#violin phase

Last weekend I had the distinct pleasure of traveling to Aberdeen for three days of step dance workshops and a performance hosted by Jennifer Oag and Feerochie. Aberdeen was the first Scottish city I was invited to teach in back in 2007 and it felt wonderful to look around the room while I was teaching and see some of the same folks present that were in that first workshop! Jennifer was an incredibly welcoming host, even constructing a sprung floor at the Foodstory Café for the Saturday evening concert featuring Feerochie, Kai Sakurai, Wallace Calvert, Janet Lees, Toby Bennett, Anita Dortova, and myself! Thanks to all who attended the show and the masterclasses at the Academy of Expressive Arts on step dance technique, “dancing the tune,” and percussive dance improvisation!

(Feerochie rehearses at the Academy of Expressive Arts before the Saturday evening concert in Aberdeen)

(Class photo during weekend step dance workshops in Aberdeen at the Academy of Expressive Arts)

(Performing on the bespoke sprung floor at the beautiful Foodstory Café in Aberdeen - a delicious zero-waste dining and event space!)

(A final bow at the performance at Foodstory Café in Aberdeen)

Following my return from Aberdeen, I hosted visiting artist Ultan O’Brien at the University of Edinburgh’s Pleasance Studios for four days of development. A fiddler, violist, and composer based in Dublin, I’ve been interested in Ultan’s work for several years, both as a soloist and with his band Slow Moving Clouds. We’ve worked together in teaching roles before during the Leitrim Dance Project and had one period of duo development last year, however, I was really excited Ultan was up for visiting the University of Edinburgh to spend some concentrated time improvising, creating, and conversing. Here’s his version of The Rakes of Kildare...

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(The Rakes of Kildare with fiddler Ultan O’Brien, recorded at the University of Edinburgh’s Pleasance Dance Studios last weekend)

Among the pieces we worked on together, Ultan’s version of Caisleán An Óir (in Irish, “The Golden Castle”) provided a unique opportunity to highlight the AABB structure shared by so much traditional dance music from Ireland, Scotland, Scandinavia, Canada, and Appalachia. I’m often thinking about listeners for whom this music (and this dance) might blur together unintelligibly. Admittedly, the nuances are subtle: a “B” part of a tune might begin higher in the instrument’s register, one step might begin with a “pickup” a beat before the bar, and it usually all happens so fast! However, I believe that music and movement can work together to help make these nuances - arguably the thing that makes traditional music and dance what they are - legible. As a dancer who works with traditional music, I’m hoping, as one reviewer so flatteringly put it, to be “an eye-opener for the ears.” (1)

During our time in the studio last week, Ultan and I imagined a device which would hopefully allow the AABB form of the the tune (sometimes called “the tune and the turn”) to be made clear through movement. The plan was for me to follow an imaginary line back and forth through the space while turning (”the tune, and the turn”), changing direction every eight bars in tandem with the phrases of the melody. As the tune progressed, gradually I would improvise phrases of footwork imitating the melody, departing from the original turning motif but continuing tracing the path of that imaginary line. It sounded simple enough. In practice, however, once I attempted to depart from the original motif (step, toe, turn, step toe, turn) I found it extremely difficult to maintain both the linearity and the constraint of changing direction every eight bars. 

In attempting this, I was reminded of something my dance teacher, contemporary Irish dancer Colin Dunne, once said: “discipline provides a pleasure.” In this case, the discipline of following the architecture of the melody of Caisleán An Óir, explicating the tune visually, provided a unique challenge. I was also reminded of Belgian contemporary dancer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s piece ‘Fase’ to Steve Reich’s 'Violin Phase,’ as performed at MoMA in 2011. Her version of this pleasure-providing-discipline used sand to trace the trajectory of her movement. Though, by her own admission, this required a rigorous clarity for the lines to be visible. “It’s difficult,” she confides, “to hit the spot.” 

(Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker discusses, 'Violin Phase,' from her work, 'Fase: Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich' presented at MoMA as part of On Line: Drawing Throughout the Twentieth Century, January 22–23, 2011)

Using a simple task (”change direction every eight bars”) we found a way to illuminate one of the invisible but crucial idiomatic facets of traditional music and dance: its construction. “Simple, but not easy,” American clogger and choreographer Sharon Leahy once told me. And while I’m aware that I could take a nod from Anne Teresa in her clarity, the opportunity to work on this with Ultan’s exquisite playing was a total joy. Here’s the piece-in-progress. Stay tuned for more news about future development time and performances with Ultan O’Brien! 

(Caisleán An Óir work-in-progress with fiddler Ultan O’Brien, recorded at the University of Edinburgh’s Pleasance Dance Studios last weekend)

First Footing is a collaboration between dancer and dance researcher Nic Gareiss, the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland, University of Edinburgh Moray House School of Education, and the School of Scottish Studies with support from Creative Scotland. For engagement opportunities check out the First Footing website.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i36Qhn7NhoA