And off we flew on the back of the Winged Horse
« Un seul être vous manque, et tout est dépeuplé ! »
That's a bit how I feel right now, something's missing, my world feels somewhat empty; although what I miss is not 'someone' like in Lamartine's poem but 'a whole lot of someones and somethings'...
So instead of delving into how I'm dealing with my "post-show blues" (as undoubtedly that's what it is!) and how I'm in the process of resuming life as normal (as in back to work, shifting back my headspace into academia full-time), I will proceed to tell you the story of how the show went :)
Just a way like another to prolong the most enjoyable experience that the whole preparation and presentation of "Triple-Entendre" at the Pegasus Theatre was, really!
In thinking about our programme page, I found myself wondering how much to say and how much to leave to our audience's imagination - retrospectively I realise that I mistakenly assumed that everyone would have a programme - when in fact they didn't (which I realised later, talking to my Dad and Sis' - they sweetly came all the way from Paris to see the show, isn't that something?).
So with that idea of "I want to say a bit what we based our piece on and try to hint at some of the images we've worked with but without being too explicit", I started writing a short text. Some call it a poem, I see it more as clues to what we've been trying to depict. In fact, I was hoping that whether read after having seen the piece or before, the piece and the text would shed some light onto each other.
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| Our programme page [Thanks to Raz for his most ingenious suggestion, which led to using this one of Bella's beautiful pictures as a backdrop to the text] |
During the week running up to the show I also started to rattle my brain as to what kind of good luck tokens I could bring to all of us in the dressing room... I knew we would all be bringing some choccies and all sorts of yummy sweet snacks, but that occasion was so special to me, I thought I ought to do something special too. That's how I discovered origami lucky stars, and here is where I learned how to make them... I used strips of music paper cut 1cm wide and about 20cm long, and, armed with tweezers, I unexpectedly turned into a lucky stars churning machine! The first ones weren't great, but practice makes perfect, and by the time of the show I had made about 250 of them, I think... (yes I did stop to count them, just to see if I could evaluate visually how many I might have made - well I can't!) Here is what they look like - staged just for you in what I like to think of as a memory jar, and set on the original artwork that Suzie Moxley kindly and beautifully made for us and which I used in the video I put together to use as a backdrop during our piece...
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| To give you an idea of scale, a lucky star is about 1.5cm at its widest. [Artwork: Susan Moxley] |
So there we were all: AnaMorphic Dance Theatre (Emma, Steve, George, Matt, Anne, Edie, and Caroline); Ana Barbour and Naomi Morris; Jenny Parrot; Elly Crowther's Ellyfish and Things (Elly, Eluned, Emma, Sarah, and Jude); and Mnemosyne (Laura, Malcolm, and I), armed with our lucky stars, all sweetened up with chocolates, fruits and toffees... and ready to go on stage...
I like dressing room atmospheres. Everyone's busy, we all seem to be taking turns alternating between being really concentrated on ourselves, and joking the pre-show tension away. Then comes the strange disconnect as people come back from having just performed, still a bit in the zone, but with a kind of elation that's miles away from the other zone those who still have to go out there are in - one of concentration, warming up and recaps... Platform shows like "Moving with the Times" are bizarre that way, and it makes me feel sad to not be able to watch the others' pieces, I'd so love to see what they've been up to as an audience, rather than furtively from the wings or on a screen. We were on 4th, out of 5 groups, which meant that by the time the first group was on we needed to start doing our make-up (if it wasn't done already) and warm up, slowly and thoroughly...
And then we were on - onto the Pegasus stage, hoping that the Winged Horse would bless us with a bit of his poetic inspiration and allow us to touch the audience with our piece.
The Zone. Indescribable. I never clearly remember; I'm someone else, but I'm also more me. Involved, entirely, uncompromisingly, bodily, emotionally.
And then it's over.
We had some lovely feedback, from loved ones and from strangers, from dance artists and from dance neophytes. All heart warming and so generous, we are very grateful, and happy!
[But then I don't expect that people who didn't like our piece would walk up to us and say so - it would be interesting though to hear the opinions of those who "didn't understand" or "didn't like it", it might help improve the piece!]
And I do feel so very lucky to have shared this whole experience with Laura and her incredible talent and selflessness, and with Malcolm and his amazing creativity and involvement. I miss them now!
Here are four of my favourite pictures, all by inspired photographer David Fisher, one for each of the sections in the piece, and each very representative of each one of our 4 tableaux I think:
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| Laura Addison and Ségolène Tarte Stuck on the Rail Tracks Photo: David Fisher |
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| Ségolène Tarte Angry with the World Photo: David Fisher |
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| Laura Addison Tango Mosquito Photo: David Fisher |
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| Laura Addison, Malcolm Atkins, and Ségolène Tarte The Waltzing Hour of Memory Photo: David Fisher |
Check out the Picture Gallery for more stunning pics by David Fisher.
Each of these sections are named after the tracks of Malcolm's specially composed music in tight collaboration with us dancers/choreographers. A full CD of his compositions, including the tracks of our piece can be found here. The music soundtrack was amazing, and he played live also on top of the sound track for the show! Have I neglected to say so before? The music was so much an intrinsic part of the piece. Malcolm worked on it hard, and we had lengthy conversations about what we meant or wanted to express. In the end it was as much the dance that shaped the music as the music that shaped the dance. It feels like they support each other on equal terms...
Each of these sections are named after the tracks of Malcolm's specially composed music in tight collaboration with us dancers/choreographers. A full CD of his compositions, including the tracks of our piece can be found here. The music soundtrack was amazing, and he played live also on top of the sound track for the show! Have I neglected to say so before? The music was so much an intrinsic part of the piece. Malcolm worked on it hard, and we had lengthy conversations about what we meant or wanted to express. In the end it was as much the dance that shaped the music as the music that shaped the dance. It feels like they support each other on equal terms...
And if you haven't had enough of all this quite just yet, then do have a look at the Press page for some reviews of the show.
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