Listening to Luca Silvestrini
Waves were created by passing cases and dancers overhead
Children and adults practicing together
Rehearsing on site at the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich
The musicians, led by Andy Pink created evocative music
The end
Choreographer Marc Brew invited me to draw the rehearsals forNocturne, a poetic and emotionally charged quartet staged around two mobile beds. Below are some of the many sketches I made, I am looking forward to using them as inspiration for etchings.
Nocturne rehearsal
Nocturne will be performed outdoors at The Greenwich and Docklands International Festival on Saturday 25th June at 2.45pm & 7.55pm and on Sunday 26th June 2.40pm (BSL) & 6.10pm in Monument Gardens, Old Royal Naval College.
Crossroads features a cast of 70 local people of all ages to be performed in the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, during the Greenwich and Docklands International Festival on Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th June.
The performance is inspired by experiences of travelling, migration and cultural identity. Protein choreographer Luca Silvestrini is the creative mastermind behind this moving and powerful dance. I have been drawing during some of the rehearsals.
Saturday 11 June
More drawings of Crossroads rehearsals to follow.
Crossroads will be performed at Greenwich and Docklands International Festival in King Charles Courtyard, Old Royal Navel College Greenwich SE10, on Saturday 25th at 6.45pm and Sunday 26th June at 1.50pm and 3.35 pm.
To see more drawings of Luca Silvestrini’s choreography and his dance company Protein, see January 31st and March 20th.
The half term holiday seemed to arrive too early, the kids had only just got back into the school rhythm after the extended Easter break.
The weeks holiday cut through the middle of the AS exams the eldest was taking and more time off from school seemed detrimental to his attempts at focussing on work. He discovered that if you create something gorgeous and delicious you are left to get on with it, so baking became a great alternative to revision. We ate lemon drizzle cake made for his sister’s birthday and on another day chocolate torte. And yes during the baking sessions I stopped nagging him to revise – the results were too fabulous to put a halt to.
When the kids went to see their father for a few days and I drove to Norfolk with a friend. Norfolk Courtyard bed & breakfast near Fakenham proved an excellent place to explore the North Norfolk coast from. The barns have been stylishly converted to individual suites, cleverly offering complete privacy and relaxation by including a fridge in each one containing everything you might want for your continental style breakfast. Luxurious adjoining bathrooms and tables in the courtyard to eat breakfast at in the early morning sun. Home made cherry cake and a bowl of fruit were waiting for us when we arrived, could you ask for anything more? (Ok there’s a flat screen tele and a table inside too incase it rains).
Norfolk Courtyard
My favourite walk was on beautiful Holkham Beach, wind swept white-gold sand covered in tiny cockle and razor shells. We walked for several miles with pine woodland on one side and the sea on the other, horses were being exercised through the shallow waves creating magnificent spray. The beach is so vast that you could sing at the top of your voice and no one would hear you – perfect. Ahead we saw the masses of coloured beach huts of Wells-next-the-Sea, we returned through the pinewoods.
Our hosts suggested The Bell in Wiveton in the evening, I ate delicious haddock smoked locally in the Cley Smoke House.
The beach at Cley Next The Sea
Candoco Dance Company celebrated 20 creative and inspiring years at Greenwich Dance Cabaret on 20th May.
“Candoco threw away the rule book and made audiences radically rethink who could and could not be a dancer, they have changed dance for ever” Brendan Keaney, Director of Greenwich Dance.
“With Candoco’s inclusive ethos, artistic success and international acclaim, it has revolutionised the dance world and inspired participants and audiences alike.” Celeste Dandeker, Founder & Patron of Candoco.
Nigel Charnock compared the evening, (Choreographer of Cold Tongue – City To City Cabaret, Still – Candoco and founder member of DV8). The evening began with a film directed by Margaret Williams shot in 1994 of Candoco and was followed by Deaf Men Dancing performing Elvis! and Boys.
Deaf Men Dancing. Elvis!
Catherine Long danced Right Arm Solo followed by Vicky Malin and Dan Daw of Candoco dancing Imperfect Storm choreographed by Wendy Houston.
Candoco. Imperfect Storm
The raffle followed. I had donated a drawing of Vicky and Darren rehearsing the Hofesh Shechter work The Perfect Human in 2008, one of a series of studies for painting Don’t Look Back.
Marc Brew won the drawing and was the next to perform
Marc Brew. Remember When. Nigel Charnock singing to us
You can see Marc Brew’s Nocturne at The Greenwich and Docklands Festival on 25th and 26th June.
Cando2 performed Lay Down Your Weary Tune. A finale on stage completed the evening with many who have danced with Candoco over the 20 years.
Happy Birthday Candoco!
This exhibition, Laurie Anderson, Trisha Brown, Gordon Matta- Clark at the Barbican Art Gallery opened in March and I am ashamed to say I got to see it just a few days before it closed on 22nd May, that’s pathetic isn’t it? Particularly as it was so brilliant, I should have gone at least more than once.
Exploring the work of three New York artists in the 1970’s: Performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson, choreographer Trisha Brown and artist Gordon Matta-Clark. The exhibition is divided spatially by placing the working drawings, films, sculptures and documentation on the upper level. On the lower level dancers perform.
Henry Montes in Floor of the Forest
In October 2010 I drew Floor of the Forest when it was performed by Candoco and Laban dancers in The Queen Elizabeth Hall in London’s Southbank Centre. Floor of the Forest, choreographed by Trisha Brown, is performed on a frame on which a lattice of ropes are tied and threaded with clothes. The two dancers move slowly to ambient sound, along the structure by dressing and undressing through the draped garments. The long pauses when they hang upside down, supported only by the clothes creates a powerful sense of weight and gravity which pervades the performance.
Open House
Gorden Matta-Clark’s Open House explores the relationship between performance and structure. Seen from above, the performers move in, out, around and over a metal container/skip. It has maze-like corridors and doors that they move through. As they walk, climb, sit and roll they call each other and chat. It feels very inviting I want to join them, I can’t be the only one to feel this compulsion. Sure enough as the dancers walk away the audience move towards and enter the structure, opening and closing the doors, exploring how it feels to be inside.
Planes
I missed the first part of Trisha Brown’s Planes. I was sitting with my elbows on a table, my eyes closed and my hands over my ears. I was activating The Headphone Table. Laurie Anderson’s investigation into sound traveling through the body through vibrations. Fragments of recorded poetry were reaching my ears through the pressure of my elbows on the table, my hands working as headphones. It was totally mesmerising. Also a pillow, lay your head down and the pillow softly speaks, activated by the weight, how deliciously soothing… I crouch over with my eyes closed wondering if this could be the answer to my intermittent insomnia.
Planes: a wall with holes cut into it, the dancers slowly climb across, stopping when they reach a new position, balancing, again the sense of gravity and strength is powerful. This felt very familiar as I drew, reminding me of the feeling of the pull, stretch, balance and tremor of fear when on the climbing walls with my two sons.
The Open Studio was a great weekend, my studio was constantly busy, thank you if you visited me, many left emails to be added to my mailing list. If you were unable to come and would like me to let you know when I am next exhibiting work please send me a message via my web site contact page. If you would like to leave a comment which is always appreciated, please do so via comments (below).
Goodbye to Captured Like a Firefly in a Jam Jar bought on Sunday, delivered yesterday
Captured Like a Firefly in a Jam Jar. 2010. 1m x 1.4m
The next solo exhibition/performance will be in the new gallery at Second Floor Studios in September (date to be confirmed).
Don’t forget, my studio (Studio 17, Unit 0) and 100 others will be open to the public tomorrow and Sunday, 11.00 – 6.00
Second Floor Studios, Harrington Way, Warspite Road, Woolwich, Lodon SE18 5NR
Some of my new work:
LOL (lots of love). 2011
From drawings of Protein Dance
Come, been and gone. 2011
From drawings of Michael Clark Company
Irina (life-size sculpture). 2011
James. 2011
Sketch Books
Stine Nilson and Pedro Machado, Co-Artistic Directors of Candoco Dance Company have invited me to draw during rehearsals for Candoco’s new work by choreographer Marc Brew. 7 years ago I had a residency with Candoco culminating in a joint exhibition and performance at Waterside Arts Centre, Manchester. Since that happy collaboration I have drawn them many times, painted (Don’t Look Back. 2009) using the drawings as inspiration and based 3 sculptures on inspirational Candoco dancer and personal friend Bettina Carpi.
I arrive in time to draw the class, led by Candoco dancer Darren Anderson. The cast of 12 warm up to Prince – what a fabulous way to start the day.
Class led by Darren
Marc Brew arrives during class, we quickly catch up on the last 2 years when I last worked with him, drawing during rehearsals of his beautiful dance Nocturnes, (scroll to Nocturnes 1 and 2, see the dance at Greenwich Festival this June), we talk of his recent post of Associate Director with Scottish Dance Theatre and he asks me to draw at his forthcoming Fusional Fragments. He gives me a speedy account of Parallel lines, the work we are here for. The cast of 12 includes 2 dancers of Chinese origin and 2 Brazilian dancers as well as the core dance company. China, the UK and Brazil: the past, present and future hosting cites of the Olympic Games.
A fascinating but complex linear structure crosses the studio. The dancers shift from class to rehearsal, the taught lines are lowered and raised, dancers move between, in and out, over and under them, giving the effect of a giant cats-cradle
Marc Brew rehearsing
Bettina Carpi (above)
Sadly I could only spare 1 day to work with Candoco because of a very special family birthday last weekend and the Open Studio this weekend but I will soon return to draw.
Twice a year at Second Floor Studios we open our studios to the public, there will be at least 130 studios to walk round and meet the visual and fine artists, craft and design makers.
Open Studios May 2011
Opening night – Thursday 12th May 5pm – 9pm
Saturday 14th May 11am – 6pm
Sunday 15th May 11am – 6pm
Second Floor Studios, Mellish Indust Estate, Harrington Way, (off Warspite Road), London, SE18 5NR
My studio is 17, Unit 0 (the building overlooking the river). I will show life size wire sculpture, framed and unframed charcoal drawings, sketch books (seen in my blog), etchings and paintings on canvas. See my website to view more of my work