– Starting Point

On my last day of office observation, Iris and I had arranged to meet up to discuss plans. (Iris is a dancer who has agreed to work with me on this project and who also, very conveniently for me, works in the office at Siobhan Davies Dance.) This first meeting between us, was quite an eye opener. True to form, I wanted to get straight in there and try things out. (I never expect these first acts of the enquiry to be that great, but its through the making that my thinking develops; the making triggers other thoughts, I try something else, the process continues.) This, it became apparent, is not how dancers work. It hadn’t occured to me that there would be such a difference in approach to making: Unlike the solitary decisions and making of visual art, dancers are well rehearsed in the art of collaboration: talking is key!