Movements for a Room is a collaborative performance by visual artist Katie Lyle, and dancer/choreographer Shelby Wright. Lyle and Wright began working together in May 2015, and have performed as part of the summer project series Garden Avenue in Toronto, Forest City Gallery, London ON and most recently at 109 Niagara Street in Toronto.
MOVEMENTS FOR A ROOM - Notes -
S: Fast intro except head crawl down
K: Wait at corner
Walking into the room the first thing she noticed were the windows at the far end. There are 2 of them and they are very large on an exposed brick wall. The room is split into 3 separate work spaces along the west wall. On the east wall directly beside the door there is a fridge and a microwave, then a painting sink and a very small bathroom. But she is sure that the visitor is a man, maybe.
S: Hands reaching around
K: Hand slowing edging up the wall
S: Slinking down the wall
It is an incredibly conflicted feeling to put into words because the feeling is like an armour. She is protected by someone else’s hand but the same feeling is making her feel like a total fraud. Like everyone can see right through her. When friends and colleagues visit they comment on the changes. She realizes that they are noticeable.
K: swinging hips and arms, slow motion dance move
The very process of collaborating. Working together to communicate something about working with another person, - that the two dancers’ movements contribute to the same form, is it wanted, unwanted, supportive or domineering
...the story about my friend and his grandmother’s house. The idea of someone jumping on a trampoline behind a partition. He was living there and was upstairs while someone broke in. You just saw their head bop up now and then, their hair flouncing. He debated whether or not to tell his grandmother about it- nothing was stolen or broken. A stranger was there, and then left. He was witness to this disturbance in space and held on to the information
gymnast to wall shape to ground, arm circle circle scoop, touch foot, extend, drop with diagonal arms, elbow bring, step together sunny, notice objects with gesture, twist shape, swing to flat. waves with hips, indicate three.
In 2014, Mamoru Samuragochi, the much loved Japanese composer, confessed that he had hired a ghostwriter to compose his most famous and much loved classical pieces since 1996. He had been a child prodigy in the classical music world. He confessed only because the ghost composer was so overcome with guilt that he was going to come clean. The reason he hired someone else to write his music remains unclear. [1]
Rotate shape, leaning painting
Swim arms, semi-circle fall
When we swing our arms down to flat back against the wall, really commit to holding up the wall, flat against the wall, face turned to the side against the wall. When we turn to the side, arm up, hold your rib cage like you are holding on, not placing your hand.
Voices performing something they do when we aren’t paying attention. More and more to do with what we do when people aren’t around. The staging versus acting for ourselves that we do when people are watching or not watching.
[1] Martin Fackler, “In Japan, a Beloved Deaf Composer Appears to Be None of the Above” The New York Times, Feb 6 2014
