What I found interesting, was when I was thinking about the session happening in chairs, I was a bit unnerved by the idea… But then quickly I saw it as a way to play… ‘what can we do with the chair! Where to put it in space and how are we moving it?’ The session was adapted to be focused on the chair, in a playful way whilst also incorporating the geometry of ballet, lines in space and finding our centre. As usual, the restrictions or ‘structure’ in a sense create more opportunity to explore. I felt we worked from deeply within ourselves and also in a complete comedic fashion.
Bim Malcomson
Bim’s workshop explored the structure, geometry and principles of ballet with an approach that brought playfulness and connection between the dancers, as well as increasing the expectation and bringing a sense of the performative to the workshop.
To begin we tuned into our proprioceptive awareness and connection to our own bodies, then with partners, sharing space and touch. Bim explained the notion of reaching towards defined points in space and the geometry of ballet lines which we explored in an improvisation task. From defined points and mapping, we turned inward to the feeling of expanding and contracting, with a focus on the principle of en dehors and en dedans (open and closed).
One of the things that really underpins my practice is really accepting people for who they are and where they are at. The focus of the group was sharp all the way through and the work produced was really fantastic. It had enormous clarity while simultaneously being absolutely hilarious.
Bim Malcomson
The workshop evolved to combine sense of mapping space and the concept of port de bras. The dancers traced lines between points and added sound in order to demonstrate the dynamics of the movement. Working alongside a partner, we created duets which involved sound, port de bras and moving in space – taking the chairs with us. The effect being a collection of deeply intimate as well incredibly humorous duets. The dancers were able to see the way their performance sharing may evolve.