Thoughts from Rebecca after Choreodrome

Two hard but good weeks at The Place, looking forward to coming back and continuing to work on the project and to see where it will end up. So many ideas. I find it hard to digest, and yet, still a lot of focused work on the design objects. Thinking about the bay and the sluice and where it happened has made me long for the sea and the water. I find myself walking up to the lake by my house in Sweden, looking out feeling the breeze and walking out to the jetty. Thinking.

Working with Tom Cornford (theatre director) made me think. Me and my flat mates were watching Achterland by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, and my friend (non dancer), very clever, says, “this is just like acting”. My answer: “this is why they do a lot of acting at PARTS". Where does acting start and dance begin?  We talked about not expressing or letting the expression of your face be over-dramatic, but more about the emotion, what is happening inside this character, where does its journey take them. I found myself thinking or trying to figure out about this “journey of the character”.  And slowly there she began to take form in me or in my mind. Still I can quite clearly see how she acted, maybe not in all aspects and all situations, and maybe she was a bit like me, but stronger. More independent. 

Katie and Tom have then mentioned the unknown, the “not knowing”. This is something that I am finding difficult. And I only realized now whilst writing about it. Am I a dancer acting or am I an acting dancer?

I don’t know but there is something that we notice when someone has got “it”. They look fantastic on stage and you don’t even know what it is but you only look at one person, and that person steals all the attention.  Now I know this is not acting, but if not, then what is it, because there is something you do when you perform? Obviously we are trained dancers and not actors, so there is a clear difference. It makes me wonder why there is no acting in a lot of dance schools; they do some physical activity, in a different way at theatre or acting schools. The question is where you find it, is there anything to find?

Physicalising emotions, but there is no dancing….We talked about the “inner” dancer, which I found quite useful. But there is something about keeping the emotion there and by keeping it, there is not too much need of any facial expressions. I find myself either feeling like I am doing too much and being maybe a little bit more intense than what is necessary, or not doing enough, as if what I am feeling is not being established for the viewer.

I do think that these two fantastic art forms combined create something very strong and an intense experience for both the performer/artist and the viewer.