Embodying Ambiguities

Claid, Emilyn and Briginshaw, Valerie (2005) Embodying Ambiguities. [Website]

Abstract / Summary

Funded by the AHRB, co-directed by Emilyn Claid (choreographer) and Valerie Briginshaw (writer), ‘Embodying Ambiguities’ (1999-2004) researched the dynamics between Claid’s choreographic processes/practices and Briginshaw’s written texts. Outcomes include: website; performances (‘Shiver Rococo’, 1999; ‘No Bodies Baby’, 2002; ‘Remember to Forget’, 2003) that toured internationally; showings of work-in-progress; after-show discussions; conference papers internationally, including PARIP and FIRT (‘Federation Internationale de Recherche Théâtrale’). Thirteen collaborators worked with the two directors, researching new tools/models for devised choreographic performance. The research revealed a model of dramaturgy for choreographic processes through the parallel workings of theoretical writing and embodied practice.

The website, created in collaboration with web designer Nicholas Watton, builds on the outcomes of this research to:

· Detail the processes and performances that provided ongoing stimulus for research, including video excerpts from performances, images, programme notes, written papers, workshop scores, studio tasks etc.;
· Detail the specific questions of each choreographic practice evoked by aesthetics, cultural difference, space, time, narrative, abstraction;
· Interrogate relationships between professional performance and practice-based research: e.g. the differing roles of language, time, memory, repetition in writing and choreography; their interweaving in creative processes;
· Demonstrate strategies to layer memories and processes, drawing forward images and devising tools from one performance to the next;
· Reveal how Claid’s choreography explores the space/time conventions of making, performing and watching, through the use of multi-directional space in performance.

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