Sally McKay

Many of the same dancers who performed last Friday evening at the Wapping Project have been dancing at the exhibition Move: Choreographing You at the Hayward Gallery over the last 3 months, (see post November 3rd).  I was asked by the facilitator, Susan Sentler and several dancers, to join them on Sunday and draw at the last day of the exhibition.

A new work was performed by students of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music, in The Clore Ballroom at The Festival Hall. Composer, Earle Brown, originally associated with John Cage and Merce Cunningham, wrote the score for December 1952 describing it as “a field of activity“.  Seating was arranged to mimic the graphic score, the performers (including musicians) weaved and danced between chairs utilising all the space.

Simone Forti‘s Huddle, an impromptu ‘dance construction’, took place at different times and places within the gallery throughout the 3 months. On Sunday, the last day, all the dancers who’d worked at the exhibition over the last 3 months came in specially to join together and create a massive Huddle at the close of the exhibition.

Two dancers link their arms round each others waist curving their backs, heads down, more join appearing out of the crowd that’s gathering.  As they come together there is an air of expectancy, a hush descends as onlookers gather around the group. As more of them join they became as if one being, one body, one breath. Slowly one dancer rises and climbs onto and across the others’ backs, another climbs up and across, then another. A silent sculptural gently moving form, totally mesmerising and engaging… suddenly they break free from each other laughing to spontaneous clapping and cheering.

Four dancers move at varying speeds following a circular path. The central figure walks, the outer performer is running, changing direction they make comments to each other as they run again, increasing the speed until you in the audience start to feel caught up in it and dizzy. This new dance, A Series of Appointments choreographed by Siobhan Davies, was performed in the beautiful Roof Studio of Siobhan Davies Dance Studios. Later a film is shown of the dance shot from above and projected onto the studio floor, highlighting the patterns created by the dancers movement.

The dancers stop, seeming to take time out, sit on two benches facing each other, continuing with comments, the words are from playwright E.V. Crowe, they are performing Live Feed.

The dancers, directed by composer Matteo Fargion, stand in a line in front of music stands and perform Songbook, creating a song out of simple gestures and (often comical) noise.

Gill Clarke, known to many for her strong dance technique classes (she taught and inspired me years ago) performed in ceramicist Claire Twomey’s installation. The room was filled with unfired ceramic pots, on tables and on the floor. Ceremoniously water was poured into one pot at a time. The water collapsed the unfired pot and water flowed out on to the floor.

On the ground floor Sam Collins‘s The Conversation Revolved showing the dinner party scene from the Hitchcock film, The Suspicion fractured by mirrors and repeated in a circular formation. Really clever.

I went on the last day, I wish I’d gone on the first so I could have returned, the whole afternoon was fascinating and inspirational. I have drawn the company during rehearsals for In Plain Clothes in 2006 and Two Quartets in 2007 and The Collection during performance at Victoria Miro Gallery in 2009.