Quick Q&A with... Choreographer Sanne Clifford

- Which ideas laid behind the physical tasks you proposed during the Fall LAB in Bern? 
 
I wanted to explore the theme ‘awkwardness’ within the title ‘3 is a crowd’ to see if I wish to use it for an upcoming piece. Therefore I chose different approaches, of which one was ‘the human knot’.

I first started from ‘the hug’, to see how the participants respond on doing this, although most of them did not really know each other. I guided it towards more complex poses and situations, like getting stuck (the knot) and how to behave in this situation.

We worked with the whole group in improvisation sessions based on me giving different tasks. The combination of the different tasks then lead to short duets/trios.

We looked at the different duets and I asked each viewer to formulate a task if one was the choreographer and would continue with what they just saw.

That lead into very nice try-out rounds and interactions!
 

- How did dancers relate to the task, what was their attitude? Was the outcome what you expected?
 
I saw a big difference between physical situations that arose from the tasks at hand - awkardness being a physical aim - and the ones that appeared from a more theatrical approach, starting from a relation/intention which was more connected to acting and was then lead into physicality.

This was very interesting for me to see, as it made me aware I want to work with the movement leading and the responses and emotions following from there, and not the other way around.

At the end of the lab I asked everyone to make a mind-map/evaluation. It was very useful to read and shortly discuss these, as the experiences of each participant gave me a better understanding how it is to be ‘on the inside’.
 
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- Overall satisfaction: What did I bring home with me afterwards?
 
It became clear to me that I would like to continue with this theme and title, as it gave me already a lot during this exploration lab. It still interests me and I could see there are different ingredients I can use to make a new work.

I copied the mind-map evaluations from everyone, which has helped  me to recall what we did in the lab and decide how I wanted to proceed from there. Now, a couple of months after the lab in Bern (oct ’15) I have already made  steps in the  further development of the concept: The first (try-out) performances are already planned! To be continued!