THEMES:
The themes I see appearing for now are those of control and release. Seeking out the fascinating golden zone of being able to do both, within one flow state trance. And the innate healing in that. Being so in the improv zone, existing only in physicality and pure movement expression, no conscious verbal thought... that you are hyper present in the now.
The underlying themes that will appear will be more reflections of the dancers themselves. I will facilitate expression of our selves as a group and individuals as the movement and experiences of control and release reveal our bodies own individual emotional score to the movement. Like a conversation with our nervous systems.
I often will come along with my own mental subscript, e.g. with this piece I am thinking about “TRUST AND SURRENDER” as an emotional through line - All towards allowing ourselves to feel.
With myself having had personal experiences of living with all encompassing OCD as a teen, plus complex PTSD and ADHD all my life, essentially I have always ignored all of it and "kept on carrying on" to get things done.
But now I am years later, after a few incredible years in therapy, healing my body forced to stop and forced to look within, way more chill and letting myself FEEL. Which is radical and totally handleable with my new post therapy nervous system that isn't constantly in freeze of fight or flight anymore.
Now, it’s all about enjoying the unpredictability of life, the serendipity of seemingly random events. And trusting and surrendering to the fact that my gut knows what it’s doing and I can feel my way into things. It does’nt have to be non stop control and planning as it had been before.
Inspired by Gina Tay Limpus last year, I will write my own reflective script based on these personal themes to use if I wish to or to just keep in the back of my mind. I am not sure I want to impose them on the dancers as I prefer when there is space and flexibility for them to have their own meaning made and developed as we co create the work. I don't want to push these themes on the dancers. I want them to feel authorship of the feelings as they find them themselves. So we will work on nurturing that as part of our creation practice.
I will credit them as co creators, especially if we end up using material from task based work. And I suspect we will.
I also have alot of underwater dancing whale footage and footage of me and others (e.g. Asher Bowen-Saunders and Yolanda Lowatta), dancing underwater in my research. I was considering using projections of this as a texture for a moment. Unsure as of yet. I will write more on the themes and it will become apparent whether the two can align for a scene or not. I have merged whale projections and harness work on a few occasions. Including at my Legs on the wall residency.
OUTCOMES:
I am very happy to share a live sharing of the research. But the dance film experiment is the focus. As the harness created such an opportunity to make illusions of suspension. And in a big black riggable space. Even more so. it's ideal.
TECH and Rigging :
I am happy to make everyone's fee $800 for the time, and use the spare $1600 towards renting a cherry picker and having a ticketed rigger sign off on the rigging points in the Studio. It is a worthy investment for Brisbane, for my practice and for the other artists who cross genres and create hybrid works.
At least one rigging point onstage for the shows, would be amazing. Four maximum is what we could really use.
I may end up using a projector. If a good one is available that would be amazing. Or I can borrow one from my own network. 🙂
I would love to have 4 big gorgeous golden spots from the ceiling creating a cone of light. But maybe thats dreaming ;) Looking like this:
The themes I see appearing for now are those of control and release. Seeking out the fascinating golden zone of being able to do both, within one flow state trance. And the innate healing in that. Being so in the improv zone, existing only in physicality and pure movement expression, no conscious verbal thought... that you are hyper present in the now.
The underlying themes that will appear will be more reflections of the dancers themselves. I will facilitate expression of our selves as a group and individuals as the movement and experiences of control and release reveal our bodies own individual emotional score to the movement. Like a conversation with our nervous systems.
I often will come along with my own mental subscript, e.g. with this piece I am thinking about “TRUST AND SURRENDER” as an emotional through line - All towards allowing ourselves to feel.
With myself having had personal experiences of living with all encompassing OCD as a teen, plus complex PTSD and ADHD all my life, essentially I have always ignored all of it and "kept on carrying on" to get things done.
But now I am years later, after a few incredible years in therapy, healing my body forced to stop and forced to look within, way more chill and letting myself FEEL. Which is radical and totally handleable with my new post therapy nervous system that isn't constantly in freeze of fight or flight anymore.
Now, it’s all about enjoying the unpredictability of life, the serendipity of seemingly random events. And trusting and surrendering to the fact that my gut knows what it’s doing and I can feel my way into things. It does’nt have to be non stop control and planning as it had been before.
Inspired by Gina Tay Limpus last year, I will write my own reflective script based on these personal themes to use if I wish to or to just keep in the back of my mind. I am not sure I want to impose them on the dancers as I prefer when there is space and flexibility for them to have their own meaning made and developed as we co create the work. I don't want to push these themes on the dancers. I want them to feel authorship of the feelings as they find them themselves. So we will work on nurturing that as part of our creation practice.
I will credit them as co creators, especially if we end up using material from task based work. And I suspect we will.
I also have alot of underwater dancing whale footage and footage of me and others (e.g. Asher Bowen-Saunders and Yolanda Lowatta), dancing underwater in my research. I was considering using projections of this as a texture for a moment. Unsure as of yet. I will write more on the themes and it will become apparent whether the two can align for a scene or not. I have merged whale projections and harness work on a few occasions. Including at my Legs on the wall residency.
OUTCOMES:
I am very happy to share a live sharing of the research. But the dance film experiment is the focus. As the harness created such an opportunity to make illusions of suspension. And in a big black riggable space. Even more so. it's ideal.
TECH and Rigging :
I am happy to make everyone's fee $800 for the time, and use the spare $1600 towards renting a cherry picker and having a ticketed rigger sign off on the rigging points in the Studio. It is a worthy investment for Brisbane, for my practice and for the other artists who cross genres and create hybrid works.
At least one rigging point onstage for the shows, would be amazing. Four maximum is what we could really use.
I may end up using a projector. If a good one is available that would be amazing. Or I can borrow one from my own network. 🙂
I would love to have 4 big gorgeous golden spots from the ceiling creating a cone of light. But maybe thats dreaming ;) Looking like this:
Image above from my Stockholm experimental work from Feb 2020 - "Save the 5%, empathy for psychopaths"
DANCERS:
Not all of them will perform in harness as I don't have enough harnesses and probably rigging points. But duets and groups pieces will emerge between harness people and non harness people.
Depending on how well the dancers pick up the very tricky animation / isolation technique, I might end up dancing at which point I would benefit even more from outside eye feedback. Its such a beautiful process.
I may also end up not doing the blindfolded harness moments in the film experiment, as it could be that it isn't as safe for others. I'll assess that depending on the group, better that way. Also I will write a risk assessment as I have many times, to include all the tech, aerial and even a mental health risk assessment.
SAFEGUARDING and LEARNING:
I also am keen to be braver with my online presence. I would like to make more posts for the gram. And I feel really challenged by it. But would like to try harder and learn to be good at it. This will be a super opportunity for it.
That said, as with all my work, I will create set safeguards, including set times with no interruption and creative safe spaces for emotional exploration, creative freedom and even inner selves exposing in a protected environment.
I have taken courses in mental health risk assessments and safeguarding for creation practices, performing and for theatre making.
One of the many implementations are dedicated times for a “closed” studio. So people can really go inwards and explore. To expose to themselves what may lie under their creative expression. And the themes that arise may shake them, so using safeguards and nervous system calming practices to return to now and to safety.
Basically it's trauma informed creation.
Once it’s been explored safely, the artists in the piece decide whether they wish to share further, outward to the group and or even beyond, even in our showing to the world or for the film. The agency and consent is theirs.
Just one example of some of those safeguards. These are really important when working with humans ;)
HEALING
This would be the fourth time I have researched contact and harness in my own residency in Australia, and some in Spain also. I had two residencies in Sydney with it, at Annandale and Legs on the Wall, pre pandemic and pre my Masters in dance and circus in DOCH, Stockholm. There, I created multiple experimental works and one final show that featured, in part, my bungee dance harnesses on a cast of 10. I can share some of those videos if you would like.
In Ireland this last July I spent a week at an international aerial dance professional development, doing 9 hours of aerial dance a day. And teaching my techniques to pros. Going back to the International aerial dance fest IADF, a place I taught for a decade, for the first time since my injury...plus being "aerial" physical for 6 days: This felt like the most magical homecoming. There were times in 2020, I did not think I would ever get back to flight or dance again. So this all feels incredible. ( I was told I would lose more and more mobility.)
This will be the second "work" for showing I make since healing my spine and shoulder injury.
To make this into a more developed piece for live performance and a film...would be overwhelmingly great and beyond exciting.
So thanks for the opportunity. I love Studio1 and what it provides as a safe space for us beautiful weirdo contemporary dance artists :)
FOOTAGE LINKS IN THE GOOGLE DRIVE
NOTE: My links to harness work are raw unedited footage of my self and the dancers I am working with, this year exploring solo work.
I can send edited much flashier harness videos for promo use. This is just to show some movement exploration possible in harness. And some footage of what happened the first time I put a person like Georgia, Clarence and Veronika in the harness!!!)
Not all of them will perform in harness as I don't have enough harnesses and probably rigging points. But duets and groups pieces will emerge between harness people and non harness people.
Depending on how well the dancers pick up the very tricky animation / isolation technique, I might end up dancing at which point I would benefit even more from outside eye feedback. Its such a beautiful process.
I may also end up not doing the blindfolded harness moments in the film experiment, as it could be that it isn't as safe for others. I'll assess that depending on the group, better that way. Also I will write a risk assessment as I have many times, to include all the tech, aerial and even a mental health risk assessment.
SAFEGUARDING and LEARNING:
I also am keen to be braver with my online presence. I would like to make more posts for the gram. And I feel really challenged by it. But would like to try harder and learn to be good at it. This will be a super opportunity for it.
That said, as with all my work, I will create set safeguards, including set times with no interruption and creative safe spaces for emotional exploration, creative freedom and even inner selves exposing in a protected environment.
I have taken courses in mental health risk assessments and safeguarding for creation practices, performing and for theatre making.
One of the many implementations are dedicated times for a “closed” studio. So people can really go inwards and explore. To expose to themselves what may lie under their creative expression. And the themes that arise may shake them, so using safeguards and nervous system calming practices to return to now and to safety.
Basically it's trauma informed creation.
Once it’s been explored safely, the artists in the piece decide whether they wish to share further, outward to the group and or even beyond, even in our showing to the world or for the film. The agency and consent is theirs.
Just one example of some of those safeguards. These are really important when working with humans ;)
HEALING
This would be the fourth time I have researched contact and harness in my own residency in Australia, and some in Spain also. I had two residencies in Sydney with it, at Annandale and Legs on the Wall, pre pandemic and pre my Masters in dance and circus in DOCH, Stockholm. There, I created multiple experimental works and one final show that featured, in part, my bungee dance harnesses on a cast of 10. I can share some of those videos if you would like.
In Ireland this last July I spent a week at an international aerial dance professional development, doing 9 hours of aerial dance a day. And teaching my techniques to pros. Going back to the International aerial dance fest IADF, a place I taught for a decade, for the first time since my injury...plus being "aerial" physical for 6 days: This felt like the most magical homecoming. There were times in 2020, I did not think I would ever get back to flight or dance again. So this all feels incredible. ( I was told I would lose more and more mobility.)
This will be the second "work" for showing I make since healing my spine and shoulder injury.
To make this into a more developed piece for live performance and a film...would be overwhelmingly great and beyond exciting.
So thanks for the opportunity. I love Studio1 and what it provides as a safe space for us beautiful weirdo contemporary dance artists :)
FOOTAGE LINKS IN THE GOOGLE DRIVE
NOTE: My links to harness work are raw unedited footage of my self and the dancers I am working with, this year exploring solo work.
I can send edited much flashier harness videos for promo use. This is just to show some movement exploration possible in harness. And some footage of what happened the first time I put a person like Georgia, Clarence and Veronika in the harness!!!)
We wish to acknowledge the Butchulla people, the Yugambeh people, the clans that make up the Bundjalung Nations, the Turrbal and Yaggera people, as original custodians of the lands and seas where we often work.
Places where stories, culture and art have been made and shared for millennia. Recognising their ancestors, as well as past, current and future elders; whose sovereign country was never ceded.
Australia always was, and always will be, aboriginal land.
Places where stories, culture and art have been made and shared for millennia. Recognising their ancestors, as well as past, current and future elders; whose sovereign country was never ceded.
Australia always was, and always will be, aboriginal land.