Week 15 - Score-making by Anna Seymour

We spent our final residency week in Prague, Czechia and it was such a rich and generative way to end our research period for the International Contemporary Dance Collective (iCoDaCo). Jo Fong, Deborah Light and I felt very privileged to have spent time with the Portuguese and Czech collectives, to dance with European dance artists and makers in two different countries exposing us to different cultures, languages, politics, rituals, working methods, perspectives – and new books to read.

Make it stand out

This week’s theme was “Score-making” continuing with the previous theme of “Playful Disturbance”. In our starter, we were given a document of scores gathered from all the different collectives over the last 1.5 years with the invitation to choose scores to work with, to activate, to reflect on.

Some moments from the week:

·      The Czech collective and we shared the Morning Prayer (moving as we want to music for 15-20mins) together each morning. We took turns to lead the morning warm up embodying different scores.

·      Scores included push to move, gaze, scaffolding and melting, giggling joints. We also chose and modified a score from the document and experimented doing it outside. It revealed our comfort levels, our decision making, which tools we automatically resort to, how we move in relation to a space where the boundaries aren’t so clearly defined. 

·      Jo, Debs and I tried a score from week 11 which was to move as a trio in contact with the options of shaking, holding, squeezing. It felt very different with different bodies which I always find fascinating. Bodies bring so much history, memories, enquires. We adapted it to holding, folding, unfolding which felt more functional and tangible for us.

·      Saunas, group dinners, walking tours. Swimwear in saunas isn’t allowed, it’s considered unhygienic.

·      This week’s task felt substantial, and we wanted to make sure we finished the week on a satisfied note. We created a list of vocabulary, using words/scores/tasks that we have used in previous iCoDaCo residencies and from our own practices. We selected a few and created a 15min performance sequence score. This is the beginning sketch for Jo and Debs new work (NO DESPAIR) for iCoDaCo 2027.

·      We shared this at an informal sharing on Thursday afternoon followed by a group lunch and discussion. This felt very generous.

We finished the week feeling full of connection, curiosity, conversation, ah! moments, ahhhhh moments, and renewed energy for our practices and for the performance-making stage.

A huge thank you to iCoDaCo and Jones the Dance for providing these wonderful opportunities and experiences!

Books that came up:

Hill of Desires: Practices of Rural Imagination edited by Matteo Binci, Pietro Consolandi, Giacomo Pigliapoco, Bianca Schröder

Secretly Alive: Embodied Perspectives of Dance Improvisation edited by Mish Rais, Mirka Eliášová and Lizzy Quesne.

(Mish is part of the Czech collective).