Unsettling Dust

*note to readers...was without internet for a day so this is sort of a day old.

So last night got pretty hectic in SP. I wanted to see the aftermath of the carnage I’d seen on TV. Dave (production manager) and Ed (big dog) both arrived good and well in the early hours of the morning. There was a plan to head to the theatre and start finalising things with the set. But this got cancelled last minute. So we (or rather I) persuaded or go to guy Vitor to take is to the protest hot spots. And to be honest I really needed to get out and about, have a walk and see some of the city. I had put the feelers out for a some breakin’ sessions but as yet no luck on that front. Although we have bene internet-less at the hotel for almost a whole day (imagine the drama) so there could be some replies waiting for me when I get back online. Anyway, we hopped onto the tube into the centre. We couldn’t help but notice a rather dashing fellow on some poster advertising an obscure dance show called Watch iT!

I always said i was underground!

Arriving in the centre, things seem pretty normal tbh. I guess people have to work afterall. Theres no tension or any such vibe…infact Brazil is playing in the confederation cup against Mexico and winning, so folk are pretty upbeat. I grab a few snaps from where it was all kicking off last night.

Scene of last nights fracas with the locals

Some glazier is going to do very well out of this.

Well all this walking makes a man hungry. We stopped off in SP’s largest indoor market and got stuck in to some local dishes:

Would you like some bread with that sandwich Ed? 

I had been gently nudging the team here to hook me up with a spot to shake my tail feather for a while…gotta stay sharp afterall. I managed to barge my way into a classroom in the Cultura Inglesa building, which is also where the theatre is. I got my sweat on a wigged out to several killer beats including this one…too much!

I wiped the sweat from my brow and made my way down to the theatre to watch what was basically a scratch night for local dancers and dance groups to show their work in 10 mins then receive feedback from the audience. It was quite a full on onslaught of Brazilian avante garde dance made worse by not understanding a word of the following conversations, which actually sounded quite interesting. The final piece as the most interesting imo: A guy throwing lots of buckets up in the air…some containing water and some containing other surprises. It then went into darkness and was occasionally perforated by a strobe light. An interesting and original performance…but was it really dance? I think that’s what everyone was discussing afterwards.

We finally get into the theatre tomorrow and get to work properly on Watch iT! 7am start so it’s bom noite from me.

Blur

I was having this discussion not so long ago about what the 2000s (noughties??) and now the 2010s (i suppose Twenty Teens maybe??) would be remembered for. I think we came to the conclusion that they were sort of an amalgamation of all the other previous decades in terms of style and cultural aesthetic (perhaps that is the same thing). But for me, i very vividly remember the 90s as the britpop phase. When indie music was at it's coolest (imo), Jo Whiley hadn't sold out and wearing flares was ok again. Musically, I finally started to define myself with a little help from a Mixmag top 100 albums of the year....i forget the year exactly, but it was in the 90s. Massive Attack's Blue Lines was number one and i just followed the trail of bread crumbs from there. I was always tuned in to Radio 1 and what dominated most of the musical stories back then was the Blur and Oasis tete a tete. Of course there were many other good bands going about back then, but at least this story had a bit more drama to it. I only bring this up because life has been a bit of blur recently. So many things have been going on...some good, some bad, some internal and some external. But i suppose this is called progress or making some headway in one's career (i hesitate to use the word successful...whoops i just did!). Things are going super well with R2M at the moment. It feels like i've been in the saddle of a rather rambunctious thoroughbred, trying to carefully steer it home. But now it has bolted, and i'm holding on by hook or by crook til we cross the finish line. So sometimes i think about when things were a little more straightforward...with me, Blur and Oasis on the radio and my standard grade revision books. Don't get me wrong...i'm not complaining...just kind of taking stock of the moment. Many times i've tried to control situations, but things just have a way of spiralling out of control until they settle again. The old idiom stands true that if you can't stand the heat then get out of the kitchen. But, I like cooking and don't mind breaking a sweat now and then either. Here's a blast from the past for you before i say what's happening now in R2M land.

I think a lesser known Oasis track....
Perfect song title for this blog.
So what has been happening?...well by Jove we're on tour. So much organisation has been going on to get up to this point, for now and the future. Big thanks are due to Made In Scotland and Creative Scotland for backing the tour. We have landed in Sao Paulo to present Watch iT! for the Festival Cultura Inglesa. We seem to have arrived at a point when Brazil is undergoing a mini revolution...well i dunno if you could call +100,000 people on the streets of SP, "mini". Apparently the straw that broke the camel's back was a 20 cent increase in the local bus fares. Lothian Buses should take note. This increase has sparked a reaction against other matters that have bene bubbling away under the surface and now Brazilians have turned their priorities from partying to protesting. Surely something positive must come from such a huge public movement but we shall see. This has meant of course that audience numbers for the festival shows (which involve other Scottish companies) have been less than normal. Hardly surprising. I watched, on the news, police back into the major's office and metal barriers come up from the ground to barricade themselves in whist the public went radge basically. Quite full on. Anyone interested in seeing a dance-theatre-multimedia show then? We shall find out on Friday. Jet lag has not been so much of an issue. I think it's easier to travel west, rather than east. Although i have bene nodding off here and there. We have spent most of today sorting out the various nuances of the set. The kind people of the festival (of which there are many) have opted to build the set. So i have make the final say so...a bit like the man from Delmonte (some of you probably won't even know who that is). Only one real issue persists and that is the chair. The one they've sourced isn't quite right, although may have some alterations done to it. But we thought it would be prudent to go and have a look at other potential candidates. We found some very funky stuff, but no winners yet...

Manu and Vitor taking a few notes as we search for the perfect hot seat.

Ooh...look what i found in the junk store!

Watch iT! south american set...ready to get the final touches.

I have found a good croissant spot just nearby but the coffee situation is in a bad way. At least for the time being...there's bound to be somewhere good in a city this size...and come on! we're in south america fo crying out loud. I haven't done my normal thing of going for a mooch around to get a sense of the place. But i hope to do so over the next few days. I just realised that i should have enquired about the missing projection screen material. Oh yes i forgot to mention this...i arrived but the screen material did not. I should have taken a picture of all the excess baggage i had...ridiculous. When i made this show, i spent so much time (and money) taxi-ing Watch iT! set around Edinburgh to the various rehearsal spots. Coming to SP was like next level business...unreal. Anyhow, most of it got here but not the screen. It should have arrived today, but there has been no word....so.....
And with that cliffhanger, i'm off to bed. boa noite x

Green-day

For a long time i've always known what my favourite colour is. I've never chopped and changed between the tantalising allure of maroon or turquoise...even when i knitted an entire jumper out a more glossy version of the colour. For years i was perplexed by the names of cyan and magenta as they appeared on  the household's 48k spectrum number buttons. I found out that cyan is quite close to turquoise, and magenta seems like as good a name as any for a shade of purple.  But simply put, i've always had an unwavering affinity for green. Perhaps because i was surrounded by an abundance of grass while growing up. Yet the same could be said the the blue skies above. Maybe it was to do with applying the finishing coat of various green camouflage colours to my airfix models, which i used to do on a regular basis. But whatever it was/is...i'm green (not politically mind you). This means i've got no visual issues with getting back to grips with the green screen apparatus as we delve back into Watch iT! for the upcoming international (no less) tour.

We have been working on trying to make the move from the live action on stage to the video action on screen a bit more seamless. The buzzword for this re-development process is immersive. And the video is just one element we will be dealing with. I must be getting better at pre-planning for such activities as the whole day passed pretty quickly without any hiccups or miscalculations. Of course it helps when you're working with the experienced crew of Cagoule Productions and there's a lack of naysayers in the Brunton theatre technical team. Here's a few snaps from the shoot...

A bit of cunning improvisation was required to black-out this space.

Precision matters...roughly.

Serious mime skills at work here.

This what happens when you get too close to the TV.
So hopefully we'll get the results of this work in the next couple of weeks along with some new 3D modelling. Then it will be time to start messing around with some surround sound...watch or listen to this space. 
In other news i've been stripping off and getting down to some skimpy shorts in a room full of women (mostly) and getting sweaty. Yes...i'm on the Bikram tip at the moment. I figured i needed a new challenge (because i don't have enough already) and that's exactly what i'm getting. I did a little Bikram in London many moons ago. It wasn't that difficult i recall and i wondered what all the fuss was about. But this time around is no joke. I am mentally trying to hang on as i physically lose my grip in various postures. I've never been a flexible being. This is slightly paradoxical given my chosen profession. But if i can become mentally a bit more dextrous perhaps the body will follow. We shall see. In the meantime my lymphatic system is getting a helluva good workout. I've also started taking Russian lessons....the challenge list increases exponentially. Well i'll be heading over there to teach so i figure i ought to build on the smattering of Russian i learned during the Blaze tour. It's all part of a long term plan i'm hatching...intrigued? you should be. I now have homework. That's a concept i'm struggling to re-familiarise myself with...but you know...flexible minds people, flexible minds. Recent days have been about as packed as they possibly could be. A lot of time has been spent commuting from one side of Edinburgh to the other. I think i look a bit odd working on my laptop in the bus. I'll start to worry if i end up taking a portable printer with me. Other first world problems include the dodgy headphone socket on my ipod. that combined with a $%^ed screen = replacement is due. But no ca$h + no time = no replacement just yet. I will just have to live with my first world problem...now that is a challenge.

Follow the white rabbit

They are everywhere...white rabbits...and we follow them. No questions asked. Hopefully to some form of enrichment/enlightenment but mainly because that's just what we do. And i am following mine and it is leading back down the cathode ray tunnel. April sees the beginning of a re-development phase of Watch iT! in association with the Almeida Theatre in London and the National Theatre of Scotland. All good, as i get to play about with some of the digital, sound and dramatic elements of the show. And while that is going on we are also getting ship shape to head of to Brazil in June as part of the Festival Cultura Inglesa. Fellow Zoo Venues company 2 Faced Dance Company are out there right now. Parabens (i'm practising my Portugese)...I remember battling some of those young pups at the Edinburgh Vaults many fringe festival moons ago. Whether you like their work or not, they have certainly weathered a few storms and have grown surely and steadily. And in this game i think slow and steady wins the race. Not that we are competing of course.

I had my head firmly buried in another tunnel last week, as we mounted Squish at the March Moves festival last friday. I thought i had made a show that would be simpler to get about. It seems that developed it's own intricacies and complications along the way. Nonetheless, we got it done and I reckon R2M has another quality production on the books...i could be biased however. Pictures courtesy of Colin Thom / City Moves.

What with all these white rabbits over the place it get hard to pick out any flashes of colour in one's environment. Such coloured moments come in many forms...one of which i think is some late night musical discoveries. This one is not so much a discovery, but a continued check up. With a new website up and some great music, make sure you take some time out to listen to Lior Shoov...muso, clown, improviser and plays with a hang...the holy grail of musical instruments (do you know how difficult it is to get hold of one?). I met Lior during an excursion to the Israeli Contact Festival and have continued to be impressed by her free flowing irrepressibly creative attitude. Mind you...i only see it through the eyes of the internet and the grass is always greener...sometimes. De toutes facon J'espere que tout ce que vous lapins blancs sont a la poursuite, que vous etes profite bien...au moins de temps en temps.

a+

A friend in need

We all need a good friend now and then. Someone to talk to, vent at and have a laugh with. Well it seems i've acquired a whole bunch of new ones since taking up residence at the Brunton Theatre. The Friends of the Brunton Theatre are a group of community members who like to support whatever is going down at their local theatre and are basically pro-art. I was invited to give a talk about Room 2 Manoeuvre and my plans for the residency. As you can already tell....i dont mind talking about myself (hence this blog) so i was more than happy to give them the script. This ridiculous weather nearly stopped me having my moment. The wet, windy and cold nonsense i can take, but when it messes with my ego that's another matter. Luckily, the FOTB were as determined to get to the talk as i was to give it, so all my prep didn't go to waste. Now i wasn't gonna do any dancing (although i did end up doing a version of the running man as a demo of one of the first moves i learned). My plan was to talk, show some pictures and videos then answer any questions. I hadn't done a presentation since Vet School and that was like chewing through tar. I was gonna make sure i was a bit more relaxed for this one. It didn't start of too well as the technical equipment i had asked to be there, wasn't. But the good thing about developing a multi-media beast of a show like Watch iT! is that you're left with owning several bits of tasty kit. A quick nip up to my office/store room and the problem was sorted. I had to improvise the setting but it all seemed to go pretty well. I've noticed i talk as much with my mouth as i do with my hands. I couldn't tell if people were looking at me or my mittens but they seemed interested.

I got a few post talk questions. One of which was who are my "heros" in dance. I was pretty stumped by this question. There are a few local ones who i respect and have learned a lot from, but heros? I don't think there's ever been anyone I've looked up to in that way in the world of dance. Some dance companies and choreographers who's work stands out for me...maybe also some old school bboys that inspired me when i was getting into breaking. I'm beginning to wonder if i've lacked the hero element while developing (and still growing) as a dancer. Does it matter? Anyhow...small digression...another digression is that i'm just on the train back from G-town after seeing a Band i just discovered only last week - Brandt Brauer Frick. One of those internet discoveries that just blow you away when you hear it and now it's stuck on repeat. So good, i bought all the albums. that's me doing my bit for the music industry. But...what i mean to say id that i'm on the train sitting across from a grown up pair of clowns. Since sitting down they've managed to drop several food items onto the floor, spread all their Burger King wrapping across the table and are precariously messing about with bottles of water near my laptop. Would love to see what home looks like...no i wouldn't actually. Anyway, they've obviously had a good night out and are finishing it off with a double Whopper. We've all been there.

But back to the FOBT. It was good to finally begin connecting with some of the people that the building actually represents. I've been quite busy earning a crust so haven't been able to spend much time there of late. I'll be around now for a good couple of months and will be putting on my first show as a resident in April. Details to follow. I'm looking forward to the coming year and trying to make some kind of impact in the scene at the Brunton. It's not your regular type of Arts building as it's also the main council offices for East Lothian. There's also a particular type of audience who like a particular type of show. My work is definitely in the minority...but i like a challenge.

It looks like the clowns are starting to flag, and we are getting in to Edinburgh. I reckon they'll probably support each other on the way home...like good friends should.

Up in the air...

So much stuff going on right now in the land of R2M..it's bonkers! I still have my tan from the previous 2 months of sun and surf in Australia. But the stress might turn me pale once more. Apart from my impending identity crisis i'm busy juggling many balls...literally and metaphorically. This business is such an amorphous beast by nature that trying to stay on top of things is only a temporary state leading into chaos. The amount of energy one can expend into doing just that, ought to be enough to warrant any kind of fee at the end of a project...but it isn't. How is this business sustainable in the long run? I guess the dance industry as a whole will endure, but dance companies are another thing entirely. Much like dance itself you have to enjoy it in the moment and fall in love with the memory. However, we are not quite there yet. So dealing with the here and now, one of the balls up in the air takes the shape of a new/old duet that has been in the works since last dec. To be honest, it all started back in 2006 but if you have been paying attention to these posts then you'll know the back story. Sprawl will be a short duet created by Jennifer Paterson from All or Nothing and R2M. The piece is intended for outdoor spaces but will also be suitable for more traditional theatre venues. There are blocks...lots of them...we build things, we break them down and start all over again. Its like life...but a much shorter version. We're hoping to get this piece out and about this summer. You shall be informed.

So what else...well i'm off to Finland to oversee, partake in and perform at a screening of Public Service at the Loikka Dance Film Festival in Helsinki. Always game for a chance to get back over to scandinavia. Looks like a groovy festival and communications with the team up there have been good. The short film has been an incredibly useful and low cost method of spreading the word about R2M. If you have some work on film and haven't distributed it...do it. The bonus part of this trip will be to catch up with the legendary solider of fortune Jarkko Lehmus. The former Scottish Ballet pin up boy returned to his roots and has since been rocking the Finnish dance scene...no doubt killing it on the Zumba front as well. I will, however, be staying well clear of the crazed finnish lady who stole a pair of my American Apparel jogging pants...those that know, know!

March rounds off nicely with a presentation of Squish. Rejected for inclusion in a festival run by the same organisation where the work was developed (?), the good folk at City Moves reckon it's top material for the upcoming festival March Moves. R2M will be double billing with the coolest dancer in Scotland (no, not double billing with myself), Mr Jack Webb. Not to be missed.

See you next month for April Angst...x

Out to lunch....

Room 2 Manoeuvre is on holiday. Future performances and workshops as follows:

21st - 24th March • Public Service screening at Loikka Film Festival, Helsinki, Finland.
29th March • SQUISH as part of March Moves, programmed by CityMoves, Aberdeen.
24th April • Rock a Bye B-Boy & Box Fresh at Brunton Theatre, Edinburgh
18th - 25th June • R2M in Brazil (full details TBC)
1st - 7th July • R2M pro class at Open Look Festival 2013, St Petersburg, Russia.
July • R2M at the Almeida Festival 2013, London, UK.

in a bit....