hipsync blog

the subject of quite a few discussions recently
about dance
and what it “gives” to an audience

there is some dilemma involved here
clearly, muddy terrain

on the one hand
the audience needs to do some work too
see things more than once,
or, if it’s improvised, see it many times

on the other hand
without the audience
we are just entertaining ourselves

strange unknown contracts
they get people scared
they use words like self-indulgent when they feel left out
we just have to work out
how to let them in on themselves

Performed my first duet with Andrew Morrish tonight at “The Little Con”
One audience response: “I nearly peed myself!”

In February 2007 I followed the Darpana Performing Group on their tour of “Unheard Voices” (Unsuni) to 16 colleges and schools throughout Kerala in South India. The 30 minute documentary of this is in its final stages of post production.

they are climbing a snowy slope
their feet scrape, slip
breath in little clouds in front of their faces
three women climbing, pioneers, no footprints before them
gloved hand catches a rock, knee thuds to earth, eyes squint upward
some song in their ears keeps them climbing 2 3

they are standing on the edge of it
a blue vastness, an unapologetic arrival
and they begin to throw it all over
all of it
it careers, dives, spills, plunges, shatters, gets what’s coming to it

they are descending
in an acceleration of fur and feathers
gathering speed and sparks
igniting and alighting
devolving into a trilogy of smiling snarls
into legend

*
*
*
—choreographic text/research for 2009 collaboration in Iceland with Ami Skånberg Dahlstedt (Sweden) and Heidi Durning (Japan)

leaving loved ones

cradling a dying creature

not revealing your heart

a survivor of violence

a wailing song

sharing someone’s pain

love from a distance

holding someone’s last moment

setting fire to the body

forgiveness

empathy

longing

*
*
*
—choreographic text for Luke Hickmott solo, Girls on Boys, May 2008

unpack the legends laying in the ligaments
release the fables fixed in the fascia
expose the manifestos making up each muscle

magnify the cellular
quantify the complex
illuminate the microscopic
animate the monstrous

unravel the riddles riding the nervous system
decant the sentiments swimming in the bloodstream
separate the enquiries erupting in the grey matter

amplify the singular
liquefy the substantial
investigate the invisible
infiltrate the inevitable

and then with your keen tool of enquiry, tap out
the tunes singing in her bones
the words lodged in her teeth
the inventions building under her fingernails
the ideas running through her hair
the dreams drowned in the lens of her eye
the questions rolling around in her eardrums
the answers beached on her lips

and when it has become dust
breathe out

this friend’s a blur
multi-tasking herself into a single stream
vibrating into a thick chord
a cyclone
ideas fly out like bats from a cave
colliding with the flotsam of living
to fall through the cracks
of this time
to the one she’s looking for

She finds a clue, a thread draws her forward
crumbling into a horizon
The past crashes through her body
and is gone—

A death, a sunrise, a doorway, a path…

Snatched back by a melody
plucked, played out
arriving, leaving, arriving

Her head to a shoulder, a vulnerability exposed
She is impaled by longing

the world tilts, tips, tosses her
She teeters between
a scent, a sound, an image, a touch…

really like their moustaches
talk with their hands
know how to spit and do it frequently
like tight jeans (often flares) and patterned shirts
aren’t afraid to stare and yell hello to foreign women
hold hands with each other but keep their women under wraps
think Australia is spelt c-r-i-c-k-e-t
are a strange mix of arrogance and vulnerability

Imagine more than I am
Realize more than I can imagine