Regretrospective @ Colchester

Short extracts from the 'Regretrospective' showcased at Colchester Arts Centre 2009.
Lighting Peter Harrison

Regretrospective

Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2010

A short extract of the opening audio TV sequence, filmed at the Edinburgh festival. Unfortunately the video camera was not quite up to filming in such low light levels to pick up the stop motion projections in any clarity.

For reviews of the show, see Luke Jennings Observer Aug 29 on the link below

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2010/aug/29/edinburgh-festival-ballet-alonzo-king-dance-review

Fringe review by Phoebe Ladenburg

http://www.fringereview.co.uk/fringeReview/3446.html

Events: The' Regretropsective'

Colchester Arts Centre
Nov 11th 2009
7.00pm Doors Open

Tickets £3.50
Box office 01206 500900

'The Regretrospective is a multi-layered work, part installation, part film, part movement, based around our capacity for illusion and delusion. It takes place in the disordered bedsit of a half human half horse, who spends his time watching TV. A surreal and delusional world unfold as dialogue from the TV begins to influence events, until its no longer clear what's real and what's imagined. The intrusion of a tiger into this bedsit domain could lead to a potentiall regrettable incident.........

The Regretrospective , presented as a work in progress, showcases material created  during Juliet's
research and development period on the  Escalator  Performing Arts scheme, collaborating  with
lightingdesigner Peter Harrison, and sound designer Al Ashford.  The audience
is  invited to stay and take part in a Q and A session and  give
feedback to help develop the piece to the next stage, as well as
explore the installations  created for this piece.

Maverick Matador who only had a Pin

Duration 8 minutes

Music Badmarshri

Lighting Design Jon Clark

A Maverick is a steer the cowboys can't catch, so he never gets branded.

A Matador, maybe he’s the only one who can?

Especially if he’s both,

A Pin, It’s the only weapon you’ll need, if the conflict turns out to be small,

But you’ll only know if you face it.

A contemporary flamenco dance piece, set to drum and bass, with a small installation of tiny plastic bulls at the end.

Created in 2003 with funding from Arts Council East, through Dance East’s Awards for artists scheme. Inspiration and title from the painting ‘ The Maverick Matador’ 1991

Divas Devas 2008

Originally began as a work for three dancers, but I was unable to get the funding to complete it so it became a solo piece. Without the other dancers, I started working with installations, using dolls and toys instead. I was working with some typical flamenco themes, betrayal, obsession and revenge.

Flamenco’s roots are believed to be Asian, and the connection with Indian philosophy, music and beliefs feels very strong to me, especially when I dance. I’ve always been interested in Duende, the trance state that flamenco’s can go into. For me, this is when you meet the Devas, a Sanskrit word for the ‘shining ones’. I’m familiar with these experiences as I often painted from this space, its why I used rhythmic music, and of course, the complex and fast rhythms in flamenco can access these trance states as well.

The watercolour ‘ Star eyed’ is a ‘Duende’ Painted in Barcelona in 1984.

The form of Divas Devas is in many respects a work in progress, as making installations and films to integrate with performance is becoming my main focus.

The Betenoir Destinies Carrots Series. Versions 1 – 4

Version 1, 2004 Platform East
Version 2, 2005 Resolution! The Place
Version 3, 2005 Pulse Fringe Festival
Version 4, 2007 Colchester Arts Centre, also ‘Joining the dots’ The Live Art Development Agencies National Platform DVD

Lighting design Jon Clark, and Peter Harrison, versions 1 and 2.

A large part of flamenco repertoire, the Cante Jondo expresses the misery and suffering of existence.

Buddhism suggests that the root of all suffering is desire, but ‘desire’ can motivate us to escape misery and suffering.

All four versions of this work have desire and motive as the central theme - the horse and carrot. I also explored Jung’s theory of the Shadow, ( Betenoir) and simply put, without knowing or understanding the darkest parts of our psyches, we remain largely unaware of the influence these aspects can have on our desires and motives

I started working with the flamenco form Siguerillas for the earlier pieces, but Nine Inch Nails,‘The Art of Self destruction’ just went to the right place. Versions 3 and 4 looked at the relationship between desire and control. As the work developed, I incorporated remote control cars, audience participation and animation, collaborating with sound and video designer Al Ashford.

The Video clip shows Version 3, 2005 Pulse Fringe Festival.