I don't quite know where to start...
I have already seen so much, done so much and enjoyed so much and we are only two (and a half) days in! I felt giddy with excitement on the first day, it was so exciting to see people gathering and beginning to work together in the first worksop, contact class and jam with Charlie Morrissey. I spent the first half an hour of this session smiling, laughing and trying to ground myself so i would not burst with excitement. My memories fo the class now are of working with close friends and new faces all together and general feeling of excitement from all the participants and team.
Yesterday was amazing! Lily and I have spent a long time talking, planning and curating the graduate platform, and finally, we were here, seeing it come to life, the new names becoming new people and their applications becoming real dance works. I am so glad we decided to experiment with the feedback, as all the graduate groups received an in-depth (and very long) feedback session from each other, which really shaped the questions for the mentors and the audience later. From here my experience really spilts, as I was trying to find some resolve between my curator role and role as a performer with Spiltmilk dance. It was very difficult to focus in on my performance until the show actually began, as I needed to know everyone else was sorted and prepared before I could prepare myself. I think in the end, this added to excitement and my enjoyment of the performance. I had no idea that disco was so amusing! When friends had seen the work in rehearsals, of course they found it amusing as they know us so well, but for people to actually laugh out loud during the performance was astounding! The twist dance has always been my favourite - I love the complexity at the start, then the development through the piece (and I also quite like doing the twist, I can't help but smile!)
And then, for the audience to offer such considered feedback to artists and followed by the mentor's feedback gave each of the groups three sessions of feedback during the day! Whilst there was a lot of information given and received, this added to the community feeling, and all the graduate have said how valuable the mixture of one to one feedback and group feedback has been to them.
So what more could Tuesday bring? The chance to be guided through a class, rather than leading, or preparing for performance, just waht I needed!