dance & architecture

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Architecture and dance share the same language of shape and form - both drawing on texture, colour and rhythm, both manipulating solid (body or brick) and space to define themselves.

Dance frames the architecture - directing the eye of the observer to notice how they see shape as it is juxtaposed, body to buildings.

The person who watches dance does none of the physical work themselves but in perceiving the performance they experience the rhythm of it as though it were in their own body. In much the same way you can experience architecture, when through the installation attention is brought to the line and curves of the physical environment, the observer starts to experience a building with the same sense of movement that they observe dance. By this process of re-creation and redefinition of spaces, dance/ movement joins with architecture to create work that is alive within the visual frame of the eye, not just within the body of the dancer.

My work not only offers the creative, performance based relationship with architecture, but as choreographer I am working with physical narrative aswell. Not only do building/ sites hold the memories and experiences of the people who live in and around them; they also have their own physical narrative that is integral to the structure and design of the site itself.

I use my knowledge of the body to create spaces that are designed with the dance within them. These works – space to dance in - call on light/shadow, texture and/or timing to structure a place that non-dancers can experience on a physical level. The dance is then within the building waiting to be experienced.

I have worked in this way with business spaces, mainstream and special needs schools and in local housing projects.