Category Archives: Blog
← Older posts Newer posts →Luke Pell on curiosity and care
November 14, 2018I am finding it difficult to find the time to update this blog as I begin my new role as Artistic Director of NDCWales, but when I read Luke Pell‘s closing words for Skanes Dans Theater’s Dance and People Talk … read more…
Posted in Blog | Leave a commentArtistic Director
October 8, 2018It’s six months since my appointment as Artistic Director of National Dance Company Wales was announced. But today is the day I finally step officially into the new role. read more…
Posted in Blog | Leave a commentWalthamstow Wetlands Residency: Dancing with Sam Barker
September 22, 2018Sam is a young dancer who lives in Waltham Forest. I invited him and his mum to join me for an afternoon on the Wetlands where we talked about the things we saw there and how I dance with some of those things in my mind. read more…
Posted in Blog | Tagged Walthamstow Wetlands Residency | Leave a commentDancing with Annie, Isabella and Wanjiru: Walthamstow Wetlands Residency
September 22, 2018Dancing as a quartet made us more visible, more clearly an ‘event’. I loved that some of the security guards stopped to watch our dancing, filming us and engaging in conversation about what we were doing. Our number also multiplied the energy of the dancing in a way that I couldn’t have achieved on my own read more…
Posted in Blog | Tagged Walthamstow Wetlands Residency | Leave a commentDancing with Annie Hanauer: Walthamstow Wetlands Residency
September 11, 2018It was particularly useful for me to have to explain to someone else the process of working I use and take for granted in my dancing on the Wetlands. This has less to do with how to move than where to put one’s attention, to notice the external/internal stimuli and impulses that might then manifest as movement or transformations of our bodies. And it was such a pleasure to be able to share the work with such a receptive and intelligent movement expert.
Here’s a long dance we made on the slope of Lockwood Reservoir. It goes from being a solo, to a duet, to a quintet when young men happen on us. In fact it’s a symphony of sensations and references, human and non-human that animate our interaction read more…
Posted in Blog | Leave a commentMicroRainbow: Walthamstow Wetlands Residency
July 23, 2018I’ve been aware from the outset that the Wetlands is a sanctuary and a refuge, for humans and non-humans, for anglers and walkers and parents and choreographers and, not least, a place for migrant birds. It’s made sense to me therefore to connect my dance workshops for MicroRainbow (who support LGBTI refugees and asylum seekers in the UK) to this residency read more…
Posted in Blog | Leave a commentFootpath closed: Walthamstow Wetlands Residency
July 23, 2018This video sketch shows that it’s not only the non-human wildlife that influences how I can move around: this footpath is closed because of Thames Water work on one of the reservoirs. Though you can’t here the drilling in so loudly, you can catch a glimpse of the loud orange-uniformed workers through the fencing, as well as the ducks getting on with their bobbing in the adjacent water. read more…
Posted in Blog | Leave a commentTrump Flies Over: Wetlands Residency
July 23, 2018I was working outdoors on the Lockwood Reservoir when instead of the usual bird-life passing over, I noticed a big black helicopter buzzing from the horizon. I later discovered that the helicopter was carrying Trump from Stansted to central London. read more…
Posted in Blog | Leave a commentFly in Focus: Walthamstow Wetlands Residency
June 27, 2018Here’s a short video where the autofocus of my camera gives priority to the fly that happens to be buzzing in front of the lens rather than to the human who happens to be dancing in the background. My relatively … read more…
Posted in Blog | Tagged Walthamstow Wetlands Residency | 1 CommentNoticing the infrastructure: Walthamstow Wetlands
June 9, 2018It’s easy to focus on the wildlife in the Wetlands but there is a built infrastructure of varying vintages that has made the Wetlands the place it is and continues to shape how human and non-human, organic and inorganic meets … read more…
Posted in Blog | Tagged Walthamstow Wetlands Residency | Leave a comment ← Older posts Newer posts →