As I didn’t get a chance to get near my computer last night, here’s an update on days two and three. Sadly my laptop isn’t playing ball and won’t let me upload more than one photo to this blog. I’ll have to save them all for later!
Day Two:
A morning Viewpoints warm-up seemed to set the tone for the day. Rhythm and response, reacting to one another’s movement through text, music, sound and darkness.
After warm-up Janie led a collaging workshop as an introduction to her social and community practice. Creating collages in response to a set of questions kept our hands busy and allowed us to feel comfortable getting to know one another. A collage of voices was then built up in Kate’s workshop using text from the myth of Echo and Narcissus, through mimicking and repetition. Later in the stable, Linda lead a group in a series of games about comedy and play in order to discuss and discover what makes something funny. Playing a series of non-verbal games allowed the focus to be on ‘how’ things are funny rather than content, and encouraged non-verbal responses across the group. Complicity and conviction were explored, between performers and their audience.
To end the day, Miguel asked us to write stories of ourselves, our societies and our world. We then experimented with interacting with complete darkness in the space. Next time Miguel will work towards combining these elements.
Day Three:
This morning’s warm up was similar to yesterday but with a greater sense of play from the artists, who ‘found the game’ in the spirit of Linda’s workshop yesterday afternoon. Miguel then led a playful game of ‘Monkey’, using numbers and gesture, at the request of Linda who would like to work comedy games into some group warm ups to develop her ideas across the two week residency.
In the stable, Christine first developed a way of working with and towards Ian, responding to and connecting with one another through the space before adding sounds from Bill, written text performed by Kirsten and improvised observations from Sean. Christine will continue to develop the work this week before moving to a residency at Dance Base where she will continue to work with these ideas.
At the end of the day, Miguel wanted to play with darkness again, this time sharing stories we heard as children. Stories, some remembered, some half-forgotten were shared along with familiar and traditional songs. The group reflected on the intimacy and also fear of speaking to one another in the dark.
It’s a shame I can’t sit in on every rehearsal to record, photograph and document, but hopefully I’ll be able to make updates on how all the projects are progressing as the residency goes on. It’s really exciting to see how what began as 6 distinct ideas and projects are being influenced and expanded by the work and ideas brought by others in the group. The ideas are being given new possibilities in a way that wouldn’t happen were these being developed on their own, it’s really unique to be witnessing it all.
Katherine