I did an Engish Literature and Drama degree and worked in theatre before training in dance. I currently perform – most regularly with Punchdrunk and most recently with Lost Dog. I also make my own work and teach. I come to the Bank project with a desire to follow the very clear and thorough line of movement investigation that the SDDC company have gathered in their many years of working. We will see what the results will be – alot can happen to a person in 6 weeks. Alot has happened in 3 days.

The Third Day

“When and how do we recognise what is fluff and what is particular” Debroah

What is particular about the movement you are playing with?  What is still fresh? What is absolutely essential to that ‘thing’ you are exploring ?

The particular is something  – for some reason – I avoid – this is my challenge – I’m sure of it.

There is this peculair mix needed of playfulness,  and rigour – . I forgot the play bit today and wasnt even that good at the rigour  -  to tomorrow.

Excellent task for me – took me ages to be true to it – kind of got away with half doing it for a bit – but as the time we had on the task continued I decided to dare to try to do it really really properly – In the end I enjoyed being strict with it  – it gave me a sense of freedom somehow………

 Freedom and structure - also the theme of Gill’s class today -  and its the same really as that play/rigour thing I talked about the first day.

The song task made me look for a long time – more than I have ever done before – at a single move – and in doing so  – in questioning and testing and abandoning and refinding – in the thorough investigation of one move  – you could find everything you need to know for a lot of other stuff – you could  - I found something clearer – something new to me - I think I needed to spend longer to find more………………

I feel the way this company looks at making movement is also a way of looking at things beyond the studio: The idea of looking for longer at things  – looking  deeper into one thing - it needs to be done cause it  reaps its rewards – rather than the flitting that goes on – culturally now – soundbites – news programmes reduced to their bare bones – quick routes to success – no time – rushing – know alot about lots of things and not alot about one thing – I’m sure its now good for out brains – to not sustain our focus on one thing for very long………..I ‘m ranting now – apologies x

Smile ( that’s the only one I have)

Create movement from sensation or memory or……….I can’t move past image – this is a major problem for me in creating dance material I get stuck in images – still pictures – that dont seem to need to move – but I do need to move – I want to create movement that moves not just images that breathe. My Song movement material too – it hardly moved it couldnt get off the spot – I think I want the intiation to be so strong that thats all I’m concentrating on not where the initiation can take me to……………………

I chose this piece of text as the basis for a code. A code to act as a vessel for the 10-12 movements we developed in week 2. 

These are the rules I have made up    ( I don’t like making up my own rules – I preferred the song where the rules were just given to you and you had to get on with it – now there are too many choices – too many opportunities for me to stray from the task -  but just to contradict myself it is actually a fantastic task for me – cause it shows me exactly how I let myself off the hook in the creative process … )          to date:

Rules

Each syllable has a movement attached to it ( A-N).  Rrepeated syllables have rrepeated movement. Punctuation has a seperate language. ” A” in the text is my A movement ( Finding what A was has been perhaps the most time consuming aspect of this process – its repeated 5 times and rhythmically it needed to be short – but not clipped – more functional like the A itself – simple – but not so simple that its repetition in 5 quick successions makes it dull… – in the end I went for a more functional version of something which starts the code off – movement A as a link between the two very different sections)   and everytime there is a T ( there are 5) I have to be distracted momentarily………..

These are the rules I made up - fairly simple – you might think – but getting this code enacted in my body has been challenging. 

First habit I reverted to was - I just roughly did the code – I forgot a full stop here – sometimes did a movement per syllable other times did just an arbitrary section of a word – little misdemeanours as far as the code I’d set myself – but they started to magnify as the work continued – trip me up  – the rhythm was off as a result.  So, during a weekend breathing time – I re grouped  – got specific with my rules – and a solid structure started to show itself. 

But that was not my only problem….the movements themselves started acting up.  Because my code ( I think all the codes being used do this actually )  lays the ‘moves’ very closely together – the specific quality of each moment gets tested – Is it too like the one that has just been or the one that follows it?….Alot of questioning of the moves themselves started to occupy my time  – I spent ALOT of time with this  – too much – I started dropping moves – moving moves to different places in the code – and again the thing began to unravel before my eyes. Habit number 2 showed itself  – excessive questioning of everything leading to paralysis…..I think I could have got where I needed to go if I had just stuck with my original moves and worked them………..although we shall never really know………….

Then other things ; my natural tendency as far as rhythm and flow were being interrupted by the code - with the song we could always play the cd and get the definitve rhythmical version to check we were not sitting back into comfortable rhythmical patterns   – but with the words as code there is so much more play/ or old habits in this area – you can elongate a word here speed up there – but I have had a close eye on rhythm today and the more I work with this text the more I see an inherent rhythm in Joyce’s choice of consonants, the structure of the syllables and the way he uses the punctuation  – I just need to key into it.  There is for me a long period of just getting the moves into your body before real play can happen – I don’t know why its taking me so long – Maybe

because I’ve explored a new type of movement vocabulary? because the rhythms are new to me? cause there is no narrative through line – but a series of heavily intentioned moments which are hard to make fleeting when the code requires it……….

When I have got this structure in my body I want to add another line of text to demonstrate the structure more clearly – I think more repetition of the structure is needed for it to be really recognised.  I also want to add more rules – more layers to add to the contradictory flavour that is emerging. I want to find where I can use the most perfect amount of effort to serve the moves – not too much  – not too little.  I want to ensure that surprise is ever present – that each moment is absolutely essential and has a direct communicative power – that there is a liveness to all…….ok I am going to stop dreaming/ rambling now.