Plants and Ghosts (2002)

I used the online archive siobhandaviesreplay.com, to watch Plants and Ghosts (2002)
There were various sections to the piece which were very clear but there were recurring themes throughout.
The use of lighting and staging was very interesting as it wasn't the typical procenium arch staging and both this and the lighting created varying atmospheres and effects. For example, the lighting at the beginning and also part way through, which, both times highlighted a solo showed a dull blue light connontating cold or supernatural?
There were many instances of repetition in each individual section but also throughout the whole piece.
The most interesting part for myself was the solo performed by a woman using sign language and pre-recorded sound. The story was repeated multiple times whilst the woman moved to different points in the space translating the story into sign language. The story gradually became more and more complex, introducing new details to the story and was quite comical in parts.

Translated into movement creation?

Siobhan Davies Replay

http://www.siobhandaviesreplay.com/lightbox.php
Most of the pieces I have scrapbooked on the online archive are a collaboration between various artists, not just Siobhan Davies herself. I also included Bridge the Distance (1985) into my scrapbook as I chose to use this piece as a stimlus for the A Level graded piece.

first siobhan davies dance workshop 08/11/2010

From the piece of text (below) we were asked to improvise and take notice of what strikes our curiosity as well as noticing when we were performing movements that we would normally do. We were asked to consider the possibility of challenging ourselves. This score was an accumulation of myself and of two other people who watched my dance improvisation piece.
I found this really helpful as it helped me to see parts of my dance i would have never have noticed before.

first Siobhan Davies dance workshop 08/11/10

We were given the following piece of writing to use as a stimulus for an improvised solo;

How fresh, how calm,

Stiller than this of course

the air was in the early morning;

Like the flap of a wave;

the kiss of a wave;

chill and sharp and yet

We then picked out the parts of the passage which related to us most and used these words/phrases/ideas to create movement. My chosen words were sharp, cyclical (my interpretation of the nature of waves) and calm.

We were encouraged to, if we found ourselves using a gesture that we recognised as something we would normally do, to push it to one side and try and work through the movement to create something new. I found this very challenging working outside my comfort zone, but also found it quite helpful in exploring new movement.

Beginning my D-Traces project blog...

,The first thing involved in the D-traces project was a workshop with three memebers of Siobhan Davies Dance company (http://www.siobhandavies.com/). We discussed the importance of blogging and archiving dance works and processes.
We discussed the reasons blogging is extrememly helpful;

• helps to rediscover work/movement material within choreographic process
• helps to remember
• helps with sharing work and create inspiration for other artists and practitioners

We were asked to create and iprovised solo from a given stimulus, which were recorded and photographs were taken of the process.

The session was extrememly helpful in understanding why blogging and archiving is a relevant and useful tool. I also gained more understanding in relation to creating improvised material and found I worked well with the style of process given.