Gravity & Levity

After the joys of Yes/No (Stomp) we’re getting to work with Charlotte Vincent! For the next four weeks! I am very excited, a big fan of her work. If you haven’t seen any of her work, then shame on you, go see some; they’re touring at the moment too. She makes hard-core, no silly business (but plenty of silly business), damned physical and emotional work, which is beautiful and extremely rare in this day and age.

Anyway, to tell you the truth, I don’t actually have any ‘dance’ movement yet in the whole piece. That’s not to say I’m not active, on the contrary, it’s a very physical piece, it’s just that I don’t have any movement with an expressive quality, something that has been intended to ‘say something’ (please don’t get the wrong idea, there is a lot said in the piece so far). I’m certainly not complaining, and I have the feeling that I might be getting this opportunity during Charlotte’s process. Saying that, who knows – she could make anything…

After the research and acclimatization week that we all had together back in November last there were a whole load of ideas bubbling away. We did some real fun improvs (which I imagine will be continued throughout this week) and explored some of the ‘hidden subtext’ (or not so hidden subtext) of aerial dance. Marvellous stuff and in a sense we don’t really know the direction her piece will take (I’m sure Charlotte has an idea…) There is also hearsay that Jen and myself could possibly have speaking roles during the section! I haven’t spoken during a piece in ages so it might be a little freaky; I’m kinder hoping that I might get the opportunity though.

Sadly Scott won’t be with us during Charlotte’s process as he is visiting family in the States. Even sadder still! This leaves me to be the only boy in the group, which is sometimes scary stuff and if you’re having a bad day can make you feel out-numbered. Mostly this is no bother, it’s just that it’s nice to chat to another fella and get things off your chest properly like. Scott has come to be a good friend over the past weeks that we’ve worked together and I think I’m going to miss the old boy.

First day of Charlotte’s process complete – and I’m happy to report plenty of improv. There was running, jumping, sliding, falling and even a little romancing for a while between Lindsey and myself. Spinning around above our tilted stage embraced in tender circles -ahhhhh. Then Jen and Vanessa rush in and ruin it all! Oh well, fun whilst it lasted. We floated down from platforms and walked up scaffold polls… well the girls did, I was ballast.

At end of the day, whilst we were all playing with a plank that’s suspended from the ceiling, unfortunately we had an accident. To be more precise it was Vanessa who had the accident. She got a nasty scrapping and I imagine by tomorrow morning bruising bash to her back (spine! eek!) it looked right mean. But in true Vanessa style she showed grace and civility when I reckon most would have been pretty expletive, in the same situation. After a quick lie down and icing she seemed to be back to good. Also sporting some rather fetching wounds. If you ask her nicely I’m sure she wouldn’t mind showing you.