Six frames: memories of two women

This professional production, commissioned by Irish dancer/choreographers Jenny and Liz Roche (Rex Levitates Dance Company), and funded by the Arts Council (Ireland) and Project Arts Centre, marks a further stage in Butcher's most recent work characterised by a shift into (professional)film-making that draws on the input of expert dance performers. In research-specific terms, Two Women involves a highly particular making process that targets, stages and films the physicalisation of recall itself, of the performers' personal memories of childhood: what is filmed, over a period of time, is each sister's 'looking at' a restricted number of her own childhood memories, while recalling these. The process is recounted by Butcher in 'Backward Glances', pp.198-203, in Butcher and Melrose (eds), Rosemary Butcher: Choreography, Collisions and Collaborations, Middlesex University Press, 2005: 'each made a notated script,...with drawings or a word or two'. 'The two dancers are both highly analytical, one in philosophical terms, and one in strategic terms': they made a score of thirteen pictures each, and the dancers and Butcher 'extracted seven frames, of seven minutes each', producing a film score lasting 49 minutes. The live performance drew on the two performers downstage, with the film projected to the rear. Filming was by Martin Otter and Rob Rae, with lighting by Charles Balfour and sound by
Robert Lax. The resulting event is minimalist, and invites spectators to 'look at someone experiencing something intense and personal'.