Collaborative work with Surface Area Dance 2018 - 2022. My role within the company encompassed the construction of stage sets and props. Projected imagery has been a key component of the project, utilising hand held LED film projectors enables mobility, projecting onto the floor, walls, paper, muslin backdrops and onto the bodies of the costumed dance artists.
Projects have been centred upon experiential understanding of British Sign Language,deaf culture, Japanese culture and Butoh. The opening or gateway, to the collective’s coming together, was supported by the introduction of Ma (間),which can be translated as a gap/ pause /interval — together the group began to physically interpret the possibilities of Ma,responding with an assertive series of gestures, postures and settlements of physical contact — instigated by the proposition of using the entire body as a listening instrument, capable of feeling,touching and seeing the colours and textures of sound, sound in space and in silence.
Thus far several iterations of a performances entitled 'Behind the Surface of a Rock, Throwing Stones' have taken place in a range of diverse arts venues such as Dance City Newcastle, The Barbican Conservatory, The Hepworth Gallery, Roche Court Sculpture Park and Baltic Gateshead.
photography by Chris Younger
