plan B dance company run Choreocraft sessions;

Choreocraft is an opportunity for choreographers to explore new ideas, or take risks with new directions, or to engage with other artists in a supportive environment under the guidance of plan B’s artistic director, Frank McConnell. 

I decided to work with dancers, Gabriella Sanchez, Hannah Vincent and Sarah Fletcher to explore the choreography and movement surrounding the themes of boundaries and restriction from my recent solo inspired by the Inchindown Tunnels and my recent trip to the North Korean border

I used physical restrictions of boxes taped to the floor to restrain the dancers in their movement.

Some wanted to break the rules and sneak their foot out a little (but what are rules for if not to be broken) and others stuck rigorously to boundary. What I found most interesting was that each would go back to this place, “their box” for comfort at other times in the day, i.e to stretch, to cool down or to warm-up. This was fascinating for me as when set the task, many were not happy with it, and wanted to move freely, however maybe we really are creatures of comfort and routine, and once we call somewhere home, we always trickle back.

We learnt some of each others phrases and used stimulus from the descriptions about the Invergordon Tanks to improvise to and allowed movements to happen organically to put into our sequences.

I definitely didn’t create a finished piece, however we got around 10 minutes of material that I feel I could definitely use to create a future work, as well as some fresh ideas for how I work with this stimulus in either a solo or group setting. There’s definitely more to create from this idea and I had a great time exploring and dancing with others.

I would like to thank the dancers for accepting this job and for plan B for making it all possible. Without their financial support, mentoring and studio space none of this would be possible. It has been the first time I have ever been involved in creating jobs and employing dancers (except for as teachers assistants), and for me, it is a massive step forward in my career.