I began the editing process of the bodies in the void (local dancers filmed in the blacked out space in the Tanya Liedtke studio) and transcribing the video edited sequence onto the live body. Stuart Day is working with their audio interviews to create a soundscape. Aidan Munn has been my in-studio colleague in this process of transcription, which is not just a learning of choreography from video, but a ‘languaging’ of it into a script to teach to the other 20 or so bodies of the ADT Youth ensemble.
“Flick, gather, reach (shift, shift) shoo, shoo, whatever
Offer, curl in, hook in, flick, claw, reach, wring, circle, drop
Toss L behind, basketball R behind”
There are many layers of translation, a metaphor for the lineage of teaching and learning, generational shifts, communicative and creative strategies.
From my connections with international/interstate screen/dance colleagues in the Zoomasphere, video responses have begun to come in. I envisage that these videos will become part of an installation for my July 1st showing in the Tanya Liedtke studio at ADT. I intend to make my own video responses to these, but that may happen beyond this residency. Here are some still images from the rich and varied responses so far from Simon Ellis, Cinzia Schincariol and Emma Wilson.
Simon: generational shifts—what changes, what stays the same?
Cinzia: Elders, depth of knowledge, how we sustain ourselves, becoming Elders, acceptance of having to be ‘still’, waiting, how we occupy that stillness, how we occupy our bodies.
Emma: Giving the other a piece of text as a result of a rubbing of a particular location with your body. Then make a filmed and live response to that text.
My text for her “rubbing” was:
pioneering
entering into the unknown with a calm trust
letting the seasons support or salvage
as you melt your glacier, letting the hidden be revealed
bumping up against business, busy-ness, consequence
following the glint in the distance
letting a ship sail by
holding your breath
dropping in to the other
becoming the ocean to her land
the bird nesting on her cliff
the echo from another era
The creative development of this work has been kindly supported by Australian Dance Theatre’s Artist in Residence/ICC Program.