R&D Insights week 1: The Deluge

Photo credit: Anne Eckersley. Dancers: Carrie Whitaker & Jamie Morgans

Day 1

Today we started the creation of our new immersive piece of physical theatre. We're working at Chisenhale Dance Space in London, and loving the Brooklyn style look of the brick wall at the back. It feels like an inspiring place to be, & Abi Mortimer (Director & Choreographer) is has plenty of ideas to get the piece off the ground. We've got four very talented and creative dancers with us, including Carrie Whitaker, Aya Kobayashi, Sarah Golding, and Jamie Morgans.

Day 2 

Today we were joined by writer Nick Walker, to collaborate with us on this new work. His insights have already proved hugely influential and it has been fantastic to have someone thinking about the bigger picture for our piece. 

We worked on some solos today that could form the material for our opening scenes. Our dancers are beginning to discover who their characters might be, and it’s really exciting to see that magical process emerging. Nick has been watching and listening to all our experiments and his observations will help to mould our story and our characters. 

Dougie has been working on some ideas around 'tuning up' in order to reflect the sense of getting ready for something big that is happening in our piece. He's managed to throw together everything from orchestra's and guitars to printers, kettles and other household appliances.

Sarah :)

Day 3 

Today is the third day of our first week creating a new immersive physical theatre piece. We’re working at Chisenhale Dance Space, and so far we’ve found it a very creative environment to work in. Yesterday we had a writer from Coventry called Nick Walker join us, and he’s back today and tomorrow to help us shape a narrative and text for our work. 

We think we may have discovered some material that could form the final section of our piece. Abi is keen to have a sense of what our beginning and end will look like by the end of the week and this is looking more a more likely each day. Dougie and Nick have recorded some text that might help us decide if our piece has a narrator, and we’re going to try some ideas around this tomorrow. 

 Jamie :)

Photo credit: Jamie Morgans. Dancer: Abi Mortimer

Day 4 

The Met office confirmed today as the hottest so far this year, so not ideal conditions for working on our new immersive physical theatre piece, but luckily Chisenhale's brick walls keep the space at a reasonable temperature. 

And we had a very productive day, particularly in finding narrative answers to questions thrown up in our movement development. Our dancers are fantastic improvisers, and this allows us to develop our work in an extremely open environment with almost limitless possibilities. We tried several potential beginnings for the piece, keeping an open mind on how our story can be told, particularly with text. In Nick Walker's words there are "several candidates for a story, and we still discovering who's the winner". 

Generally, what has been really interesting this week, is how we've found answers sometimes through conversations (and thinking about a greater narrative) and sometimes through physical moments that say it in ways that words cannot. 

 Dougie :)

Day 5 

This is our last day at Chisenhale, and unfortunately the end of our very productive week here. We've discovered what the beginning and end of our new immersive physical theatre piece could look like, and our dancers have created some beautiful and compelling movement. 

Photo credit: Mark Parvin. Dancer: Sarah Golding

With the help of Nick Walker, our performers are starting to get a real sense of who their characters are, and what will motivate their movements. 

Dougie has also made a flying start, laying the foundations of what will build up our sound world. 

There is a real sense that we all can't wait to get back in the studio together at the end of this month, for our second creation week at The Point.

Abi x

Cover photo by Jamie Morgans