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.