Summer School
for Stockholm
DANCE MOVEMENT THEATRE
7 DAY COURSE
STOCKHOLM SWEDEN
21st
Celebration
EVENING DANCE
HAMILTON HOUSE
BRISTOL - UK
The Flower Drum
2019
4 DAY DANCE INTENSIVE
CORNWALL
UK
The River That Finds
Us
1 YEAR FOUNDATION COURSE
CORNWALL
UK
A FILMIC STUDY ON THE NATURE OF GRIEF
ORIGIN + INTENT
ORIGIN
A PECULIAR SHADE OF BLUE was seeded in that uneasy space of lockdown in May 2020 while working with Henry McGrath and THE SOLO SCHOOL, where I had embarked on an intense process of artistic reflection, in context with all we, as a species, face at this time.
When I set out on this period of exploration, I had not set out to work with grief. Yet, a startling weather event on a singular visit to a place I had been avoiding, unconsciously, for years catalysed what was to become A Peculiar Shade of Blue. What happened in those moments is a longer story, and one I will share in MEMBERSHIP, but for now, as I left, I simply knew that for the time I had and for the times we live in, grief needed to be my canvas.
It is important to understand that many years of quiet work and research have already taken place within SPIDERFLOWER around the role of emotion, and our relationship with it. The River That Finds Us is a year course for both actors and regular humans alike dedicated to this purpose, and has been developing in Spiderflower's repertoire since around 2000.
Over the years, we've observed that grief, as all emotion, is an intelligent force housed within the human form. That each has a specific job to do. That each assists us to navigate life. That each carries the potential to be both ally and teacher - rather than a burden. The River That Finds Us then sits as foundation to A Peculiar Shade of Blue and informs both my approach and intent.
A Peculiar Shade of Blue did not derive from a pre-empted script. Its form and story evolved entirely through the impulses and events arising out of sustained encounters between body and the natural momentum of the land and environment in real time.
Its purpose has been to enquire solely upon the nature of grief.
From the perspective of grief itself.
As initial explorations took form and shape, the choice to continue development was made on the strength of reaction from those sitting as audience, where a common consensus said this felt like necessary and important work.
Evolving in this way, A Peculiar Shade of Blue has continued development as an ongoing, interactive film-theatre project. To date it has screened as work-in-progress at CAST (Cornubian Arts + Science Trust), Cornwall, UK in March 2022, Scenstudion Gerlesborg, Sweden in September 2022 and in partnership with FABRICA, Brighton in November 2023.
INTENT
A PECULIAR SHADE OF BLUE is suitable for an audience of 16+, and is designed to serve a community made of deep thinkers, change makers, creatives and pioneers in every sense.
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It is an important piece for performance artists, film and theatre makers, creators and educators who have a passion for progressive and exploratory forms of theatre and film, particularly those who are currently working with slow cinema and earth-based genres.
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It is set to benefit individuals who are inquisitive about the relationship between human and earth, and where working to find a creative way through the climate emergency is of importance to them.
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On another, humanistic level, as a vessel of reflection - it can also serve those who are grieving at this time. It is, in this sense, for everyone that this may belong to.
ARTISTIC INTENT
Grief is an immensely difficult emotion to deal with. Particularly within a culture that does not honour its worth, understands it little and is intent on closing it down. My personal story with grief began in my teens and has taken many years of wandering and seeking, at the same time as travelling through it over and over in different forms, to come to understand it as a force for renewal.
For actors and performers, it is vital our emotional repertoire is fluid, as it is part of our job to translate nuanced expression, so is something we need to 'study'. It is important to step back and be able to work with emotion objectively, and there is often a great learning curve in stepping from a relationship with emotion where we are either afraid of it or where it consumes us, to one where we can dance not only with it - but inside it - where we are then able to watch, listen and follow its flow accurately learning bucket loads as we go.
Grief receives such bad press. It carries enormous stigma and is hideously misunderstood. Yet as long as we have been human, it has been with us. At its heart, as hard as it is, grief travels us through an incredible alchemical process - if it is allowed to unfold through us before it is outcast.
For the work ahead, I wanted to allow the nature of grief, without judgement, or conditioned response, to be free to show its language in pure form.
My question was:
What is it we do not know or understand about grief?
When left to move without restriction,
what might grief show us?
Understanding body is born of the substance of earth.
Emotion as an ancient, innate part of our being.
That grief is something we turn away from.
I set out to enquire how the shapes, patterns, rhythms and tempos arising through remembered earth / body language might create a place of reflection, and indeed insight, for an audience.
As a performer, my role was about letting go of all judgement, all conditioned response, all expectation, everything I think I know - to meet grief in its own right and allow it the story it wants to share - now in these times - to unfold.
My artistic intent has been nothing more or less than this.
A Peculiar Shade of Blue then aims to provide a vessel that will carry an audience through the terrain of grief, without imposing or dictating what it ought to be, whilst, gently creating enough space for audience members to reflect on their own experience and find personal points of resonance.
Our six STANZAS hold a central, neutral focus. As they arc through the differing landscapes, they speak the language of the natural world - which is universal - yet, as audience, we each gaze upon the same thing through different experiential and cultural lenses, in this way, each of us will hold a different perspective - and these perspectives are important to explore.
Similar to an ongoing conversation, it is important to understand the project does not intend to deliver an ‘end product’, or even an opinion. Its intent is to observe, and, like the ebb and flow of grief over time, exist as an ever-changing work of collective reflection and art.
Audience response plays a vital role in guiding the project through its ITERATIONS, where it is hoped over time, voices will gather to weave through the fabric of the piece so it may deepen, as it diversifies.