Missing Pages Photo Paul Trask

Missing Pages
Photo Paul Trask

Well this creative period has passed in a blur, hence why there haven’t been many blogs from me. It has once again been an amazing experience to work with Gary Lambert. The process this time has been very different as we have been recreating works rather than creating material. Gary’s depth of knowledge of his craft and his passion for his art has left me with many things to think about.

We started our rehearsal period by having company class taught to us by Ben Craft. It was so refreshing to have a teacher coming in to work with us who has had such a distinguished career as Ben. His classes challenged us and he guided us through exploring our technique and physicality. As well as teaching our morning class Ben was also our musician for the class.

To be able to teach, play and deliver feedback to us just goes to show what an amazing artist Ben is.

We worked with Gary for the rest of day on recreating Axiom Tangent, which is made up primarily of duets. The process of learning from a video took a long time. It requires a lot of trial and error as you try to master the different grips and placements of weight that are easier to find when you have somebody teaching in the flesh. Luckily, Gary’s memory is so good and he directed us through the process.

I also had the pleasure to work with Gary on the recreation of the solo ‘Degrees of Freedom’. I first learnt that I would be learning the solo in May last year and it has been something that I have been really looking forward to. It was like the suspense of waiting for Christmas and all of a sudden it was here!

I began work on the solo before rehearsals began, learning sections of the piece and watching improvisations that Gary had done for the piece. It was important for me to do this as Gary’s movement vocabulary is so personal to him and I wanted/needed to know where the initiations of movement came from and the idiosyncrasies of Gary’s movement language.

Gary spoke a lot about the term ‘free form’. This is the perfect way to describe the solo. It has been a challenge to find the balance between ‘shapes’ created and release of this movement (it is also a challenge to describe in words!). You have to be able to move through the movement with ease, and at speed, whilst maintaining the articulation of the body. Gary has been working with me to really explore the movement, pushing it to its maximum whilst keeping the clarity. In order to achieve this I’ve had to step outside of my comfort zone, which can be quite scary but is so satisfying when things start to click into place.

I’m beginning to feel more comfortable with the solo now and the movement is beginning to settle into my body. It was quite daunting to begin with as I realised the enormity of the task in front of me. I knew that I would not be able to perform the solo as Gary had done and I needed to put my own spin on it and Gary has been very supportive and encouraging of the work that I have so far done.

As well as working on these two pieces we’ve also revisited ‘Missing Pages’ which we made with Sue way back in September. It was interesting to find that as soon as the music was played my body instinctively knew what it should be doing even if my brain was playing catch up.

I have been nursing a neck injury for the past week and it is something that has hindered my rehearsal period. This is incredibly frustrating for any dancer as you don’t want to be resting when you should be working. The whole company have been very understanding and supportive of me while I try to get better and I am very grateful to them for this.

We open on Tuesday 5th March at Bonnie Bird Theatre Laban and it would amazing if you could all come down to support. It’s a great triple bill and I am both very nervous and very excited to share our work with you.

Meg