Scoop for Two

An improvisation between violin and dance, Mardyah Tucker and Katie Keeble explore the non-narrative of two instruments at play gathering new findings along our path in this scoop for two. 

Performed at the Brighton Fringe Festival, Coachwerks, 27th June 2009.

You can see our process and more about the project on our page here 

http://scooptwo.blogspot.com

and you can see the Brighton Fringe Festival at Coachwerks here

www.coachwerks.org.uk

The Speaking Dancer

interdisciplinary performance training - SDIPT, Hall for Cornwall/Director Jacky Lansley and Tim Brinkman - module 4

As part of the module 4 for The Speaking Dancer we explored the site specific place of St Agnes in Cornwall. A stunning place to find inspirational ideas within the natural landscape and old mining buildings left derelict, beautiful and full of history. Here are a few photos from the afternoon we spent by the coast. 

 

research photos; Kristalia Grigori, pht by Katie Keeble.

Trisha Durdey and I spent the afternoon exploring the landscape and seascape that connects to our relationship in context to the place. We found pathways in the land that came to a natural cross-roads, and this became a place that could easily develop into a story between us. In our relationship we were abstract in our ideas and allowed the viewer to envision the picture, a lot of responses from the audience was of mother and daughter. This work was really inspirational for me and I'd very much like to work in this way in the future.

Trisha Durdey. and Katie Keeble performing at St Agnes, Cornwall. Pht. Yoko Nishimura.

In the workshop we were working in The Hall for Cornwall where we also worked in the theatre and space site-specifically. Working in duets we were looking at the relationship between the choreographer, director and performer. This was a great way to experiment with the performance and the space and explore each of our individual ideas based around text from Ashes to Ashes by Harold Pinter. In groups we worked together to bring the ideas into a small piece for four performers, this was really exciting to have the theatre space to work in as it is so open and large, especially when including the auditorium as well. Coming into the theatre after working in the landscape outside was a great feeling, the open and vast space outside transfered so naturally when coming inside. 

 
Angela Gasparetto, Tim Taylor, Jenny Copping, Angela Kelly, performing at St Agnes, Cornwall. Pht. Yoko Nishimura.

You can find out more about the course on Jacky's website at 

www.jackylansley.co.uk

The Speaking Dancer

interdisciplinary performance training SDIPT; dance research studio/Director Jacky Lansley - module 3

In module 3 we were looking at Visual language and the performer. Delving into the visual apsects of performance, one of our explorations was in a walk along the canal in Hackney, I have posted a few pictures from this walk here..

  
 

These images contributed to our experience of the outside visuals and bringing the ideas back inside to the studio, exploring them in a physical language. It was great to play with using the camera as a frame and finding exciting elements out doors to bring into focus through the lens.

We also explored a visual image we had brought with us to the workshop. I was working with an image by Korean artist living in New York, Miru Kim. 

Miru Kim uses herself as the focus in her photographs, placing her self, as a naked body, in the photograph with extremely dramatic backdrops. The locations for her photographs vary around the theme of abandoned, disused and derelict spaces in New York and other cities across Europe and Asia. These include Freedom Tunnel, New York, River Tyburn, London and the Boxhagener in Berlin. 

You can see more of Kims work here on her website www.mirukim.com

We also brought with us to the workshop an object, item of clothing or text. I decided to bring a text with me, 'Invisible Cities' by Italio Calvino. I found the text and image worked well together as they were both resonating imagery around cities and mythical places, made surreal by the placement of people or bodies in the picture.

I worked in duet with Lucy Tuck, a physical actor, whom brought in an object of a black and white see through cloth, that we used as a metaphorical symbol for both of our personalities, being like two sides of a coin, or similarly like sisters. We placed the performance directly inside the studio where we were performing, using all the aspects of the space in performance, like the stairs and pillar. This was to reflect the themes running through the image and text of space, place and location being the central aspects to the narratives.

I found a lot of inspiration from this workshop for my own choreographic work using images and visual material as a stimuli for creating movement. I look forward to continuing to explore these ideas and finding new ways of working with photography and visuals in choreography. 

The Speaking Dancer

interdisciplinary performance training SDIPT; dance research studio/Director Jacky Lansley - module  2

In module 2 we were looking at emotional embodiment of the speaking dancer, and discovering techniques in which we can embody a character or specific emotion with a text, by drawing on different art forms. Through analyzing observation of our own physical language and responses to our senses and forms of emotions in everyday life, we can more clearly begin to embody the emotions and language of our chosen character.

My text for the research was 'The House of the Spirits' by Isabelle Allende, and I was looking at ideas of our ancestors, family connections and specifically the relationship between grandmother, daughter and grand-daughter. Through the story in the book, Alba, the grand-daughter held very strong ties with her Grandmother; a medium whom evokes spirits in their house. 

In one scene Alba is looking at pictures of her grandmother, now passed, with her Grandfather; "You can take your roots with you, if you ever have to leave this place, my dear" he said", and together with this fragment of text, an item of clothing and physical preparation to embody a character, my ideas were taking shape. Alba became a spider; in animal form, the tie became a tongue, of recreating stories told through generations, and a timeline placed on the floor, and emotions of excitement as a young girl and sadness for her grandfather missing his wife.

Developing these ideas in a duet with Terri Stevens, a visual artist and inclusive dance artist, our characters were asked to meet to discover how we get on! Terrys character was the poet Shamshad Khan and her text one of the poems, our material came together drawing amazing coincidences, and although our original pieces were very conceptual we gave the duet a context and place for performance from combining languages and creating space to discover each other along the way. 

Inspired by working with Terri and my research from this workshop I applied to develop it further with a new piece, here is the beginning of my application...

land home home lands (working title) ancestors/travel/migration/dialogues/countries/borders/journeying/home 

Discovering identity through travel, journeys and dialogues. the presence of our ancestors are ever present within us every moment. Through discussions and dialogues with generations that have experienced so much we can come to understand our own stories and journeys at this time. Researching the countries and landscapes that make up who we are, carrying with us places in our families histories. 

to be cont'd...

bodies of water - explorations into environment

photography Chris Daly

bodies of water is a research study into working with the art forms dance, music, photography and film, experimenting in ideas encompassing themes of environment, landscape and details in the element water.

We are creating the piece in a supportive network of choreographers and artists - 'Critical Pathways', Independent Dance; providing critical feedback for each others work and process in creating individual material, as well as mentoring by choreographer Rosemary Butcher.

We are also supported by the Dance Research Studio.

choreography Katie Keeble

dancers Ria Uttridge, Katie Keeble

composer Timo Tukanen

musicians Mardyah Tucker, violin, Zach McCullough, percussion, Timo Tukanen, electronics

photography Chris Daly, Ellie Keeble

camera Katie Keeble

edit Andy Wood and Katie Keeble

performances

Green Man Festival, Wales 21st, 22nd, 23rd August 2010

Live Art Festival at the Theatre Academy, Helsinki, Finland 8th June 2009

Siobhan Davies Studios, London 5th June 2009

Siobhan Davies Studios, London 10th March 2009

Amadeus Centre, London 1st March 2009

You can find more on our process at

http://bodiesofwater-explorations.blogspot.com

The Speaking Dancer

interdisciplinary performance training SDIPT; dance research studio/Director Jacky Lansley - module 1

In the first module for interdisciplinary performance training we were working with the duality of the speaking dancer, a metaphor as well as literal translation of working with dance and voice. As preparation we brought with us a sitting, standing and resting position from our everyday lives, and through analysis and deconstruction creatively motored them to combine with our voice through exploring sounds in texts we had selected and brought with us.

My experiences of this weekend was highlighted by our work with voice, discovering habits and awareness of ourselves when placed in new and different situations, such as an 'actors studio' speaking on the hot seat, then integrating our voice with movements, movement coming from text, text coming from movement, exploring an item of clothing that related to our text, and improvising as a duet, then including a shadow person into the work, seeing any differences that appear.. 

It was fascinating working with everyone in the group as we are all from different backgrounds and art disciplines, ranging from actors, visual artists, dancers, play writes and poets. The weekend was an intensive workshop exploring and researching our own materials, collectively as a group, as well as individually. encouraged to expand and grow with our findings together bringing them with us into our own practices and creativity in our professions.

Each module every two months, investigates new awareness to working in interdisciplinary arts, learning from each other as much as ourselves and Jacky Lansley, leading the course, we have a lot to discover on the way! :)

photograph of everyones visual interpretation of their vocal voices, photo by Katie Keeble.

LNDSNF_40

Royal Festival Hall, 13th dec 2008

photography Tracy Faye

London Sinfonietta's 40th Birthday, Royal Festival Hall Spirit Level

Together with the Culture Collective, a group of 7 inter-disciplinary artists in music, composition, dance and animation, with the Street Geniuses; photographer Amah Asomani and Nabeel Hassan and Emrul Hassan Marketing, we curated and programmed the 40th Birthday event for the London Sinfonietta.

The Culture Collective worked with Mira Calix, composer and electronic arist to create an original integrated composition with dance, music and live animation, called Pop Music! 

Working with the theme of a Birthday Party we created Pop Music! to celebrate, with 40 balloons in the piece that are popped one by one by each of the performers throughout the performance. Created by violinist/composer Jordan Hunt, pianist Antoine Francois, cellist Nicole Robson, keyboards Rachel Essien, guitar Timo Tuhkanen and guest musician from London Sinfonietta Dave Powell on the Tuba, dancer/choreographer Katie Keeble, live camera footage by Will Crook, and electronics/conductor Mira Calix.

We performed the piece twice in the evening, the second performance live on BBC Radio 3 during a live broadcast of compositions from the London Sinfonietta's repertoire. Through-out the event were performances by...

Dai Fujikura Eternal Escape for solo cello
Vinko Globokar Res/As/Ex/Inspirer for trombone
LS Culture Collective  Pop Music!
Mira Calix new work for solo cello and electronics (world premiere)
John Woolrich fragment for solo saxophone
Dai Fujikura Eternal Escape foe solo cello
Anna Meredith new work for trombone and electronics
Jordan Hunt Lambic Stutter for flute, saxophone, trombone, cello and keyboard (world premiere of new version)
Will Gregory Interference for solo saxophone and electronics

the performances took place in three rooms, each one a different colour of blue, yellow and red, where different events took place during the night!

See more about LDNSNF_40 at our blog page....

http://lsculturecollective.blogspot.com

and our website...

www.ldnsnf-40.com

Standing Stones Cathedral tour

choreography Jacky Lansley

dancers Katie Keeble, Ayano Honda, Paul Wilkinson and Daniella Ferreira

musicians Dave White - clarinet, Jonathan Delbridge - piano

music Mozart, Clarinet Quintet

lighting design Micheal Mannion

costume design Emma Hopkinson

As a dancer in Standing Stones working with choreographer Jacky Lansley, we explored many ideas and themes that arose from the Cathedrals we were due to perform in during the Cathedral tour, 2008. Jacky had come to rehearsals with many notes and research about the Cathedrals, their history and architecture of their structure and forms. We looked into the Cathedrals history and their relationship with the communities during medieval periods when a lot of Cathedrals were first built, tracing their roots in Pagan traditions and use as theatrical spaces. As part of the choreography I learnt how to stilt walk from Emma, a professional stilt walker herself, whom created the costumes in collaboration with Jacky, performing on stilts as a tall, medieval lady together with work of gargoyle imagery, taken from inspiration of gargoyles placed inside and outside the Cathedrals. The tall character was also highlighting the incredible hight and verticality of the cathedral spaces, as audience members shift and turn in their seats to see the lady appear from behind them!

We performed in 14 Cathedrals in two tours across England, Scotland and Ireland, each one very different to the rest. As part of our rehearsal period we explored the ways in which the piece needs to be experienced and composed within the framework of each Cathedral space, the placing of the audience and our placing within the architecture of the building, that gives the piece its relationship to the surroundings and context of the material created. The piece is choreographed in four movements to Mozart's clarinet quintet performed with clarinet and piano, that created a powerful atmospheric soundscape from the echos and sound vibrations resonating inside the open space of the Cathedrals. The different Cathedrals vary in size as well as shape, and it was fascinating listening to the changes in the music from space to space. I had a really great experience working in this piece and learnt a huge amount from Jacky's techniques and site-specific work, I look forward to continuing these processes, as well as walking on my stilts again in the summer!

You can find out more about the piece and Jacky's work on her website http://www.jackylansley.co.uk/

and see more pictures from the tour and info about Ascendance Rep at http://www.ascendance.org.uk/

photography Jim Poyner

The Buildings are Alive. . .

photography Ellie Keeble

The Buildings Are Alive... is a production created by 7 inter-disciplinary collaborative artists called the Culture Collective working with London Sinfonietta contemporary music ensemble, based on the Psycho Buildings exhibition at The Hayward Gallery and music repertoire from London Sinfonietta. 

The Culture Collective are a group of 7 artists from different art disciplines, Katie Keeble dancer and choreographer, Antoine Francois pianist, Jordan Hunt composer and violinist, Rachel Essien podcaster and production assistant, Will Crook animator, Benji Fox sound design, Tom Olaf-Urb composer. As young artists we were also mentoring young people from Southwark and Lambeth in the Street Genius programme, Alika Jeffs and Emrul Hassan. 

Collaborating as seven artists was a challenge as we were also getting to know one another, but we formed a really strong group and worked well together. We decided to collaborate in our artistic practices in smaller groups, Jordan and I collaborated in creating an indoor and outdoor structured improvisation for dance and music working with fabrics we designed inspired by the Psycho Buildings exhibition and architectual buildings along the Southbank. 

The dancers are Jade Yung, Masumi Saito, Katie Keeble and Nick Lawson and the musicians are Jordan Hunt and Sam Wilton (London SInfonietta player). We performed in four different locations, outside the Hayward Gallery, on the Southbank, outside the Royal Festival Hall and on the clore ballroom, Royal Festival Hall. The dancers all performed really well together and with the musicians, it was a great pleasure to work with everyone in this project. 

The Buildings are Alive... was held during the day and inside on the clore ballroom were live performances by London Sinfonietta players of pieces by Dai Fujikura, Tansy Davies and John Cage. Will Crook created animations to pieces composed by Jordan Hunt, Antoine Francois and Benji Fox, Tom Olaf-Urb and Alika Jeffs (aka AJ). We also interviewed the composers and players about the pieces they are playing and this was played along with the animation films, and Benji created an interactive Pre-prepared Piano piece inspired by John Cage's piece performed Prepared Piano.

 

photography Justin Pipergev 

You can find out more information on our website www.thebuildingsarealive.co.uk 

blog page http://lsculturecollective.blogspot.com in the August and November '08 archive

and youtube page http://www.youtube.com/user/londonsinfonietta

image design Will Crook

With the London Sinfonietta I worked as a young artist in a two week mentoring programme for young people in Southwark and Lambeth, in association with the BFI, London Sinfonietta, Southbank Centre and SOWF. There was 20 young people forming two groups in music and film, working with composer Duncan Chapman, film maker Shelly Love and VJ and graffiti artist Pablao Fiasco. 

In the programme I was lucky to be moving between the two groups and met all the young people in the programme as well as work with the artists leading them, it was great to explore and learn about the tools and ways of creating music composition and different skills in camera work and film making. At the end of the programme the young people brought their work together for a live performance in their composition and live VJ and recorded images from the two weeks creating. From this programme two young people, Emrul and AJ, came on board with the Culture Collective and London Sinfonietta for The Buildings are Alive..., and others joined companies as BFI, Tate Modern, Hayward Gallery, Siobhan Davies Dance, Rambert Dance Company and many more for experience and training in the arts, its such a great programme for young people!