A Word with the Webb

FEATURE BY GARETH K VILE.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE SHIMMY 05 AUGUST 2011

Part of the process for creating dance works is the "lab": a week spent in thestudio, experimenting and testing ideas. Jack Webb made his Beta Wave Transport after his success at New Moves in Glasgow. Here he talks about his work at the moment he prepared to make a new piece.

What influences are you taking into this lab with you?

I recently read an interview with Marina Abramovic and she talked about how performance is about reality, that everything that happens in that performance is real, whether you cut yourself or you cry, everything is real in that moment where as with theatre it is unreal and you're acting. So yes, I would say that is a strong influence for me for this lab.

Why are the labs an important part of your creative process?

Saucy Jack

Essentially they offer physical space to create and think and actually be able to move and make your work happen, in order to dance you need space and without funding I have no way of paying for that space so they actually provide me with the opportunity to make what's in my head a reality.

Why do you use dance as your artistic expression?

Dance is universal, almost everyone does it in some shape or form so it seems natural to me do it as way of communicating something. There's also something about movement in space that is a living and breathing experience that other art forms just can't communicate in the same way, it is very powerful to perform and spill your guts out in front of someone, I do it because it gets straight to the core of the audience and it's a live experience that they and I cannot escape.

Honesty and progress are my biggest ambitions. I'm committed to making work that is uncompromising, straight talking and honest and I want to do the same as a dancer when I dance in other choreographers' work. That's why there are some things I make the choice of not doing because to do it I would have to go against that principle.