Archive for the ‘Drawing’ Category

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ENO presents The Death of Klinghoffer

Friday, March 2nd, 2012

28th February

On the 10th February I spent a wonderful day at 3 Mills Studios drawing an ENO rehearsal for The Death of Klinghoffer. On the 28th February I watched the performance at The London Coliseum. These are a few small drawings I made from my seat high up in the balcony.

The Death of Klinghoffer

The Death of Klinghoffer

The Death of Klinghoffer

The Death of Klinghoffer  During the rehearsal I concentrated on drawing the dancers, choreographed by Arthur Pita and drawing conductor Baldur Brönnimann. At the performance the conductor was out of my view and the dancers felt distanced. I loved the long shadows cast across the stage giving a sense of heat and sunlight. This week I start an oil painting inspired by my drawings.

Posted in Dance, Drawing, Music, Opera, Performance, Theatre | Comments Closed

Diving World Cup

Wednesday, February 29th, 2012

Tuesday 21st February

I was deeply disappointed not to get tickets for any of the Olympic events. I told my 3 (teenage) kids they could each chose 1 sport to apply for tickets to, my theory was out 4 events we should manage to get tickets to one race, but no, not a thing. We live in Greenwich on the doorstep to the events, but unable to participate as audience. However, all was not lost, I managed to get tickets for us to see the Fina Visa Diving World Cup. Fabulous… in the new Olympic Aquatics Centre in Stratford we were able to watch the Women’s 10m Platform Diving and I took my sketch book.

Dive 1. London Prepares  Dive 2. London Prepares

Warm up off the spring boards 

Olympic Pool  Dive 3. London Prepares

10m diving platform                          GB Monique Gladding diving

All the diving was amazing. Chen Ruolin of China won with 405.25.

Swimming is important in my family, both as a sport and the activity that melds us together when everything feels muddled and wrong. When the kids return from being away, I know that one of them will say ‘lets go swimming’ and as we swim the world starts to feel right again, for all of us. They are much faster than me, the younger 2 swim competitively in our local swimming club, my 15 year old is so fast, sometimes people stop swimming and stare, swimming well and swimming fast is very beautiful.

These are just a few of the small sketches of the diving that evening, I will use them to inform a painting to be shown in my forthcoming exhibitions.

Posted in Drawing, Event, Performance | Comments Closed

Candoco Rehearsal with Claire Cunningham

Saturday, February 25th, 2012

Candoco Dance Company has been commissioned for Unlimited, a project celebrating disability, arts, culture and sport as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. Choreographer Claire Cunningham is working with Candoco making a new work for the company of 12 disabled and non-disabled dancers, including dancers invited from Rio de Janeiro and Beijing.

I was invited to join the company to draw the dancers in rehearsal

Candoco rehearsal

The day began with a morning class

Candoco rehearsal

Candoco rehearsal

Claire immediately creates a sharing and sensitive atmosphere by asking everyone in the studio to speak in turn for 1 minute about anything they want, the only limitation is that the words spoken most go no further than that room. Many of the 1 minutes are filled with very personal heart felt words, I find I talk very fast tripping over my words, so much I want to say – how many words can be spoken in 1 minute? At the close I feel light headed was it because I haven’t taken a breath or because I released the words instead of boxing them up inside my head?

CAndoco Rehearsal

The dancers were each given a crutch to work with in the rehearsal 

The first performance will be at Trinity Laban on 29th February

Posted in Dance, Drawing, Rehearsal | Comments Closed

Turner Contemporary. Margate

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

Recently I went to the South East’s stunning new art gallery Turner Contemporary, in Margate, Kent. The building, designed by Stirling Prize Winner David Chipperfield Architects, opened in April 2011. Turner Contemporary has been the vision of Director Victoria Pomery over the last 10 years. In 2002 I was invited to an exhibition and discussion about the ideas and plans for the gallery, held in Droit House on the waterfront, I was completely bowled over by Victoria’s belief and vision for a gallery in Margate, still at that time in the very early planning stage.

Turner and the Elements is an immensely uplifting exhibition of 88 of Turner’s watercolours and paintings. The following room, the work of Hamish Fulton who has made walking the basis of his practice, shows photographs, sketches and massive very stylish typographic based work directly on the walls.

Margate

Misty view over the sea from the gallery cafe, serving delicious food

The Kiss The Kiss (alternate view)

Rodin’s The Kiss

Rodin’s lifesize marble sculpture of an embracing couple, The Kiss, dominates (in a good way) the entrance hall, with the backdrop of the sea behind.

There is an impressive education programme of events, workshops and projects.

Posted in Drawing, Event, Exhibition, Gallery | Comments Closed

The Death of Klinghoffer at The London Coliseum

Monday, February 20th, 2012

February 10th

Choreographer Arthur Pita is rehearsing The Death of Klinghoffer with the English National Opera opening at the London Coliseum 25th February. I joined them for a day to draw during the rehearsal.

The Death of Klinghoffer is American composer John Adams controversial ‘docu-opera’ about the killing of a Jewish American tourist during the hijacking of a Mediterranean cruise liner by Palestinian militants.

The Death of Klinghoffer. copyright Sally McKay

Conductor Baldur Bronnimann 

The Death of Klinghoffer. copyright Sally McKay The Death of Klinghoffer. copyright Sally McKay

A cast of 12 dancers, including Bettina Carpi and Joe Walkling who danced in Arthur Pita‘s wonderful production Metamorphosis, which I was privileged to draw in 2011

The Death of Klinghoffer. copyright Sally McKay

The Death of Klinghoffer. copyright Sally McKay

Libretto written by Alice Goodman. Directed by Tom Morris (War Horse co-director).

These drawings are work in progress, the starting point of a painting in oils and acrylic which I will show at my forthcoming exhibitions in 2012.

Open Studio May 2012: Thursday May 17th 5pm – 9pm. Saturday 19th May 11am – 6pm. Sunday 20th May 11am – 6pm. Studio 17, Unit 0, Second Floor Studios, Mellish Industrial Estate, Warspite Road, London SE18 5NR

Solo exhibition: A Trace of Movement. Paul McPherson Gallery 14th – 26th May, 77 Lassell Street, Greenwich, London SE10 9PJ

Solo exhibition: Dancing as Music Made Visible part of ‘On Sublimity and Synaesthesia‘ exhibiting in conjunction with freelance writer Dr Stephen Baycroft. No Format Gallery, Second Floor Studios, Mellish Industrial Estate, Warspite Road, London SE18 5NR. 13th September – 23rd September

More details on the exhibitions will follow

Contact sallymckay@btinternet.co.uk for more information on exhibitions and sales

Posted in Dance, Drawing, Music, Rehearsal | Comments Closed

Russell Maliphant Company. The Rodin Project

Wednesday, February 15th, 2012

5th February.

Russell Maliphant Company at Sadler’s Wells. Part of British Dance Edition

Full house for the performance of The Rodin Project at Sadler’s Wells. Always feels a treat to be part of an audience and see the dancers who I’ve been with during rehearsals perform.

The Rodin Project performance

The Rodin Project performance  The Rodin Project performance

The Rodin Project performance

Just gorgeous.

The Rodin Project premiered in Paris at Theatre National de Chaillot on 31st January. Russell Maliphant Company perform The Rodin Project at Huddersfield 27th February and Nottingham 6th March.

See my blog posts of rehearsal drawings: Russell Maliphant Company. Rearsals November 14th; Russell Maliphant Company. The Rodin Project January 13th;   Russell Maliphant Rehearse at Lilian Baylis January 25th

Posted in Dance, Drawing, Event, Music, Performance | Comments Closed

Yorke Dance Project in LA

Tuesday, February 14th, 2012

12th November

Way back when it was still 2011 and we were wearing tee-shirts not polo-necks and wooly hats, I spent a wonderful day drawing dance company Yorke Dance Project with choreographer Yolande Yorke-Edgell, rehearsing City Limitless in preparation for their trip to Los Angeles. They rehearsed at Siobhan Davies Dance Studios.

yorke dance project copyright Sally McKay Yorke Dance Project in LA

Yorke dance project

Yorke dance project. 5   Just a small selection of the many drawings I made of the dancers during the rehearsal

Yorke dance project  Read a preview of the show in the LA Times

See these and more of Yorke Dance Project at my Open Studio May 17th, 19th and 20th. Details of solo exhibition in September will follow soon.

Interested in purchasing or commissioning work? Contact sallymckay@btinternet.com

Posted in Dance, Drawing, Rehearsal | Comments Closed

Hofesh Shechter Company. The Art of Not Looking Back

Thursday, February 9th, 2012

3rd February. Triple Bill at Sadler’s Wells. Part of British Dance Edition

Hofesh Shechter Dance Company. The Art of Not Looking Back

The third dance in the Triple Bill was Hofesh Shechter Company dancing The Art of Not Looking Back.

The Art of Not Looking Back. Hofesh Shechter

The Art of Not Looking Back. Hofesh Shechter

The Art of Not Looking Back. Hofesh Schecter

The Art of Not Looking Back was made for the women dancers of the Hofesh Shechter Company. Opens with Hofesh’s voice saying “My mother left me when I was two.” I wince at the thought then jump at the loud long cry of pain. From this moment until the end of the dance the theatre is alive with energy and pathos. The dancers move in the unique Hofesh style, both urban and earthy, vulnerable and strong, but always fluid, dynamic and completely synchronized with each other in complex rhythms.

These small pencil drawings were made during the performance. I have drawn Hofesh Shechter Company many times, the last time during a rehearsal of Political Mother: The Choreographers’ Cut in London last year. See my web site for painting In your rooms/Uprising: The Choreographer’s Cut and charcoal drawings of early rehearsals of Political Mother.

Some of the work is still available for sale, contact sallymckay@btinternet.com for further information.

Posted in Dance, Drawing, Event, Performance, Theatre | Comments Closed

Set and Reset/Reset. Candoco

Thursday, February 9th, 2012

3rd February. Triple Bill at Sadler’s Wells. Part of British Dance Edition

Candoco Dance Company. Set and Reset/Reset 

An interval followed Wayne McGregor|Random Dance after which Candoco Dance Company performed Set and Reset/Reset.

Candoco. Set and Reset

American postmodern choreographer Trisha Brown choreographed her signature work Set and Reset in 1983, it has been re-staged as part of Candoco’s celebrations to mark turning 20. Former Trisha Brown Dance Company member Abigail Yager taught the dancers of Candoco Dance Company sequences from the original abstract choreography and then led them in improvisation with the same instuctions that Trisha Brown gave in the 1983 version. “Keep it simple, act on instinct, stay on the edge, work with visibility and invisibility, and get in line.”

Candoco. Set and Reset

Candoco. Set and Reset  Set and Reset/Reset

The work was danced to the original music “Long Time No See” by Laurie Anderson. The costumes designed by Celeste Dandeker-Arnold OBE and set designed by David Locke were inspired by the originals by Robert Rauschenburg.

Posted in Dance, Drawing, Event, Music, Performance | Comments Closed

Wayne McGregor|Random Dance

Thursday, February 9th, 2012

3rd February. Triple Bill at Sadler’s Wells. Part of British Dance Edition

Wayne McGregor|Random Dance. 

Wayne McGregor|Random Dance opened the evening with a cast of 10 dancers an extract of their powerful evocative dance Far 

Wayne McGregor|Random.Far 

Wayne McGregor|Random.Far

Behind the dancers is a huge panel of white lights which is an extraordinary work in it’s own right, designed by Lucy Carter. The lights create intricate patterns as they come on and off in complex sequences, creating linear shadows on the panel and deep shadows on the floor from the dancers moving bodies.

Wayne McGregor|Random.Far

I also watched, drew and wrote about Wayne McGregor|Random Dance dancing Far in December 2010.

Posted in Dance, Drawing, Event, Music, Performance, Theatre | Comments Closed

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