Last night several of my workshop participants kindly volunteered to show our "work in progress" at the Jerwood Space Feedback Session. It was a valuable experience, listening to others comment on work they were entirely unfamiliar with. It was a good for me to see what were interesting points in the movement to an outside eye. Despite my emphasis on connection and relationship, the observers said they felt alienated except in the sections focusing on facial expression and use of speech. A general comment was that they wanted to see repetition, emotion and more time spent on these aspects. A comment was made to perhaps film close-ups of the faces and project this behind the perfomers. Other suggestions concerning sound, costumes and location for performance of our work were made but I had to make it clear that the work shown was strictly process based, I am not about to embark upon another self-funded performance and am a firm believer in paying performers, thus the never-ending cycle of applying for funding rolls on....
My next workshop is takes place on the 28th of March where we will work primarily to explore in more depth the use of facial expression.