'Light Dial 1' was part of the 'Rambert New Choreography Platform 2016' and was an exploration of the collaborative creative processes of musicians/composers 'Collectress', dancer/choreographer Miguel Altunaga from Rambert and artistic duo Rutter and Bennett. Through improvisation and workshop driven practices, musical compositions and choreography were developed for a new performance that explored the disciplinary boundaries of musician, dancer/performer, choreographer and artist. The project tested the limits and constraints of the body as a continuously ‘live’ object, in order to explore improvisation (and ‘liveness’) against inherent restrictions of bodily movement, form and sound in relation to pattern.
The group worked with a number of approaches to develop the project:
using play and experimental doing as a form of making and thinking (i.e. a practice-based approach);
sharing ways of improvising and finding collaboration in approaches to improvisation.
exploring ways of creating motifs within dance, sound and image;
sharing methodologies inherent to each discipline that relate to the bodies physicality;
testing and expanding on ways of presenting experiments through dance, performance, composition, sound, object, pattern and costume.
Wearable sculptural costumes were developed for the 5 members of Collectress and 2 Rambert dancers. These were informed by ideas about the nature of individuality and 'collectiveness' among the performers and how this might reflect the conflicting requirements for cohesion and discipline as well as the spontaneity and improvisation required of the performers in the development and performance of the work. Imagery from drawing and activity sessions at the Rambert building were used as the basis for the textile design. The construction process of the pieces also reflected an improvisational and reactive approach to making 3d forms.
The piece was performed on 2 nights at the Rambert Building as part of their experimental programme. A blog was created tracking the development process of the costumes and collaboration process.
A second version, 'Light Dial 2', was performed at the 2017 UCA conference 'Digital/Material: Developments in Printed Textiles' incorporating film projections, an adapted score and choreography and audience participation in the creation of new imagery for textile designs using overhead projectors in real time.
