April 12, 2008
.. lies have short legs
It was an interesting audience; young arts student and dance types punctuated by older people who looked like they really knew their stuff. I sat between my friend Gavin and an engaging and terribly elegant woman whose grace in movement was well matched by a beautiful voice, perfect diction and a wonderful turn of phrase.
Gavin’s a designer friend whose comprehensive knowledge of art, art history and photography combine with a stunning level of creativity and open expressiveness that sometimes makes me feel that I’d be better off returning to university for a refresher course or two. He too was unimpressed by some of the works of the evening, declaring at one point that he had seen graduation shows that were more deserving despite not having had the benefit of arts council grants.
partial shot of PR literature on No Heaven
(c) Sadler's Wells, 2008
We each preferred different parts of the evening which is normal as far as I know. While Gavin declared that the highlight of his night was the banana cake he ate at its end, his favourite part of Live Screen was FILM. I most enjoyed the first of the Clod Collective performances and our new friend seemed to enjoy everything that contained recognisable dance.
Between us we represented a good range of perspectives. The articulate and well-dressed lady to my right is an ex high-level professional dancer who, while retired, is obviously still very much in touch with the scene. Gavin really knows his stuff if it’s art and design and if you put aside my specialisms I sit right in the middle. In view of the differences in what we preferred it is interesting that we agreed on what we disliked. That was most of of Step Two!
A written review should be concise, provide an accurate general impression and be easy to read. It can’t just include what we enjoyed or the live performance, and a discussion of carrot cake is right out of scope. It can't include a rant against everything we didn’t like either, as that would make the piece unbalanced, unreadable and far too long.
Since I believe that artistic interpretation should be up to each participating individual I described what happened and left the readers to make their own mind up as to what the pieces might have meant.
To be true to that approach I couldn't say that FILM subverts conventional ideas of movement, the factory floor and dance and plays on our preconceptions with humour and patterns and couldn't justify saying that while I enjoyed DUBUS I'm not sure about the extent to which it qualifies as dance. There was no space to say that I thought the true stars of the Clod Collective were stage and light designers, that their use of light and reflection was a wonderful art in itself and that I felt many of the pieces could have been shortened would have detracted from the overall message, especially since they’re all fairly short already.
So I’ve done it here instead.
You can find some of the film shorts on youtube:
Gavin couldn't find FLICKER, but this is Christinn Whyte's showreel
SHIFTWORK
April 02, 2008
Lucia... Thank you
I don't really know what to say here, but it's important to get something down.
Lucia was released from prison this morning. I don't know the details but assume that it's pending a retrial or similar investigation.
I'm taking the fact that she has been released as an indication of the likely end result of the next steps and want to say thank you to everyone who signed the petition.
We're not out of the woods yet. But things are looking good.
Thank you
March 22, 2008
.. wasted time
also frustrating and strange....
When I was told that my return from Argentina was delayed I sent an email to Bruce explaining what had happened as it meant I wasn't going to be able to review some of the flamenco I had been looking forward to seeing at the Sadler's Wells Flamenco Festival.
I also sent an email to Katherine asking if the tickets that had been allocated to me as part payment for writing this years' flamenco festival programme could be moved to productions that I could make.
I was disappointed of course, but consoled myself with the idea that I'd would still be able to see the second half of the festival and review Mujeres for Bruce. That was not to be. I fell ill with what seems to have been Dengue Fever and on my arrival was too ill to think about anything other than sleep.
I started to recover on the very last day of the festival and sent a quick note off to Sadler's Wells asking them to release the final tickets (there was no way I was well enough to get there) and went straight back to sleep.
But what to do about the review? It took a full week of recovery before I could think straight enough to worry and in the end decided that, rather than let Bruce down entirely I'd interview friends who I knew who had gone.
I was lucky. Carole used to write for me at Flamenco news. I've co-written pieces with her before, know her tastes and her style and have already established the places where our opinions do not match. The other contributor, Sarah is a long-standing flamenco friend. She has been dancing (and watching flamenco) for quite a long time and a respected journalist herself, so I had confidence that the words she chose to describe the production reflected exactly what she meant.
I'm still not completely better which is very frustrating but I've done my best.
I hope it's not too late.
Other entries will be transferred retrospectively from handwritten notes into this blog retrospectively over the following weeks... there are quite a few
March 19, 2008
... better late?
After a useful visit to a AITO - media event I successfully pitched Bruce on a story on the largest street party in Europe at the time of the Carnival in Tenerife. Sadly it was all too last minute and the commission arrived too late to arrange the press trip in February.
PR image from Carnival at Santa Cruz
All was not lost. I've been promised a place next year and expect it to be great fun while presenting some fantastic photo opportunities. I’m sure I’ll be able to write two or three different stories about the experience too. Meanwhile this year I used the information in a piece for Dance Today. A Year of Dance Holidays will be published next month.
 |
 | ||||||||
|
| ||||||||
|
| ||||||||
|
| ||||||||
|
| ||||||||
