mICHEal Clark cOMPANY! : Come,been,gone.

Lowry: fRi 28th Jan 2011: Dance

I went to see this performance of Micheal Clarks new piece in January,i loved it and i'm not quite sure why i'm only just blogging this now....
Perhaps i was in shock because it was a projection of exactly what i would love to choreograph and design. The bold outfits of latex and lycra in orange,sliver,gold emphasises the dynamism of the iconic Lou Reed,Brian Eno and Bowie soundtrack. The movment was similar to tim Rushtons' in that it was intricate,surreal,however much easier to understand despite having no idea of theme despite are own interpetations ( the programmes were far too expensive.) I do get the impression that Micheal Clark may a bit up his own arse,due to the pretencious 'i only use highly proffesional dancers' monologue, on his website. However,the strong technique of these dancers does heighten the impressiveness of the work but maybe Clark could be more naturilist and human sometimes in his movement.
We arrived 6 minutes late to the show ( burger kings fault) and we were told at the doors that the choreographer had a strict late policy, we were forced to sit outside and watch the first piece on a crackling t.v screen. Hence my impression of his character.Thus I wasn't overly impressed by the first piece,also it was much slower,darker and static than the other pieces,with no electric soundtrack. The preceeding two acts brought the audience alive,with people twitching in ther seats to David Bowies' iconic music.Despite a varied array of movement material and outifts, the 'starman' section of the second half left a lot to be desired in terms of design creativity, the video for the song was projected in a very basic way into the right side of the stage,the movment seemed very overpowered by the music (which may have been the intention) and i felt that the projection could have filled the stage,the floor, the centre back...anywere and anyway other than how it was done. This is a harsh criticsim but nevertheless something that i felt most of the audiecne woudl have agreed with,despite this the final act definatley made up for any slight misgivings in the first two sections. Once again the choreographer left the most vibrant piece till last.
The use of costume in the final piece and some of the seciond included; head pieces,bright colours and a surreal all in one sliver glitter suit. The use of cannon (choreographic device,if you don't know that term,)repeptition of motifs and shows of extreme strength on a ballet bar.

More Fishle work.//

Fishle: New poster art work

My current project is poster art and different forms of visual public art work in cities.(i'll post a little research up next) I hope to transfer my own visuals onto objects,clothes etc and discard them in and around manchester city centre. I'm not sure if this will work out and i've had quite a few other ideas,so at the moment i am soley working on the visuals i will use. I had this one idea to sew of transfer my visuals onto material and hand them over bins and benches,sew them around lamposts,bins and locks in public toilets. I created the works on this post using a scanner,my own drawings,collages and edited them using the scanner software + photoshop. I hope to use these images as part of a zine also ,however ,my next step is to use screenprinting and letterpress and possible create smaller version to be used as sticker art.

tHEmes THAT i am exploring are: Surrealism,futurism,sci-fi,space images,creatures and layering.

Hopefully i'll be exhibiting a couple at a poster party soon.....

ALTERNATIVE POSTER ART: my current project>>>how sweet is this work!

SLINKACHU: tiny models placed in urban landscapes.

http://little-people.blogspot.com/

ROTOR: The Whitworth ART gallery.

The work existed in 2 beautiful sections.1) A performance of ROTOR: the choreography by Siobhan Davies and the basis of the exhibited work by some of the worlds most well known artists. 2) the exhibition: 2 floor of diverse yet similar work,using the concepts of shapes,time and circularity on the performance.

The EXHIBITION:

The exhibition wasn't quite as varied in media as I'd hoped. I thought that perhaps the artists may have pushed the boundaries of inter media art,perhaps i expected more film work an less screen prints. My favourite works included, a large wall hanging of quite optical jarring patterns. Also the Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi prints,as a fan of the artist prior,i felt that the connection between the work and the prints,if not very clear,was present and in particular i just enjoyed the mono-tone,futuristic style of the work,which is my main interest at the present. The exhibition included rotating sculpture,fragmented yet connected sculpture,not to be rude but it was quite dull yet strangely interesting but is that because i knew the subject matter which interested me anyway,I'm not sure. The 2d prints of kaleidoscopic style patterns seemed quite common and i felt that perhaps the works use of sound and human gestures could have been interpreted instead of simply the circular floor patterns at the beginning,which stood out as a common method of translation.

The performance:

http://www.siobhandavies.com/dance/dance-works/rotor.html

Really enjoyed this! The choreography was typical yet far removed from Davies's style, perhaps this was personal to me,as i have never seen her works live only ever past filmed theatre videos. I found the performance much more physical theatre based yet using the principles of intricately woven movements combined with voice percussion with beautiful harmonies, harmonicas, body percussion,walking, animated and extroverted expressions. This choreography gave me ideas for how i can choreograph but without using simply dance based movements and gestures but voice, silence,speed dynamics and the idea of conveying recognisable settings in an abstract yet clear manner.
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Zines

I have this idea to create an arty,weird zine comprising of strange fiction/non-fiction,drawings and collage with a bit of typography thrown in. So i've been researching the aesthetics of zines because i really have no idea what i'm doing. These images are more for my benefit really. :)

Danish Dance theatre-09/02/11>> Lowry

on Wednesday the 9th of February, i took the short yet treacherous journey to the lowry to attend Time Rushton's,Danish Dance Theatre first UK performance,having purchased my cheap,awful seats in advance we entered the pink and slightly odd theatre.Having seriously hyped it up in my head from watching you tube clips..i was expecting an epic show. I did thoroughly enjoy aspects of the show,in particular the set design in the final act,the perfect technique of the dancers and the surreal and intricate choreography.However, i did find it quite/very intense in its incredibly dark and brooding musical score,colours and themes, with the movement also becoming quite repetitive and abstract,at some points it erupted in awkward explosions of twitching. I suppose what i am trying to say in a subtle way is that the work was slightly self involved,despite overt displays of deep rooted human emotions. The use of live percussion and voice captured the audiences interest,however the drums seems to take away form the piece rather then enhance it,as there volume overpowered the quite muted communication of the theme.
I was an abundance of excitement when i entered the theatre,mainly bacause i was given the beautiful gift of a FREE programme, which (if you are unaware of the politics of dance performance) is very rare and something worth getting excited about.The work was sometimes quite clear in its thematic intent, however it could also be highly ambiguous and each section seemed to use very similar isolations and floor patterns,which is not necessarily a bad thing,it simply just IS,it is up to the viewers' own likes and dislikes to inform their opinion on this 'MARMITE' movement of repeated twists and arm motifs.
Tim Rushtons' choreography was beautifully performed by the 9 extremely technically equipped,delicate but yet strong and sexual dancers. I have never seen dancers execute a choreography so effortlessly,especially one so intricate,where every limb down the finger tips is used as a way to communicate. At points it could feel as thought the dancers became to individual,too individually stylistic,however if any thing this added to the piece instead of detracting from it.
The work was split onto 3 parts,which refers back to my feeling of sameness and hegemony between 3 seemingly quite different themes. The first piece,'Enigma,' was 'beautiful and sensual duets,as the dancers strive to understand each other as enigma means riddle or puzzle.' The second work,'CaDance,' used the live percussion and themes of masculine competition,whilst the third and final piece,also my favourite,'kridt' which translates as 'Chalk,' shows ' a man on the verge of death remembering his life,loves and losses,' a work that uses all the dancers and a more lineal and clear thematic structure. The set design includes a large chalk board that spanned the width of the stage and was used as an integral part of the choreography,as if to represent human trace as the 'dying man' character was drawn around as he slid across the stage. The finale shows the man standing centre stage as a cascade of sand filled light flows down over him,as though enveloping him,seemingly representing death or epiphany. The final section seemed slightly removed from the other two pieces as it was SO eye catching, SO dynamic and emotional that the audience gasped in awe at its' beauty. It always seems to me the choreographers leave the best piece till last.