Improvisation Performance
In March 2019, PICKETT IMPROV performed at OUTPOST Gallery in Norwich. The evening showcased their work Score10, alongside music from Iain Paxon.
“It was BEAUTIFUL to see how the dancers interacted with each other” Audience member, March 2019, OUTPOST Gallery
“Bewildering, contact, noise” Audience member, March 2019, OUTPOST Gallery
“A fantastic performance, intriguing and enjoyable” Audience member, March 2019, OUTPOST Gallery
Photos by Katerina Artemiou
In September 18, PICKETT IMPROV were commissioned to perform at the one day experimental music and arts festival, Fort Process at Newhaven Fort.
It was a very rainy day and the performance, which was programmed outside, was performed in an intimate theatre space in the grounds. The sound filled and echoed around the room as the dancers used different aspect of the space. The audience was sat in traverse along the sides of the room.
Here is some of the performance caught on film: Performance at Newhaven Fort. Filmed by Agata Urbaniak
Afterwards, audience members fed back that it did not look improvised and the performers knew exactly what we happening.
“It was Beautiful, Clever and Inspiring” Audience Member, Sept 18
On Sunday 15th April, Iain and Hannah delivered a Music and dance workshop at the Brighton Natural Health Centre.
This workshop allowed participants to explore movement or sound individually and as a group. Musicians and dancers collaborated together to create live improvisations and explore how they can instantly react and respond to each other. These experiments and explorations built to a performance score at the end of the workshop.
“Really valued having the space to be playful in a safe and supported space” Ellen, April workshop participant
” I had a fantastic time explore the interplay of sounds, movement and space.” Romy, April workshop participant
As part of Score10 research, Hannah and Iain are delivering music and movement improvisation workshops to different institutions, community groups and higher education establishments across the South East. If you are interested please email: Hello@hannahpickettdance.com
On 27 Jan, PICKETT IMPROV performed Score10 at The Old Market Theatre. Here are a few images and some feedback that we received from the performance. Photos by Sophie Newton.
“Score10 sets in motion a circular frequency that passes from Paxon’s percussion through the dancers and back, throwing up images and phrases that thrive on the very absence of narrative association to allow, when all goes well, for something organic to emerge between sound and movement.” – Nicholas Minns, Writing about Dance, Jan 18
“It’s a fascinating process to watch a five-way conversation made up of physical and spatial interventions and observations, nobody quite knows what the other is about to say nor how she is going to react” – Nicholas Minns, Writing about Dance, Jan 18
“Slick, Inspiring and Abstract” – Audience Member, Jan 18
“As an audience we enter this circulation of actions not so much by trying to figure out how much of the piece is improvised and how much is rehearsed, but rather by sharing the interactive flow of movement and sound.” – Nicholas Minns, Writing about Dance, Jan 18
“I loved watching the musician to see what he was going to do next…it was incredible to see how he was making all those sounds” – Audience Member, Jan 18
Score10 unites percussive and electric sound with contemporary dance in a collaborative live improvisational performance. In this exciting work, four professional dancers and their live musician challenge and support each other to react and interact to create an immediate composition with sound and movement.
The performers have a score of 10 rules and guidelines which they follow to compose, track the performance and relate to each other. These rules were devised through movement explorations, on going research into improvised performance and rehearsals.
In 2015, Hannah studied with improvisers Katie Duck, Nancy Stark Smith and Julyan Hamilton. These artists inspired her to research and direct live movement and music performance research by working with a group of dancers and a musician. A lot of the starting points for Score10 were inspired by Hannah’s work with these artists.
PICKETT IMPROV have been developing their ideas since 2016. They have previously shared their work at the Brighton Dance Network’s Scratch Night. BNHC and The Studio. The Old Market performance is the culmination of this ideas.
Artist, Julia Cunningham, has illustrated Score10’s movement scores into charcoal. The dancers use these concepts as starting points for their performance.
Score10’s premier is on Saturday 27th at The Old Market.
We are delighted to share the Score10 trailer!
Filmed by: Alice Underwood Films
Directed by: Hannah Pickett
Score10 is an exciting live improvisational dance performance performed by Pickett Improv. PICKETT IMPROV are performing at The Old Market on Saturday 27th January with Bite Dance in a Double Bill: Bite Dance/PICKETT IMPROV.
Performers: Iain Paxon, Belinda Papavasiliou, Rosa Firbank, Jessica Miller and Hayley Ovens.
Thank you to everyone who backed us over the last few weeks to fund this film.
An interview with Hannah Pickett, Director at Pickett Improv, & Alice White, Co-owner at Bite Dance.
How did this collaboration come together?
Hannah: I first encountered Bite Dance when I was Producer and Artistic Director for the Brighton Dance Network Dance Trail 2016, as part of Brighton Fringe. Bite Dance presented their piece Still Laughing as part of the trail and I instantly fell in love with their work, admiring them both as artists and individuals.
I later began developing my individual artistic, improvisation-based practice with a group of dancers and a musician. My practice focused on exploring the direct relationship between music and dance. During this experimentation, I analysed the shifts and decisions that occurred within live performance. This continued practice resulted in the start of the Score10 project and was shared in informal and pop up events in Brighton. As Score10 evolved, the next step for the work was to present it in a theatre space.
When finding a double bill partner, Bite Dance was the obvious choice. Their funny dance theatre work contrasts our experimental, improvised performance. I really enjoyed working with them in 2016 and am pleased to share this evening with them at this early stage in our careers.
Why should people watch the show?
Alice: People should come and watch the show to be able to experience the broad spectrum of dance as an art form. In terms of our piece, Crying with Laughter is something that everyone can enjoy – it’s fun and a welcome break from all the terrible things happening in our world today.
What can audiences expect?
Hannah: Two professional dance works contrasting in nature. They can expect humour, experimentation, entertainment and innovation -a diverse evening of contemporary dance.
One word that would summarise each piece?
Alice: Absurdity and invention.
Hannah: Laughter and exploration.
What do you hope to achieve with the work presented?
Alice: I hope Crying with Laughter allows people to enjoy dance from a light-hearted perspective and that audiences can be absorbed by something they’ve not seen before. Crying with Laughter is something very distinctive and clearly portrays our aesthetic as a duet. We reference some of the great comedians, such as Charlie Chaplin and Laurel & Hardy, and it’s been interesting to appreciate these comedians as choreographers. I hope we can successfully pay homage to this style of physical comedy. Dance can maintain artistic integrity, it can provoke thought and be well researched, but it can still entertain us.
Hannah: I hope Score10 serves as a pilot performance that enables audience members to gain insight into Pickett Improv as a practice. I hope this exposure assists in the launch of our future community workshops and provides further performance opportunities.
In our second session we explored being 3 dimension objects in solo improvisation and the use of our eyes to generate movement. This resulted in a final rehearsal that combined both ideas to challenge the dancers to become 3D bodies and engaging their environment through their focus.
Understanding the concept of being a 3D object in space is key in improvisation. Because the audience sees a dancer from in all angles, the performer must focus on what their body is doing in a space rather than focus on the image that they are making. To do this the dancer must be aware of being in a space, the position of others in space and how they come across to the audience.
Using an adaptation from Deborah Hay’s work, I layered ideas through the exercise and challenged the dancers to make their movement more interesting by asking, ‘what if you could be seen from all angles?’ Afterwards, the dancers reflected that the activity helped them to increase their spatial awareness and break their movement and fall-back habits. I will use their feedback to identify how I can explore this concept in greater detail.
We also tried to use a mirror for feedback however the dancers found this hard as the 2d image of the mirror reflection caused them to lose their 3Dness and their connection with the room.
Inspired by Katie Duck’s teaching, we moved on to the use of the eyes to generate movement. The use of the eyes is important as “Focus creates interest.” Sometimes in performing improvisation dancers forget about their focus and default to ‘glaze over’ which makes it more difficult for the audience to engage. Our activity challenged the dancers to focus externally whilst keeping an internal 3D body. Initially the dancers reflected that when they focused at a long distance, they lost their immediate awareness in space. However, after exploring the different ways of using focus and the eyes, the dancers enjoyed being allowed to choose which eyes they were going to use.
The session left me with the question and the challenge; how can we both use our focus and be actively aware of ourselves within space at the same time?
All dancers, non-dancers, musicians and non-musicians welcome!
Dates: Sunday 5 November
Time: 2-5pm
Cost: £20/£18 conc.
Workshop facilitated by Pickett Improv: Hannah Pickett (dance) and Iain Paxon (music)
For more information on their work please visit:
http://hannahpickettdance.com/improvisation/
Score10 