moving through lightscapes

Dress Rehearsal l i g h t o u c h  26.09.13

These 'capturings' of the piece were a means of documenting the performance. The stage lighting had to be 'amplified' to meet the requirements of the camera. The choreography throughout plays with thresholds of visibility as the dancers move through minimal lightscapes* into the depths of shadow. The camera's 'capturings' offer a different representation of what was. 

                                  scene iii

                                  scene iv

                                 
                                 scene ix

                                          scene xi

*lightscapes…

... is a neologism I have coined to replace the more commonly used expression lighting state. I feel that the idea of moving through a lightscape offers the dancers a different way of being with the light to that which is implied by being in a lighting state.

first steps ... digitalised

Researching Light and the Dancing Body 16.01.13

This film was made during a workshop received on the second week of the MA Making Performance at Edge Hill University. After receiving a basic introduction to the equipment we would be using and some practical tips on filming, we were off to explore and film. An hour later we met in the editing studio where we were taken through the basics of cutting and pasting and merging and … this was the result.

Glimpses Transformed

… glimpses transformed …

the camera captures instances of the ephemeral and in doing so transforms the memory of the danced experience, lending me new memories and perspectives that I may have imagined otherwise

the smudged qualities that Helen's reproductions of ‘a dance once danced’ offer, resonate with the vibrancy and almost ‘demolecularization of self’ that I sense when performing in these lit environments

where bodies spread across the frame, extended by the slowness of the shutter, I see my dancing thoughts materialize, suspended, leaving trails that blur and intertwine 

Photographic documentation from dress rehearsal of  l i g h t o u c  h  26.09.13

Photography: Helen Newall

Dancers: James Hewison and Michelle Man

Lighting Design: Michelle Man in collaboration with David Forrest

    Scene III

                      

                                                          

    Scene V

    Scene VI

                                Scene IX

    Scene IV

Research scholar Matthew Reason reminds us that, “(t)he instinct and desire to use photography to halt the disappearance of performance is very strong” and that often “the photographic image becomes verification of the existence, appearance and importance of their subject.” (Reason, 2006: 121-122). I recognise this “instinct and desire” to capture a glimpse of myself from the outside. I am also fascinated by the new performance the captured moment offers. I take then from John Berger when he says that “(t)he relation between what we see and what we know is never settled.” (1972:7). It is this un-settledness that allows me to repeatedly return my gaze to the moment of captured flow, the crystallization of an in-between state, where I may reflect and re-discover something of that which was fleeting, something of what might have been.

l i g h t o u c h

l i g h t o u c h is a contemporary dance work that takes as its starting point the affect of light on the dancing body. The piece was created for one of the two practice-based modules on the MA Making Performance course at Edge Hill University and premiered within a professional and academic context. 

Extract and image from hand programme of the performance 26.09.13. 

Photography: Helen Newall

Dancers: James Hewsion and Michelle Man

l i g h t o u c h  explores the choreographer’s long-held fascination for the affect of light on the dancing body. Through lighting states that reveal, smudge and extract the body from space, the piece plays with thresholds of appearance and disappearance. By touching on layers of chiaroscuro, it challenges how we sense the dancing body as it slips into shadow. When sight stutters, how might the traces of movement be perceived? What then constitutes our connectivity with this dance? 

The elaboration of l i g h t o u c h  has been the central vehicle to guiding my research during 2013. Through analysing and writing to the creative processes of this project from both a choreographer’s and dancer’s perspective I seek to flesh out the lines of inquiry that have provided the framework to this practice. In doing so I hope to come closer to a language that talks specifically to light in relation to the dancing body.

I have created this Blog as a means of sharing 'capturings' of the research. This includes filming of studio based practice, rehearsals and performance.

Video 1: First Play to Light, 28.02.13, Edge Hill University, Studio 3: twilight

Video 2: First Play to Shadow, 28.02.13, Edge Hill University, Studio 3: twilight