Thursday 26 August 2010

It's No Game

It has been an uneventful fabulously slow Summer. And I love it.

I have seen Exposed, Francis Alys (Tate Modern), Picasso: Peace & Freedom (Tate Liverpool), Saatchi's British Art Now, Rude Britannia and Henry Moore (Tate Britain); saw ENRON again, The Comedy of Error (Open Air Theatre), all of which I enjoyed immensely. None of which I have had time to write about.

That is... until now...



I have been participating in a public dance showcase at Tate Modern, working alongside Michael Clark, legendary british choreographer, and his team of excellent dancers.  80 of us with no previous dance training from the public have been practicing every Friday for an hour and a half for the past 5 weeks.  By the way, we're doing it to David Bowie's "It's No Game" and it really is no game.

I have never heard of Michael Clark before but I can see how people admire him. I've only been wikipedia and youtube-ing him for the last couple of weeks... and seeing his vision planned out on stage, I really really like what I have seen. He seems like a  quiet and timid person but you can tell a man by the people who work for him. They are some of the most patient, genuinely nice, inspiring and fun people to work with.  Imagining less than 10 of them helping out 80+ of us untrained dancers to do a routine all at the same time. I have to stress again, IT REALLY IS NO GAME.  But somehow they have managed to keep us all coming back for more every Friday. I have been totally impressed with their dedication and the energy they have channelled through to us.

Our performance is taking place this Bank Holiday Weekend in the Turbine Hall for FREE! Our first performance is tomorrow. It is featured here in the Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2010/aug/24/michael-clark-tate-modern

I have to say I'm very excited and somewhat not stressed out at all, even though they have really only finalized the routine today.

This is a video of Michael at work and one of our rehearsals