Blogs from the dancers!! Week 1

For the next few weeks while on tour with Theory of Boundaires the blog will be taken over by the company dancers! The post will be there thoughts and views on the work we are creating, getting to know them more and just exploring what it's like out on tour. If you have any questions for the dancers please leave them in the comments section below! 

 Sal Bower

Well, what a whirlwind of a week! 

The last 5 days working with Jack Stinton and my partner in crime Chris Brinklow have been beyond inspiring and enriching. 

Just when you think dancing for a living can't get any better, you whack out a beastly floor phrase in perfect unison! Even amidst the carpet burns, quadricep aches and head collisions, I still find myself wanting to do it again! 

We began the journey of "Theory of Boundaries" as most new ideas do...an exploration. It was the first time Chris and I had been given the opportunity to dance so closely together. As true contemporary dancers we dove right in discovering the connections of contact by giving and receiving weight. I can safely say some movements were more fluid than others...I have the bruises to show for it! Once we had a better understanding of how each other moved, material came easily and we began setting some of Jack's ideas that had at one time simply been a task. 

We had class twice this week, with a good turn out both days. The students took Jack's release style class with open arms, getting softer and weightier toward the end of the class. Chris and I led a repertoire section from a few phrases we had been working on. Again I was impressed with the students, giving their all, sliding and spinning to our upbeat rock soundtrack.

Things became even more interesting with the involvement of text with Becca Broadley. As a graduate in drama, her passion for words was prominent, which in turn unearthed some interesting outcomes from us dancers, who are used to expressing through our body. Text was initiated through a vast explorative task, refined, and eventually decided. Once the text was concrete, us dancers took over once again, improvising to sound, context and rhythms. Speaking on stage is one thing, but keeping the same projection after whacking out sed beastly floor phrase is another!!

Well, another week will tell, and by gum am I ready for it...!

Chris Brinklow:

Awesome week 1 of creation with JSDC. 

We have been flying around the studio all week, creating, learning and using the hidden powers of voice! In the beginning states of the week, we spent a lot of time improvising and getting to know each other as dancers with tasks set by our very own Jack Stinton! Which really didn't take very long at all! Within an hour or 2 we were throwing ourselves at each other and taking dare devil risks. We have been exploring so many ideas about many theories of boundaries; what it is like to be trapped, being enclosed under a set of stairs or another person, to be taken over by your thoughts or worries and the physical boundaries between ourselves. 

We were privileged to have had the wonderful Rebecca Broadley in the studio, working with us during the week. We did some creative writing tasks involving automatic writing which was a great challenge but we ended up really opening up to each other and got some deep and valuable material that we could use for the piece. She also led us through a vocal workshop to help us find the power within our voice so that we can really project and attain an even more heightened focus when we perform; undeniably, an essential tool to us throughout the project.

We have also learnt a lot of material from the research phase from Jack and from there, created, developed and explored so many new ideas and paths to take the movement on another journey within ourselves. 

At the end of the week, we have made and rehearsed many different blocks of movement. Now as a company, we have the hard but exciting task of piecing together the work until we have our final cut!

The dancers will be providing insight each week into our process for more information on the dancers keep checking back!