This talk explores two projects approaching questions of labour, maintenance, visibility and time.
Nicola introduces House Services, a research project inspired by the body in states of excess, created at a time of national austerity. Working with a range of collaborators, her research has led to questions about acts of maintenance, wasted energy and proposals for not progressing.
Marina and Heni question how the mundane everyday maintenance of our lives can be reframed within a practice of artistic enquiry. They discuss their project Dream Clean Clean Dream focussing on cleaning – both its choreographic and aesthetic potentials as well as the inherent gendered political issues of an unseen workforce. In a video project that examines the running of a B&B in France they aim to raise questions, such as where does the dirt go, how much of ‘clean’ is an illusion, are we erasing traces of previous lives?
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Dream Clean Clean Dream
This talk was part of Crossing Borders 2018 and was presented in partnership with Siobhan Davies Dance and Dance Umbrella.
Marina Collard is interested in collaborating with artists from different disciplines. She has worked with filmmaker Tom Paine for 18 years and this creative partnership has informed her choreographic practice. Her work has been shown in the UK and abroad including Still Going shown at the British Council Theatre Delhi 2016 where she was a mentor for the Gati Dance Summer Residency programme. Her most recent collaboration, Something’s Going On, includes sound by composer Paul Newland and was shown at SDS Open Choreography and Tanz@Namedy Festival in Germany. Other collaborative projects include Ether with Graham Fitkin Ether at the Southbank, The body in and as Space with Kate Johnson Tripspace commission in collaboration with The Hayward Gallery. Marina is currently collaborating with Henrietta Hale on the making of Clean Dream – Dream Clean.
As a performer, Marina has worked with ceramicist Claire Twomey, Florence Peake, Dog Kennel Hill Project, Carol Brown Dances, CandoCo Dance Company, Joe Moran among others. She is currently working with choreographer and researcher Carolyn Roy.
Nicola Conibere is a London-based choreographer making work for theatres, art galleries and other places. Her work engages choreographic processes to explore the potentials of how bodies relate, investigating states of exchange between people, duration, place and further materials. She is particularly interested in the politics of performance, and in the nature and potentials of spectatorial exchange. Her work often investigates notions of theatricality, public appearing and social choreography.
In 2015 Nic was given the biennial Bonnie Bird New Choreography Award to embark on new research exploring experiences of bodied excess and contagion. From 2009-14 she was an Associate Artist with Nottingham based dance agency Dance4. Her work has been shown at venues including: 20th Biennial of Sydney, Australia; Hayward Gallery, London; Royal Academy of Arts, London (Block Universe Festival); Dance House Helsinki, Finland; Tramway, Glasgow; ANTI Festival of Contemporary Art, Finland; Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham; Laban Theatre, London; Purcell Room, London and many others.
Nic has a PhD from Laban, her thesis was entitled ‘Audiences, Choreography, Publics: The Politics and Practice of Spectatorship’. She is a Senior Lecturer in Dance at Roehampton University . Nicola has collaborated with a range of artists and regularly works with dance artist Helka Kaski and dramaturg Martin Hargreaves.
Henrietta Hale is a performer and choreographer, and newly co-director of Independent Dance. Since 2004 she has been founding co-director of Dog Kennel Hill Project, a performance/research collective. Their work encompasses a broad range of performance contexts such as site- specific productions, touring theatre works, screenworks and installations in galleries that each draw on their ongoing research into social, scientific and political concerns through embodied practices. For example People Working Project, 2009 – 2018 examines labour, capitalism and fulfillment in various performance forms. They have been commissioned by Dance Umbrella, The Place Prize, Whitechapel Gallery, Modern Art Oxford, and Dance in Libraries. She is currently collaborating with long term colleague Marina Collard on Dream Clean Clean Dream which she sees as an extension of People Working Project.
Adapted from bios published in 2018.
