Claire Marshall

Following filming Permutations in January, I spent the next month cutting footage. While I was happy with it, making four x 30 minute films was ambitious and I could identify some gaps in the story. It probably should have been a five day shoot rather than four and it was amazing that we managed to get all the footage we did in four days.

Below are some stills from the footage:

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Fortunately, the location, dancers and team were available for the day except for cinematographer Kevin Holloway who was on a job in Canberra. Thankfully, Saroj Kumar Chauhan, who shot Love Song and Void, was available and willing to take on the task. 

However, the weekend I picked for the pick-up shots was the weekend of the 26^th of February when Brisbane flooded. In the lead up to filming while rehearsing and setting up, two of the key team members were cut off in the floods, one of the dancers had to walk through flood water to get to the set (because she could not drive through it), Mill St studios was going under water, and I lost thousands of dollars of show sets and props in my shipping container. The house we were filming at began to leak in multiple places, and some of the dancers were possibly not going to be able to get home.

For the first time I began to question if it was worth persevering. I thought the stresses of COVID during the initial shots was extreme, however in the years of making work I’ve never known such a stressful series of events that just continued to unfold as it did this particular weekend. However, I think I can say we got the shots, mostly due to the amazing team who all helped out significantly and were incredibly supportive through all the dramas. 

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After bumping everything out it slowly began to dawn on me that the Brisbane Powerhouse had flooded and that where the projectors were being hired from (at Southbank) had flooded severely. Despite feeling like I had got all the shots and beaten COVID and the floods, there came the ‘sinking’ feeling that I would need to postpone the season.

The flood levels at the Brisbane Powerhouse nearly reached levels similar to in 2011. Some say it was higher. Below are some stills from the Brisbane Powerhouse in 2011 and 2022 (see photographer credits attached).

Fortunately, Permutations has been postponed until June 2022. I will need to print new flyers and posters, but that is a small price to pay.

https://brisbanepowerhouse.org/whats-on/event/permutations/
Wednesday 15 – Saturday 18 June 2022
TICKETS ARE ON SALE!

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After four funding attempts, my application to Arts Queensland to make a new work was accepted. The idea of Permutations came from an idea that evolved through making my dance films for my Master of Fine Arts at the VCA where I was investigating alternative story structures in dance film.

Permutation is an immersive dance film installation that positions the audience in the centre of large screens where a multiple point-of-view story unfolds.

The story of Permutations is centered around two sisters aged 16 and 17 who farewell their mother and her newlywed husband on their honeymoon vacation in 1982. However, the short trip soon becomes an extended holiday and the siblings are left to fend for themselves with the help of the neighbour and the local milkman. What unfolds is a story of two young women cast into a grown-up world – a spiral of abandonment, self-discovery, and recklessness at a time when missing person cases run rampant in the sleepy city. Evoking dark undertones, the experience of Permutations takes a multiple point-of-view structure whereby the audience is able to choose their view of the four characters and of the alternative perspectives of the story unfolding.

Permutations features four stunning dancers, Richard Causer, sisters Bella Hood and Lucy Hood and Jacob Watton.

The starting point of Permutations was to have a strong hero image so I returned to work with photographer Mark Greenmantle who shot the hero image for Flaunt in 2014. Mark cleverly put these three images together which is most exemplary of Permutations with different versions of a story that unfolds at once.

Due to COVID and state border restrictions, rehearsals were set back until November and December. However, we were fortunate to have space to rehearse at Mill Street Studios (RIP).

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I tried to be as creative as possible with rehearsals by creating mock-up scenarios similar to the location and surprised the dancers with games such as Twister and Uno to development movement with them. I had also made a gigantic 2.1m x 3.6m twister with my white tarkette and some coloured vinyl.

In December we had rehearsals on location, and we filmed over four days in January. Rehearsals on location were important for embedding the choreography into the location.

The location was a gorgeous late 1970s house that I’d taken a lot of time to find. I had met with the owner for a recce of the house and she was excited to have a dance film shot there. The house had a great vibe and was ideal for the early 1980s era. Some things needed to brought back to the era however, and my Mum had made some fantastic curtains from vintage sheets I had purchased. Tiffany Beckwith-Skinner and the dancers looked after making and installing other fabric and furniture.

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In the lead up to filming state borders had opened but that meant COVID 19 was starting to spread in January. We were faced with the predicament that if one of the team became infected they would have to isolate. Sometimes people are not replaceable and this was the case on this project. There was no other time we could get everyone together. Kevin Holloway would have to fly up from Sydney again but he was booked on a long form project following this. There was no guarantee the house would be available again and the dancers were all still catching up on jobs that had been postponed already due to COVID. Consequently, calling ‘It’s a wrap’ on the Permutations shoot was a moment I will never forget. Fortunately, we made it with all the team healthy through the 11 days on location (bump in, rehearsals on set and subsequent 4 day shoot). However, making what was essentially four x 30 minute films was huge and there was some compromises. It would not be until I got to editing that I would know if I had all I needed. Still, what we achieved was massive.

THANKS: I need to say I was absolutely in awe of the four dancers (Richard Causer, Lucy Hood, Bella Hood, Jacob Watton) who went above and beyond to help things all come together, Kirrah Jobst with short scene too, as well as the creative team (Kevin Holloway, Amelia Le-Bherz, Tiffany Beckwith-Skinner and helpers). We also had some amazing help from Jane Hood (and the entire Hood family), Judy Le-Bherz, William Eggleton, and my Mum – all who were so kind to help in various aspects of the production.

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“Extract” Test Pressing Youth Dance Project December 2017

Some moments from the performance:

Saturday the 2nd of December 2017 at 7pm and 8:30pm. Duration 40-mins.

Like flashbulb memories triggered by memories in a space, the pieces physicalises the dancer’s emotional connection to a space, and to the memories made there. Specifically, these memories were centred around memories of the “first day” of dance in the space as well as perceived hierarchies of those they encountered.

The Test Pressing group was established to provide young dancers with dance experiences that are unique and as a change from the typical options of eisteddfods in their late teenage years. The cast were aged between 16 and 19 at the time.

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From teaching over the years, I’ve observed that older students often wish to be extended with performance experiences that provide more substance than dance eisteddfods and recitals. This was the case for students Mill Street Studios at the university age: some who wanted to take dance professionally, and some keen to extend their dance experiences. The Test Pressing group was established to give student dancers a taste of making a contemporary dance work in a professional context.

Aged between 16 and 19, I guided the five student dancers in aspects of making an immersive contemporary dance work where we convert a space into a performance space and also where the audience shares the space with the performers.

The first project for the Test Pressing group was titled “Extract”. It was a 42-minute immersive contemporary dance work performed by five senior students of Mill Street Studios who were keen to experience working with a choreographer in a non traditional theatre format.

In terms of the subject matter, the piece drew inspiration from the space that the work was created in. For the dancers, this saw them drawing on various memories of Mill Street Studios where they had spent many hours and where many memories had been formed at this point in their lives. The project explored themes of hierarchy, acceptance, pressure, anxiety in a dance class environment.

The agenda for the audience is the first day of classes, and the characters emerge around the audience as the story unfolds. 

I applies my “immersive dance” formula that I established making SlowDive, Video Set, Hey Scenester, and The Factory, and I mentored the students in various aspects of making a dance show including marketing, ticketing, promotion, costuming, sound, and (very DIY) lighting and stagecraft.

The cast performed two shows to a capacity of audience members and even held a little Q&A at the conclusion of both shows.
Here’s are some photos of the performance. Photos by Gemma Blake

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