1) Standing on the shoulders of giants
The edge inscription of the two pound coin was taken from a letter written in 1676 by Sir Isaac Newton to his fellow-scientist Robert Hooke, In it he acknowledged the debt he owed to other scientists: ‘if I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants’.
With this principle in mind, I want to acknowledge my debt to the contribution of the many anonymous practitioners, renowned artists; dance students and professionals who have inspired and provided invaluable input to my work
2) There would not be dance without dancers.
Nowadays, and particularly in the mainstream dance arena, it is still observable that the third person (audience) experience is prioritised over the first person (performer) experience. My work has been developed as counterpoint to this common trend. A piece of dance is only an idea, a concept, until a dancer performs it. My aim is to ensure that emphasis is placed upon the performer as the individual who is the only one who can make dance happen.
I offer all my respect and admiration for those performers who surrender and give fully to the work in which they perform.
3) Dancing is rendering the event real
We devise, rehearse, stage and perform a series of actions in order to capture a particular concept, notion, idea or belief and enable it to become real.
My work is funded on thorough research of the performative presence. The result of my work is the translation of that research, embodied in actions which finally take the form of a complex but meaningful piece of work.
4) Knowledge can be transferred, wisdom cannot.
This statement underlies my aim to devise actions, exercises and choreographies that facilitate a direct experience for the performers. For me it is of vital importance that the performers can experience first hand the ideas and concepts of the piece in order for them to be able to incorporate this knowledge into their own practice.
5) Experiences finish in the blink of an eye.
It appears that nothing changes in the world during this nanosecond, but something changes in those who undergo the experience, so, in the end, something might have changed after all.