1:1 - a short filmed commissioned by MAYK for WOW Festival Istanbul
Women of the World Festival is happening in Istanbul this weekend. See the full programme here: www.wowistanbul.org/en
MAYK invited me to create a short film that will be screened as part of the festival, alongside Kitchen Alba, a new work by the quite wonderful Jo Bannon, at 9.55am on Friday 5 March.
Here are some words about the piece…
1:1
by Laila Diallo
‘I have been thinking about the movement of the everyday as it unfolds, out of view, inside the rows of Victorian terrace houses in the neighbourhood where I live. I have been wondering whether in other homes, like in ours, kitchen floors from time to time become dance floors, with everyday gestures sliding from the functional into something other, for the space of a song or two; dances danced between stove and table, big dances for our small rooms.
This is a dance made to the scale of our kitchen.
It knows the room well. It carries the repetition of its days. None really ever the same.
It remembers moments.
It holds some of the light, some of the weight, some of the landscape.
This is a dance made to the scale of our kitchen, tipping from the everyday into something else, carrying traces of dances danced before and inviting new ones.
Maybe this dance feels like a song.
I’d like that.’
- Laila
the weight of your hand
For Groundwork Pro, from a distance…
the weight of your hand
find a patch of sunlight to stand in
or a quiet room
a cushion to sit on
perhaps you can hear birdsong
or the hum of the fridge-freezer
the roar of an occasional engine
or the neighbour’s radio
hold one hand in the other
left into right
or right into left
cusp one hand so that its weight can drop
weight falling into the other hand
eyes closed or eyes open
be with that for a moment
the weight of your hand.
then maybe they swap roles
and the hand first holding now gives weight while the other supports it
it could go back and forth a while
i like throwing one hand up and catching it again
i like letting the hold slide along the hand to find a new hold elsewhere
finger tips and palm and back of the hand and slice of the hand and thumb and wrist and forearm
holding touch
throwing and catching touch
dropping catching touch
sliding touch
feeling touch
remembering touch
bouncing, easing, warming, playing, scouting
it becomes unclear which hand/wrist/arm is supporting which
in this give and take and back and forth
and all the rest of us joins in this dance
of course
and perhaps our touch finds new places to land on
the top of the head, the base of the spine, ribs or belly or heart
or the ground
to slide and hold and drop and catch and ease and bounce and play and scout
and maybe as you move, the movement of your breathing becomes a hum if it wishes to
and - why the hell not - let that hum become a song if it’s that kind of a day
what is your favourite song?
and perhaps this is all done and dusted in the space of a few minutes
those stolen between morning coffee and year four maths
or perhaps you can spend more time with it
either way is fine
no one way is more or less than the other
find an island to stand within
and hold the weight of your hand.
edges
everything doesn’t fit together
finding edges
softening edges
feeling previously unfelt edges
inadvertently creating unwanted edges
meeting useful edges
we spoke and danced about how we might soften some edges
soften some edges from one state of being to another
and soften edges around a task - beginning before we begin and perhaps not ending at the end
and soften edges between the formal and the informal
and soften edges between us - at a ‘who we are and what we each do’ level
and soften edges between us - at a skin level
and soften edges between us - as we move and as we watch
and we did this while also moving along and through all those other edges
you know the ones
hope and need and fear and joy and pain and expectation and the unexpected
quite incredible really
The above is a reflection on a two-week making process of everything doesn’t fit together, November 2019.
With performers Natalie Corne, Laura Dannequin, Luke Divall, Helka Kaski, Camille Marchadour, Tilly Webber, Ellie Showering; composer Ellie Showering; creative support from Katherine Hall; producing from Emma Bettridge and film and photography from Jack Offord.
Project supported using public funding by Arts Council England and through Pavilion South West Surf Generator Seed Funding. With additional support from Bristol Ferment Leverhulme Scholarship, Siobhan Davies Dance, Tobacco Factory Theatre Residency Programme and Trinity Centre.
Photo: Jack Offord Performer: Helka Kaski
Notebook
SPRING NEWS - Spring has sprung! It has now, hasn't it...?
SOME SPRING NEWS FROM ME
I'm looking forward to, as well as some sunshine and warmth, lots of pretty marvellous plans and projects this Spring. Here are are some:
- I'm working with Verity Standen on her new show, Undersong. It will open as part of Mayfest on 11th May. There'll be opportunities to see the show in three different locations during the festival too! Check it out: http://mayfestbristol.co.uk/shows/undersong-at-chapterhouse-bristol-cathedral
- I plan to make good use of my Leverhulme Scholarship (https://bristololdvic.org.uk/press/the-2018-leverhulme-scholarship-recipients-announced) to take my new performance project, We Are Constellations, forward. Images below are from studio research in the Autumn. By Zoe Manders. At Studio Wayne McGregor. With Natalie Corne, Laura Dannequin, Helka Kaski, Camille Marchadour and Tilly Webber.
- And there's also this...
FOOTNOTES
Sutton House, London. Exhibition running throughout the summer. Wednesday - Sunday 12.00pm- 5.00pm
The exhibition will reveal objects from the eclectic archive at London College of Fashion, UAL which includes 1930s orthopaedic footwear, silk slippers from the 1800s and even a shoe made for a sheep. Artists Linda Brothwell, Laila Diallo, Eelko Moorer and Ellen Sampson have produced work inspired by the selected shoes, revealing new interpretations of aged objects which form a trail through the historic east London property. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/sutton-house-and-breakers-yard/features/london-college-of-fashion-presents-footnotes-intimate-stories-of-shoes-at-sutton-house
So there... Spring has sprung, The grass has rid, I wonder where the birdie is
They say the bird is on the wing, But that's absurd, The wing is on the bird
Copyright: Lyrics © Original Writer and Publisher
See y'all out there somewhere along the way. x
the image of the world can be different
This was already a month ago! Presenting HUSK at Kettle's Yard, Cambridge. A work commissioned by Candoco and performed by Kathleen Hawkins and Anne-Gaëlle Thiriot.
The image of the world can be different.
Let us just hold on to that.
Making work with Candoco
I'm chuffed to be working with two Candoco Dance Company performers, Kathleen Hawkins and Anne-Gaëlle Thiriot, to create a duet for the reopening of Kettle's Yard in Cambridge. We will show the work on Saturday 17 March. One in a series of live interventions that day, we will move in the new and old spaces of the gallery, among/alongside the works brought together for ACTIONS, the image of the world can be different.
Honoured and excited to be making in such great company.
REVIEW - In This Moment at Cardiff Dance Festival →
'... resonates with a sense of presence and immediacy, of being in the here and now and experiencing something sublime but also connected to history, the past and how we can rethink our relationship to the world.' - Alex Wren, Buzz Magazine
http://www.buzzmag.co.uk/da…/wrongheaded-and-in-this-moment/
A glimpse
We Are Constellations
I was joined this October by a wonderful group of artists: Natalie Corne, Laura Dannequin, Helka Kaski, Zoe Manders, Camille Marchadour and Tilly Webber. Together we begun on a performance research process. My invitation to them was to meet, to meet and to pay attention to the questions and opportunities that arose out of the specificity of this/these encounter/s.
I approached it thinking that it will be okay to delve into the unknown. In fact I sort of see it as my my job to do so.
I approached it with a keen sense that we never start from a blank page. Even when we wish to.
I approached it with trepidation.
I approached with fear. It’s always a part of it.
I approached it with Solnit under my arm and Ezra Furman in my walkman (so to speak).
I approached it pondering how it all fits into our broken world.
This project is supported using public funding by Arts Council England. With additional support from Studio Wayne McGregor through the FreeSpace programme.
This project is supported using public funding by Arts Council England. With additional support from Studio Wayne McGregor through the FreeSpace programme.
Photo: Camille Marchadour, by Zoe Manders