Tuesday 31 July 2018

FIONN DUFFY and TATE N LYLE RESIDENCY

FIONN DUFFY and TATE N LYLE 


We’re very excited for our residency at Siobhan Davies Dance. Here’s some of what we’ve been doing to prepare:
Skyping one another.
Applying to Arts Council England for funding to pay ourselves for our time there, and some ‘experts’ (friends we want to drink beer with) to visit us.
Talking to each other about whiteness, about somatic dance, about institutions, about buildings.
Listening to John Giorno’s Everyone is a complete disappointment on repeat.
Asking some friends if they’d like to share some work on our online radio broadcast, Radio Play (Tuesday 31st July, 6pm – till late).
Listening to the work they’ve sent along so far and been THRILLED.
At the encouragement of a curator, applying the work we’ll be making to a festival taking place in February 2019, despite not having yet made it or knowing much at all about what it’ll be. (We said it’ll be a sound installation and then described a previous work we had made).
Preparing for a lush sunny London: selecting sunglasses, summer frocks and tank tops; considering best beer and berries picnic fare; practicing our best dances for a sun-drenched studio with all the windows thrown open.
Editing together the sounds of our laughter. Have a listen here (isn’t it gross?).
On hearing that Ed Sheeran has been accused of plagiarism, listening back to our work ~ on the tube.
Waiting to hear back from the Arts Council.
Writing this blog post.

Monday 16 July 2018

MY WEEK OF WORK EXPERIENCE AT SIOBHAN DAVIES DANCE BY ROSIE LOWNDES

FIONAC


My name is Rosie and I am in the middle of my work experience placement at Siobhan Davies Dance. I had visited the building a few times before when I was younger, but on the Monday morning that I started, as I walked up to the front entrance, I was overwhelmed by waves of nerves and anxiety. I was ridiculously nervous, and as a result, all the way through my initial tour. I could genuinely only manage to smile and nod. I smiled and nodded a lot, to the extent that I had a headache and my face hurt. My nerves were relaxed after a while however, and I settled into a routine of filing press clippings. The people working here are genuinely lovely and very friendly, which was a huge relief.
My second day was quite low-key, which was very enjoyable. I had my first taste of office work, with my job of researching potential wedding bloggers. I had fun with this, and got into a swing after a while. I also realised that I would be working quite a lot with Excel Spreadsheets, which was unexpected for me. I had had an idea of the job being mainly physical, but it made me realise how different elements of life are often intertwined, especially with modern day technology. You can’t really have one without the other, because technology and human physicality combined make all things work-wise so much easier. Only the second day and I was having a revelation. Wild.
The third day of work was really busy. On Monday my supervisor had come to me with a detailed spreadsheet of my week ahead, and I was impressed with her organisation skills (-here’s to you Fiona!). Wednesday by far was the busiest day. In the morning I used social media and wrote about dance and art, and filed some more press clippings, and had an early lunch. After that I attended an informative copywriting workshop with the rest of the office, and I got to know a few my ‘co-workers’ .I am currently looking forward to what the next couple of days will bring.
I am glad that I managed a work experience here for a lot of reasons. The people working here are really interesting and fun to talk to and in general it has a warm and inviting atmosphere, mainly because it is quite relaxed and informal. In the future other work experience-es will also like working here, especially if they were allowed to sit in on a performance, or maybe even be involved in the process of creating it.