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.