Jerwood Bank 2008 – Siobhan Davies Dance

Till thousends thee. Lps.The keys to. Given! A way a lone a lost a loved a long the

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.

 Tags: 4. Week four/ Sarah Dowling