A solo performance study — a dance scientist who is also a dance artist — exposing the effort beneath ‘effortless’
Athina Vahla in collaboration with Emma Reading, Mary Ann Hushlak, Susan Sentler, Sarah Chin, Squib-Box and Monica Alcazar.
On October 30th, Dance Scientist Emma Reading performed a new dance work for the annual IADMS (International Association for Dance Medicine & Science) conference in Birmingham.
Emma Reading rehearsing
Next week I will open my studio to the public as part of Second Floor Studios Open Studio Event. My studio is 17, unit 0, (the building overlooking the river). I will show sculpture, framed and unframed drawings, sketch books, etchings and paintings. All work is for sale or I can work to commission. See my website to view some of the work.
Opening night: Thursday 18th November 5pm-9pm
Saturday 20th November 11am-6pm
Sunday 21st November 11am-6pm
Second Floor Studios, Mellish Indust estate, Warspite Road, London SE18 5NR
Over 100 visual and fine artists, craft and design makers will open their studios to the public.
The dialogue between visual art and dance is of primary concern in my practice as an artist, so the new exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, exploring the interaction between art and dance from the 1950’s to the present is of particular interest. Spectators are encouraged to interact with the exhibits, many of which have been created specifically to be used in dance performances, affecting the movement and outcome of the dance.
Every day dancers (alumni of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance) are in the gallery performing and discussing work. They are very knowledgeable about the dances and will readily talk to you, by interacting with them you will be part of a Performance Event, Production created by Xavier Le Roy and Marten Spangberg.
American, Mike Kelly, has created a theatrical space, laying out objects for the public to interact with in Adaption: Test Room Containing Multiple Stimuli Known to Elicit Curiosity and Manipulatory Responses the dancers perform with the props in this space.
On Saturdays between 12 and 4 the Yvonne Rainer dance, Trio A is performed in the gallery. The complex pedestrian movements are danced in a fluid continuous stream, no music. If you read my blog on 21st October you may remember I drew two of the dancers performing Trio A on the pavement outside Cafe Luc as part of the Secret Frieze After Party. Impromptu performances of Huddle, choreographed by Simone Forti based on improvisation and chance takes place throughout the gallery.
Trio A Huddle
The Fact of Matter is choreographed by William Forsythe
consisting of gymnastic
rings hanging from the ceiling for visitors to swing and step through exploring the limits and weight of the body, a test of physical and mental agility.
Hula-Hoops are laid out for everyone to use in Rooftop Routine. Ropes hang from the ceiling to sit or stand in.There are also screens with archived material to watch, and many more displays to interact with than I have mentioned.
If you live near High Wycombe, remember Yorke Dance Project will be at Wycombe Swan on 3rd November.
One of the final companies to perform in this years Dance Umbrella programme was the Charles Linehan Company at Greenwich Dance, with Inventions for Radio 1964 and The Clearing. The Borough Hall is the same setting that inspired choreographer, Rosemary Lee to make the fabulous Common Dance in 2009 Dance Umbrella.
The soundtrack for Inventions for Radio 1964 is made up of voices recounting their often unnerving dreams of water and drowning “I began to feel very frightened” or finding a dead body in the mud “down and down and down so deep”. The lighting rig is low and tilted so it’s not much higher than the dancers heads reinforcing the feeling of being trapped with no escape, they move in small pools of light.
Inventions for Radio 1964
The second dance, The Clearing is accompanied by live music. Movement is fluid and intense, danced by two men and two women. The dance is charged with emotion conjuring up the ecstasy and agony of human interaction, relationships forming, pain and confusion of separation and finding new paths to follow.
The Clearing
The lighting has been carefully considered and plays an integral role in both works. In The Clearing the lighting rig is raised high, the space opens and the viewer becomes aware of the architecture of this beautiful art deco room. The huge high windows are lit from the outside gradually pouring light into the room, as lights flood the space you become aware of the intricate pattern of the floor boards.
The evening felt intimate, strong and highly charged.
I was looking forward to seeing Belgian choreographer, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, company, Rosas perform their new work The Song at Sadler’s Wells, after seeing Rosas – Steve Reich Evening in 2008 and Rosas danst Rosas in 2009, both of which I found fascinating but I found it hard to connect with this dance.
Nine male dancers and two women danced and moved in and to silence, only the sound of their feet beating a rhythm on the floor as they ran and their breath could be heard. The set was stark, a massive roll with the appearance of tin foil above their heads, which occasionally unrolled to produce fabulous reflections on the floor, sometimes like a reflection of a massive spine, sometimes like dappled water. Beautiful interesting images, but the silver shiny material also reflected harsh lights back out at the audience uncomfortably momentarily blinding us. Why do this to your audience?
I thought my teeth would erupt when one dancer rubbed her hands on a substance on the floor producing terrible grating, amplified, rhythmic squeaks to accompany part of the dance.
The Song is very fast, a lot of running, ducking and diving. Unusually I sat high up looking down, but was glad of this as I was able from there to enjoy the shifting patterns created by the performers as they moved and changed direction en mass, sometimes the appearance of flock of migrating birds sometimes a silent game of 40-40-home (or it, had, chase, catch, or whatever the kids round your way call it). I came away with interesting images in my head but also a sense of confusion.
Choreographer Yolande Yorke-Edgell, of Yorke Dance Project, invited me to draw at the dress rehearsal of Americana at The Bloomsbury Theatre, London, last Monday. Americana consists of four dances: Meta 4, choreography Bella Lewitzky, Post Etiquette and City Limitless by Yolande Yorke-Edgell and Home On The Range by Wendy Houston.
Rehearsal drawings below
Drawings from the evening performance below
I drew Post Etiquette in rehearsal before the tour began, see entry September 24th to see the images. This performance comes mid-way in their tour.
On Sunday evening the Secret Frieze After Party was held at the elegant, stylish brasserie Cafe Luc in Marylebone High Street. Dancers from Trinity Laban performed in the restaurant. Two dancers, styled as 1950’s diners sat at one of the tables, then began to dance together and solo threading through and amongst the guests.
On the pavement outside the restaurant, two dancers performed Trio A, much to the amazement of shoppers strolling past. Trio A was created by American choreographer Yvonne Rainer in 1965 (like Trisha Brown, a founding member of Judson Dance Theatre).
Last year I had a solo exhibition, Chasing Shadows, at neighbouring gallery GV Art Chiltern Street, eight dancers from Laban and musician Ronen Kozokaro performed in response to my paintings, drawings and sculpture. Later in the year I exhibited at Greenwich Theatre again the dancers and musician performed in the exhibition space. This is part of an ongoing collaboration that I have with Trinity Laban and Susan Sentler, senior lecturer and dance technique teacher at Laban, who facilitated the Laban alumni for QEH, the Hayward and Cafe Luc.
Billi Currie, the boutique hairdressing salon, also in neighbouring Chiltern Street is currently showing six framed drawings of mine, Billi is happy for visitors to drop in to see the work.
On Saturday morning at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in A Feeling For Practice: Trisha Brown in Focus, dancers from the New York based Trisha Brown Company discussed what had attracted them to join the company, the difference of working on archived material and devising new work and about the artistic practice of their Director. One commented that all dance work in New York was a “bridge leading back to Trisha Brown”, another commented that Brown’s early work held “that wild-child raw energy”. Questions followed, put to Trisha Brown by the audience.
The choreographer also talked about her use of drawing in her creative process, as she spoke she said “It’s easier for me to show you” she leapt from her seat and sunk to the floor, lying on her side she held imaginary charcoal which she pushed in front of her on a huge invisible sheet of paper, using her whole body in the act of mark making (she’s over 70). She said she had filled her house with the 8 foot x 10 foot drawings. In the evening the Company performed four dances. Brown’s drawing is the backdrop to You Can See Us, choreographed in 1995.
Glacial Decoy, made in 1979. The dancers moved in front of a Robert Rauschenberg designed backdrop of four large screens filling the length and height of the stage, showing a quick succession of black and white close up images.
L’ Amour au Theatre, choreographed in 2009
Opal Loop, choreographed in 1980
Watching the dancers perform in the evening, after hearing them speak so candidly about their experiences extended my appreciation and understanding of the work. Brown was at the forefront of the choreographers coming from the post modern era, always pushing the boundaries of movement and dance, showing her work with the Judson Dance Theatre in the 1960’s. The every day gestures which she introduced to her movement are accepted in dance as normal today but were radical when she first used them.
This weekend Frieze art fair took place in Regent’s Park, with 150 contemporary art galleries showing work. I went alone and made notes of work that caught my attention,
returning on Sunday with my daughter and looked through her eyes as she pointed out art and people that captured her imagination.