Thursday 19 February 2009

The Preset(s)

I'm jealous of the guys. It must be such a special time, the preset. (Note: the preset is the half hour proir to the advertised show start time, and the male cast have already begun to work). They create the space in which the performance is going to sit. Outlining, weaving, breathing the blood into the cells of the air. i want to move freely and pour myself into that pace as well. But us girls, we huddle behind the wall, and try not to cast shadows while we stretch. I never know for sure what they make there, but I like how it sits in the room.

I'll tell you something else- the Presets are an australian electronic duo. Our sound check soundtrack. Music to make your day happy- talented guys. 

Lots of interesting things have cropped up, in between the drives and the bundles of clothes. The clothes are just annoying, dirty or clean, and the drives are alll 'is jennifer anniston sexy?' am i smart for using soundwave in hangman and my goodness i want to lie on you so bad. I have eaten pizza 3 times, salmon 5 times and gin 10 times.

an interesting thing?
i searched for a place between focus and distraction. Ideally, i want to work at levels of total mental alertness at all times, but I really noticed in the first few days how the long haul travel affected my focus. i believe the modern term is 'jet lag'. it was hard to concentrate. So in stead of reflecting on how tired I was, how weird my body was, how I was behind my own plan, I committed that anytime I noticed I had drifted off, I would accept that focus was on it's way. Actually, this reminds me of 'the wadi'. Julyen Hamilton (google him) told me about the wadi, which is a dry riverbed. A place where, in a desert, it is more likely that water might arrive than just standing elsewhere on the dry plain. in relation to movement composition, he proposed that when you realise you have lost focus, or missed yourself perhaps, to get it back all you have to do is go to the wadi. You don't have to solve it immediately- just go to the place where it is more likely to be solved. And you will solve it immediately. The body is quick.

the shows are building and building- always building. I look forward to feeling stronger and more machine like everyday. Growing myself into the role with each note, each thought, each plie/releve.

Thankyou DTP for the great welcome in Coventry.
Thankyou Jean and Mike for visiting me in Newcastle. The fruit cake is so so good.
Thankyou Tim for saying hello, and I hope you post your show notes.
Thankyou Raj for the sleeve and great knife story.

Most importantly for me, to my injury- anything you can do, I can do better.

Amelia
 

Friday 13 February 2009

how

the last time we performed 12th floor in Hobart '06


To bloglovers and the ardent followers of our travels who keep our seats and hearts warm back home.

It is a strange thing to be on stage.

And stranger still to be in a performance and then return to it three years later. In 2006 the show had an amazing impact on my life. The vigour and discipline , the comradery all had a huge impact on me.
But most importantly the work spoke to me , held me and allowed me to continue to discover intricacies within it.
Now in the summer/winter of 2009 we have returned to it.
And the world has changed.
Significantly
For us the most significant change is the departure of our director and leader.
An event that shook us all to the very core.
And changed the way we look at the world and ourselves.
So strange to be in the work without it’s creator.
So strange to be playing the movement and the narrative that we played before.
Exactly the same movement.
Exactly the same story.
Fighting and working hard to present the work as it was .
Seeking and respecting every detail of what was.
Challenging our memories and bodies to retain the integrity of the show.
Making no changes to the structure or the tone of the piece.
Presenting what we had in 2006 .
Without the most important element.
The instigator and inspiration.

Struggling to present a world that has not changed since 2006.
And living in a world where everything has.

And what strikes me in that is that it holds.
The work holds.
With all the changes in the world.
The work holds its potency and relevance.

And most poignantly the work holds the tragedy that followed it.
In an almost prophetic way it speaks of escape and transcendence.
It follows its protagonist in and out of a complex existence.
Through ups and downs and finally upwards and out towards ……..
What ?
I don’t know.

But I do know that as soon as I heard the news about our loved Tanja I thought about this work.
I thought about the story of the work.
And the potency of her life.
Together.

Now you can call this misplaced emotion or the machinations of one hitherto inexperienced in grief.
And I am not trying to sanctify or mystify an extraordinary being and life.
More so , I am rediscovering the fact that every bit of life that Tanja had, everything she knew and all that she was, is in her work.
And I will venture further to say that every work that she made and ,I would gather, that she was in (although I sadly only had the opportunity to see one , the astounding ‘Just for Show’) the same is true.

But her story is in her work. Her essence.
Is there in the works that she poured herself into.
And it is the product of this intense life of creation that leaves me with the feeling that I am playing out a tragically beautiful and disturbing premonition.
Night after night.
And town after town.

And so ?
What’s to be done ?
What’s to be made of all this ?

For me I continue to receive inspiration from Tanja in her death as I did in her life.
The inspiration to fill life and work with all and everything you are
and all that you have
and all that you want
and all that you worry for
and all that you love
and all that you hope to be

Now , especially in the arts, everybody goes around saying

be in the moment
live in the now

And it is a worthy sentiment
There is no doubt
But I always wondered how
How?
It’s all very well to say it but how do you do it?
I never got that bit
Or it seemed like that was the bit that you were supposed to discover for yourself
But without it the adage becomes an order
Or a bizarre and empty statement of intent
Or patronising , frankly

Working with Tanja
Being in her work and world
And , I believe, experiencing it as an audience
You get a sense of how
To be present.

How to continue to give of everything that you have with all you have.

Tanja
Continuing to show me how
To be
Driven and courageous
Present
And in the now



Then and now

Peace out hommies
Hopen xx (from the bus on the way to Newcastle)

floor series - rehearsals '09





Thursday 12 February 2009

what dance means to me .........

to the blogosphere, the dance world and the universe at large

If my contemporary and friend Amelia will chose to offer insight and wisdom and theory and insight on this blog then i suppose my job is to give you some gossip plain and true .
Just kidding.
Well maybe just a bit won't hurt.

When i first performed this piece with Tanja and the guys in 2006 I remember feeling like I was a contestant in a show that was a mix between 'the biggest loser' (a weight loss reality show here in oz) and 'dancing with the stars' (now don't pretend you don't know what that one is). In this show I was the only contestant and I had to train and work with some of the world's best dancers every day and then put on a show. And in the television ratings of my life this particular show was a huge hit.

Up to this point I had only ever done a couple of dance classes at Drama school. The jive. The waltz. But to tell you the truth I wasn't really paying that much attention.

I thought that dance was ..... Well I'm not entirely sure if I thought about it at all. I never saw it and I certainly never considered myself a dancer, apart from when I was cutting the rug at parties or what have you.

The closest I ever got to dance was watching my sister perform at her tap and jazz eistedfords when I was a kid. Big epic concerts that went from 4:30 in the afternoon all the way through to 11pm just to get through all the students.
I would sit there and make jokes with my dad, and gush with pride when my sister came on and at the end, when it was all done, would always be left with this feeling that I wanted to try it. But I never did.

Fast forward more than a decade and I am in a company of dancers touring to the U to the K.

How did this happen?

Stay tuned to find out............

big love to any and all

hopen

ps. will try for some pics in my next post

Monday 2 February 2009

an extreme sports style challenge

I am not currently in the habit of posting writing, pictures, sound or anything else onto the “world wide web” or into “cyber space”, as I like to call the internet, in my own little hark back style of humour. I’m not sure why but I find it a little funny, just to hint at an old fashioned disconnection from the deep social position internet communication has taken in my broad community.

I told everyone in the studio on our first day together, Tuesday, that I wanted to use this page to make a connection with people who come to our show, or can’t come to our show, or want to read about theatre practices. I don’t want to irregularly contribute something inane like “man, I love this cast, we rocked it tonight. It’s so cool working with my friends”. But I guess only time will tell. I’m not some sort of genius. For example, just now I started to read an essay entitled “What is an Event?” and I got as far as:
Chaos does not exist; it is an abstraction because it is inseparable from a screen that makes some- thing - something rather than nothing - emerge from it. Chaos would be a pure Many, a purely disjunctive diversity, while the something is a One, not a pregiven unity, but instead the indefinite article that designates a certain singularity. How can the Many become the One? A great screen has to be placed in between them. Like a formless elastic membrane, an electromagnetic field, or the receptacle of the Timaeus, the screen makes something issue from chaos, and even if this something differs only slightly.

And now I am writing to you instead. I will warn you I can be fairly sure the quality of my posts over the next few months will vary. I will do my best to be fascinating. As Sol reminded us all, what goes up stays up. Words, online.

I could be seeing this as an extreme sports style challenge, to put back into perfect form the most difficult work I have ever danced and have not rehearsed for two years in nine days. But I have to say, we are feeling like an unstoppable room of disciplined warrior beauties. When I look around me, I’m so impressed that any fearful notion I will fail is disappeared.

So, after the second day, which was today, I am sore and tired (dancers catch cry) but just so happy. I find it fulfilling to spend my time making more space for Tanja’s work to shine. And I can’t believe how much I love working so hard with these, my amazing friends.