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.