Jonathan Burrows & Ramsay Burt present 'New dance and somatics'

A panel discussion curated by choreographer Jonathan Burrows and academic Ramsay Burt, new dance and somatics with guest panelists Siobhan Davies, Miranda Tufnell and Antje Hildebrandt.

Chisenhale Dance Space       
Wednesday 20th June 6.30-8.30pm

Contact and exchange of artists and teachers between the US and UK during the 1970s and 1980s led to explorations by British-based dance artists of new ways of moving, particularly ones that encouraged a focus on sensitivity to somatic processes. These included (but were not restricted to) contact improvisation, release-based methods of movement exploration, body mind centering, the Alexander technique, Tai Chi, and Aikido. This talk, the last of three at different London venues during June, will start with a historical introduction by Ramsay Burt, from De Montfort University, who will contextualise British new dance and the developing interest in these somatic practices during the period. It will be followed by a roundtable discussion chaired by choreographer Jonathan Burrows which will consider the different ways in which these explorations informed the work of British-based dancers and their practices. The recently published collection ‘The Body Eclectic’ considers ways in which professional dancers in the US have embraced an eclectic diversity of different approaches to their training. To what extent and in what ways was this also happening in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s, and if so what if anything is different about the way the approaches are being explored by British-based dancers today?

This is the last of three talks in this series will take place at Siobhan Davies Studios on 1st June, and Lillian Baylis theatre, Sadler’s Wells on June 7th, each of which will feature different guest speakers and focus on a different aspect of British New Dance.

Please contact the Chisenhale Dance Space office team on 02089816617 to book your place. More information on all three talks can be found here: www.new-dance-events.org.uk

The audio recordings are now online:
http://www.siobhandavies.com/relay/events/remembering-british-new-dance/

Trio Collective: A Self-Interview

Trio Collective: A Self-Interview is a performance that takes the form of a self-interview of the collective, which acts as a mode for questioning, understanding and performing our collaboration. The text is based on several self-interviews that took place during our creative process and served as methodological tools for our performances. The performance derives from texts developed in June 2009 and in April 2012, therefore making explicit a gap in both our personal and collective memory, as well as interrogating our collaborative process through past, present and future times.

We will discuss issues arising from our collaboration including the relationship between talking and doing, different modes of communication, misunderstandings and failures, responsibility and decision-making. The members of the collective are both interviewers and interviewees –exchanging roles and seeking identities. Questioning issues of authorship and non-hierarchical working structures, we are trying to define and organise the fluid boundaries that exist within our modes of production.

Seeking alternative ways to work together (not always being able to be at the same place at the same time), we have formed a virtual rehearsal space that acts as a platform for collaborative performance practice. The resulting blog is a curious archive. It flattens the perception of time as a linear development and presents it as fragmented and incomplete. It gives the illusion of Trio as a coherent entity (we are all on here together), but has yet to overcome its differences and inconsistencies.

Conference Presentations:

4 May 2012: Symposium ON COLLABORATION at Middlesex University, London

http://mdxoncollaboration.blogspot.co.uk/

15 May 2012: CADRE Research Student Conference 2012 ON PERFORMATIVITY at the University of Wolverhampton

http://phdconference.wordpress.com/

30 July 2012: In Dialogue Symposium at Nottingham Conference - with a special performance by Michelle Lynch on Skype

http://indialogue2012.wordpress.com