It was always an aspiration of mine to tour my own work, whilst producing it, and looking back on where ‘What we choose to see’ went, we kind of managed. With two residency Sharings at Dance Base, Edinburgh and one at The Anatomy Rooms, Citymoves Aberdeen, followed by a performance as headline act for Hidden Door Festival 2017, Edinburgh and at Mareel, Shetland.

It was an absolute pleasure to be confirmed as part of the line up for Dance Live, an Aberdeen based Contemporary Dance Festival. DanceLive is a very reputable dance festival, and I was delighted to be part of it. 

This happened as part of a Triple Bill, alongside Sara Kemal and Eowyn Emerald. What I loved was the contrast between the pieces.

Sara is rather well renowned in Scotland, having been mentored by the likes of Kerry Nichols of Scottish Ballet (which this piece grows from). The piece was about two dancers navigating bodies and space. For more, see here www.sarakemal.com

Eowyn Emerald hails from Portland, Oregon, and made her Aberdeen debut here after a sold out Edinburgh Fringe show. Eowyn was hailed by the times as ‘One to watch’. Her work tells of people’s stories and their relationships and is physical and technically demanding. ‘For fans of pure, unadulterated dance, choreographer Eowyn Emerald is almost providing a public service’ (The Scotsman). See more www.eowynbarrett.com

It was a real pleasure for my work to be shown alongside these two choreographers, and it was even more of a pleasure for the show to be sold out, with Citymoves having to turn people away at the door. For a contemporary dance show to be sold out in Aberdeen is really something.

Again, thank you very much to Patricia Ann Raeburn who gave studio space in kind for our very much so need rehearsal, after a good few months letting the piece rest in our bodies.

We then travelled from Aberdeen to Dundee, where we had a full day with the NC/HNC/BA Hons students of The Space, Scotland’s Contemporary Dance School.

It was a real pleasure to perform in such a tremendous theatre, set up for dance, and we enjoyed the space of the stage and how this changed our positions and how we related to one another.

We started the day with tech rehearsal, followed by workshops with students, each 1.5 hours, which is never enough, but a pleasure to meet them all in our tight schedule of a day. We taught them rep from the piece, as well as some technique and improvisation. For the first time, I team taught with Gordon Raeburn, one of the dancers in the piece, which was a real pleasure. Because of this, we could explore more of our lifts and contact sequences. Thanks Gordon!

Then was time for the performance. We shared this with Tess Letham, following on from our triple bill at Hidden Door together. I love how different the pieces are, and it was a pleasure to present them together again. Her solo is physical theatre and improvisational based, and incredibly engaging.

I feel sad to say that these are currently the last times we will be performing ‘What We choose to see’; maybe they’re not! But they certainly are for now. Whilst rehearsing again there were so many parts that I would love to go back and explore, and expand, and others that didn’t feel quite right second time round. I would really love to go back and work on it again, but for now, I’m hanging up the grey dresses and the echoing soundtrack, with a hope to revisit again some point in the future…….

Images: See Imagine Define