Thursday the 8th of July saw the performance of Not Me Now at Sadler’s Wells as part of a festival themed around movement and spoken words. The audio track for Not Me Now is a combination of music by Canadian composer Jack Hurd combined with the voice of Laurie Lewis reading my script. Her performance is effortlessly poignant. You can hear it for yourself and see the debut of the piece (from a couple of years back) using the link here.
It’s by no means a cheery piece, dealing as it does with old age, the onset of dementia, and failing and false memories. It’s not always easy to gauge its success from the audience’s immediate reaction. However I think it went over well: after the performance, the dancers reported the audience members approached them to talk about their experiences of the themes of Not Me Now. The Tempered Body dancers were reliably brilliant. Johnny Autin, Mel Simpson and Jose Campos reprised their performances, whilst Pauline Huguet took on the role previously performed by Amy Mathieson and made it her own.
It’s no little feat to visibly age by fifty years as the music grows discordant and the side lights falter. But it’s only that compression of time that makes it seem remarkable. One of the recurrent comments in the feedback on Not Me Now is how many people have seen that same transformation take place in people they love and have loved, and the excruciating length of time it took.
A previous performance of Not Me Now
Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago at 8:54 AM.
body language
On Friday December 11th I’m going to be collaborating with Maddy Wynne-Jones’ Tempered Body Dance Company in a day-long workshop investigating the relationship between words, texts and dance. The workshop is almost fully booked. If you’re a dancer interested in participating, please email admin@temperedbody.com. There will be a performance in the evening which will combine improvised words, improvised dance and a combination of pre-written texts and improvised movement along with some performance from members of the Tempered Body Dance Company.
Posted 9 months, 1 week ago at 4:14 PM.
I’m going to be working with Tempered Body Dance Company again soon, collaborating on the Body Language workshop and performance. The project, supported by Chisenhale Dance Space in Bow, is an exploration of movement and words for dance artists, culminating in a performance that puts into action the discoveries made during the day, embracing the collaboration dance and writing.
group crope
The space between words is both crucial for understanding and for effect and yet goes largely overlooked. I’m going to be looking at contact between words and particularly what happens in the spaces between words. How can a supposedly empty space have meaning? How can a space mean more? Do words – and people – ever truly touch one another?
The workshop runs from 10:30 – 5:00 on December 11th, with a performance open to the public at 7:00. Housed at Chisenhale Dance Space, 64-84 Chisenhale Road, E3. For tickets or to sign up for the workshop please contact admin@temperedbody.com For more information on this project http://www.temperedbody.com/News.html
Posted 9 months, 3 weeks ago at 8:24 PM.
