Friday's visit to Greyfriars

Went along with Ginny and Fiona to Greyfriars - and what a fabulous afternoon! Held in the lounge, around 20 people+ turned up to support Fiona...all very enthusiastic to see what she had been working on with Ginny. After tea, cake and a bit of sofa re-arrangement Fiona performed the piece...the feedback from the owners was wonderful - 'I wish i could move my neck the way Fiona moves hers!' 'It was a wonderful thing and has given me a different outlook on dancing' ! One lady even stopped us on the way out to ask when she could buy tickets to see it again! - i think it went down well! Lauren x

Dancing at Greyfriars Court

Comment from Fiona: I have just got home from dancing at Greyfriars Court, where I have worked since 2000. I have indeed been very nervous about showing the dance to people I know well, both staff and owners, so it is a great relief to have it behind me! Ginny first showed some video DVD clips of her previous work as an introduction, and I danced after tea & cake and rearranging the seating in the lounge. I think and hope that most of the owners enjoyed it; several came and said lovely things to me, both about the movements and the emotional content. They did find it interesting, even though some said their only experience of dance was with classical ballet. The Poulenc sonata was absolutely right for the piece.
It is a good feeling to have so much support and encouragement. I did appreciate the support and encouragement of my colleagues. They think I am very brave!
I know there is still a lot of work to do, as I am still finding it difficult to remember all the movements! I just get frustrated with myself, as I have still not arrived at the point where I can be confident that I will not forget what comes next! Especially in the second half of the first section, but I shall work on that bit over the weekend. I hope I'm not grumbling - I have loved every minute of the rehearsals and love working on the dance, trying to remember everything, late at night in my kitchen!

Update so far...

The work on the lone dance piece is progressing; Fiona has been working very hard with a section of the dance that requires a lot of counting; as we all know this can be very taxing, and I feel that I am asking a lot of her to be so precise with the movement and music as it demands much concentration, but, as ever I have a lot of faith in her ability to carry it off as well as she can. I have eventually tracked down the music, in America, and as we speak it is being shipped to me so that I can play it on the vintage record player that we use in the work. The piece is by Poulenc; a French composer, who was greatly inspired by Stravinsky and Debussey, so there is a clear link between the Matisse artwork that inspired the dance and the music used as these artists were all working in France around the same time and influenced each other's work. Last week I started to work on the visual aspect of the piece with costume designer Holly Murray and lighting designer Saun Phillips, both whom are very experienced and able to match the low key, small scale of the dance in as grand a way as possible. Holly and I have been looking at (again) Matisse for ideas on colours and styles to translate into costumes, this is a really exciting part of the work for me as I get to have creative ideas (about clothes, colours and fabrics which I love) and then to hand it over to a talented other to realise... So, watch this space as we hope that it will also look a treat. After looking at Matisse's paintings again I have called the dance "still life with Fiona"; Fiona is of course the dancer in the work, and still life denotes the quality of her performance; which contains a lot of stillness, it draws a link to the idea of a still life subject in painting as well as suggesting that life is still continuing, with Fiona, I hope people get this or a similar meaning from it, and that it evokes a positive image in their minds. Tomorrow we are going to visit the place where Fiona works, Greyfriars sheltered housing in Lewes, we are going to talk about the project and show what we have been doing, I know Fiona is nervous about this; showing it to people she sees every day is nerve racking so good luck Fiona...See you all on the 6th March... I need to go and finish a phrase.

Monday's Showing

Thanks to everyone for coming on Monday - it was fantastic to have the applause! I couldn't sleep that night, I was feeling so high!
It has been such a pleasure working with Ginny, I can't believe how lucky I am! Thank you, Ginny xxx
The dance is still evolving so it's still a challenge, remembering the changes that we were working on on Friday, since the showing on Monday. I'm now looking forward to the next rehearsal on Monday. Perhaps the music issue will have become clearer by then. I've been listening to some of my old records, wondering if any of them might work, but I can't be sure, possibly because they are so familiar.