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Thoughts, words and opinions
“BIDE has enabled me to have more confidence in my ideas which I will continue to develop now professionally. It has set up potential new opportunities for when I graduate university and a wider international support network."
“Although I feel that it will take longer to realise everything that BIDE has given me after time to digest the experience I have learnt so much which will continue to develop my practice now and forever.”
“Leading a laboratory and getting positive feedback on my ideas both within and outside of the lab was amazing.”
“I also feel like it speed up my mind – being surrounded by so many practising artists I feel an increased drive to make the things happen that I want to have happen. “
“For me it was really interesting to be both a lab participant and then co facilitator. Because it made me look at the lab process from different perspectives – when I helped with the facilitation I became a lot more aware of the responsibility of the participants to contribute to the process in a constructive way and it made me look milder at lab facilitators I had been with the previous days.”
“I loved BIDE was both experimental and practical with the dancing but also encouraged social situations.”
“BIDE was an opportunity for me to research on my choreographic work and exploration. It allowed me to question my delivery and facilitation of workshop and gave me the experience to learn and practice my ideas. It allowed me to be open to new ideas and find connections between my work and others.”
“Thank you for the incredible experience! And thank you for taking the risk on me for my lab for the first day. I have learnt so much, thank you for the opportunity!”
“It was a great pleasure to travel to Barcelona and meet you and those many different and funny people. It was a real exchange for me!”
“BIDE has given me the confidence and the inspiration to keep going as an artist!”
“BIDE inspired me to keep experimenting, to remember that sometimes following a 'scientific method' of researching can be very efficient and fruitful. I tend to work instinctively, so it’s a great challenge to find and refine my material through experimentation. It also reassured me to trust my curiosity, to be demanding and analytical. Most of all it was great to remember that what I am interested in is 'communication' and so it clarifies my aim in my personal work.”
“For me a highlight was the feeling of planting very fertile seeds throughout those days.”
“I'm sure BIDE will affect deeply my artistic life.”
“It helped me to focus my interests. Because I saw so many different approaches to dance in the span of a few days it helped me to become aware of what I am interested in at the moment: what I want to spend energy on and what I want to drop.”
“I think BIDE has a great potential for truly learning about being a supportive nurturing creative community because everyone is called upon to both lead and support whoever it leading. I feel like there is potential to really look at constructive communication and group processes – and learn from what is happening.”
We Are Not Sheep - BIDE Artists Residency 2011 // Helen Gould
Noora, Shi and I researched for a week in Trangant Dansa. On the weeks running up to the residency we were in discussion via email, sharing ideas and interests. Amazingly, even from the early stages, there seemed to be a commonality in where we hoped our journey would begin.
My personal interest currently resides in the relationship between musicality, rhythmical awareness and the dancer. I am studying the Dalcroze Cerificate at The Royal Northern College of Music. Dalcroze Eurhythmics is a method whereby musicality is taught through movement. It was adopted across the arts as a successful and highly relevant training method in the early 20th century. The legacy of which has become somewhat lost within the dance sector over the years. The method is taught within some of the ballet conservatoires but these are sparse. Generally I have discovered that there doesn’t appear to be a relevant musical training method for most dancers studying in conservatoires.
Dalcroze Eurhythmics became the starting point of my research. I am now in the early stages of researching more widely within the dance sector. I’ve been incorporating Dalcroze far more within my teaching practice and promoting the method within my local region. The feedback has been encouraging. I hoped that in someway we maybe able to include an element of rhythmic investigation at some point of the process. I had a few ideas but was most interested in discussing experience and observing rhythmic association in others.
In fact Both Shi and Noora were also interested in exploring rhythmic patterning as well as looking at intimacy and audience as a starting point. All three topics inspired me equally.Over the course of the week we explored rhythmic response, intimacy, vulgarity, musicality and audience/performer relationship. We began through rhythmically lead improvisation tasks and started developing original movement material. We evolved a rhythmic script/score to follow. It was something none of us had previously tried and was challenging. Dancers are mostly used to having leeway in rhythmic phrasing, selecting movement material from free improvisation usually originating without any dictating musical/rhythmic score. This way of working was out of our comfort zones and very time consuming. We stuck with it and were pleased with how it developed. Still thinking along these lines, we went on to explore relationships within the space and intimacy. How, together with the rhythmic patterning, they affected the overall picture. This finally culminated in us evolving a rhythmic score. With this in place we discussed the importance to discover an inner logic, we also were keen to think of the audience more as participants than audience members, more active than passive.I found the working collaboration extremely productive and exciting. All three of us come from very different dance backgrounds and so it was a fabulous opportunity to share and discover. I was greatly inspired by the other dancers. We contributed very equally to the piece and therefore, from the outset, it was clear to see that our ‘creation’ would transpire to be something beyond what each of us individually would have created, this was exciting! I think having the opportunity to work collectively and understanding a joint responsibility enabled me to feel far more relaxed about our journey and direction over the 8 days. Had I been solely responsible for the creative process I know I would have struggled to allow time for some areas of our investigation, many of which proved hugely worthwhile. I took encouragement and support from the others and there was a great deal of trust between us. We were happy to risk take, although, inevitably this could have gone further.I have taken away a belief that collective research is highly successful. Obvious really that more brains are better than one but often something that we don’t do. Egos get in the way and due to time and other pressures a collaborative way of working is not always possible.I do, however, think that it would have been interesting to have an outside eye that could have challenged us at some point in the process. Talking to Sebastian following our performance he stated that he was not surprised in the direction that we took and that it would have been possible to take our risk taking further. In refection, I think he is absolutely right. I do think this would have been virtually impossible to challenge ourselves on from within the working group. Yes, it is exciting to be given the responsibility and the opportunity to work solely together. But, working wholly internally is a risk in itself however. How can you truly challenge yourselves if you only have each other to challenge and that you don’t want to break the trust and unity of the partnership?
Two weeks after the residency I am still consolidating all I discovered. It was a fabulously amazing opportunity and I’m most grateful for being offered the chance to take part. Noora, Shi and I are already discussing how we can develop some ideas further in the future. We will keep you posted!
BIDE Artists Residency 2011 // Ria Kolbus
The residency was a glorious experience in working with professionals. As I just finished my dance education I was longing very much for this kind of work and it was a pleasure to be in this team. The difference between professionals and students is, that we can try out physical stuff much easier because of our experience and it gave me also the trust that we'll do a good performance even so we have "childish" habits during the rehearsal - playing around , making a lot of jokes, talking private stuff...I enjoyed the easieness and during the last days the focus of everydody. And it was very intersting to see, what kind of ideas the professionals have, how they explain them to the rest of the group, how the group is responding, how the ideas are changing and how everything is growing together at the end without forcing into one direction but always searching for the best way of execution. We all are responsible for the coming out and we all had place to bring ourselves / our ideas in and the group was willing to support it. Saying YES to ideas. -The best what can happen in a team of choreographers / performers.Thanks to everyone who made this experience happen!
How do we value...? - BIDE 2011 // Sarah Vaughan Jones
The film is a documentary of experimental improvisation collected from the Barcelona International Dance Exchange 2011. The theme of the work questions how we value movement in terms of what we perceive to be impressive, trivial, fast or slow. One specific laboratory and subsequent performance, practiced during the course of the week, focused on the idea of how we value movement and what it is we are trying to achieve when performing. The film translates this idea by challenging the recipient’s perception of how they the judge the success, quality and direction of the movement. The piece further investigates the differences in individuals’ values of speed and flight and our desire to achieve it when performing and exploring improvisational movement. This theme also brushes upon the differences in how movement is initiated and developed, based on the different strategies practiced by individuals focusing on how performers swing and drop their weight to generate a natural direction of movement. My intention for the piece is to expose the quality of research which was practiced during the course of the week, whilst offering an alternative perspective on the material, concentrating on one specific theme that encapsulated my main line of interest which was derived from my experience within the dance laboratories. The audio and text provide an accessible, flexible and challenging stimulus in which to understand the subject of the work.