For five weeks I’ve been creating Profundis with National Dance Company Wales at the Dance House in Cardiff.
I begin all of my pieces knowing nothing about the piece. Although I try my best to break my habits, I seemed to have failed once more in this task! I always look for inspiration and ideas in order to make the piece before working with a Company. But what I find is that, actually, the inspiration and the ideas come to me when I start the project and I meet the people.
When National Dance Company Wales approached me over a year ago, I was inspired by the choral music De Profundis, composed by Arvo Pärt – and so Profundis became the title of this new piece. Listening to this psalm brings me to a place of quietude and concentration. But during my time in Cardiff, this music did not fit the people, the place, the Company, the characters. We played around in the studio with many voice and movement exercises and different soundtracks and Profundis started to evolve with creative input from the wonderfully generous dancers – including a short story written by dancer, Joe Perou.
When I’m coming to create a piece, I want to create a safe, generous, open-hearted environment where all the collaborators involved feel comfortable – more than that, where they feel proud, having been given a great deal of responsibility – to share their creative ideas, opinions and interpretations. From my point of view, there are no boundaries when it comes to the mediums through which we express ourselves. And using spoken word in this piece felt right.
Alongside the spoken word, we used two main scores for Profundis; one by the Egyptian artist Umm Khulthum, and the second by Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto. Excerpts from Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts script ‘What does music mean?’ were also layered into the soundtrack thanks to Charlie Knight who brilliantly designed, created and adapted the sound during production week. These pieces of music (and script) are from very different worlds – classical Arabic music, experimental electronic sound made by Japanese and German artists, and excerpts from a series of family classical concerts in New York — yet for me they are all connected.
So…Arvo Pärt’s De Profundis was cut! But sometimes the most beautiful moments are created when you make a mistake, or switch things around, or make a last minute tweak and the work comes into its own. I have only gratitude towards National Dance Company Wales, from the people in the office and production team to all of the dancers, for allowing me the freedom and flexibility I needed in order to make this piece, for being so generous with their time, energy and spirit. This is a Company where you really feel the people; it was a very special encounter.
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Profundis is performed by National Dance Company Wales at Dance House, Wales Millennium Centre, 14 – 17 Nov, and will continue to tour throughout the UK in Spring 2017.
Watch the Profundis Creation VLOGS
Photo: Rhys Cozens