Teacher Notes and Resources for Candoco Dance Company THIS IS IT BY MATTHIAS SPERLING Credits Premier: September 2011 The Lowry, Manchester Concept and Direction: Matthias Sperling Choreography: Matthias Sperling in collaboration with Vicky Malin Costume Designer: Jack Galloway Costume Maker: Sabrina Cuniberto Lighting Designer: Sam Barrett Music: Scanner, Matthias Sperling, Vicky Malin Available on itunes (search for Vicky Malin This is it ) Original Cast: Victoria Malin BIOGRAPHIES Choreographer/ director: Matthias Sperling Originally from Canada, Matthias Sperling has been based in the UK since 1997 and is a Bonnie Bird New Choreography Award winner. His recent works have included commissions for Southbank Centre and Dance Umbrella, and he has collaborated and performed with Random Dance, Adventures in Motion Pictures and Siobhan Davies Dance. Sperling s interest in neuroscience is exciting and parallels Candoco s interest in understanding how people move differently and what triggers movement. His solo piece marks a departure for Candoco and is a rare opportunity offering an intimate experience to audiences who tend to relate differently to a single performer on stage acutely aware of their vulnerability, resources and singularity. Choreographer/ performer: Victoria Malin Vicky gained a degree in Psychology and Drama and Theatre Studies in 2003. She subsequently realized her love of dance when training on the Candoco Foundation Course in Dance for Disabled People. After graduating Vicky went on to perform for Blue Eyed Soul Dance Company, touring with works by Liam Steel (Stan Won t Dance) and aerial artist Jess Curtis. In September 2007, whilst also working as freelance Dance and Drama teacher, Vicky performed an aerial solo in the Liberty Festival at Trafalgar Square. Costume Designer: Jack Galloway Jack Galloway s costume design credits for film include Girl In The Red Dress, for theatre: Skin of Our Teeth (Young Vic), Calendar Girls (UK tour) and Batman Live (world arena tour); for opera: Barber of Seville (Opera Northern Ireland) and for television The Storm, Alistair Fish and Bach Cello Studies (BBC). He has also designed costumes for dance productions such as Celebrated Soubrette (Ballet Rambert), Sour Milk (Candoco) and three dance pieces for Walker Dance Park Music. 1
Costume Maker: Sabrina Cuniberto Sabrina Cuniberto started her career as a Fashion Designer in Milan but the passion for Musical Theatre brought her to London. She has worked as a costume supervisor for the Chichester Festival Theatre: Theatre on the Fly and for musical productions including Rock of Ages, Shrek, and Lion King. Lighting Designer: Sam Barrett Sam Barrett has a degree in Technical Theatre Arts from Middlesex University. He returned to Middlesex University to teach lighting design in both 2005 and 2007. From 2001 to 2005 Sam worked at The Place, first as a Technician and then as Chief LX. He also undertook the lighting design for the London School of Contemporary Dance, Frauke Requardt, Smallpetiklein and numerous companies in the Resolution! season. In 2005 Sam began working for Candoco Dance Company as a Technician and was appointed Technical Manager in 2010. This Is It is his first, and only Lighting Design for Candoco. Music: Scanner (Robin Rimbaud) Robin Rimbaud aka Scanner is an artist and composer working in London, whose works traverses the experimental terrain between sound, space, image and form. He studied Modern Arts at Kingston University, and began composing for professional productions in 1982. Since 1991 he has been intensely active in sonic art, producing concerts, installations, film scores, multimedia performances and recordings. His albums include: Mass Observation (1994), Delivery (1997), and The Garden is Full of Metal (1998). He has an international portfolio with performances in London, Paris, Moscow and Vienna; and he has also collaborated with leading dance organizations and practitioners including Merce Cunningham, Wayne McGregor and The Royal Ballet. 2
CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION FOR THIS IS IT Matthias Sperling: The invitation to create a solo for the first time in Candoco s 20 year history immediately sparked a curiosity about how the power of the individual could be a choreographic subject. What, after all, is the individual or self? What if the boundaries of it are mobile rather than fixed? We are trying to work on this proposition in several ways. One of them really draws on thinking about Yvonne Rainer s Trio A. I read about Trio A being described as opening up new possibilities for the performance of the self. And it is very much what we are interested in when making the solo. During the solo Victoria performs the following song: Vicky s Song You and I are here tonight You and I, we re gonna make it right You and I will see it through You and I will make our dreams come true And this is the time When I m gonna make you mine So open up your world, cause I m comin in [Chorus] This is it Right now This is it We re goin stratospheric Whoa oh oh oh oh, oho oho This is it Whoa oh This is it We re goin overboard Right here right now Baby I m, I m giving you the sign Baby I, I wanna cross the line You and I, we re going strong You and I are right where we belong And there s nothing that s stoppin us And we re making up our minds I m gonna steal through the night across your border [Chorus] [Instrumental] [Chorus] Performed by Victoria Malin. Concept, lyrics and melody by Matthias Sperling. Music and production by Scanner. Commissioned by Candoco Dance Company. 3
Activity 1: Research Task Ask students to do some Internet research on This Is It and Matthias Sperling s work. Whilst researching This Is It, they should consider the movements, the main qualities, costume, persona and the relationship the performer has with the audience. Students can look at the rehearsal promo video on our website: http://www.candoco.co.uk/video/ They can also look at his own website: http://www.matthias-sperling.com Matthias Sperling highlights two practitioners that have influenced his approach to choreographing This Is It: Yvonne Rainer and Deborah Hay. Your students can also research Deborah Hay: http://www.deborahhay.com/scores.html and watch Yvonne Rainer s Trio A which can be seen on YouTube. Whilst researching Trio A, students should consider the movements and main qualities. Activity 2: Discussion After watching Trio A what do students notice about the type of movements? Can similarities be found with the movement material in This Is It? Matthias Sperling talks about exploring the self and the power of the individual as a choreographic subject. In This Is It what kind of self do you think Victoria is exploring? Useful prompts: pop star, super hero, singer, performer, dancer, contemporary dancer. PRACTICAL WORK BASED ON THIS IS IT An idea that really resonates with Vicky is having a keen sense of awareness of what she is doing linking with the idea of mind-body connection that they were exploring when choreographing the solo. Encourage students to have a sense of awareness throughout all of the following tasks. Creative Task 1: What lights up? Part 1 Linking to tasks 2, 3, 4 Ask students to find a space in the room and begin to visualize an area of their body. They should feel it light up and move forward or backwards through the space. Encourage students to focus in specific body parts for example shoulder, ribs, or wrist. They should 4
be specific and truthful about the lit area, the duration of the movement and the maximum reach of the body through the space. Encourage them to think about emphasizing the part of the body they want to be seen. To develop this students should use these lit areas of the body to lead them to move through the space. Maximum 10 Minutes Creative Task 2: Microphone Linking to tasks 1, 4, 5 Ask students to practice moving a body part in the space. They should pause and then use the voice to use that body part as a microphone. Students should visualize the sound coming through an area of the body to project across the space. They can experiment with humming, laughing with a Ha or Ho sound and eventually a word and sentence eg. This is it. Encourage students to play with volume, tone, speed and rhythm to change the dynamic of the voice. Maximum 5-10 Minutes Creative Task 3: "What if" Linking to tasks 1, 2, 4 This task draws on principles of Deborah Hay s work. Students should keep in mind the articulation and bodily awareness explored in task one and facilitators should continue to use the voice as practiced in task two. One student facilitates by feeding their partner information, adding and repeating the following sentences as necessary. What if I Just get moving and call it what if Ask myself what if all my trillions of cells could ready, aim, fire! What if I am able to laugh at my own serious intentions whilst keeping my intentions serious I surrender all my cells to face a single direction I continue to refresh my visual field it s here and then gone. Here and then gone. What if I notice the space, who s in it? Invite being seen and see others. 5
Visualize the space as full and not empty. The receiver responds to the information. Maximum 10 Minutes Creative task 4: Solo Performances Part 1 Linking with tasks 1, 2, 3, Using the previous tasks as a basis to generate movement together as a group, choreograph a short sequence (approximately 8 counts in length). Once students have learnt this, they should add three movements of their own. The movements should reflect the explorations from tasks one, two and three. Students should also choreograph their focus: where are they looking at a certain points of the motif? Solo Performances Part 2 Students should develop this by creating a movement that can be performed repeatedly to interrupt and refresh the material. For Victoria, this was the "ta da" movement. Also ask students to consider how they could react to and interact with the audience. They should repeat their motif three times each time they should think of different attitudes to present. Are they: Focused on the internal experience or external experience with the audience? Cheeky Casual? A superhero? Are there times of vulnerability? Think of different emotions and ways of interacting with not only the material but the audience too. Victoria explains, How can I be more aware of the processes that are going on? So as I am moving how can I be aware of the space, the people that may or may not be in it and what I am doing in that space. Students should continually maintain this awareness of their bodies, an awareness of the space as well as developing an awareness of their relationship with the audience. 6
For more experience students Using the voice explorations in task two, Students should add a sound, word or sentence into their choreography. They should explore the different ways of delivering this voice or text. For example experiment with volume, speed and tone of the delivery. Victoria explains that she is continually thinking about how she can be more aware of the processes that are going on? As she is moving how can she be aware of the space, the people that may or may not be in it and what she is doing in that space? 7