“It is no easy task to create cohesion without resorting to uniform and what I’ve seen is really fresh and original, especially in a dance context.”
It is two weeks till our quartet showings in the roof studio, and three till we premiere in Cambridge!
Jonathan Saunders, one of London’s hottest young fashion designers (who thankfully hasn’t been snapped up by a leading Paris Fashion House and instead continues to be a precious jewel in the London scene) is into his final costume fittings and has created some beautifully crafted clothes in his smart and graphic signature style. Along the way he has generously managed to take on board all the dancers preferences including fit, hem lengths, colour options and fabrics. For a performer it is often an odd transition, from practise wear to costume. There is a comfort in the clothes you have spent three months working in that makes them become like a second skin and to work in a foreign garment is strange even if it feels like a million dollars! However, it is Jonathan’s role to provide an objective and consistent vision that is a result of his dialogue with Sue regarding the bigger picture. It is no easy task to create cohesion without resorting to uniform and what I’ve seen is really fresh and original, especially in a dance context.
Tammy is now a good few months pregnant and we have come to call her little bump Fred! Whilst she will be performing, with Fred in our June and July shows, we are in the process of teaching her role to an equally sprightly Andrea Buckley. Along side this relay process is the completion of section five and Sue has been experimenting with all kinds of ideas.
I feel that for section five Sue is keen to keep close to the integrity of the previous sections, rather than deviating too far from what has been set up. I keep envisaging something completely leftfield and distinct from what has been seen till that point. I am aware however, that an absurd tangent could undo everything that has been established. I guess this is the delicate crux point of whether Sue really answers some of the ‘questions’ proposed by the first four sections, the point at which she has to understand the ‘energetic narrative’ to know how it can be resolved, challenged or answered in the ending.
It strikes me that few dance pieces I see on stage manage to truly complete themselves and what a tricky task this is for any theatrical presentation. Dance creation, rarely having a prewritten script, does not have the luxury of knowing its closure point from the outset. What it does have instead is opportunity to let that ending reveal itself along the way and to uncover something you could never have imagined before stepping into the studio. Since the content we generate as dancers is able to influence the course this quartet takes, there is a chance for us as to feed into the ‘story making’. This is far more fulfilling than simply demonstrating Sue’s imagined dance.
