May 2017
Medium: Dance & Music
Working with Theatre Peckham’s Young Dance Company I delivered a 5 week project aimed at choreographing a final performance with original music. Furthermore, it developed into a short dance film, directed by myself in several locations in London. Illustrating a journey taken by the dancers. [pictures below
Shaping Time
The title of the piece hints at the way we make use of our time and our perceptions of the world around us. How do we travel through spaces that are constantly changing?
Do we move fast or slow?
How does our environment effect our bodies?
Movement
I didn’t come to the sessions with a fully choreographed routine. The truth was I wanted to work with the young dancers. I wanted to be inspired by them as much as my music may have inspired them. I observed how their bodies naturally moved, took a few ideas that began to build the skeleton of the piece.
I knew I wanted a blend of lyical and contemporary and of course Tap dance. Moving with the words as if without them one may still be able to make out what is being said. I also wanted it to become quite naturalistic, they would be acting as someone else, but that someone else was still contained within their body and would move as humans do.
Music
The music piece itself is quite wordy, it jerks and repeats itself. It is a mix of spoken word, sounds and a short rhythm section for tap dance. It describes a journey from waking up to getting the train, not only a physical journey but one through our ways of perceiving the world we come to know.
You’re travelling through perception
The smoke will blind your eyes
The town you used to dream of it has gone now no surprise
Face in a reflection, power is disguised
Don;t let them see the truth inside you hide,
