February 2012
3 posts
2 tags
THE AFTER-PERFORMANCE
Today’s post is from our friend and guest blogger Christopher Matthews Hutchings, reviewing London’s contemporary dance inspired by the work of Lizzie Kew-Ross. Go Chris!
A couple weeks ago I went to see a work by Lizzie Kew-Ross at the Old Vic Tunnels, which compelled me. The dancers ran through the space only to find themselves in conflict at any point with each other. Their stories and...
1 tag
Boiling Point
Rehearse
Recommend friend for a project in the summer
Meet the directors of a dance company for project development
Rehearse
Meet about space opportunity
Go to film night
Rehearse
Rehearse late
Meet friends in pub for a meeting about dance statistics
Edit video for application
Find out about being awarded an amazing professional development opportunity
Rearrange previous commitments
Find out that...
COMEDY NIGHT PERFORMANCE
Disclaimer: First off, this is a response to an adult comedy night- over 18yrs. “We should be able to enjoy some adult comedy. If you’re easily offended, then f*** off!”
*****
Last week I went to a comedy gig in Leicester Square. As I listened, laughed, and looked around at the audience, I noticed a crowded theatre full of people facing glaringly towards the front of the stage, drink in hand....
January 2012
4 posts
2 tags
Honest Living
Whilst I was at work, bar-tending and waitressing, I was propositioned by a customer twice my age to travel with him to Thailand for eight weeks, all expenses paid. He said that if he had a girlfriend from England to escort him abroad then he wouldn’t have to worry about Thai women throwing themselves at him to have sex in exchange for his money. I consider myself to be a very open-minded person,...
2 tags
Working Conditions
Gillie Kleiman was away and kindly allowed The Shrinking Violets to host one of her Coffee Mornings at Chisenhale Dance Space on 17th January 2012.
The stipulated topic was Working Conditions and various themes and offshoots emerged. Below are some thought-provoking highlights. Coffee Morning is billed as ‘Rant. Chat. Eat.’ The eleven of us that attended certainly did that! We realise that each...
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Ladies Night
A collaboration between a new generation of London-based dance artists and Southbank Centre forms a group called ‘Collective Movement,’ working as a platform for dance contributors whilst engaging in a supportive dance community in London.
Thursday, January 12th, artists from ‘Collective Movement’ performed an evening of dance works, ‘Body of Movement,’ presented at Royal Festival Hall....
3 tags
Creative Risks
Would I bungee jump?
Yes…If I was with somebody else.
My sister asked me this question and my answer caught me off guard. Its sentiments could originate with being a hopeless romantic but then one can’t ignore the morbidity apparent in my thinking that if I died mid-bungee, at least I would take someone else with me. We would die together.
I do not think that this is an okay...
December 2011
4 posts
1 tag
2 tags
As promised, we tried to answer what we thought...
3 tags
Do dancers need heroes?
Do dancers need heroes?
Dance doesn’t directly save lives or rescue anybody.
Our roles aren’t those of firefighters, doctors, or The President.
Who do you look up to?
Do communities need to look up to someone?
Do dancers need role models?
Are our role models the iconic choreographers backstage or do we look up to one specific performer/image/character?
Choreographers and artistic directors have...
4 tags
Reconstituted dance: As unappealing as...
Our wonderful friend Lizzie Sells is moving to Mexico this month. We will miss her and wanted to publish an article she wrote after attending the talk A feeling for practice. Revivals: Moving beyond the steps, during Dance Umbrella 2011. Her approach is gutsy and refreshingly uncompromising when it comes to critiquing the effect of reviving dance works on dance performers. Take it away...
November 2011
4 posts
7 tags
THE BULBS OUTSIDE OF HER WINDOW
One Saturday morning a girl and her friends go marketing on Deptford High Street. She remembers that it is winter, a time to plant bulbs to have fresh blossoms to look forward to come spring; and so, she inevitably ends up walking home before dark with Narcissus papryaceus, Hyacinthus orientalis, and Narcissus ‘King Alfred’ carried under both arms.
She wakes each morning and peers out her window...
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Leaving a Mark
Orange leaves give a golden perspective that unnerves because the year is ending. I can’t remember what I’ve done with it. Misplaced the whole year somewhere – maybe it’s tucked away in the very bottom corner of my jewellery box. Or the end of my bed, all warm and wrapped up but my feet don’t reach it.
A year is not a healthy thing to have forgotten.
It’s not about being caught up in...
3 tags
Push The Button, Don't Push The Button
Now this was posted on the facebook of someone trying to chat me up – yes I have a facebook chatter-upper. This week I have also been asked to audition via Skype – as in because we all have hectic schedules, maybe I could dance in my small Welsh bedroom for a part in a music video. Hmm. I don’t think so. I will rent a studio for an afternoon and continue to be a bit freaked out by the stuff...
1 tag
What Do You Do? How Do You Do?
I’d like to quote Mårten Spångberg, not to enhance the distribution of his book, SPANGBERGIANISM because frankly, he can distribute it quite well on his own – I imagine him throwing copies over the Millennium bridge, at your face and on your doorstep. I mention him because I can’t think of anyone who said these words more genuinely:
Stop talking about yourself as a dancer. You are not a dancer!...
October 2011
4 posts
Hopeful self, unemployed
We are forever hopeful. Hoping that we’ll make it. Hopeful of revolutions, the 1998 Human Rights Act and a two week old baby being pulled from earthquake carnage.
A very, very kind friend said that she was impressed with the proactiveness of The Shrinking Violets Blog. I snorted, thinking that maybe the project is actually a desperate attempt at making me employed. So ungenerous with my dancing...
4 tags
Two Types of Dancers: Company AND Freelance
Dancers…always working, not always performing. Company dancers: Their work activities include technique class, rehearsals, performances and galas: leaving no time for life outside of the studio and theatre. This also explains why the dance world has traditionally been quite incestuous; dancers copulate with their dance partner or the choreographer which tends to form hierarchies within the...
3 tags
First Impressions
Hi, my name is [so and so].
I am a [such and such].
[Handshake].
These first impressions are the beginnings of a show.
Stepping through that door to sit in those hideous ‘first day of a choreographic workshop’ circles immediately builds pressure through the body. Palms sweat and temperatures rise while each of us fidgets, waiting our turn to say an interesting bit about ourselves....
1 tag
Manifesto
The Shrinking Violets’ Manifesto 06/10/11
The Shrinking Violets are a band:
harmonic, temperamental, taking things one gig at a time, married to the job.
The Shrinking Violets believe in passion, involvement, and keeping our hearts beating.
The Shrinking Violets question towards possibility.
The Shrinking Violets don’t take ourselves too seriously but just...