Abi's Insights: The Incredible Presence of a Remarkable Absence

Abi's final thoughts on the research and development for The Incredible Presence of a Remarkable Absence.

Photo credit: James Robotham. Dancers: Aya Kobayashi, Kai Downham & Joe Darby

It has been a couple of weeks since our last day creating The Incredible Presence of a Remarkable Absence (TIP of a RA) and it has been busy. Following the completion of the work Carrie and I went straight into rehearsing our duets A Readiness and Yael Flexer's Not About Love which we did with exhausted minds, and in Carrie's case, an exhausted body too. I Also feel I have an excuse for my tired body since I am now 30 and when we last toured these 2 works, I Was in my 20's (albeit 29, but still!). However, it was really lovely to bring the duets back to being and having had a touring life already we can identify how these works reveal themselves in performance, which made this 'remembering" process an enjoyable one. I think we have found some new little sparks in the old material and it feels good to have them on the body again. 

The weekend after the duets week Carrie made a work on the Eastleigh Satellite Centre of Advanced Training (CAT) students at the Point before both Carrie and I moved to London for the week to Make a new work on the London CAT students at The Place. They have been wonderful, and the work has certainly been informed By the process we explored in TIP of a RA; fantastic to see how transferrable this work can become to younger performers, which as you will see is ESSENTIAL to the work. I look forward to seeing them perform in The Robin Howard Theatre tonight. 

Having had some time away from our process (although not time away from dance!) I have been able to reflect on it with more objectivity. The last 2 weeks really were intense, sometimes even a struggle and I really felt the pressure of time. How fast 6 weeks fly! However, the final week saw a huge turn- around that was extremely exciting, and really what I had been striving for. Whenever I make a piece, I notice there is a moment when the work assumes its own identity (Barthes would call it "death of the author") and on the Wednesday of the final week I saw this happen. It is an emotional moment when you see the choices that you make as a director go beyond their functional course to produce a little bit of theatrical magic! This is achieved of course, by the dancers in time and space and all the other elements of the production working together to produce a whole. Which brings me onto Dougie's beautiful score. I know he has found this process a challenge and much like the dance, the final structure only really found its form in the final days. But throughout the process dougie has remained open to possibilities and as such has had a strong sense of what was wrong, but remained open about what was right until the dance itself found its form. He has produced a beautiful, sensitive score that does not just compliment the dance, but adds so much to the emotional content- in fact, it is transforming, both to the influence it has over the dancers' performances but also over how the audience perceive the sections. Well done Dougie, it was worth the battle. 

I have learnt a huge amount through this process and have loved every single second of it. the dancers have quite literally suffered my every thought and I want to take this opportunity to thank them for hearing me, responding to me and really working WITH me the whole time. I have a wonderful collaborative team on this project and the work is a result of a group of people that want to share in making the best and most honest work we are able. 

on the final day we shared the final work (in its barest state) to a select few and I was delighted by how the work was received. It was a diverse audience of dancers, theatre practitioners and non-dance/theatre professionals, and I was interested by what they all had to say. I was most happy that the non "arts" professionals enjoyed and felt moved by the work as this is what I set out to do... Produce a work for a wider audience in an attempt to not make contemporary dance for a contemporary dance audience. I am not sure yet how the work will be received on a wider level and I will be interested talk with people about their experience following the early shows.

Photo by James Rowbotham

So now the Tragic Comedy is complete... Our next stop is Greenbelt festival in Cheltnam for a preview of the show before its premiere at The Point in Eastleigh. If you want to see something that might make you think, that WILL deliver action, that will make you smile, and maybe even make you shed a little tear... This could be the show for you. Look to our website for our tour dates. 

Thanks for reading!

Photo Credit: Cover image and all photos by James Rowbotham. Dancers: Aya Kobayashi, Kai Downham and Joe Darby