I studied Modern Languages at Bristol University before training in dance at Northern School of Contemporary Dance (1996-97). I continued my movement training through numerous classes and workshops in the UK and abroad. I have danced for choreographer Caroline Salem, and in my own choreography (A Tin Drum, Viva la Vida, Threefold and dream knit).

I see the Bank project as an opportunity for me to focus on dance practice without the usual distractions of earning a living elsewhere. I am simply looking forward to taking class every day, and then working within this small group. I hope that I will learn about the process of SDDC, and that this will feed my own creative work. I hope also that the project will allow the time for reflection that my usual schedule lacks.

I think this happened because of shifting my way of thinking. A focus on the lungs made me aware of the sensitive areas in the back part of my body – I imagined breath passing through the backs of my knees. I also located the breast bone as a possible instigator for an idea I had about anxious, nervy breath.

I’ve not yet processed today’s work enough to write about it!

Finding ‘everyday’ moves at times feels exposing. Also a worry about being too ‘mimetic’ – explore this or discard?

Sometimes generating material comes very easily, sometimes it’s so hard. I find I can be so reluctant to ‘develop’ material – I think that at times changing the first way I conceived a movement seems like I’m admitting it’s ‘wrong’!

Working in pairs and groups helped. Performing in a pair, or in a situation where I was being witnessed, ‘tested’ the clarity of the movements I had been working on. It also gave me the energy to push them further, or find something new about them to explore.

Duration:1:30

There were a couple of afternoons where I don’t think anyone was quite sure what they were doing: was the most important thing to travel; to imagine a moving light; or to create a tension in space between us and the moving light?

It became clearer when the task became to find three very distinctive ‘terrains’ to move through. What was interesting was how we all approached the task. Everyone seemed to realise that they needed to find a “way in”, a way of narrowing the task for themselves, and everyone’s approach was slightly different. There was also a real sense for me that even at times of confusion or doubt, everyone seemed to trust that eventually they would work something out, that the task was worth trying and would be in some way beneficial.

Of course it was. Eventually we found terrains to travel though and when we returned to our portraits they were enriched and somehow more ‘open’.