Sally McKay

Thursday morning with Rosemary Butcher and the dancers at Independent Dance, Siobhan Davies Studios. First hour: pencil and sketch book.

‘Peel the body from the floor revealing new space’

‘Reaching the edges of the territory …  fragile territory’ 

‘Space you know …  space you don’t know’ 

In the second hour, I again drew on larger sheets using charcoal. My hand moving fast, I empathized and connected with the sensations the participants felt as they continued on each individual journey. Each drawing is of only one figure following their transitions of movement.

Monday. This week I have been invited by Rosemary Butcher to draw her inspirational dance classes at Independent Dance, Siobhan Davies Studios. A two hour master class for professional dancers. I have admired Rosemary’s work for many years, see https://blog.sallymckay.co.uk/page/5/ (October 7th 2010) for my drawings of her beautiful, moving work Lapped Translated Lines.

The movement was based on improvisational processes, the dancing was strong and intense. Although the dancers didn’t necessarily know each other and hadn’t worked together as a group before there were connections and dialogue made through each individuals rhythmic movement and patterns of movement.

During the first hour I drew in pencil in my small concertina sketch book, my drawings were influenced by the words spoken by Rosemary as the dancers moved.

‘Sense of exchange’

‘Disintegration’

‘What have you lost?’ 

During the second hour the movement expanded, the connections and sense of exchange between the dancers became more pronounced, the drawings also increased in size.