Jerwood Bank 2008 – Siobhan Davies Dance

Who’d have thought 8 little bars of a song could cause so much consternation.  8 moves were fitted randomly above notes in the above song. Squeezing a move in to a time slot half a beat long was testing – it tested ‘the move’ in particular the initiation point of the move – clarify that and you were laughing – well kind of ……………..add a real sense of its relationship to breath – ie. explosive, sighing, inbreath… and then you had something solid to hold on to as the song insists its way on……

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

 Tags: 2. Week two/ Sarah Dowling