INVISIBLE DANCES…FROM AFAR:
A SHOW THAT WILL NEVER BE SHOWN
The Show: On the 20th March 2003, Bock & Vincenzi took over a 'dark' theatre in London's West End to present: invisible dances…from afar: a show that will never be shown. The show was two hours long and divided into 36 scenes. It had a cast of nine performers who each presented different performance languages that were initiated by a force or instruction that was out of their control. The only things that were fixed in the show were the individual performers different rules for being in the show, its duration and the punctuation of the scenes when the theatre curtain would fall and be raised again.
The theatre auditorium remained empty during the show apart from two invited audience members.
The Watcher: Fixed in the stalls of the empty auditorium sat an audience of one; the poet and theatre maker Fiona Templeton. Her task was to attempt to describe her experience of watching this show to a possible audience that might be somewhere else. Her spoken description was recorded live.
The Medium: Also invited was the spirit medium James Brown. He was asked to record any sightings during the duration of the show. He was told he could move about anywhere in the auditorium and on the stage.
The Witness: Theatre maker Rose English sat at the top of the stairs, leading from the stage to the dressing rooms. She could hear but not see the performance and for the two hours she wrote about this. She also interviewed the performers after the show about their different experiences of being within it.
The Photographer: Henrik Thorup Knudsen was on stage. He documented each scene of the show with one camera whose exposure was left open for its duration. With a second camera he caught close-up portraits of the performers at moments they would not be aware of his presence.
The Telephone: Fiona Templeton’s haunting account was later presented as a sound work on the telephone. The audience accessed it by dialling the number advertised on fly posters designed by artist Duncan MacAskill.
The Book: The texts of Fiona Templeton, James Brown and Rose English were published as a book together with photographs taken of the 36 scenes by Henrik Thoup Knudsen. Martin Hargreaves was commission to write a closing study, invisible dances… in a body of text.
invisible dances…from afar was made with Frank Bock, James Brown, Rose English, Joanne Fong, Valentina Formenti, Tim Gebbels, Doran George, Lisa Haskel, Ian Hill, William J Hulley, Nanette Kincaid, Henrik Thorup Knudsen, Gill Lyons, Navraj Sidhu, Luke Stoneham, Chris Tandy, Koen Van Geene, Simon Vincenzi and Chahine Yavroyan.
Commissioned by Media Art Projects and in association with Dance 4 for Nottdance.
invisible dances…from afar was presented at NottDance International Dance Festival May 2003, Dance Umbrella, London October / November 2004 and SpringDance, Utrecht April 2005.