In the mid-2000s to the early 2010s, AusDance Queensland supported a lot of independent artists in the creative development of new work through the Bell Tower series— where artists were provided with time and space to explore new ideas in a supportive environment, without the pressure of a full-scale show. They offered mentorship in many capacities and helped build connections with other creatives and with venues.
This development showing occurred at The Cremorne Theatre, QPAC on the 29th of May 2010 and also included a discussion and forum facilitated by Brian Lucas.
My idea was drawn from my work choreographing music videos, where I had observed that what is seen live, performatively to camera, looks very different in frame. In essence, The Pitch was an exploration of the impact of a camera on dance via live projection and choreographed movement. It explored the difference that can be created between what the audience sees live and what is projected.
I collaborated with set designer Rozina Suliman, with whom I worked on my immersive show, SlowDive. My idea was for a small and compact set that could present different backdrops for the camera. The set was built in the Bell Tower where we were rehearsing in 2010.
Here are a few photos of the set being made. This was constructed at the Bell Tower Space at the Judith Wright Centre, where we rehearsed. We would rehearse during the day, and Rozina would come in at night and work on the set. The set had to be adaptable, easy for the dancers to move on stage, and easy for us to transport to QPAC and back. I didn’t want the set to resemble anything specific, but rather, be something abstract that the dancers could interact with.
Above: The Pitch is bumped into the Cremorne Theatre, QPAC.
The Pitch consisted of three sections that did not seek to provide a structured narrative progression, but like many actual music videos, present a series of abstract states and explorative approaches and treatments of the one single concept. I saw the experimentation and testing of these three different concepts as crucial to the development of the work and were broken down as follows:
Section 1: An exploration of movement, the camera, and light, and to demonstrate the difference between what is occurring live and what is captured in frame.
Section 2: An exploration of light, and lighting clichés in music videos and how these translate to the stage as well as live projection. For example, the use of fluorescent tubes was implemented as well as depth of field and distortion of images.
Section 3: An exploration into how combining different lighting, music, framing, and other techniques of the camera can impact the perceived ‘vibe’ and even perceived style of the movement. Exactly the same movement was repeated three times, but with extremely different lighting, reflections, music tracks, and filming styles to demonstrate how differently this reads in the projected footage, altering the experience for the viewer.
