In February 2022, I invited members of Oxford Contact Dance to join me in creating a landscape dance called ‘Cube’ which involved dancing with two concrete cubes set in the countryside near Oxford.
Continue reading Invitation to dance: CubeAuthor: ijrkj
Dance as sculpture | dancing as sculpting | dancer as sculptor
I began to research art manifestos with a view to writing one for dance. Taken together with my recent practice research for the dance ‘Torus 2.3.3’ then I came to the conclusion that dance could be re-contextualised and situated as sculpture.
Continue reading Dance as sculpture | dancing as sculpting | dancer as sculptorTorus 2.3.3 – a dance #LandscapeDance #FoundDance #Voluism
This dance was recorded on two occasions in January 2022. While this is a solo performance. It is also a duet. For I dance with the embodied memory of my previous dance. Thus the past is present: always present.
Continue reading Torus 2.3.3 – a dance #LandscapeDance #FoundDance #VoluismPathway – an invisible dance
A path is made by travelling – often repeatedly – along a route and trampling the ground. There is a performative element to it, and the path is a memento or record of movement making a pathway. We could say that we ‘path the walk’ though we usually say that we’ve walked a path. Here is documentation of a walk on the edge of a woodland near Horton-cum-Studley in Oxfordshire which I made in October 2021.
Continue reading Pathway – an invisible danceBehold! The Aikido headstand! #HeadstandChallenge
My research into headstands, led me to consider a different stance to one which I’d normally use, and where the outside of my hands rest on the ground, supporting. Hence, the Aikido headstand!!
Continue reading Behold! The Aikido headstand! #HeadstandChallengeNew dance (2021) – Coming Home
Dancer Jo Blake and I created a duet. We had less than six hours dancing together, and we used a score with three parts to create this new dance. Subsequently, I submitted our dance to Dancin’ Oxford for its Moving with the Times 2021 commission.
Continue reading New dance (2021) – Coming HomeFalling, folding and shoulder dancing
So much dance tradition involves our feet: stationary and standing, or travelling in space – walking, running on them, etc. But how about dance which is falling, folding in our body, and dancing with our shoulders on the ground? I played with some ideas and created a couple of sequences.
Continue reading Falling, folding and shoulder dancingFomenting dance
Recently, I heard a radio interview with scientist Jane Clarke who’s an expert in proteins. It made me wonder if there was material here for dance! I also thought of an unusual way to document dance. These ideas are noted down and they become a way of fomenting new dancing.
Continue reading Fomenting danceOne year on: stay home, save lives, do Qi Gong!
It’s about a year since the Coronavirus epidemic began in the UK (March 2020) and there have been two periods in lock-down (stay at home order). During this period, I’ve had a regular practice of Qi Gong (Qigong) – the 18 movement form – and this is what I’ve found in it.
Continue reading One year on: stay home, save lives, do Qi Gong!Spring Awakening #HeadstandChallenge
Oxford City Council (as Dancin’ Oxford) asked for contributions to its Spring Awakening project. Dancers contribute video clips of themselves dancing which are edited into a final film for digital distribution. A headstand seemed to summon-up the period in which we were living – the world turned upside down by Coronavirus!
Continue reading Spring Awakening #HeadstandChallenge