IJAD - Rehearsal Footage

I've had a fascinating two weeks following the work of IJAD in preparation for their performances at the Science Museum tomorrow night.

Last week I filmed some of their rehearsal, so here is a sneak peak of the performance! If this doesn't intrigue and inspire you to join me at the performance tomorrow than I don't know what will.

Thanks to Asemic for the music, hear more here. 

IJAD - Alice Hoult - creating the world of In-Finite Space

During Mondays open rehearsal I had a chat with Alice Hoult, the set and costume designer for the performance, I wanted to find out where Alice had taken her inspiration and how she was approaching this project.  Alice first worked with Joumana, the choreographer for In-Finite Space, in the summer on a project entitled In-Finite In Transit.  This performance also involved the use of elastics between trees which are also being used between the pillars in the Science Museum performance space. 

Corporate space in the process of transformation

Alice was asked to do this project by Joumana and the subject matter immediately struck her as interesting.  It coincidently tied in directly with a personal interest she had recently developed having visited the Qatar Museum of Islamic Art and becoming fascinated by the astrolabes she discovered there.  Joumana emailed her regarding the project,  mentioning the Islamic Astronomy influences and Alice, having such an interest in the subject already, couldn’t refuse! Astrolabes are known as the first ever computer, they were used to calculate the time by measuring the position of the sun or stars, and were also used for more complex calculations. They originate from around 150BC and are beautiful objects as well as being incredibly complex and valuable.  During the first rehearsal of IJAD I attended Joumana showed the dancers a video demonstrating how an astrolabe works, these objects are obviously very influential items to the project. 

I was interested to see how Alice could visualise the performance taking place in such a corporate space which to me seems quite lifeless and limiting. However Alice spoke of her excitement to work in the space, being used to theatres this space with its white walls, shadows and angles provides a lot of scope for the performance. The space resembles a large blank canvas.  Alice told me how it is always a challenge not being in a theatre, mainly from the perspective that technical equipment is limited such as lighting, however it seems to me that this space will not hold her back in the slightest!

Working with dancers affects the design; as of course costumes must allow movement in addition to enhancing the performance. Alice told me that enjoys this element and interacts with the performers throughout the process, discovering how to make her ideas work on a practical level. 

The subject space could easily become a bit of a cliché, with stars and planets scattering the design, however as Alice has approached the subject from an Islamic Astronomy perspective she is working more with geometry and infinite patterns.  She looked at the angles she could create and those already in existence in the room itself, by approaching it in this way I think that the performance will certainly be something intriguing. 

You can read more about Alices design work here.

IJAD - One week to go!

On Monday I returned to the Science Museum to see how InFinite Space has been developing. I was intrigued to see how much the performance would have changed and progressed since my time spent with IJAD last week.  I also wanted to further explore how Twitter was going to be used during the performance.

I met Stephanie who is the brains behind IJAD’s social media and found out a bit more about the plans for Twitters interaction on the night.  I discovered that audience members can tweet during the performance and these tweets will be directly incorporated into the performance via large projections – an exciting prospect! At the moment IJAD are tweeting questions which will provoke answers that performers can interpret into their routines.  IJAD showed some examples of how this works, which made it a bit clearer for me, here.   

Stephanie was also encouraging the performers themselves to get involved with Twitter and think about parts of the performance so far that lead to questions. Again, as I have mentioned previously, these are by no means questions with simple answers. Is it a bad sign that my first reaction to the question below was Malteasers?

The structure of the performance was much clearer this week, with three main sections exploring different ideas.  A variety of effects had also appeared including an amazing projection of a space landscape backdrop which the dancers and jugglers perform in front of.  There was also the introduction of dry ice, to everyone’s excitement, which in front of the space backdrop looked brilliant.

In terms of the performers development I particularly noticed that the jugglers moves had become much more “dancey” (technical term), which worked really well with the dancers contemporary moves as well as being more effective during moments when the jugglers perform on their own.  Part of the performance which was especially effective was the illusion that one of the jugglers was plucking stars from the backdrop and then it would appear as though they were juggling with these. I am intrigued to see how this develops further.

Overall the performance has come on leaps and bounds since last week, and with only a week to go until show day I can't wait to see the finished performance!

Stay tuned for some videos I took during the rehearsal!

IJAD - Open Rehearsals

As I hope you can tell from my previous blog post, I had a fantastic morning with IJAD watching the ideas for their performance start to come together.  Being a 'fly on the wall' for this process was a privilege and I would encourage anyone to take advantage of the open rehearsals that they will be running for the next two Mondays before the performance! Details of what to do if you fancy it are here

Spot the "fly on the wall"!
(c) Miri Zaruba photographer  www.mirilondonphotographer.co.uk

IJAD - My first sneak peak at Infinite Space!

So on Monday morning I set off bright and early to the Science Museum to have a sneaky peak at one of IJAD’s rehearsals for InFinite Space. This was the performers first day in the Science Museum, an opportunity to explore their performance space and work through some initial ideas. 

I found the performers and choreographer, Joumana Mourad, in an area of the Museum called “Measuring Time”.  The performers were instructed to have a look at the objects and take inspiration from them.  We were surrounded by sundials, clocks and pendulums, and I immediately began to imagine how such objects could be used to inspire a dance performance, I later learnt that I was also in the company of jugglers who could effectively create pendulum movements. They spoke of circles, which as the morning progressed I could see were going to make a big impact on their performance.  The videos below show the movements of some of the objects I could see evolving into physical action.

Speaking briefly with Joumana she explained how this performance was to be inspired by the history of astrology and particularly how the thoughts and ideas have changed throughout history.  I wonder how such a complex subject matter will be shown in the performance, and how bodies and movement could portray this.

On entering the space, discussions around the audiences’ initial reaction including how much of the entire performance would be visible from the entrance took place.  I admired their vision to see such a large, empty space, which felt more like a conference room than a performance space, and visualise a performance.  From what I had gathered so far, the space will be dark with projections and lighting, including lights on the performers themselves.  Joumana suggests that the performance will begin with “normal juggling and movements” progressing to something “abnormal” and I wondered if this reflects the progression of scientific knowledge about our Universe.  It seems to me, from a very unknowledgeable science mind, that the more we find out the more daunting a prospect it becomes.  

The performers then began to experiment with movements and routines that they had previously explored. Immediately with the juggling (and specifically the juggling technique which features two balls attached by strings which I believe is called Poi) I can see direct comparisons between the planets and their orbits, as well as with the pendulum of a clock.  The dancers moves involved lots of circular motion, again suggesting orbits, and I began to see how it could actually be possible to tackle such a complex subject through this performance.

The next step was to bring the dancers and jugglers together, I believe this was new to the performers and was fascinated to see how they worked together to incorporate their movements.  How two distinct art forms could merge together to create something new was something I had not witnessed first hand before.  Jugglers were juggling in-between the dancers extraordinarily flexible limbs and mimicking the shape of the dancers movements and through this I could see various ideas start to take shape.

Fab shots of the interaction of juggler and dancer. 

(c) Miri Zaruba photographer  www.mirilondonphotographer.co.uk

Another section of the rehearsal saw the performers assigned a planet each and they then recreated the orbit of the planets, while dancing and juggling. This was a much more artistically engaging method of showing the orbit of the planets than school physics lessons spent shivering on a cold playground.  The idea of “orbit” was used much more towards the end of the morning, with the jugglers orbiting around dancers as well as modifying their juggling to further evoke this orbital theme.

I also met the designer who had created a structure out of elastic and hoops stretching between two pillars in the space which the dancers could dance around, through and within, adding yet another element to this performance which from the few hours I spent with them, looks sure to be something special. 

(c) Miri Zaruba photographer www.mirilondonphotographer.co.uk

The only element that I missed from this rehearsal was the involvement of Twitter; I had expected some mention of the comments that were to be shaping the performance. However as this blog post on the IJADs website demonstrates, the performers have been experimenting with how to interpret peoples answers to questions on Twitter.

So a great morning spent with some truly talented people, I look forward to the next time I meet them all to see where the project leads them!

I am thoroughly enjoying my time as an embedded journalist with IJAD, and should you like the sound of what you read make sure you come along to the Science Museums event on the 30th October! You can also read about the other embedded journalist, Emily Pulham, and her experiences here or follow her on Twitter @makingthemarrow.

A Dolls House - my first independent theatre trip!

I think perhaps my expectations of A Dolls House were beyond how good any show could be. Saying that I did enjoy the show, there were just a few niggles and to be honest few of these were the fault of the production itself.  The audience were just very fidgety, it’s a fairly long show but not ridiculous, and there was a particularly fidgety school group sitting behind me, 14 year old boys find the strangest things hilarious. Also, I was towards the back of the stalls, and throughout the show there were the occasional bumps and audible talking taking place behind the doors by what I presume was staff which in any theatre I think is pretty unforgiveable. 

My only criticism of the show itself, and something which I think did affect the impact of the show on me, was that the use of the sound, like a distant rumble, which occurred whenever a cast member said something significant and I felt was incredibly similar to the same effect in Sweet Bird of Youth at The Old Vic this summer, which was a shame 

Regardless of those minor points A Dolls House is a fantastic production, as the reviews and it’s run at the Duke of York's Theatre prove!  The story, of which I was completely new to, is a mix of heart-breaking, angering and unfair.  If I wasn’t a complete feminist on entering the theatre, I am now.  Some of the phrases used by Torvald and the horror expressed at these by some outgoing audience members made me think about how we think we’ve come so far when in fact I’m not sure we have.  I know some peoples wedding vows still state “to serve my husband”, not far from the script of this play which caused horror in the theatre.  I’m not alone in this, the programme notes include an interview with Carrie Cracknell, the Director of this production. She states that many women now think feminism has no need, we’ve come so far in such recent history, yet she also states, “The idea of the woman as a person who is perceived through how she looks, whose power is related to how she looks, is more prevalent than it’s ever been – and that’s at the heart of Ibsen’s play and Nora’s entrapment”.  Nora is repeatedly referred to by her husband as his “sparrow”, “dove” and other birds which is initially amusing, until it becomes patronising and degrading.  I felt like shouting “YESS” when Nora finally realises how her husband has treated her, as though she is merely an object. It is by no means a happy ending, and apart from the applause there is no other sign that this can be the end of Nora’s story, but I feel that at least she stands up for herself in some respects, while also being incredibly cruel abandoning her children and facing what little prospects a single woman would have had in that period. I have to admit I had to keep on consciously relaxing my face, I could feel myself frowning at the stage every time her husband made some degrading little comment, which happened frequently.

(c) Johan Persson

 Getting that rant out of the way, Nora herself is a somewhat irritating character. Constantly flitting around incredibly selfish at the opening when her old friend Kristine returns, obviously needing to talk, yet Nora talks at length of her husbands new job and all the money she will have.  Hattie Morahan is brilliant in this lead role, never switching off, always twitching and having an almost ghostly appearance at points. She is deserving of the awards and acclaim she has recieved, and she must be drained playing Nora with such fervour every night, twice a day must be utterly exhausting. Hattie is such a brilliant actress that she almost overshadows the rest of the cast, particularly the male characters and I’m not just saying this as my feminist hat is on. I know she has received some critism for "over-acting" but who wouldn't be after nine years of marriage to a man who treats you as Torvald treats Nora. One of the most powerful moments was just before the interval, Nora is practising her dance for her husband and as the music from the scene fades away into a haunting orchestration we see her dance turn into a puppet-esque fit like movement, like the doll or puppet she is. 

The set was also fantastic, as if it was a wooden dolls house with four rooms like most young girls have played with, the set would spin as cast moved around to each room, following them around the house which I particularly loved. 

This was my first trip to the theatre on my own! A venture I entered with some trepidation, but the show was great and I enjoyed being able to absorb myself in the plot (as much as possible with the noisy kids behind me) and thanks to social media I still had a good old natter about the show after.

This trailer gives a good insight into the production!