Passage.

In the 'Passage' website I explore and test the multi-layered and complex nature of the creative process of choreographing a new work. The webpages use a combination of video footage, audio clips, and notebook pages, which I subjected to rigorous analysis through a series of recorded dialogues with the writer, Niki Pollard. The project demonstrates new ways and media to embody the experience of the choreographer to the wider public. The site reveals the influences and drives of the creative process in contemporary dance practice as well as investigating the techniques and methods I use in making new work. The concerns of the 'Passage' performance are also relevant to the website. 'Passage' was an evening of live work combined with film, commissioned by the South Bank Centre in London. It aimed to find a new model for working with intergenerational performers, ranging from 9 to 75 years old. Too often the focus of contemporary dance has been on the 'optimal body', which is seen to be at its physical prime; Passage sought to redress this convention by testing the physical limits of different kinds of ageing bodies. 'Passage' also tested the possibilities of fully integrating film projection into live performance through a collaboration with film-maker Peter Anderson. 'Passage' sought to engineer audience response through the staging of sound and space in a way that confounded stereotypes and therefore asked the audience to reconsider their understanding of the dancing body.