Developing Performance-Based Actions: Research & Development
My work is grounded in live performance and in working with performers to explore everyday actions, movement and text. Over recent years I have developed a strong improvisational and collaborative practice, but I have reached a point where I need to strengthen how ideas are shaped, structured and prepared before entering the rehearsal studio.
This research and development period focuses on dramaturgy — specifically how ideas move from initial thought into a form that can be clearly communicated, tested and developed with performers. I am seeking to improve my skills in writing, structuring and sequencing material, and in understanding how meaning, rhythm and coherence are built across a performance.
The research is not about making new work, but about learning how work is made. Through observing rehearsal processes, speaking with experienced practitioners across performance, music, writing and film, and testing ideas in small studio laboratories, I am developing tools that will allow me to enter rehearsals with greater clarity, confidence and purpose.
This R&D will strengthen my ability to:
prepare ideas before rehearsal rather than relying solely on improvisation
support performers with clearer structures and tasks
develop work that communicates more effectively with audiences
move ideas from concept to rehearsal in a sustainable, repeatable way
Performance-Based Actions is my ongoing investigation into how movement, projections, music/sound and text can speak directly to the realities people face. After developing several works largely through self-guided practice, I am now taking time to deepen my understanding of how ideas evolve, how performers are supported, and how structure emerges. This research phase allows me to observe leading practitioners, test new approaches with performers, and refine the tools that will underpin a more confident and sustainable performance practice.
WALK STAND STILL is the collective name for a series of workshops, held at the Quarterhouse auditorium and the Glassworks dance studio in Folkestone during the covid pandemic 2019/21
I invited the performance artists Ash McNaughton and Lise Boucon to participate in a series of workshops. Their expertise, energy and enthusiasm was vital.
These workshops follow on from performance projects Staubsauger Kombirama, Zürich 1996. Broken Voices 2007, The Foundling in 2009, String Caracas 2010, Caracol Caracas 2011, Combine London 2012 and Foundlings, Venice 2014.
The first workshops I held was when I was a student at Goldsmiths College in 1975. These were part of my early interest in film, video, sound and performance. I was fortunate then also to have Dereck Jarman among my teachers.
The Folkestone workshops were an amazing opportunity to play and imagine possibilities and this process allowed me to define my practice in performance, something I describe as Performance based-actions.
There were a number of works being developed that include Mirror Mirror, Intersection-interaction a piece designed originally for the crossways junctions of New York. Other works include Bedlam, The Watcher, Ghosting, Performance, Chair and Command-control-shift. There is also a work designed for galleries and museums called Between Walls. Current work in development is Forgetting.
PERFORMANCE BASED-ACTIONS
The opportunity to workshop and rehearse at Quarterhouse auditorium and Glassworks dance studio, provided by creative folkestone enable me to develop my own process, method and ideology.
The process that began in September 2019 working with Ash and Lise and with the support of a DYCP arts council grant provided me with the time to research and develop and focus my ideas.
So with a series of instructions, devices, suggestions and prompts we have gradually developed something that has its own strength and integrity.
As well as the improvised choreography by Ash and Lise, I have had the help and advice from John Woolrich and at times the live flute playing of Paul Cheneour.
Since 2007, I have been working with musicians and composers, the first work was called Broken Voices. The work developed on tour with live performances in Liverpool at the A-Foundation, London at the Riverside Studios and in Venice at St George’s church in Dorsoduro. In 2009 I created the work the Foundling, which travelled to Venice and London.
In 2012 I worked for the first time with dancers from the Laban Centre and the Place for a large scale work Combine which had five huge video screens and live and recorded music. In 2021 we showed Mirror Mirror and Shadows at the Quarterhouse auditorium to a live audience.
I always record the workshops and rehearsals, they form a valuable resource to examine and develop the work. The next stage in the process is to select and edit the footage, isolating particular elements, movements and actions that will form the basis of what will become a finished work.