n quentin woolf

body language – the outcome

Fran Isherwood

The point of convergence between words and movement was the subject of my collaboration with Tempered Body Dance Company on December 11^th 2009. This experimental event, the first of its kind for me, but, judging by the feedback it received, not the last, was held at Chisenhale Dance Space, an important hub supporting the development of practicing dance artists, where Tempered

Steve and Selina McGregor

Body is based. A movement improvisation workshop with Ming Hei (Ronny) Wong had impressive results: a writhing mass of bodies, rolling around each other, using one another for support in movement, crawling on the floor in twos and threes; twenty-five dancers in all. Not something one sees every day. Post lunch, it was my turn to lead a workshop, in signification. Among the many topics crammed into an hour and a half were multiplicities of meaning, the Saussure matrix and the effects of personal experience on a text, all via Magritte and Roland Barthes. All this might sound a bit lofty, but we

Ticket Desk Attendant Reading Depraved Book

approached it in what I hope was a grounded way and besides opening up new avenues of approach for the dance/text transaction, we also had a lot of laughs. The dancers were an insightful bunch and their mix of ethnicities also brought to the fore the issue of different forms of alphabet as well as vocabulary. We got into the differences between Chinese and Korean ideograms, as well as letters as depiction. Choreographer Maddy Wynne-Jones explored with the dancers the ways in which words, both spoken and written, may be represented physically, and how a mutually supportive collaboration can be found between these two disciplines.

Steve McGregor

The performance that followed the workshop saw novelist and former army captain Steve McGregor read from his novel about a G.I. in Iraq whilst the dancers gave a physical interpretation of his tale. The effect was resonant and images from it (I’ve included one on this post) create a thought-provoking vignette. Fran Isherwood’s performed poetry, by contrast, had a lightness of touch and a knowing sense of humour to it, and the dancers’ behaviour changed accordingly. We were also treated to several prepared pieces, including a solo by Ming Hei Wong, in complete silence – an absence of words – that I found very striking. With the exception of a display of self-importance from one audience member, response to this improvised performance was warm. It was generally agreed at the bar afterwards that the difference between a text and a performed text – something that we’d discussed at length throughout the day – was perhaps a distinction that the audience may not readily recognise, nor perhaps should not be obliged to accommodate.

A number of people were eager to sign up for the next edition of this workshop, by dint of which it seems we may be speaking Body Language again.

recycle, restore

random DJ - nice bloke, no idea who he is

The studio felt far fuller than usual this week in part due to the bustle of performers, including performance poet Fran Isherwood and the a capella singers of the Living Structures project, warming up. A few family members of the guests were forming small unofficial entourages too, so that the ‘greenroom’ was jam-packed.

A word first of all on those who weren’t in the studio at all: musical acts Coppers for Karma and The Dualist. Both of these bands have strong East End links and the sounds they make have a real raw edginess to them that

Ying Tan and Amy McDonnel

grabs you by the ears and fills you full of lust for life. But there was a lot of live music going on in this week’s show too. A medieval poem provided the inspiration for a piece of traditional Chinese music played by Ying Tan and Amy McDonnell. This piece-easily recognisable to any Chinese person-formed the basis for their multi-media arts instillation at The Roundhouse in Camden, which they are preparing for early 2010. Ying explained that it’s played on an instrument which is box shaped and sits on a table-top but works like a guitar, the strings are plucked and as far as I understood, there are variants, some of which have a fret board, some of which do not. I’m always on the look out for new i-dents for the show, maybe it’s time for a traditional Chinese one. I was fascinated Ying and Amy’s intention to restore Chinese cultural history to the land from whence it came. China is in the thrall of a pop-art fad with artists chasing the dollar in a manner evoking Warhol and The Factory and according to Ying, it needs artists like her to function as a sort of cultural

Carlos' shoes

storage facility, celebrating the old and returning it to China when the pop-art phase gives way to prog-rock and its interest in older forms. There are some clear links between this art and than of Corlos Franklin, an engaging and pink-shoed Colombian. His art takes many different forms, and his hobby-horse is seeing crafts established as part of the fine arts cannon. If lights switching on and off and people standing on a plinth can be included, it would be hard to imagine the embroidery, for instance, could not-I hope we’re not at a stage when skill

Carlos Franklin

and technical ability are actively discouraged. The theme of the distance between people in the UK, their aloofness and desire not to be touched, both literally and socially, came up several weeks ago via Mismis Tshaba; Carlos noted the same phenomenon. It’s true that when I watch interlocutors from respectively the Northern and Southern parts of Europe there’s a dynamic discomfort between them as they try to find a comfortable proximity, the Southerner advancing the Northerner retreating.

The interaction between two Northern Europeans-myself and Klaus Kruse-

Klaus Kruse

was thrown into a new context as our interview progressed. Like all my guests this week, Klaus is an engaging, charming and earnest individual working in several forms simultaneously. His Living Structures collective comprises artists from various disciplines and Verity Standern who is head of music was the lead a capellist. They sounded great. If you haven’t yet given the show a listen, I urge you to. The themes behind Klaus’s work were engaging and his technique of using the audience as part of the instillation bringing out a new performance each time, while by no means original, seemed to be being handled deftly and to good effect. Living Structures’ new piece Biosphere builds on the idea of cycles in life, one of which was Klaus’s experience of evacuating his bowels whilst living in a lorry as he has for the past 13 year.

Verity, TD, Eli

‘There’s no toilet’, he explains, ‘I have to shit on a piece of paper, roll it up, put in a carrier bag and take it down to a bin’. This process in itself I had no real issue with, icky, yes, but thankfully I had already finished by breakfast sausage baguette. But it got me thinking as the interview progressed, about what else wasn’t available in a lorry and it struck that without the plumbing for a toilet there would presumably be no plumbing for a hand basin either. Klaus was enthusiastic and charismatic, and obviously has the respect of his colleagues in the project. After the interview I contemplated shaking him as warmly by the hand as I had done on his arrival. It must have been my North European reserve that made me hesitate before doing so.

Fran Isherwood

Fran Isherwood seems to have done everything that there is to be done in terms of writing and performing and both, particularly where comedy is concerned. The assembled guests loved her pieces but the Tommy Cooper impression was the favourite by miles. Do get along to Fran’s gig tonight if you can.

And so with all the interviews done and the guests departed the studio fell quiet once again. Until next week.

Listen to this edition of The Arts Show.