viola sunrise

In late 2006 early 2007 I had a chunk of Australia Council funding to research and develop a new performance installation called Crevice. The project was with Cormac Lally (video), David Corbet (sound), Shannon Bott (dramaturgy) and Kristin Green (architect). It was ambitious for sure, and I was never able to get the money together to do any more development beyond stage 1 (or perhaps I never tried).

The design looked like this (and we built and tested this design):

And here’s a little snippet of video (that I don’t think was ever used) that Cormac Lally shot and edited, and that I stumbled across the other day as I went through some old files. The filename was crevice16_viola sunrise_25%.mov.

full responsibility

Last year I had the pleasure of spending time at the University of Alabama for a short residency with choreographer and filmmaker Rebecca Salzer. We made a short film called Full Responsibility:

Sincerity takes practice.

between faces

Last month I performed a ‘desktop presentation’ as part of Light Moves Festival of Screendance in Limerick. Over the years I’ve played a lot with ways of presenting ideas to audiences, and this is a first attempt to use the computer desktop as a live site of performance.

The presentation explores the ways in which mobile phones are changing choreographic thinking and practice.

we took photographs

In May this year, Paul Hughes, Hamish MacPherson and I had a residency at S’ALA in Sassari, Italy. There were no planned outcomes from the work we did together but we ended up writing a document in which we reflect on our experiences.

The document is a PDF and is called We Took Photographs:

http://bit.ly/we-took-photographs

 

idiot-syncrasy once again

Igor and Moreno’s remarkable dance called Idiot-Syncrasy is being presented once again at The Place in London. It’s on Tuesday 9 October 2018, and you live in London (or nearby), and you haven’t seen it before, or want to see it again, now’s your chance.

Igor and Moreno bounce out the pleasures and perils of unison with one another; they tease out where idiosyncrasy and love lie within the rhythms of human life.¹

Details at https://www.theplace.org.uk/whats-on/igor-and-moreno-2.

---

1. https://responsestoperformanceatcj.blogspot.com/2014/05/rosalind-bouverie-responding-to-idiot.html ↩

 

some things about dance podcast

Back in February I self-published an e-book through LeanPub called Some Things About Dance. At the time, the co-founder of LeanPub – Len Epp – asked if I was interested in recording a conversation with him for their FrontMatter podcast.

A couple of weeks ago it was published and it’s available as audio and transcript here:

leanpub.com/podcasts/frontmatter/simon-ellis-26-06-18

 

wombat radio

Matt Cornell is a dance artist based in Sydney. For some time now he has been producing a podcast called Wombat Radio. The interviews – most often with choreographers – are a fantastic ramble through choreographic ideas and practices, and what matters to the artists. The website is http://wombatradio.com.au.

 

some things about dance

In 2013 I started writing a series of short ideas about dance and choreography. I had the idea that perhaps I could put together a small book for people interested in thinking about the nature of contemporary dance practices. The project stalled for a while (as they do) but the book – called Some Things About Dance – is now available as a Pay What You Want digital download (PDF, ePuB or mobi). It features a collection of original illustrations by Hamish MacPherson.

https://www.skellis.info/choreography#/somethings

 

we like lists

Shannon Bott and I first started working together in 2003. We have had a long, fruitful and sporadic working relationship (see Inert and Recovery) and it’s inspiring to spend time with her making, talking, and dreaming up new ideas: Shannon is a remarkable dancer, thinker and communicator.

We’ve been cooking up a new project for some time and it’s starting to take some shape while we working together here in Melbourne for six weeks.

The performance is called We Don’t Like Lists Because We Don’t Want to Die, a line stripped directly from an interview with the Italian author Umberto Eco:

Homer’s work hits again and again on the topos of the inexpressible. People will always do that. We have always been fascinated by infinite space, by the endless stars and by galaxies upon galaxies. How does a person feel when looking at the sky? He thinks that he doesn’t have enough tongues to describe what he sees. Nevertheless, people have never stopping describing the sky, simply listing what they see. Lovers are in the same position. They experience a deficiency of language, a lack of words to express their feelings. But do lovers ever stop trying to do so? They create lists: Your eyes are so beautiful, and so is your mouth, and your collarbone.

We have a limit, a very discouraging, humiliating limit: death. That’s why we like all the things that we assume have no limits and, therefore, no end. It’s a way of escaping thoughts about death. We like lists because we don’t want to die.

– http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/spiegel-interview-with-umberto-eco-we-like-lists-because-we-don-t-want-to-die-a-659577.html

Shannon and I are slowly working towards some public showings in Melbourne and then – with a bit of luck – we’ll première the work in London sometime in 2018. Stay tuned.

https://www.skellis.info/choreography/#/lists/

We Like Lists Because We Don’t Want to Die is in development after a residency at Centro per la Scena Contemporanea in Bassano del Grappa, Italy in 2015, at Tasdance in November 2017, and a period of practice in Melbourne from October to December 2017.

 

andante

I’ve discussed my ongoing work as a dramaturg with Igor Urzelai and Moreno Solinas in various posts on this blog here, here, here and here.

Their latest work – Andante – has its London première tomorrow on Thursday 2 November at The Place (tickets and details are here: theplace.org.uk/whats-on/igor-and-moreno–1. The work has been developed slowly over about three years and the team of people involved are smart, caring and committed: Giorgia Nardin, Eleanor Sikorski, Alberto Ruiz Soler, Kasper Hanser, Sophie Bellin Hansen, Seth Rook Williams, Sarah Maguire, Hannah Blamire, and Melanie Pappenheim.

Image of Ellie Sikorski, Giorgia Nardin, Igor Urzelai and Moreno Solinas courtesy of Alicia Clarke Photography

Like their previous two works, Andante is brave in its vision and sense of the theatrical. It is demanding and accessible, it is patient and evocative. If you can get along to The Place, I suspect it will be well worth the effort.