Review from The Press, York | Guest Suites at York Minster

"Dance has long been linked with the church, if not so much in recent times.

Furthermore, the full majesty of the Chapter House is only revealed when it is stripped of chairs and brought to life. Nor can Bach's suites for unaccompanied cello sound any more ethereal than in its spacious acoustic.

On all three counts it was imaginative of choreographer Jacky Lansley, her seven dancers and cellist Audrey Riley, to choose this venue for Guest Suites – and an enlightened gesture by the Dean & Chapter to allow them to do so.

With the audience confined to the outer edges of this octagon, the dancers were left free to explore the space. Like all Baroque suites, Bach's are an assemblage of dances. Taking the 18 dances of his first three suites, Lansley explored their physical implications rather than the original dance-steps.

Here she was helped on her way by Jonathan Eato’s “suite inserts”, themselves re-readings of Bach that cleverly dissected four movements and underlined just how edgy the originals were.

Further recorded extracts of Pablo Casals, while justifiable as homage, were a distraction – and a disservice to Riley’s superb artistry. Her opening to the third suite, without dance, drew spontaneous applause.

The dancers glided sinuously, with only occasional leaps, even luring audience members into one. Hannah Mi's exotic parody of belly dance and Fergus Early’s besuited onlooker caught the eye, but the main corps were riveting in their commitment and energy."

Martin Dreyer, The Press, York. 6.03.2012

See the article here:

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk

Responses from the audience | Guest Suites

"I was moved by so much. It was like looking into a glass room full of light and seeing these people clearly and yet not being able to hear their stories – only guess from what was seen. So much was hinted at, expressed, so many fragments of narrative and play, very poetic. It was beautifully structured too and I enjoyed this even more on second viewing. I loved the intricacy of patterns and the repetitions, and that joyous last section. I also had the feeling that all these characters were in the imagination of the musician – taking form as she played – part of the music and yet not the music. It was, of course, a delightfully musical piece too. I wish it could become part of the rep of a very good company. It’s so much better work than most we see, and would grow through performance."
Trisha Dudrey, Audience Member, Clore Studio, ROH 


"Thank you very much for Saturday's concert; the performance was deeply moving and in direct connection with the venue."
Audience Member, York Minster 


"After first seeing the performance at The Clore Studio, I was really touched by the performances of all the dancers, the emotional landscape they created together was extremely powerful to experience. I am inspired by seeing performers of all ages interacting and entwined in the work as one, this is unique in the wider 'dance world', and shares an inspirational message that I fully support and wish to see more of. The overall experience of Guest Suites for me was a reflection on being human and all that this means to each of us individually, highlighted by the audience participation, which was a delight to see. I also came away with strong feelings of a bigger picture of humanity, and the idea of guesting in each others worlds being one that is truly universal, a very beautiful experience. Seeing Guest Suites at York Minister was magical and awe-inspiring to witness, the dancers created a special atmosphere and relationship with the space, one that left you feeling 'Wow!'. Guest Suites fascination is it's ingenuity to adapt and shine in any venue/space, however, for me the experience at York Minister really felt at home."
Katie Keeble, audience member, Clore Studio and York Minister

Guest Suites at The Clore Studio, 17th February

Dancers: Huri Murphy, Esther Huss, Sanna Eriksson Ryg, David Ogle and Cellist: Audrey Riley

Photography by Hugo Glendinning

Guest Suites | Clore Studio ROH

A response to Judith Mackrell’s review in the Guardian on 20/2/12


While I have often enjoyed Judith Mackrell’s writing on dance and appreciate that she came to review Guest Suites at the Clore Studio, in itself a supportive gesture, the review seemed intent on placing the work within a limited frame of reference. As in previous recent reviews Mackrell refers to my pioneering work in the 70s “...it’s good to see that 70s spirit is still alive...” I have no problem with this contextualising – most of the contemporary strategies we see today emerged from that radical era, which should not be forgotten. However it seems to me that here it is an attempt to marginalise the work and to suggest that ‘investigating the art form’s potential’ is not of contemporary relevance.... Having more or less grown up together in the same emergent contemporary/new dance UK scene (Mackrell actually performed in a piece of mine in the early 80s) with me as a ‘pioneering’ choreographer and she as a ‘new’ critic, I had hoped for more understanding and placing of the languages in Guest Suites. Her main critique is that it is ‘work in progress’ an approach that, in the past, had some respect and cultural meaning within performance practice - and I do agree that the climate has changed in this respect - and that is another discussion. However this is not what she is suggesting here. Here she is implying under work. As the central artist carrying through this project from inception to development over three years, I know this is mistaken. It is a very developed and layered piece - which uses strategies and disciplines that deliberately reveal its own construction. It is not hiding its processes and techniques behind a shiny over-produced surface (although the work is very detailed and precise). It is a piece which asks questions through its form and structure and through the complex relationship between the dance and music. Indeed, it did seem that the only way to work with Bach’s suites was to ask questions, using fragmentation, collage, chance and ‘poor theatre’ as formal devices. The occasional vulnerability of live performance is part of its fabric – is part of its ‘product’. Let’s not underestimate, either, the quality of performances – there were several guest moments that were the best I have seen in many years on any stage. I do like using modernist lines and shapes which are sometimes technically difficult for the dancers to achieve, but I also ask for emotional embodiment and a certain kind of inhabiting visual image which not many dancers are trained for – or it has been trained out of them. There was subtlety in the performances of our cast and a quality of what I call ‘the speaking dancer’.



Beyond this review of Guest Suites there are wider issues. I believe Mackrell, as a senior critic, has a responsibility not only towards work with high commercial production values. She has a responsibility to recognise and discuss dance as an art form - and as art it may be many things, including a shifting relationship with the notion of ‘product’. As live performance Guest Suites will continue to develop, not because it is work in progress, but because that is part of its artistic intention. Its next stop is the Chapter House at York Minster – an ancient space in the round where we will have to draw on site specific and ‘event’ disciplines to adapt the work and integrate the qualities of this beautiful interior landscape. There has to be certain malleability in the work to achieve this ambitious adaptation – but I have 35 years’ experience of approaching diverse performance spaces and I am confident that, with my outstanding company of performers, the event at York Minster will be beautiful and have meaning.


At the close of her review Mackrell writes “...the harsh truth is that in today’s climate of high production values, we’ve all got used to product.” I too am interested in product where it means making coherent work which moves, challenges and gives pleasure to audiences – which was my, and my collaborators’, aim with Guest Suites. However, Dance as an art form has many surfaces, not all smooth, and we the artists are not all here to contribute to conservative production values – we are here to make art and produce diverse products. As part of this discussion I was referred to the critic Lynn Gardner’s Blog in The Guardian ( 24/2/12) in which she asks the question “ Should theatre be fearless, not flawless?....Polished performances rule the stage and the circus ring, but human fragility is just as gripping – and more moving to watch..” I, and many others, agree.


Jacky Lansley, choreographer Guest Suites, 2012

A response to Visual Language workshop

Visual Language and the Performer workshop, directed by Jacky Lansley.

A few days have passed since the workshop and learnings and findings have resonated and settled in my body and mind. The process of digesting everything expands beyond the day. Working with different artists: dancing together feels exciting and a time to discover something new about each other. I love the electric space that exists between two people on the edge of the known and the unknown; finding out, following our intuition and feeling the way.

Materials and objects spark the imagination and tell stories of their own, either held in the palms of hands, placed face to face, or placed in space relative to us.

Each story carries its thoughts and emotions to the viewer and there is space to respond in the moment. The effect of these moments linger for a while after the initial impact and cause ripples of ideas to tap into and choose the inspirations we like to form new ideas for future research and performances.

Working with a visual stimulus: What does this say to you? How do you read this image\language?

We interpret impulses and responses in our minds and bodies and form a physical landscape embracing the emotional, visual performance. The tools we have learned to use and intuition come hand in hand - it's really about your own experience inside the worlds we created. You’re feeding back to yourself, and the questions and findings seep through the practice like little impulses or sparks that appear and move you forward into unexpected and surprising places.

When we finish a workshop or class with Jacky, we always reflect on what has happened and things that come up for us and it is surprising the leaps you can take without even being aware that there was a barrier there at all. Integrating aspects of the work, the voice, body and other stimuli, from the very beginning through to the end, and out into life and practice, it’s a wonderful feeling to achieve something that came so naturally and organically, and is enjoyable as part of the process. In reaching out into unknown places we all support each other in our individual and collective journeys. We arrive at fascinating places, and each arrival feels as new and exciting as the last.

Katie Keeble, June 2011

Who Became Those

Jacky Lansley & Fergus Early - Who Became Those from Matt's Gallery on Vimeo.

Jacky Lansley & Fergus Early are part of ninety collaborators that have been commissioned by Matt's Gallery, London, to contribute a film to TAPS: Improvisations with Paul Burwell.

"In this short film, Jacky Lansley and Fergus Early celebrate the experiences they shared with Paul of working and performing in Butler’s Wharf in the late 1970s. Locations range from a trendy riverside cafe below the once derelict ’B Block’ which housed Paul’s studio and Lafone Street where X6 Dance Space, founded by Jacky and Fergus with others, was situated. Paul’s drumming accompanies a dance that inhabits the shoes of the past with the feet of the present"

Paul Burwell was infamous for his exuberant fusions of fine-art installation, percussion and explosive performance. He was a staunch advocate of, and passionate participant in, all forms of experimental art. TAPS: Improvisations with Paul Burwell, realised by Anne Bean, Robin Klassnik and Richard Wilson embodies his prolific practice.

HELLO AGAIN

There has been a gap in my postings but I am back watch this space!