Scapula 1999

Choreography, performance, costume and lighting: Marie-Gabrielle Rotie

Original film: Tanya Syed

Original sound and Assistant Direction: Nick Parkin

 

 

Inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘codex on the flight of birds’, this solo was an evocation of a being, caught between the longing for flight and the freedom of falling, in a quest for the spaces of fluidity.  This solo continued my investigation into the writings of Luce Irigaray and in particular her collection of essays in 'Sexes and Geneologies'. In this work I once again sought to resolve the tension between flesh and spirit and to reimagine the relation between transcendence and immanence, above and below, earth and sky. This reimagining was part of wider question of female eroticism and identity.

 

 

Past Touring

 

Four performances in London including Occidental Butoh 1999, Out of Bounds: festival of New Butoh 2001 and toured to various theatres in UK.

Turtle Key Arts Centre, London 1998

chisenhale Dance Space 1999

Jacksons Lane 1999 and 2000

University of Scarborough 1999 funded by Yorkshire Dance on tour.

University of Bath 2000 funded by Southwest Arts

Out of bounds Festival of New Butoh 2000 funded by London Arts Board

 

Research and Development funding from Chisenhale Dance Space.

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‘There was once a bird who lived in a night forest inside the ribcage of a tree: it always slept with one eye open. One day an Italian scientist walking in the forest noticed its beautiful feathers and captured it in a steel cage. The bird in its distress forgot how to sing.Some years later the bird had a dream in which a fly whispered, ‘The secret of escape lies in gravity. All falling is like flying’. So the bird stopped longing to fly, shed all its feathers and turned into a soft piece of earth that trickled through the cage bard and drifted with the wind into a garden.There, in the cool of the moon the earth grew into a fleshly, fluid flower latticed with memories and naked veins. At its very centre, if you listened very carefully, could be heard a silent song’. (Rotie, 1998)