Art is subjective, whatever the discipline; the art, the subjectivity influenced by feelings, desires, morals, personal experience, opinions, all borne from a perceptive interpretation of the world.
Conceptualising dance- how the relationship between the art, and the message conveyed- weaves into a narrative for the observer to dissect, relate, and comprehend, what you have, in the example of Hatchwork, at the Stanley Arts Centre, is a format lending itself to a clarity much sought after, in effect, an alternative medicine, as opposed to the complementary dance therapies that have been proven to work, or did they? And if so, how well?
In all the array of subjectiveness, what can get lost in translation, is the narrative the piece of art is trying to convey, and in an age where to appear “clever” is fundamental, or only once the steps are learnt, and mastered, and the spacing is right, and everything else is technically perfect, do we start talking about narratives, to get the dancers perspectives, to relate to their motivations, frankly to be moved by the narrative of which fosters social dynamics, undercurrents one and all in society is privy to, only then do you understand liberated tears of which run deep, only then can you relate to the meaning that has run the course of a dancers life, a unique concept, when whereas often it’s to watch such a show, without the dancers input, only to leave, feeling that a degree in some method of social science is required to understand what the last two hours of a show…might mean!
In all the array of subjectivity, what can get lost in translation, is the narrative the piece of art is trying to convey, and in an age where to appear “clever” is fundamental, or only once the steps are learnt, and mastered, and the spacing is right, and everything else is technically perfect, do we start talking about narratives, to get the dancers perspectives, to relate to their motivations, frankly to be moved by the narrative of which fosters social dynamics, undercurrents one and all in society is privy to, only then do you understand liberated tears of which run deep, only then can you relate to the meaning that has run the course of a dancers life, a unique concept, when whereas often it’s to watch such a show, without the dancers input, only to leave, feeling that a degree in some method of social science is required to understand what the last two hours of a show…might mean!
What Hatchwork presented was “inclusivity”, not so much a different way to dance, but certainly another way of understanding a dance narrative, and exampling the poignant essence of; included Diana Perez, Elise Sedgwick, Emma Rowlands, FI Silverthorn, Laura Braid and Simeon Campbell
if you will; relationships instantly formed between dancer and audience, where dancers could gauge the clarity of their own dance piece, as the audience saw it, interrupted it, essentially what transpired, as far meaning was acutely concerned, was there was no meaning, at least in the sense that there was no one meaning, or no one way of looking, or one way of interpreting, as important as the dance piece itself, what transpired was with space to express, and even more space to convey, the “dance” expression as an entity was able to breath, the space and format able to expand the trusted, or routine ways of conveying sentiments.
And they were much felt; the sentiments, it was this open dialogue that gave life to a real-life honesty hard to find in modern dance choreography, a rawness that still tells a story with a clarity unrivaled, a format best serving the motivations provoking dance energy, in essence, a format serving what self-expression Is, and what it isn’t, what means to express yourself creatively- manifesting all that you are —your talent and spirit — just as compellingly and faithfully as dance can.
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