Artistic interests

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Cornwall, United Kingdom
My practice often involves working with improvisation, attention to imagery and sensation, and text/writing, all coming from or working in relation to the body. I am concerned with the relationship between the audience and the performance, and the politics of the performance space. The themes in my work are often exploring what it means to be human, and the embodied self in relation to our lived environment. I have an ongoing curiosity around notions of absence and presence, memory, intimacy and states of transition or change. A concern with how the female body is respresented in performance is also an emerging commonality in a lot of my work. Some of my performances have taken place outside of the theatre space, being in the form of installations, video and site-based works. As a teacher I enjoy facilitating people to find their own means of expression, and to find dynamism and ease of movement with a sense of the embodied and whole self.

Wednesday, 2 December 2009

Towards Stillness


Towards Stillness incorporates sound, live surround video projection and structured improvisation to create an immersive installation. The audience experiences the performance in the same space as the performance action, and are invited to witness, and become influential in, the changing states of the performer.
Performance and Choreography: Saffy setohy
Sound and Video: Reynir Hutber
 
The work is connected to a long-standing interest in creating a new format for performance composition linking ideas around the organisation of living systems, and Chaos Theory. 
A study on transformation, individualism and collectivity, I am interested in how each element in the installation can influence the behaviour of one another. The work provides an opportunity for audience and performer roles to become more fluid, a meditation on what it means to be a part of something bigger than ourselves as we flux between chaos and stillness. 

Towards Stillness was created during a series of European residencies (Dance Beyond Borders) and premièred at DanceKiosk Hamburg 2009 with a subsequent performance at Outlet Festival, Braunschweig, Germany.


My work during Dance Beyond Borders was supported by the Lisa Ullmann Travelling Fund.



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Invisible Lines (2012)

Invisible Lines (2012)
a performance action involving the negotiation of space and time between two people connected only by an almost invisible fishing wire

Passing Place (2011)

Passing Place (2011)
A structured, improvised duet created for the historical Jacobs Ladder site in Falmouth, Cornwall

Towards Stillness (2009)

Reworked version performed and filmed at Arnolfini, Bristol 2010. Premiered at Dancekiosk Hamburg 2009, and performed since at venues and events including Outlet Festival Germany, Salisbury Arts Centre,Abundance Festival Sweden. Towards Stillness integrates structured improvisational dance with live sound and video to create an immersive installation. The audience experience the performance in the same space as the performance action, and are invited to witness, and become influential in, the emergent properties of the installation. A study on ideas around transformation and collectivity, the work provides an opportunity for audience and performer roles to become more fluid, a meditation on what it means to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. This project has been supported at various stages by the Lisa Ullman Travelling Scholarship Fund, London Metropolitan University, the European Commission Culture Programme through Dance Beyond Borders, Laban, Penryn College and Creative Skills.

Between Stone and Star- Shunt Theatre 2010

Performance/choreography: Saffy Setohy Video/Sound: Rainer Hutber. Inspired by the poem Evening by Rainer Maria Rilke, Stone and Star takes as a starting point the notion of being left alone in an ‘in-between’ space, a place full of possibilities and without certainties. Created especially for the second level space in the Shunt Lounge, which has a glass floor and ceiling, the piece also revisits a common theme of the artists' work together: the influences of architecture and environment on thought, behaviour and movement. A structured improvisation, the performance took place over a thirty minute duration. Audience members were free to walk in and out of the performance space, and to stand or sit where they pleased in relation to the performers.

Towards Stillness (Image: Uwe Brodmann)

Towards Stillness (Image: Uwe Brodmann)
A performance at Outlet Festival, Germany 2009

Entropy (2008)