Showing posts with label Jack Webb. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jack Webb. Show all posts
Saturday, 18 June 2016
Monday, 6 June 2016
The End of Dramaturgy: Jack Webb @ Tramway
The End
Jack Webb
Tramway
Friday 10 and Saturday 11 June, 7.30pm
WORLD PREMIERE
Acclaimed Scottish choreographer Jack Webb and a company of three exceptional dancers confront and explore the dramatic notion of end points, the end of the world, the end of life as we know it, the end of good, bad and all in between. Extraordinary choreographic style and powerful soundscapes combine for a startlingly thoughtful and compelling experience that looks our very existence straight in the eye.
What was the inspiration for this performance?
THE END started life, mostly at night time, trying to fall asleep and yet being plagued by quite powerful yet irrational thoughts of self doubt and the contemplation of how might life be if I were to stop making work and dancing/performing.
I think this is probably something that most people are thinking regularly as an artist, but somehow we are compelled to keep going, to keep making.
Rather than ignoring it it seemed right to take responsibility for it and to face it head on.
I started really with the words 'THE END' and just wanted to see what could come from that. By facing it head on though, of course, it brought up many reasons to keep going, to keep trying,which was just brilliant. It gave birth to a whole new work and process. That was early on though and was a strong starting point, to consider the idea of dramatic endings and what they could be and since then the concepts within the work have developed, and transformed.
Now THE END really is an invitation to consider our own mortality, our place in the world and how we contribute to it. The work wants to propose simply 'imagine that this is the end of life as you know it'. It is such a dramatic proposal that it forces us to consider what might be left behind and how can we do things differently. At the core of THE END is a distinct need to address how disconnected we are and how slowly and systematically the fabric of our world is deteriorating whilst we simultaneously are made to think that it is improving.
How did you go about gathering the team for it?
This project started in early 2015 when I had an Artists' Bursary from Creative Scotland. The dancers in the work were all new to me, quite on purpose, to allow me to try new things with new people and to take my work to different places.
Since then the team have grown with a lighting designer, PR person and producer on board as well as various co-production partners. Some are people I've worked with before and some not. It has all happened quite organically, drawing on people who understand the vision of the work and who want to be part of it.
How did you become interested in making performance?
My background is in contemporary dance but I've always been experimenting with how this can be 'performance' and not just dancing. Contemporary dance can get a bad rep sometimes so I want to keep finding ways in which to extend it outwards, finding new doorways in to it so that the mystery around it can be dispelled.
I've also become interested in performance because of a sense of responsibility. It is really all that I do so I want to be part of something that is crucial to all of our well-being and way of understanding our complex world. But in saying that, I'm interested in making performance because I also want to challenge things.
Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?
Sometimes yes and sometimes no. There is always a lot improvising happening. This just feels vital to me to ensure that there is constant inquiry, a constant aliveness. The process of making the work and the piece itself are pretty layered with many ideas and methodologies. I always work this way to ensure that the people in the work are deep within a bigger picture and constantly pushing at it.
There are 3 professional dancers in this work and an extended cast of six participants who have joined us for workshops in preparation for the performance. This is definitely new to me, to include people in the work who are not dancing or performing professionally necessarily but who are just really interested to come and experience the work, its concepts and what it can offer.
This will happen at each venue the work tours to, allowing THE END to keep growing and for people to experience it from the inside as well as from the audience.
I want them to experience a sense of simplicity, a purity but also to have an experience that is startling and thought provoking.
There is something pretty tough about my work generally, the same applies with THE END, I mean the piece is called THE END, it's startling, even frightening to me! And yet there are many moments of stillness, space, and gentle intimacy and connection/disconnection and a proposal for change and how to do things differently. I want the audience to feel like they can make positive change in the face of adversity.
What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?
The work is in the round and is, at least for us, set in some sort of imaginary nightclub where connections and disconnections unfold. I see it a little like a holding pen of some sort in which the performers and the audience are encouraged to face the darker underbelly of things. I like this strategy for space. To bring everyone together, to see each other and almost be in the work physically and hopefully emotionally.
This work has also made me think about time a lot. With THE END I am asking the audience to slow down, look at tiny details and not be seduced by busy stage activity all of the time. I'm intrigued to see what will happen to the sense of time and place in the performance space and to see if we can look at things differently, patiently and keep re-evaluating what we see and how it relates to everyone.
The inclusion of an extended cast, sourced via an open call is important for me. Bringing people in to work is a way in which I hope to encourage the audience to look at it differently and to not be afraid of it.
Some might call me naive but I do actually believe that the kind of work I'm making is for anyone. It's about being open and generous with it, to invite people in and to let them know that it's actually OK.
I'm hoping the inclusion of an extended cast, who are brilliant by the way, will shape the experience in a way that encourages people to look at the work differently, more closely and to look at it without fear but with curiosity.
Do you see your work within any particular tradition?
I'm not sure any more, I've stopped thinking about that sort of thing recently. There is definitely something unconventional about the work, it does fit in to some sort of stranger box. I'm really just focusing on making the work and allowing it to be whatever it needs to be...
Jack Webb
Tramway
Friday 10 and Saturday 11 June, 7.30pm
WORLD PREMIERE
Acclaimed Scottish choreographer Jack Webb and a company of three exceptional dancers confront and explore the dramatic notion of end points, the end of the world, the end of life as we know it, the end of good, bad and all in between. Extraordinary choreographic style and powerful soundscapes combine for a startlingly thoughtful and compelling experience that looks our very existence straight in the eye.
What was the inspiration for this performance?
THE END started life, mostly at night time, trying to fall asleep and yet being plagued by quite powerful yet irrational thoughts of self doubt and the contemplation of how might life be if I were to stop making work and dancing/performing.
I think this is probably something that most people are thinking regularly as an artist, but somehow we are compelled to keep going, to keep making.
Rather than ignoring it it seemed right to take responsibility for it and to face it head on.
I started really with the words 'THE END' and just wanted to see what could come from that. By facing it head on though, of course, it brought up many reasons to keep going, to keep trying,which was just brilliant. It gave birth to a whole new work and process. That was early on though and was a strong starting point, to consider the idea of dramatic endings and what they could be and since then the concepts within the work have developed, and transformed.
Now THE END really is an invitation to consider our own mortality, our place in the world and how we contribute to it. The work wants to propose simply 'imagine that this is the end of life as you know it'. It is such a dramatic proposal that it forces us to consider what might be left behind and how can we do things differently. At the core of THE END is a distinct need to address how disconnected we are and how slowly and systematically the fabric of our world is deteriorating whilst we simultaneously are made to think that it is improving.
How did you go about gathering the team for it?
This project started in early 2015 when I had an Artists' Bursary from Creative Scotland. The dancers in the work were all new to me, quite on purpose, to allow me to try new things with new people and to take my work to different places.
Since then the team have grown with a lighting designer, PR person and producer on board as well as various co-production partners. Some are people I've worked with before and some not. It has all happened quite organically, drawing on people who understand the vision of the work and who want to be part of it.
How did you become interested in making performance?
My background is in contemporary dance but I've always been experimenting with how this can be 'performance' and not just dancing. Contemporary dance can get a bad rep sometimes so I want to keep finding ways in which to extend it outwards, finding new doorways in to it so that the mystery around it can be dispelled.
I've also become interested in performance because of a sense of responsibility. It is really all that I do so I want to be part of something that is crucial to all of our well-being and way of understanding our complex world. But in saying that, I'm interested in making performance because I also want to challenge things.
Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?
Sometimes yes and sometimes no. There is always a lot improvising happening. This just feels vital to me to ensure that there is constant inquiry, a constant aliveness. The process of making the work and the piece itself are pretty layered with many ideas and methodologies. I always work this way to ensure that the people in the work are deep within a bigger picture and constantly pushing at it.
There are 3 professional dancers in this work and an extended cast of six participants who have joined us for workshops in preparation for the performance. This is definitely new to me, to include people in the work who are not dancing or performing professionally necessarily but who are just really interested to come and experience the work, its concepts and what it can offer.
This will happen at each venue the work tours to, allowing THE END to keep growing and for people to experience it from the inside as well as from the audience.
I want them to experience a sense of simplicity, a purity but also to have an experience that is startling and thought provoking.
There is something pretty tough about my work generally, the same applies with THE END, I mean the piece is called THE END, it's startling, even frightening to me! And yet there are many moments of stillness, space, and gentle intimacy and connection/disconnection and a proposal for change and how to do things differently. I want the audience to feel like they can make positive change in the face of adversity.
What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?
The work is in the round and is, at least for us, set in some sort of imaginary nightclub where connections and disconnections unfold. I see it a little like a holding pen of some sort in which the performers and the audience are encouraged to face the darker underbelly of things. I like this strategy for space. To bring everyone together, to see each other and almost be in the work physically and hopefully emotionally.
This work has also made me think about time a lot. With THE END I am asking the audience to slow down, look at tiny details and not be seduced by busy stage activity all of the time. I'm intrigued to see what will happen to the sense of time and place in the performance space and to see if we can look at things differently, patiently and keep re-evaluating what we see and how it relates to everyone.
The inclusion of an extended cast, sourced via an open call is important for me. Bringing people in to work is a way in which I hope to encourage the audience to look at it differently and to not be afraid of it.
Some might call me naive but I do actually believe that the kind of work I'm making is for anyone. It's about being open and generous with it, to invite people in and to let them know that it's actually OK.
I'm hoping the inclusion of an extended cast, who are brilliant by the way, will shape the experience in a way that encourages people to look at the work differently, more closely and to look at it without fear but with curiosity.
Do you see your work within any particular tradition?
I'm not sure any more, I've stopped thinking about that sort of thing recently. There is definitely something unconventional about the work, it does fit in to some sort of stranger box. I'm really just focusing on making the work and allowing it to be whatever it needs to be...
Friday, 4 December 2015
Sorry about that...
While sitting in the dark at Stereo, watching Jack Webb's The End, I was struck by my own ethical failure.
Webb's performance - a mixture of dance and soundscape, with Jack intoning and groaning as he twisted under the pressure of a pulsating bass - was part of Jes Suis La Bas, an evening of Live Art curated by Mischief la Bas and itself part of The Only Way is Ethics festival.
Webb asked his audience to consider the end of all things. Barely illuminated, his distorted movements suggested a robotic being struggling to escape the limitations of the body. He crawled, he moaned into a microphone, yelping like a dog, dissolving in the twilight...
Perhaps my blog post about Arvo Part and Noddy Holder escalated a bit too far, I thought. Perhaps having a religious Christmas is about considering my own interior life rather than shouting at people for enjoying Slade.
Arvo Part is good, mind. The ringing minimalism he employs, rather like the throb of Webb's soundscape, has the effect of slowing the experience of time, allowing thought, meditation, renewal (perhaps). And like Webb's dark invocation, it asks the listener to consider their mortality.
Instead, I took the opportunity to berate people for enjoying life. It's not really a choice between Noddy or Arvo. I can have both.
Not that I want both. I'd rather have Jack Webb growling anxiety in my ear than hear those rocking sleigh-bells again.
Webb's performance - a mixture of dance and soundscape, with Jack intoning and groaning as he twisted under the pressure of a pulsating bass - was part of Jes Suis La Bas, an evening of Live Art curated by Mischief la Bas and itself part of The Only Way is Ethics festival.
Webb asked his audience to consider the end of all things. Barely illuminated, his distorted movements suggested a robotic being struggling to escape the limitations of the body. He crawled, he moaned into a microphone, yelping like a dog, dissolving in the twilight...
Perhaps my blog post about Arvo Part and Noddy Holder escalated a bit too far, I thought. Perhaps having a religious Christmas is about considering my own interior life rather than shouting at people for enjoying Slade.
Arvo Part is good, mind. The ringing minimalism he employs, rather like the throb of Webb's soundscape, has the effect of slowing the experience of time, allowing thought, meditation, renewal (perhaps). And like Webb's dark invocation, it asks the listener to consider their mortality.
Instead, I took the opportunity to berate people for enjoying life. It's not really a choice between Noddy or Arvo. I can have both.
Not that I want both. I'd rather have Jack Webb growling anxiety in my ear than hear those rocking sleigh-bells again.
Sunday, 5 October 2014
Sunday, 27 July 2014
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.
Tuesday, 26 February 2013
Jack Webb
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Jack Webb has been knocking around the Scottish dance scene for a while - he was part of Dance Base's Fringe season in 2011, and has been seen strutting his stuff at The Arches as a soloist and all around the nation in Do You Nomi? and David Hughes Dance's The Chinaski Sessions. However, like the rock'n'roll stars that have inspired his choreography for GlitterGrid, Webb is hitting the road hard for spring.
"I'm doing it because I think it's important to make and show," he says. "I've been a huge amount of research in the past two years and then it comes to a point when you actually have to do it and stop thinking and talking about it, so I am. This isn't the first time I'm travelling about doing lots of shows like this but it is the first time I'm calling it a 'tour'. It's very exciting."
"I love touring and I love showing my work, I think it's very important to be present in on the scene because without touring and performance then work ceases to exist," he continues. Recently, touring has included time in some of the more intriguing new choreographies of the past year: Do You Nomi? was something of a performance supergroup, bringing together rising stars from live art, performance poetry and The Arches Christmas show. But this tour sees him take the stage alone.
"Being in a company is a great comfort to most people because you're surrounded by people that support you and who you support, you share all the good and the bad and it's a wonderful thing," Webb admits. "So going on this tour is slightly daunting, because it's mostly just me, my ideas and me supporting me, except for one of the new pieces which is a duet, so I won't always be alone. Working independently on your own work can be punishing and very lonely, it's something that is very rewarding and isolating all at the same time."
The dates feature various combinations of Webb's work, and include workshop antics and community projects, but the core triple bill is made up of a solo, a film and a duet. GlitterGrid studies the transformation of identity, but has a very faniliar influence. "With GlitterGrid I'm more influenced by some of his movement language and particularly David Bowie's ability to transform physically, performatively and his sense of style," Webb says. "Many of his ideas about collecting and taking on the guises of others influence this work greatly. I share desire for transformation, just like he did."
The film, Katy-Ann is a new venture for Webb. "In Dundee last year, I was commissioned to make a piece on the final year students and Katy-Ann was one of them. She's a compelling performer. The film started as a side project, just by myself: I wasn't taking it seriously," he remembers. This vague interest, however, developed into something more and - given Webb's vigorous performance style, a film makes for a good break for him to recover between the two live dances. "I was looking through a book that said something about making side projects in to something, so I did. It was initially supposed to feature other people but I filmed Katy-Ann and realised she was more than enough. It's a simple film and a bit of an experiment."
The third piece, FLESHnote is a duet performed by Webb and a female dancers (either Jessica Todd or Madira Gregurek). For someone who has made plenty of solo pieces, it is an intriguing new direction, although Webb doesn't see it as such. "I need someone to relate to on the stage: I love doing solo work but it's isolating and tough.
"Jessica and Madira, who are sharing the part, are friends of mine and people who I can trust to be left with the ideas I give to them and make something with it that will fit with my work and practice. It's taken a while because I haven't met anyone who I would want to or indeed trust. But they are both incredibly compelling and just as horrifying as myself."
As Webb showed in Do You Nomi? he can be a little saucy as well as horrifying, but his choreography does play with the boundaries of elegance and ugliness. The polish of his training is increasingly connected to his expansive ideas and willingness to challenge conventional movement. Or, as he explains it, more succintly: "Mental. But life affirming."
MARCH 10TH/NOTTINGHAM
Performance of FLESHnote by Jack Webb at NottDance festival
Performance of FLESHnote by Jack Webb at NottDance festival
MARCH 22ND/DUNDEE
Performance and workshops at the Scottish School of Contemporary Dance. SSCD students only.
Performance and workshops at the Scottish School of Contemporary Dance. SSCD students only.
MARCH 24th/ABERDEEN
'The Moment Has To Arrive' - A day of live art and performance by artists and students from Gray’s School of Art. Curated by Conor Baird in collaboration with Citymoves Dance Agency. This event is inspired by the performer and choreographer Jack Webb and the unique setting of Citymoves space as you have never seen it before.
MARCH 28TH/NEWCASTLE
MARCH 29TH/ABERDEEN
Performance of GlitterGrid by Jack Webb and Squish by Tony Mills, part of March Moves
Performance of GlitterGrid by Jack Webb and Squish by Tony Mills, part of March Moves
APRIL 5TH/EDINBURGH
Thursday, 14 February 2013
Dancing or Fighting?
I'll never forget the day I told Rob Drummond, successful playwright and tough guy about town, that wrestling was fixed. He stared me down, told me it was "sports entertainment" and that it was staged, not fixed. He then got me in a headlock and threw me across the radio studio.
So this month, I have a choice: wrestling or dancing? In the blue corner, the mighty Edinburgh tag-team of Tony "The Hardest Working Man in Scottish Dance" Mills and Jack "GlitterGrid" Webb: representing contemporary choreography and tough enough to remind this critic that he might want to be careful moaning about masculinity in dance. And in the red corner, Insane Championship Wrestling, stars of a feature in Vice and preparing to move from their base in Maryhill Community Hall to the East Coast, giving Edinburgh grapple fans a reminder that no-one is harder that a man who'll wear a unitard in Glasgow.
The IWA's arrival in Edinburgh (the show is called Tramspotting) promises "edgy story-lines and episodic story arcs." Not content with being entertainment for those who love seeing a chair being used in ways its maker did not intend, IWA are challenging theatre to be as roughneck as fighting, occupying the space usually occupied by drama.
Webb and Mills have a double bill heading north to Aberdeen: Squish / GlitterGrid. Webb has been playing with his celebrity lately, and GlitterGrid has him going all out for Ziggy Stardust theatricality. Mills is working out a dance that happens on a squash court, examining the nature of success - and what it costs.
What do these works share? They are all heavy on the masculinity, presenting men in tough environments. And every single person involved in them could give me a doing.
So this month, I have a choice: wrestling or dancing? In the blue corner, the mighty Edinburgh tag-team of Tony "The Hardest Working Man in Scottish Dance" Mills and Jack "GlitterGrid" Webb: representing contemporary choreography and tough enough to remind this critic that he might want to be careful moaning about masculinity in dance. And in the red corner, Insane Championship Wrestling, stars of a feature in Vice and preparing to move from their base in Maryhill Community Hall to the East Coast, giving Edinburgh grapple fans a reminder that no-one is harder that a man who'll wear a unitard in Glasgow.
The IWA's arrival in Edinburgh (the show is called Tramspotting) promises "edgy story-lines and episodic story arcs." Not content with being entertainment for those who love seeing a chair being used in ways its maker did not intend, IWA are challenging theatre to be as roughneck as fighting, occupying the space usually occupied by drama.
Webb and Mills have a double bill heading north to Aberdeen: Squish / GlitterGrid. Webb has been playing with his celebrity lately, and GlitterGrid has him going all out for Ziggy Stardust theatricality. Mills is working out a dance that happens on a squash court, examining the nature of success - and what it costs.
What do these works share? They are all heavy on the masculinity, presenting men in tough environments. And every single person involved in them could give me a doing.
Jack Webb on Tour
Having already mentioned Nottdance, I find out that Jack Webb is taking FLESHnote down there on 10 March. Webb is one of Scottish dance's rising stars - originally featured in The Shimmy Skinny, a magazine well known for its unerring support of the next wave of choreographers and dancers - and has been doing his time with other companies lately: he turned up in David Hughes Dance's Chinaski Sessions and, right now, is in Do You Nomi?
He is going on tour with his solo work over March - here are the dates.
MARCH 10TH/NOTTINGHAM
MARCH 24th/ABERDEEN
MARCH 28TH/NEWCASTLE
MARCH 29TH/ABERDEEN
Performance of GlitterGrid by Jack Webb and Squish by Tony Mills, part of March Moves - http://
Performance of GlitterGrid by Jack Webb and Squish by Tony Mills, part of March Moves - http://
APRIL 5TH/EDINBURGH
Thursday, 18 October 2012
China. Ski. Tours
I had serious doubts about this production. I mean, I love David Hughes Dance - when they upset everyone else at the 2011 Fringe with Last Orders, I could not see what the fuss was all about. Didn't the critics know that Al Seed was likely to indulge his fascination with the dark side? Are dancers twitching like insects really that surprising? Wouldn't a degree of revulsion be expected in a piece about cannibalism? And unlike a great deal of dance, which aims for the "abstract and beautiful" vote, Hughes was making a stand for dance that, like, was actually about something. Last Orders was funny, even kitsch during the disco scene, intense and articulate.
So, it isn't some beef with the company that worried me: it was the subject. Charles Bukowski. Like most overly-intellectual boys who are scared of women, I had my Bukowski phase. I was in my twenties, got hold of a copy of Post Office and decided that the true writer would avoid the bohemian life. I got a job cleaning in a hospital, wrote HANK on my name tag and bemoaned my ugliness.
Only I stopped short when I saw him fighting his wife in a documentary, and realised that severe alcoholism might encourage a taut writing style but also ends up in writing the same bloody book for forty years. Bukowski was a thuggish man, and all that bullshit about the beauty of his soul (every time he gets a fuck, the woman seems to comment on it. And the size of his prick) could not disguise the savagery of his attitude to women.
Much as I enjoyed the quality of Grid Iron's take on the Bukowski legend - especially thanks to David Paul Jones' piano magic - an unfortunate programme note that suggested Bukowski loved women, really, soured me on the deal. In Barflies, he breaks a woman's arm. That isn't loving women in a special way.
I needed to be persuaded that David Hughes' Chinaski Sessions was not going to make the same mistakes. Luckily, and this is one of the reasons that I love David Hughes Dance, they set me up with the choreographer.
Kylie Walters had already written an essay on why she wanted to do this show, and I'll be ripping that off later. However, she was willing to clarify for me why Bukowski could be redeemed by dance.
"Bukowski's writing comes from a very masculine perspective, some would even say a misogynistic perspective," she admits. "That interested me, firstly in the obvious sense that I was a woman working with an all male cast."
So, it isn't some beef with the company that worried me: it was the subject. Charles Bukowski. Like most overly-intellectual boys who are scared of women, I had my Bukowski phase. I was in my twenties, got hold of a copy of Post Office and decided that the true writer would avoid the bohemian life. I got a job cleaning in a hospital, wrote HANK on my name tag and bemoaned my ugliness.
Only I stopped short when I saw him fighting his wife in a documentary, and realised that severe alcoholism might encourage a taut writing style but also ends up in writing the same bloody book for forty years. Bukowski was a thuggish man, and all that bullshit about the beauty of his soul (every time he gets a fuck, the woman seems to comment on it. And the size of his prick) could not disguise the savagery of his attitude to women.
I needed to be persuaded that David Hughes' Chinaski Sessions was not going to make the same mistakes. Luckily, and this is one of the reasons that I love David Hughes Dance, they set me up with the choreographer.
Kylie Walters had already written an essay on why she wanted to do this show, and I'll be ripping that off later. However, she was willing to clarify for me why Bukowski could be redeemed by dance.
"Bukowski's writing comes from a very masculine perspective, some would even say a misogynistic perspective," she admits. "That interested me, firstly in the obvious sense that I was a woman working with an all male cast."
To be honest, that had struck me: Hughes had pulled together a fairly impressive gang of seven- especially given that twelve of Scotland's top male dancers has been recruited for Deliberance. Jack Webb, Rob Heaslip, Michael Sherrin, Matthew Foster and Martin Lindinger are all creators in their own right.
"But it's also a poetic analogy for the phenomena that heavy rock music often has a predominately male audience," she continues. "And the dance world has a predominately female following. That social cleavage already creates a tension."
Chinaski was the name of the hero in Bukowski's various novels: a thinly veiled ersatz version of the author and deeply unpleasant human being. Using that name, rather than the novelist's, suggests that Walters is not interested in autobiography but something more theoretical.
"I've taken the Chinaski reference merely as a springboard to explore masculine behaviour in a rock context," she agrees. "The piece is inspired more by the atmosphere of Chinaski's flat rather than the poetry or stories of Bukowski."
."This theatrical foundation provides the stamping ground for a range of male, and sometimes "cock rock" behaviour, be it testosterone fuelled spurts of energy, the simple joys of a bunch of guys hanging out together, the lethargy coupled with brewing aggression or the primitive urge to compete and egg one another on."
This is intriguing me. Obviously, I don't spend that much time with other guys - at least not in large groups. That's partially because I am a loner who doesn't wash enough, but like to say it is because I am not enamoured of how masculinity works in groups. It's how wars start, or something. However, Waters is using the male cast not to praise masculine swagger but examine it.
"What interests me here is that all this male energy is used and channelled to create something - rock," she continues. "Something about the chemistry of hanging out and playing together spurs on a creative act. It's almost a ritualistic playing out of masculinity in order to access that creative territory."
Hmm. I've only managed to cut an paste bits from her first two replies, and I am already interested, and willing to throw away my doubts. I guess some people will see Chinaski in the title and think it's cool... but I feel that they might be getting a little more than they expected.
Sunday, 10 July 2011
Jack Webb and Gareth K Vile
I first met Jack Webb in 2009, outside Dance Base, after a show by Iona Kewney. I couldn't talk that much - Kewney remains my single favourite dancer - but Webb was articulate and engaging. We meet up for coffee now and again, and I rant at him about how criticism is an art form. He listens quietly, then reminds me that he is the one who debuted at New Territories this year, has been touring his improvisations around Scotland and is heading off to work with Via Negativa, a wonderful gang of Live Art mischief makers from Central Europe.
Before Webb takes on The Fringe - he has a show at Dance Base this year, I thought I could abuse our friendship one last time, and get an exclusive interview. He is rightly described as a rising star in the brochure, although I am not so sure about the quotes from other critics. It's not like I haven't praised him in reviews, and not just because I like him as a pal.
Vile: I was wondering how you ended up being a dancer. Remember when when we first met and bonded over Kewney? Up to that point, what was your dance history? Were you a ballet boy?
Webb: I have never been into ballet in the way that ballet boys are but I had my fair share of it whilst training. I discovered dance as a teenager through a local youth dance group and then I went to train at the Scottish School of Contemporary Dance in Dundee and since then I've been doing all sorts of things but I've never been a ballet boy, no.
Vile: You have revealed an interest in both improvisation and physical theatre... the obvious question is to ask what is the relationship between the dance training you did and the improvisation? And where did the interest in physical theatre come from - and is it just dance with a smart name?
Webb: The training i did involved both of those things but I think I really discovered it off of my own back by going to see work that fed me and inspired me because dance schools will only teach you what they think you need to know which is different at every school and of course continually developing my skills by actually doing it. I wouldn't say that my work is physical theatre because I'm not sure what physical theatre actually is. I don't like to label things in this way, it limits the work.
Vile: The actual fringe piece. I have seen you improvising lately - and I know this piece isn't just an extension of that work... how far is this choreographed , how much do you respond in the moment, and where does the music fit in?
Webb: With this show at the Fringe, I haven't choreographed anything. There are movements, situations and places on stage that always happen, that forms some of the structure to guide me through the 20 minutes because without that I would be lost but other than that I am respnding in the moment and trying to be as curious as possible on stage. Immediacy is everything with this work. I'm a huge fan of Joe Quimby's work and I asked him if he would record something for me and he said yes. Music is a huge driving force for me. it excites me and feeds what I'm doing and a lot of the things on stage are in response to the sound.
Vile: In earlier works - It's a Grand Thing To Get Leave To Live) and The Bravest Thing You Can Do Is Be Still pieces, you were about staging and props as tools in dance. Is that still there, or are you getting back to the body?
Webb: Props are still there and I'll tell you why. In solo works, for me props and objects serve the purpose of replacing people in a way. They proivide me with something to engage with and also I feel that the work is about the visual aspect as well as the movement. Design of space, costume and colour play a huge part in this work at the Fringe.
Vile: What do you like outside of dance? Don't say the Fuck Buttons because I want to publish this interview where my mum might read it. But what outside of dance influences when you make work, and what do these influences bring to your work?
Music and sound for me is a huge driving force. And also colour. This show has been influenced a lot by the colours that are present on stage because it somehow effects my mood and presence when creating and performing.
Vile: How is your relationship with ballet these days? Where are you getting those funky new moves from?
Webb: I haven't been to a ballet class in almost one year so we haven't really been on speaking terms for a while although I appreciate ballet a lot, especially Forsythe's early works that were all about distorting the form and pushing the physicality to new places.
The funky moves? Certainly not from ballet.
Vile: And finally - how is Via Negativa going for you?
Webb: Via Negativa is the happiest and most productive company I have worked with for a long time. Bojan, the director of the company, pushes us a lot to go beyond ourselves and we spend a lot of time talking so I'm not there to dance, infact I am acting more than anything and we have to be merciless with our feedback to material that we all create. it's a simple idea but it works. I'm very happy to be working with them.
Webb: I have never been into ballet in the way that ballet boys are but I had my fair share of it whilst training. I discovered dance as a teenager through a local youth dance group and then I went to train at the Scottish School of Contemporary Dance in Dundee and since then I've been doing all sorts of things but I've never been a ballet boy, no.
Vile: You have revealed an interest in both improvisation and physical theatre... the obvious question is to ask what is the relationship between the dance training you did and the improvisation? And where did the interest in physical theatre come from - and is it just dance with a smart name?
Webb: The training i did involved both of those things but I think I really discovered it off of my own back by going to see work that fed me and inspired me because dance schools will only teach you what they think you need to know which is different at every school and of course continually developing my skills by actually doing it. I wouldn't say that my work is physical theatre because I'm not sure what physical theatre actually is. I don't like to label things in this way, it limits the work.
Vile: The actual fringe piece. I have seen you improvising lately - and I know this piece isn't just an extension of that work... how far is this choreographed , how much do you respond in the moment, and where does the music fit in?
Webb: With this show at the Fringe, I haven't choreographed anything. There are movements, situations and places on stage that always happen, that forms some of the structure to guide me through the 20 minutes because without that I would be lost but other than that I am respnding in the moment and trying to be as curious as possible on stage. Immediacy is everything with this work. I'm a huge fan of Joe Quimby's work and I asked him if he would record something for me and he said yes. Music is a huge driving force for me. it excites me and feeds what I'm doing and a lot of the things on stage are in response to the sound.
Vile: In earlier works - It's a Grand Thing To Get Leave To Live) and The Bravest Thing You Can Do Is Be Still pieces, you were about staging and props as tools in dance. Is that still there, or are you getting back to the body?
Webb: Props are still there and I'll tell you why. In solo works, for me props and objects serve the purpose of replacing people in a way. They proivide me with something to engage with and also I feel that the work is about the visual aspect as well as the movement. Design of space, costume and colour play a huge part in this work at the Fringe.
Vile: What do you like outside of dance? Don't say the Fuck Buttons because I want to publish this interview where my mum might read it. But what outside of dance influences when you make work, and what do these influences bring to your work?
Music and sound for me is a huge driving force. And also colour. This show has been influenced a lot by the colours that are present on stage because it somehow effects my mood and presence when creating and performing.
Vile: How is your relationship with ballet these days? Where are you getting those funky new moves from?
Webb: I haven't been to a ballet class in almost one year so we haven't really been on speaking terms for a while although I appreciate ballet a lot, especially Forsythe's early works that were all about distorting the form and pushing the physicality to new places.
The funky moves? Certainly not from ballet.
Vile: And finally - how is Via Negativa going for you?
Webb: Via Negativa is the happiest and most productive company I have worked with for a long time. Bojan, the director of the company, pushes us a lot to go beyond ourselves and we spend a lot of time talking so I'm not there to dance, infact I am acting more than anything and we have to be merciless with our feedback to material that we all create. it's a simple idea but it works. I'm very happy to be working with them.
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