I should be ashamed of myself! Months have passed since my last posting. A lot has happened. I went to Germany in August for an intensive two weeks of butoh work. Ended up covering myself in mud and dancing around in the dirt with bugs and spiders and 18 other nutcase performers. An experience I won’t forget. Unfortunately the photographs documenting this whole affair are not suitable for this website.

I spent the majority of September in rehearsals for Fran Barbe’s work Palpitation that was performed at Jackson’s Lane in late September. Our final night of the show was sold out! Although I’m not entirely sure about how well the work was received. A comment from one of my friends was, “The whole thing was a nightmare”. To be fair, some of the images Fran was working with were sleepwalking and states of fear, so perhaps this comment could be taken as a compliment?! I believe I was fighting my way to the front of the theatre bar at the time so I wasn’t really interested in pinning her down on what exactly she meant by “nightmare”. The experience of performing in this work was quite a challenge for me. It has probably been close to a decade since I have performed anyone else’s choreography but my own and although I’m quite happy to dance for myself for free, it threw a real spanner in the works when I found out that Fran had lost funding. So, twelve of us worked for nearly a month with only partial payment and this as much as anything put a strain on the group, just about as much as grappling with the deep psychological nature of Fran’s work (which I do truly enjoy but find an immense challenge!) All in all, a great learning experience! I’m always up for learning…

I did get a real lucky break at the end of September when I was invited to come and do some lecturing at Laban for four weeks and then at University of Surrey at Roehampton for a term! It’s like a dream come true teaching dance at University level. I find it so exciting, so fulfilling and the students are jam packed with ideas and enthusiasm! Only problem is I don’t want it to end. I’m dying to get out of the office and just work in dance! But can’t risk loosing the income from steady work for fully satisfying but possibly only temporary work.

And of course I haven’t given up on the idea of a solo. I’m looking for studio space to work in over Christmas but my living room is rapidly becoming the creative arena of the year!