Monday, September 7, 2015

Shadow Land



 Currently, while I have been in Denmark, I've seen posters for the theatre production, Shadow Land. The production already toured in Australia last year, where I was able to conduct an interview with one of the team creatives. Seeing that the production would be coming to Copenhagen I could think of no better time to post the interview. -  




For a few special nights last month, Her majesty’s theatre showcased dance company Pilobolus’ performance Shadowland. It was a remarkable performance revealing the best of human imagination, physical prowess, and aesthetic beauty as it followed the development of a young girl as she thirsts for independence. As she enters the frightful world of shadow beyond her bedroom wall, the audience follows her into a world of dreamlike logic and simplistic wonder. To better understand the performance and the work that went into it, creative and executive director Itamar Kubovy give some insights.


Q) There were a range of creatives on this project - did you all have particular tasks, or how was the work divided?

K) Pilobolus always creates with diversity, in expertise and redundancy in the roles. We are all in the room working at the same time but each of us focuses on a different aspect of the work – be it story, in the case of Steve Banks, head writer for SpongeBob Squarepants, or music in the case of David Poe, our amazing composer, or shadow techniques or Pilobolus partnering. It’s important to remember, I think, that in reimagining shadow-making we are exploring a unique performance style so there is no one to call and ask for help. We have to figure it out ourselves.

So Pilobolus is a dance company that seems to utilise a range of dance and performance disciplines, does that often include shadow and silhouette forms, or was this special to Shadow Land?

K) Pilobolus is primarily a dance company that develops movement and dances for the live stage, film, and advertising. Only a couple of our pieces, Shadowland being the primary example, contain shadows at all.

We started working with shadows in 2006, when we made a television advertisement for Hyundia, in which we were asked to make a car out of body shadows, that project quickly led to being asked to perform at the Oscars where we made iconic images representing the nominated films in a similar style.  Over the next two years the word soon realised we had reimagined an ancient art form and asked us to run around the world, creating many little three-minute pieces in shadow. Shadowland is the result of trying to weave what we intended during those years into a single full-evening presentation.



Q) In the performance the hair, the costume, even the body type of Kristina (the female lead), seemed to lend itself perfectly to silhouette performance, were they all deliberate choices?

K) Shadows are not very forgiving. Everything connected to a figure or object’s outline must be considered and deliberate, while appearing spontaneous and accidental.


Q) The scene with the centaur was magical, however I was wondering, of all the animals, mythical or otherwise, what made you chose a centaur? – Why have the female lead as a dog, for that matter?

K) A centaur is associated with sexuality and we knew we wanted to have a sexual rite of passage in that scene but rather than the traditional stud centaur, we were amused by the idea of a centaur who is ashamed of his horse half and can only find his sexuality when he encounters a girl who is ashamed of her dog head.

When the fashion designer Pierre Cardin, one of Pilobolus’ first patrons in the ‘70s, saw Shadowland in Paris a couple of years ago. We went to dinner afterwards with the cast and he kept saying, “the Animals. The Animals.” From the amazing fungus after which we (Pilobolus) are named, to the centaur, the elephant, the spiders, and the dog heads of Shadowland we have always been inspired by the expressive power of the natural world.

Q) The other side of the centaur is having two males in the romance as opposed to one, what was the reasoning behind that, as in why not a more familiar one male and one female dance?

K) Once we had a centaur made of two guys, the duet naturally turned into a trio. We tried to begin and end as a duet and elaborate as a trio. We name all of our moves and our favourite in that trio is know as “Tripplesex” – the Dog Girl and the two sides of the Centaur.

Q) The scene where she almost drowns, to me it seemed like a ceremonial rebirth, was that how it was meant or was there another creative purpose behind it?

K) We tried in Shadowland always to achieve depth with simplicity. We wanted to find a literal low point for the Dog Girl, the moment where she hits bottom. What kind of place could be lower than the bottom of the ocean? When she lands she is truly at the bedrock of the bottom and begins her ascent towards fulfillment.

Q) It seems even with the advance of special effects the continued development of CGI and animation, people are still drawn to theatre like this, theatre where they can see the mechanics behind the illusion, why do you think that is?

K) As the world becomes a more meditated place and we spend all day behind a screen, the importance of hand-made thing, touch and people spending time in the physical presence of each other becomes more important. Something live and handmade can truly captivate in a way that things made by computers can not. Think about the return of The LP.

Q) The encore in creating New York and then the trip to Australia was brilliant, perfect way to end on a high note, whose idea was that?
-       Compliments on the song choice there
Here the Audience loved it, how do audiences usually respond?

K) We try to create a local finale for every one of our performances. We have found a tremendous response around the world when we customise our finale to the audience. It connects is to the audience in a way that makes everyone feel more included. We have a whole team on the road that researches and advances ideas for each of our 
finales. 

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Shadow Puppetry

Hi guys,

I've been working hard again and I've put together another shadow puppetry video, this one with its own website.

A Kind of Flight was a lot of work, unfortunately with a camera that could not quite to the quality I wanted, but the puppets are beautiful and I am very proud of the story.



It was originally performed as part of the Gawler fringe festival, hence the style is different to my first video, but all the information about the stage and puppets and process is on the website.

Hope you enjoy.

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

If You Find Me

Hey, I know I haven't posted for a while, but a quick recommendation for you -
If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch was a refreshing easy read that I highly enjoyed. She juxtaposes two different ideas of the woods. That of the innocent and adventurous Winnie the Pooh, and the reality her character experienced. The duality of the symbolism and the thrilling mystery and tension of the book keeps each line coming. For a quick but worthwhile read, I highly recommend it.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Reading Dickens

 - Hey, this is an article that I wrote a while ago for my local paper, however it's still one of my favourites.


In these past few weeks of university I have had the task of reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Upon learning of this task I was admittedly apprehensive. Some time ago I was kindly advised by a nice lady in the local bookstore of several books by Dickens which would serve as easy introductions to his literature, yet upon beginning The Old Curiosity Shop I was curious as to where this lady had got her information from. Either she had never read the book herself and had seen some entertaining film interpretation of the novel, or she had a sadistic need to see her fellow readers suffer. For though this was several years ago, the beautiful, illustrated, red leather bound copy of the book I had bought to read in appropriate style, remains in my book case, and I remember thinking, if that was one of Dickens’ easier reads, then I hope never to read any of his heavier works for as long as I live. I was further assured of my position when my mother’s book club tried to read A Tale of Two Cities. I had the pleasure of watching my mother suffer a similar torment, where merely trying to understand the sentence she was reading resulted in her forgetting what the prior sentence had been about. She grew quite worried when, two chapters through the book, she had no idea what she was reading, and resolved to give up and face the next book club, book unfinished. She was relieved, therefore, when no one in this quite experienced book club, managed to finish the book. There may have even been some referrals the book that included the phrase ‘wrist slitting.’
So upon learning I would have to read, and finish Great expectations, you can imagine my concern, if half of A Tail of Two Cities stirred suicidal thoughts in a book club, what would reading all of Great Expectations do to me?
If The Old Curiosity Shop was any indicator, than I would have to reread every second paragraph, and loose the will to live a fifth of the way through. However, I have good news for any student who may have to undertake the same challenge. Thus far I have only had to re-read every third or forth paragraph in the book, and am now a quarter of the way through and still floundering along. I don’t know what that lady in the bookstore was trying to achieve by pointing me to The Old Curiosity Shop, but Great Expectations has been, psychiatrically at least, far less damaging.
So rest assured all fellow readers, and remember, if you fail to complete the novel, there are always the movies.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Sand Art

To this day this is one of my favourite videos, her art is so fleeting and emotive, like evolving poetry just slips through her fingers.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Poetry Slam

Hey, I'm working towards getting a poetry slam on in Gawler soon. Check out my flyer -

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Book Thief Interview

I love this book, and this movie, and for others that love it too, here is an interview with the author of The Book Thief.