As ever, time flies. Winter has turned into Spring and we have all became adept at managing the rain.

It’s been a busy time. Starting the year was Two Sisters with the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh, walking too and from the theatre’s rehearsal space in the grey and the dark, never a problem for me as I have a love of and need for the darkness of the day. Two Sisters was intense, not least because of the productions chorus of 40+ theatre students from both Fife and Edinburgh College. They were superb in their energy, attitude, diversity and skill. I loved working with them. I loved their mutual questioning and openess and the balance of that. I loved how they looked out for each other. The movement required of them was functional, alive, present, instinctual and gritty (with a bit of towel dance choreography thrown in!) my favourite kind of movement in life and in theatre. We were counterbalancing, weight-bearing, climbing, jumping on and off the walls and climbing frames in the Set Design, lying down and sitting still for long lengths of time, and working with the movement invitations gifted by the superlative designs of their party costumes. It was a brutal schedule at times but we made it. I feel immensely proud and more importantly full of hope at the world to come being in the hands of this generation. 

Thanks too, to the Lyceum and all its crew, the creative team, the three phenomenal professional actors, director Wils Wilson, and to designer Elizabet from Copenhagen for her sensory physical set design full of invitations that enabled us to move with reality in the body. Two Sisters is a co-production with Malmö Stadtsteater. I’ll soon be going over there for a week to move with their young chorus and hand over my work to a brilliant locally based dance artist. More info here:  https://lyceum.org.uk/news/lisbeth-burian-on-designing-for-two-sisters

Next up was A Giant On The Bridge a gig-theatre work with Vox Liminus featuring original song and storytelling revealing the intimate authentic real-life human experiences of coming home from prison. What a powerful show and what integrity. To be in the presence of these powerhouse musicians was a daily joy, balm for the soul. To witness them growing in confidence as storytellers holding the stage without their instruments, coming out from behind, trusting their bodies and physicality . I love this subtle work with bodies. It is profound and lasting. So much of my work is about making people more of themselves, accessing and liberating what’s already there. A Giant On The Bridge has Made in Scotland funding and will be on at Assembly Roxy in the Fringe. I hope you get to see it.

If you can get to Talbot Rice Gallery in Edinburgh. The Talbot Rice Residents exhibition is shows until June 1st. There you will see the start of Emmie McLuskey’s A-Z Movement Alphabet series.

I’ve had the privilege of collaborating with Emmie on this, leading workshops with a glorious diversity of people exploring the alphabet as movement and in movement. Emmie’s 26 screen prints, for me, invite us to venture into the tangible pleasurable possibilities of an expanded movement vocabulary and a politic that invites embodiment, connection, expression and liberation. It’s a joy. https://www.trg.ed.ac.uk/resident/emmie-mcluskey

February saw me in Hamburg to work once more with “Here We Are” dance company under the direction of director Anke Böttcher. We’ve been working together for 18years! Imagine that! I first went to Hamburg with Royston Maldoom in date who invited me to make a work for a huge Community Dance Project engineered by Kontext-hamburg.de  As one of 5 choreographers we each made work performed in the Schauspielhaus – the biggest stage in Hamburg. These were heady days. I owe Royston a lot. Anke came to assist me and kept the work going. One of the dancers in that original piece is still with the company. Imagine that! They have made really good work in these 18 years and consistently pushed the boundaries of disability-led performance. I’m proud that something I started has such a legacy and body of work. And I’m proud still to be connected. This time I kick started the research for their next new work “Ich Sehe Was…”   More information here: https://www.hereweare.dance/

And finally, catch James V: Katherine if you can. The latest James play currently on tour in Scotland. It’s deliberately chamber size which has enabled a wonderfully versatile tour around Scotland.  Being movement director is such a collaborative process, facilitating bodies and image and story and possibility through and with the body. This one was a joy. It is making Scottish History. Directed by Orla O’Loughlin with a cast of four brilliant Scottish actors. Find out more here, tour dates, and a great podcast between writer Rona Munro and historian Ashley Douglas https://www.rawmaterialarts.com/james-v-katherine

I am still dancing daily in the park – through Winter into Spring  – I might see you there