Sarah Lochhead - Simcoe Contemporary Dancers : creating from sensation
Sarah Lochhead (choreographer)
Nadege Blackhall, Regan McQuoid, Jessica Ransom (interpreters)
Simcoe Contemporary Dancers, Barrie Ontario
Beginning:
Interest in collections and collages.
inspirations:
images of: carousel, birds,
idea: when women were birds
idea: finding one’s voice
Two desires:
To develop the duets
•To create from sensation not from “head”.
Challenges:
To translate image/idea into movement in space
To understand how the different ideas live together in one piece
To be aware of what the material is actually conveying to the audience
To move forward in the piece and not get stuck for hours in one place
That the dancers develop sophisticated movement choices
New material through demonstration came from Sarah’s (choreographer) own clear physical performance of the idea but
How to adjust it for other bodies? •and for 3 not one? •and with dancers not trained in the same ways as the choreographer?
Development/skills:
First there was the trio, then you (the group) wondered about the viewpoint of the dancers so you put the audience inside and the dancers performing around them, then flipped the experiment with the dancers back in the centre (where the inside audience had been).
This showed Creative Agility. How did you feel when that was going on?
Can you put yourselves back into that state so that you can continue to be agile in other rehearsals?
What is your state when you are your creative selves?
When you are your organizational selves? your observational selves?
Because the company is training together:
Identify what physical approaches are needed for your work.
... in order to perform movement learned through demonstration?
... movement created through image or sensation?
... what does the group need to know somatically to.... see an imaginary feather?
