Retina - Antipode and Nic Green's Trilogy process

Hi All,

Firstly, I would like to excuse my 12 year old's username, I made it a long time ago (posts since deleted, emoooo) and I don't know enough about blogging to change it, I'll have a gander later!

Secondly, I must apologise for taking so long to post my thoughts on Retina - Antipode and the Nic Green Trilogy process! I'm a very busy girl at the moment, third year is like a sort of brain-hell.

So, Retina Dance Company's Antipode...4 male dancers plus one male double bass player playing live on stage. We're already excited, yes? And it was exciting, for the most part. However, the wonderful Nigel Stewart has ruined contemporary dance for me a smidge.

Par example, too much unison and repetition for my liking, however, I did have a little dance-gasm at the spacing quite often. Lots of lovely diagonals! The double bass player was also a point of angst for me as I did love him being there and loved the sounds he was making...however, why on earth did the dancers just go over and stand in front of him occasionally? It irritated me because I felt that they weren't making enough of a relationship clear by just standing in front of him that wasn't already being made by his presence on stage.

Another thing that I didn't love was that occasionally the dancers were preempting moves, which is very hard not to do and I know I'm being over critical but I am a grouch.

I did really love: the spacing, the technical execution of movement (for the most part) and the live music, I love anything that uses a loop pedal! That's a guitar effects pedal, which will record and repeat a short phrase of music as you play over it, adding to it as you see fit. Funsies.

And finally, Nic Green's Trilogy!

I have to be careful not to rabbit on here lest I bore you all to death but I took part in Nic Green's Trilogy and it was one of the most amazing experiences of my short life. The process was incredibly sensitive and fun.

At the beginning of each session we did a 'check in' to tell everyone how we were feeling at the start of the session and at the end we did a 'check out' to say how we were feeling after the session. I would advise anyone making work in a group to do this as it helps you to be sensitive to how other people are feeling and act accordingly during rehearsals.

The fact that the part of the performance I was involved in was performed in the nuddy pants was, obviously, an obstacle for me and probably the majority of the women taking part. Everyone has hang ups and making all of them wobble as much as possible in front of lots of people you know is rather scary. However, after doing the performance and making everything wobble with gusto I am the most comfortable with my body that I ever been.

I was very pleased to find that I enjoyed the Trilogy as a whole, as I had been concerned that I didn't know exactly what I was putting my name to. My only criticism of it would be that only women were invited to remove their clothes and sing Jerusalem at the end of Part Three. During part two there was a male performer who removed his clothes and so I found it a bit excluding.

Unfortunately, this was the last time that this show was due to be performed for a while, though I would recommend it to any woman if they ever had the opportunity to take part.

A lot of women who took part are now experiencing what we're calling 'Trilogy come down' as it was such an intense experience and there's an awful lot of confidence and energy floating around that doens't have an outlet anymore!

I shan't rabbit on anymore and I promise that when I've had more sleep I will post something more structured and valid about future shows!

This coming week I am very much looking forward to Vincent Dance Theatre's If We Go On, with whom I am doing a work placement in a month or so and this will be the first of their work that I've seen! I shall report back if I'm not told after this abomination that I am no longer allowed!

Looking forward to seeing lots of you at If We Go On! xxx