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For our final location we chose the gas holder on the canal. As a group we were drawn to the large open space and the aesthetics the mirrors provided. Having this large space was challenging for our 6 person group however I think it carried a lot of potential.

Something I was incredibly passionate about and I still wish I could have taken further was my reflection of the space's energy. We had a location that was incredibly used by the public; business men, family picnics, children’s space to play after school, couples calm time, photoshoots, dogs and their walkers. I really questioned what this space had that allowed so many people with diverse interests to share this space. I think it came down to the sense of privacy you felt, the security of being in a circular structure. You felt less on show compared to if you were sitting on the canal. I noticed how people in smaller groups liked to stay on the edges more and those of larger groups were drawn to the centre more frequently. I felt that in this space you could see power in numbers, more people provide more confidence. Bigger groups didn't mind being in more exposing areas as they had enough people to deflect any attention from themselves away.

This was something I wanted to harness in our work. The idea of when being in the centre more explosive and fuller movements were performed in a group formation. And when isolated around the outside, we contrasted this. Within our piece there was a moment where we all separated around the benches on the outside of the structure. All that was performed was a moment's balance upside down before I started to walk around and collect the group one by one. This moment of breathable stillness allowed us to show the calmness the people felt from the outside.

For me I was drawn to the idea that our audience could stand where they like. Within rehearsals we had practised this and noticed a trend that our audience felt safer watching from the outside with some bolder people venturing into the middle. Due to noticing this trend we started to be a lot more playful with what happened in the middle, more games, and more circular running paths.We really tried to take a step back and notice the structures and space, from there we took our inspirations for the movement material.  Unfortunately where our audience stood some members in our group disagreed with on the very last day. I passed the message on that was rehearsed and most voted for within the group to our audience that arrived and was about to watch our creation. However some members had shared a different private message with our audience we were all unaware of. It created something new as all our audience stood in the middle. A new energy was created. I was disappointed, I feel we let our audience down. I think in order to have had our audience there we should have focused more on the outside of the space and charging around allowing our audience to keep having to turn for us to stay in their vision. I was disappointed that such a crucial decision was never agreed as a group. I think this last minute decision didn’t allow the audience to view the bigger picture of the structures we were copying and performing in the space. They were too in it to have that overall view of where we were. The tiny details of being able to see ourselves in mirrors and look up towards the reflective ceiling mirror to see ourselves whilst performing were lost and not transparent enough. Our audience didn't have the chance to see these things for themselves by being placed within the centre.

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A close up image showing the mirrors in the space, the mirrored ceiling and the long benches we had to work with. 

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One element I'm glad we changed at the last minute was our costumes. Originally throughout rehearsals we were wanting to play with the idea of visibility vs invisible. How certain elements allow you to blend into the public and believe it or not doing handstands on benches makes you stand out ! We discussed that we didn't want that block colour idea and decided to play with neutral tones. As we felt a block colour wouldn't allow that blendable quality. However with what we chose it really did allow us to blend in, we started off with baggy neutral toned clothes, some could say rehearsal looking clothes. Whilst in our dress run it became apparent that actually these colours were not helping us in any way. They were not a reflection of the space, of the people we saw, or any help for our audience to identify us. I'm glad we tried them out with an audience and gave our original idea a go. When discussing with the class what they had seen I became aware that the words ‘formal’ and ‘structural’ were used a lot when describing our location. Hearing the word formal made me instantly think of the business men we would see within the location crossing to get to their offices . I instantly told my idea to the group, the idea of wearing matching suits. And actually how us in suits would really contrast our playful ideas at times, throughout the piece we dive rolled on the floor. Meaning we would start incredibly smart and throughout the work get more messy. Luckily everyone was on board with the idea and I was able to book a last minute costume meeting. We settled on a light matching beige suit jacket and trouser that were identical for the group. We decided on smart looking hair being in a ponytail or bun, something off of our faces. Just before we set off to our location to perform we had a group member run down and change her costume to another suit. Unfortunately her individual decision meant this suit was an entirely different colour to everyone else, at this point it was too late to say anything. If this would have been planned or known sooner we should have highlighted this dancer more or had an intention as to why just one person was different!

Unfortunately I feel within our group there were a few individual last minute decisions that I myself are unaware of what the thought process was on why these changes happen. There was no group discussion of these changes. I feel if it's unclear as to why for us in the group, I cant imagine the questions the audience would have been thinking whilst watching. I feel they could have been searching for answers that we had no intention of answering.

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As we rehearsed I feel, the feedback we received could have really transformed our work. I wish we could have really rehearsed for the full sessions and added more time. I think that fullness and coherency could have been improved with more rehearsal time whilst everyone's minds were in that positive and creative state. Unfortunately though this collaboration a lot of personal feelings were brought into the space impacting the progression of achieving a bold site specific work. I really felt our feedback on being unrehearsed was truthful and limited our ability to tighten up our timing. With a more solidified piece our dynamic shifts would have been more apparent for the audience. Slowly I felt the shift but I still believe the intentions could have been more enhanced, I never felt as a group we were all on board with the true intentions and whys behind each idea. I think what happened is without that individual confidence with what was happening the group image did not show as a collective, rather than individuals in the space. For some works that individualism is needed, I think for ours, our desire to show the audience a representation of everyone entering the space we needed to morph as one.

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There's a lot to think about and consider before settling on your final location, and with a radius around The Place building it did seem limiting. I had a few options in mind but the walk would have just been too long. I really found the idea of different perspectives interesting. I liked the idea of separating the levels at which the performers and audience are on, I guess for me I found it interesting personally and then after reading 'Still Learning, Doing, and Relearning; Thoughts on Making and Defining Site-Speific Performance' I believed it was important as it's a very useful way for audience members to access the performance and not have any visual problems or limitations/obstructions. I was drawn to locations with heights involved. The church had two possibilities within and on the outside I was questioning. I'm not sure if it could have been done but I was keen to speak with the church to see if you'd be allowed near the top outside on the small balcony. I loved how strong the structure is, big concrete pillars and lines. Everything is very linear and in place. I think having such a strong looking location could have really inspired a lot of movement material, we also had the clock to draw ideas from. The location is a church so it would have been an understanding that the public could always try and make links with the context of the church and religion. This was something we could have played too or chose not to contradict.

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The church also had amazingly large statues of people holding positions. I thought this could have been an interesting concept if we travelled our movement all the way around the space, however when we started just improvising i just felt what we were doing was very flat. It felt very 2D almost, also just felt like an end on  performance. We would perform and our audience would watch, as a group we identified earlier on we wanted this to feel like a different experience instead of something that could have been transferred onto a stage.

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I think for me this was the first class I really considered the pedestrians already in the space before creating any of our own material. It's so easy from being enthusiastic to want to jump in as dancers and get started immediately. Within our space we noticed it was very calm in energy, we had a few pedestrians walking and one who jogged passed. I noticed how one guy was on his phone looking down but still had that awareness in space. He seemed so focused but was still able to know where the curb was and step up. I found this interesting to watch, the idea of almost whatever is in front of you, you find a way to get past it and stay on your journey without breaking the pathway you are on. As a group we then challenged this concept and played with it further. We had a small pathway with a playpark on one side of us and a tennis court the other. Along the play park's fence had large boxes of flowers planted. We played with the ideas of me walking down the centre of the space but what would happen if a dancers pathway had the flower boxes in line with them. In a safe manner we explored our dancers stepping over and walking along the edge almost unfazed. They didn't allow this to cause an issue or seem inconvenient for our audience. I really liked how this tiny detail of the man just going about his normal life was made into a moment by us and the centre pinpoint of our mini sharing. I really felt like his exploration gave a memorable tool of generating material and was something I was curious about getting into our final project.

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Within chapter 5 (pages 94-102) Hunter explains her approach and the stages she has created as a framework for structure, ‘ Experiencing the site, Expressing the site, Embodying the site and finally Receiving the site in the form of a performance work.’ When reading this it became very clear the importance of taking in your surroundings and the site instead of simply invading and just improvising. That heightened awareness so you're not just interrupting the space and creating a site generic piece or trying to just simply move a dancers studio practise out into the world. But actually creating something that uses all the aspects around you and takes inspiration from the area. I feel after reading this it has made me more aware when creating work of my own. I really felt the importance of Hunter's first stage, ‘Experiencing the site’. This stage now seems so obvious but i believe also a very easy stage to miss when starting out in site specific work. The attention to our site's details I have now been really interested in.

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Individual site observation task

I came across a small park for this individual site observation task. I was really drawn to the structure as I entered the park. I felt the space had such a contradiction from the incredibly straight lines and static objects to the trees creating this overhead arch. There was a slight breeze so it really brought a sense of living from the trees; as they moved the shadows on the floor also adapted and changed. The space had naturally set the idea of a traverse space by having the benches either side but due to the relaxed nature of the park there was no sense of performance as pedestrians walked down the aisle.

I couldn't help but be distracted by the natural sounds happening around me. If I had just looked at the picture I've attached I would have imagined an idyllic atmosphere and the idea of birds chirping, people laughing, maybe hearing a dog in the background. However this was definitely not the case and I suddenly became very aware how this space was still in a city. The noise of industrial tools being used was at the forefront, it completely contrasted the space.

As I was looking around at other pedestrians it became apparent that anyone passing by solo normally had headphones on or airpods. I thought about the idea of hearing your own music when walking past in normal life. We can be so distracted that sometimes we may not notice the little things when walking by. Also the idea, that if you've always got your own sound playing will you ever truly have a full reflection of a space, or simply an interpretation you've created from your own soundscape and reality.

When stood at the beginning of this very linare pathway the lamppost at the end felt incredibly significant. It was the first thing to break the natural flow of space and cause an obstacle for humans and the non-humans pathways. I really felt the lamppost created an energy that projected different channels of energy into space. I liked the idea of playing with the shape of the lamppost and embodying these different directions.

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Hunter, V. (2015). ‘Experiencing space: The implications for site-specific dance performance’,  in Hunter, V. (ed.). Moving Sites: Investigating site-specific dance performance. London & New  York: Routledge. pp. 33-39.

Koplowitz, Stephan (2009). ‘Still Learning, Doing, and Relearning: Thoughts on Making and Defining  Site-Specific Performance’, in Site Dance: Choreographers and the Lure of Alternative Spaces. Melanie  Kloetzel and Carolyn Pavlik (Eds). University Press of Florida. 73-83.