. I believe that the satisfaction of contact will come with time, I just need to relax into it and respond creatively as I feel.

At the end of the intensive, Ruth gave a lecture on some things that have been interesting her, one being the Fibonacci sequence of numbers. My two worlds felt like they were colliding...finally someone who was living in dance was also saying they were fascinated by maths and physics. I get fed up defending myself to people who don't understand how you can be creative and scientific all in the one brain. So now I won't...if they don't find both intriguing and don't want to believe that they are interconnected then it is their loss.

The dance/science lecture set me up for the sharing which followed. Having missed the final morning, I didn't have a lot to share, but everything I had learned technically and mentally during the intensive allowed me to enjoy every second. I felt connected to the material myself and my partner had created and I felt confident that if one of us forgot what came next that we had each other to explore and figure out where to go next. I have never had that feeling before, in any previous sharing or performance.

The final icing on the cake was that a friend actually came to see the performance. None of the friends I have known for years seem interested in dance, so when my lovely artist friend Sarah said she would love to come I was so so excited. Having her there was amazing, and I learned about how she can work as an artist while I danced, using gesture drawing as her focus. The drawings were nothing like anything I've seen before. They were dynamic and intricate and I felt like they radiated the energy we gave when dancing.

This intensive opened my eyes to a new way of moving, thinking and feeling. I can't wait for more.

Smallpetitklein Kick Start

Last week I attend SPK's Kick Start summer intensive at The Space in Dundee. It was a 4day intensive with fundamental technique and dynamic work in the mornings followed by rep and creative work in the afternoon.

My body went into shock after the first day! I started running this summer and haven't been in the studio for months so my body wasn't best pleased by the range of movement I was expecting it to attempt. I am sure I looked anything but elegant but wow I felt like an angel dancing on clouds. That is the fantastic thing about dance, it can make you really FEEL. I can't describe how dance does it, but I feel alive as I move, and nothing else matters.

Ruth Mills took the first day and the first class (Graham-based and a dash of Beyonce) of each following day. I know Ruth's classes though I haven't been for a long time so it was wonderful to be back in the studio with her, her wit and fantastically encouraging way of giving corrections. Never have I known a dance teacher to inspire strength and energy like she does. Her classes are truly invigorating.

Tommy's Cunningham-based  classes were dynamic, challenging, exhausting but wonderful! Cunningham has a way of making me feel like I am moving freely, giving into gravity and letting my body take me where it wants to naturally. Even though I don't think have ever felt so much discomfort in my quads, moving felt amazing. Tommy's music choices really helped bring out my energy too, I couldn't stop smiling.

After I seized up and attempted to eat through the tiredness over lunchtime, creative work at times felt like a chore. The initial challenges of working with someone you don't know anything about dance-wise (or otherwise) were soon put aside and I found myself moving with and against my partner and creating work reflecting characters from SPK's production 'CUT'. I won't tell you much about it, you have to go and see it at the 2013 Fringe! I worked alone on character choreography and involved voice and physical theatre elements which I enjoyed too. Bringing everyone together to share their material was great as some pieces had similarities where others couldn't have been more different. Everyone I worked with this week was encouraging, friendly and very talented, I couldn't have asked for a better group of students to share in the intensive.

The finale of the week was our sharing, which members of the company, friends and staff from The Space attended. I wasn't sure at first how it would all look to them, and I am still none the wiser, however I look forward to seeing the film footage! It felt great getting so close to the audience and making direct eye contact, ensuring that they were sucked into the atmosphere we had created inside the studio. They seemed really engaged and joined in with the sections of the piece where we wanted some interaction and audience participation. The addition of props, pigs, cellophane and a huge red dress made the piece exciting, complex and (now I've lost all modesty), a bit of a spectacle for a studio sharing!

I now proudly wear my 'I love SPK ' t-shirt knowing I worked hard for it, and really do love the company! I can't wait until next year, but in the meantime, I'll be back at Graham in 2weeks.

Richard Alston, Theatre Royal, Glasgow

I was so excited to have got a 2 for 1 offer on tickets plus free pre-show talk with Richard Alston at the Theatre Royal. I hadn’t seen any of his work before but had heard really good things and knew he was the artistic director at The Place in London too, so he must be good?!!!

I took my boyfriend and we went to the pre-show talk which was very educational for me in terms of Alston’s choreographic processes. He appealed to my other half too as a musician due to most of his ideas and decisions for movement being influenced by music.

When it came to the performance itself, however, I have to admit I was slightly disappointed and don’t really have much to say. One more mature female dancer stood out as excellent amongst a fairly un-expressive company. I just didn’t “feel” the pieces shown, maybe I wasn’t in the right move or maybe the pre-show talk left me with too high expectations.

The second piece I found highly enjoyable in terms of movement and the lighting effects to create the “light through a window” were magical. Unfortunately, the lighting was more convincing than what Alston had described earlier as an intense emotional connection between man and woman. The dancers faces were still and I didn’t feel connected to the movement, although the choreography was beautifully subtle with bursts of light in amongst modest shade.

I will go and see more pieces by Richard Alston as I believe that he must have more in his repertoire that would suit my tastes more. Would I go to another pre-show talk? I’m not sure; I think that this one made me enjoy the performance less, what do you think?

Birth Control

What gives a woman an identity? I think that identity is something that most of us seek, and though it can at times make us the same it more often than not drives us apart. Are we restricted by culture, fashion and outside opinions?
What all women can share, if they choose to, is the natural experience of childbirth. According to Kate E Deeming, performer and choreographer of “Birth Control”, it is during labour when a woman finds her true voice.

The pre-show discussion gave me an idea of what I might expect from this work and the audience were chatty and enthusiastic about the issues she had raised concerning identity. Without warning other than “this could get a bit weird”, Kate E’s screaming and groaning silenced me as her piece took form. Initially unaccompanied, I felt a little uneasy watching what looked to be someone giving birth. Perhaps this is because I am not a mother myself, but neither is Kate E, which ironically intrigued me and held my attention. I couldn’t understand why someone could have such a fascination with something they hadn’t experienced themselves but I was soon engrossed.

After an initial feeling of discomfort, the piece transformed into an unidentifiable moving figure, having been re-born and moving freely and fluently. I was struck by the way the suitably-coloured blue scarf hid Kate E’s face, a colour in the past reserved for royalty. My attention was drawn to the movement of the body, the body seeming to move unconnected to the person, exactly as Kate E intended.
I feel that women enjoying their bodies and feeling comfortable and free in the way they move is rare. I left this work-in-progress feeling lifted, free and inspired as a woman.

I am interested to see how this piece develops and into what type of performance. My feeling is that as a theatre/cabaret piece, it doesn’t work in its current form. I feel that more movement by way of an introduction before the birth would be necessary to engage the audience from the start. This way, I think that the audience feel more comfortable in witnessing the intimate and vulnerable movements of the birth. As Kate E said herself, the piece would be suited to film and she will be continuing to work on this piece well into 2011.

Overall, the piece was free and inspiring, once I got over the shock of the initial material! By collaborating with musician Simone Welsh and communicating through instrumental and body percussion, I feel that the piece would appeal to music, dance and art enthusiasts alike. I hope that Kate E continues to develop “Birth Control” with Simone and further investigates how to communicate using the body of the unidentifiable mover.

Journey Dance Company "Prey" Work in Progress

Laura Forbes, artistic director of Journey Dance Company dances in and presents her latest choreographic piece, “Prey” as a work in progress. This sharing, at Dance House was developed further from a previous residency at Dance Base and involves BA dancers from LIPA and Edinburgh’s Telford College, where Laura herself graduated in 2008.

Laura’s ideas developed from natural relationships between predators and prey, her dancers revealing something about themselves in their movements. “Prey” was, to me, a vivid and exciting piece, bringing to the audience the personalities of four individually powerful dancers, who together produced an alluring performance.

With open windows in the Glasgow City Centre Studio, my concern lay with my attention span with so much background noise. I need not have worried. From the moment Jo Jeffries began to slowly explore the space in front of me, I was captured by “Prey”. Laura Forbes’ choreography is mesmerising, she has considered every part of the dancer’s body during each careful choreographic step. Agnes Bell’s light fingers traced the ground with an intricate path along which her body then followed. This style of movement lent itself well to the intimate nature of a studio sharing and I am interested to see how Laura develops such expression for the stage.

Joined by Laura herself and Sophia McGregor, the dancers related beautifully by means of a web-like elastic. This brought another dimension to the piece when Jo entrusted her with the care of this material. My reaction to this was natural, as if we had all been part of the idea in the beginning, a hugely successful outcome to the sharing, whether or not it was a choreographic intention!

I felt each dancer brought their personality to the piece and created four very different characters that could be further developed. Satya Dunning of Dance House discussed development with Laura and suggested that she continue to develop this piece, even after she tours in June. My feelings reflect those of Satya as I think that Laura would enjoy having more time to look into the themes of the piece and continue to develop solo material for her dancers.

Journey Dance Company created, for me, a special bond between the dancers and audience. This is an enchanting piece of contemporary dance, on which I must commend Laura Forbes and her company dancers for putting across so beautifully. I am looking forward to watching this piece grow and adapt to new spaces on its tour.
See “Prey” this month with Foundations Dance Collectives’ tour, “Founding Roots”.