a blog by Simon Ellis: dancer, choreographer, filmmaker and teacher
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
The lovely Hamish MacPherson and I are hosting a coffee morning chat about privilege at Chisenhale Dance Space on Tuesday 20 June 2017 at 11am.
Here’s the poster:
Here’s the website: rantchateat.wordpress.com
Here’s the blurb:
“Privilege is not in and of itself bad; what matters is what we do with privilege.” (bell hooks). We’d like to discuss privileges: ours, yours, the dance community’s. We’d like to discuss the obvious privileges, the subtle privileges, the ones that sneak under our skin when we are dancing and choreographing and making films. We’d like to hear about how you have used and abused privileges, and when you’ve been on the receiving end of them. We’d like to discuss the work that we can do. There will be cake and there will be coffee, because nothing says privilege like sitting around on a week day morning drinking coffee and eating cake.
Early in 2010 the University of Roehampton’s Department of Dance was overhauling its suite of Masters programmes. I was (and am) interested in how framing choreographic and performance practice as a form of research might support practitioners develop their ideas, work and critical-reflective skills, and so I proposed to my colleagues that we develop a Masters by Research in Choreography and Performance.
http://roehampton.ac.uk/postgraduate-courses/choreography-and-performance-mres/index.html
The MRes is designed to provide an open environment for experienced practitioners to question how artistic-scholarly thinking and ideas might influence, corrupt, infect or challenge their work. Depending on the student, it might also act as a way of bridging their practices with academia whilst allowing them to continue their work as professional artists.
To this date, two cohorts have completed, and next week the latest group of students – Charlie Ashwell, Sónia Baptista, Robin Dingemans and Hamish MacPherson – will present their work at Roehampton. It’s a remarkable mix of ideas, practices and performances, and it is also the first time that a cohort has found a way to present their work at pretty much the same time. I’m proud of their endeavour, their differences and the way in which they have pushed their own understanding in order to challenge how practice is presented and articulated.
Check out the details below, and I hope to see you there.
Part of the work I do as a dancer, choreographer and teacher involves running a Masters programme at the University of Roehampton that is called MRes Choreography and Performance. It is, as it says on the lid, a Masters by Research.
I’m skeptical about the word research in the arts; it feels like a buzz word or something that is used rather arbitrarily to project depth onto a project. At the same time, I have little time for the idea that the Academy owns quality in research. Here’s Donald Schon:
[There is] a radical separation of the world of the academy from the world of practice, according to which the academy holds a monopoly on research.
– Schön, cited in Brook 2012, p.4[1]
Nevertheless, there are circumstances in which artists deeply test the nature and role of the arts in culture. There is a sense of falling into the unknown, of seeking to understand the ways in which choreographic practice might skew or alter our perspective(s) on the ways we live, make and dance.
There are four students currently finishing the MRes Choreography and Performance and each of them – in very different ways – is attempting to ask and even address complex questions through the practice of choreography. I thought I’d advertise their work on this blog, and to kick things off, here’s a link to Hamish MacPherson’s ambitious, multi-limbed project that delves into politics, choreography and citizenship. It’s called All The Things That We Can Do:
On dance, art and things 