Autumn. My favourite. Resplendent with colour and promise of quieter calmer times as Winter settles in.

I find it hard to write these days or make sense of the purpose of the work that I do because there is so much ill in the world right now. I stand always in solidarity with Palestine, Ukraine, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Syria …. and oh so so many more. Like so many of us I can hardly bear to think about the suffering but I must, and take the action that I can, but also find ways to keep on going with spirit, hope, ferocity and pride. The latter is where the work lies and, of course, it is a privilege

I’ve made lots of theatre this year, well not made exactly, but collaborated as movement director – Two Sisters, James V Katherine, A Giant on The Bridge, VL – all of them in their way attesting to the possibility and potential of the human spirit, one of the jobs of art  enabling us to imaging and know life differently – loves lost, the path not travelled, new stories in history, womens voices, prisoners voices, universal truths told that make us laugh ’till we cry. My favourite bit as always is to bring bodies closer to their full capacity and potential to move expressively, naturalistically and with feeling, so we have more of ourselves confidently available to ourselves. Actors are a great bunch, much more knowing of thier bodies than they used to be, musicians can find it harder to stand rooted and sure without their beloved musical instruments and young performers often have to learn to trust that physicality can come from instinct. To support the finding of one’s physical voice, the power of functional and expressive movement, in oneself and in one’s character is a joy.

I also created a Nelken Line! A wonderful and unexpected invitation. Not my usual way of choreographing and a massive responsibility to accurately (re)create a Pina Bausch choreograph. It was part of artist Moyna Flannigan’s exhibition Space:Shuttle at the Collective Gallery in Edinburgh. Moyna’s refer a lot to Bausch’s process of making work and to the images Bausch and her dancers create on stage. Space:Shuttle presented an ideal opportunity to investigate further with a direct experience and Calton Hill the most dramatic of landscapes. I was hesitant at first as the line is ableist and normative in it’s structure but with time and good conversation worked out ways to have it both accessible and responsive whilst also true to it’s form and structure. It was a wonderful adventure. We did an open call, like always for me, and a fair distribution of Edinburgh folks responded. I particularly love the folks who are brave enough to come alone and whom also have never performed publicly before. I loved everybody though, they were great, and blossomed from a gaggle of unknowns into a rigorous disciplined troupe. Moyna danced the line too as did many of Collective gallery’s staff, which was a joy. I asked a lot of them all, deciding to create a two hour durational performance that arrived from the city, spiralled through the walkways and routes of Calton Hill and the Gallery itself and left again towards the sea. In that two hours the Nelken Line was danced ten times and in between times we all walked the spiral route, from city to sea through the contours of the ancient Calton Hill, devised in advance with colleague Federica Cologne who headed up each line as route mapper. The Nelken Line felt like a profound procession acknowledging the turning of the four seasons, arrival and departure, moving and stopping, the power of landscape, the intricacies of weather, humanity walking from one place to the next, leading and guiding, lost perhaps but secure with each other, questioning, lifting the spirits. The Nelken Line is like a meditation, something felt and experienced through and in the body. Thank-you Pina, and thank-you performers.  Thanks also to Moyna and to the Collective. There are lots of wonderful photographs by Eioin Carey and video by Rachel McBrine. Perhaps the most profound thing that remains though is not only what is seen, but what is felt, imagined and re-membered, and who and what perhaps this meditative procession was for, in the privacy of the senses, thoughts and feelings of those who danced and those who witnessed live or through an image. We each have our story to tell.

Here’s a link to images and film :https://www.instagram.com/p/C–rx81Ik9p/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Here’s to lifting spirit, hope, ferocity and pride.

Keep moving as winter settles in

Janice