Washed Away - THE MOVIE

So, here it is! Retina Dance Company's Easter festival Retina Springs 08 with WASHED AWAY as it was performed on Friday 28th of March 2008.
Great dancing, music, singing, passion, commitment, determination.......
Thank you to all the participants (all 32), the choreographers (7), the composer (1), the musicians (2), the Bartenieff teacher (1), the producer (1), the general manager (1), the administrator (1), all at College Street Centre, Sandfield, Lakeside, Dance4 and Arts Council England.

Looking forward to the next time

Filipx

A Message from Antje

Thank you very much for this brilliant opportunity with Retina! I really enjoyed it


'wow. an hour show. put together in two hours. Surrely that is not possible. But it is. Thanks to Filip. So much material in so little time. what an experience. intense. challenging. difficult and so rewarding. Fiona and Natalie. Erica. Sarah. Eleni. Memories dance4 studio. if only we had more time together. next year maybe?'


Antje

A Message from Siobhan and Aline

Thank you to all of Retina (especially Rohanna and Steve) for a fabulous two weeks. It flew by! It has been great to meet so many new people and to learn new ways of moving (and being able to perform at the end was an added bonus).
Thank you again, I look forward again next year

Siobhan

On my way "back to life, back to reality" thoughts & melodies from the last two weeks keep passing my mind...

Why did I enjoy the last two weeks:
- new styles of movement which give me more opportunities
- enjoy again more the flow of the dancing in the body without analysing it
- CHAOS LIVE CREATION:
Afterwards the performance fascinated me the most. How things came together & moments happened. I can't catch it with my mind - that's what I like about it.

Thanks for the 8 inspiring days!
By "just" doing again, wthout thinking, organising,... these days reminded me, why I went abroad to go for my dream :)

Merci Beaucoup! dank u wel! Danke! Mille grazie!
yours Aline :0)

Final thoughts

It's been great to see everything come together over the last few days, and to bring some new people into the process. We didn't realise until today how much the group have done in such a short space of time and all the hard work that has gone in since the beginning of springs. We hope everyone has enjoyed the experience and gained something new and positive.

Good luck to everyone tomorrow, to all the groups and to everyone involved.

One day to go

One day to go and Tory & Laure would like to say to their group : "You are looking fabulous, we think you have really grown since the beginning of this spring's adventure. It has been great to work with a group of young people that are so positive and full of life. We loved your energy and commitment to the project. We hope that it's been as great an experience for you as it has been for us.
We wish you lots of luck for the performance tomorrow. Remember to be expansive, explosive oh... and don't forget to breathe...go for it, we'll be watching you!!!"

Retina Springs day 6 part 2

Group picture of group 1, working at the fabulous rehearsal hall at Lakeside Arts Centre.

Voila, the structure of Washed Away drawn by composer Matt Marks. Come and see the performance and try to work out where in the structure we are.

Retina Springs day 6

Lovely portrait of the Retina team and a message from Steve and Tory

This week has brought new people to each group. Which has injected new energy as well as exciting challenges for both participants and group leaders. The work is coming together as we develop ideas from last week and look for new processes. Looking forward to joining all three groups together in the final piece on Friday.
Tory and Steve.
P.S. Sorry for all the bruises, sore muscles, no pain no gain.

Retina Springs day 5 part 2

More video material from Group 1, working with Laure and Tory.


Two messages from the Springs '08 LAB

Confusion. CHAOS. Frustration. Pressure. IS THIS GOING TO BE GOOD ENOUGH? Meeting nice people. We are just playing in the end, or are we? For me this project is not about the final performance but about the PROCESS! Antje

five woman
in a space
some know each other or maybe some do not
one dances tango whilst having butterflies on her head
the second one can not fall asleep
the third one is fast
the fourth one is holding someone's hand
the fifth one is not there...
what has been and what has yet to come...
Eleni

Retina Springs day 5

A new week at Springs '08 and the teams are back with more participants, more fresh energy and more material created towards the final performance on Friday.

Here are some more thoughts from our Springs '08 composer Matt Marks.

Retina Springs week 2

As we start week 2 of Retina Springs tomorrow morning we are showing you a few moments from last weeks rehearsals followed by a short aims and objectives from LAB choreographer Antje Hildebrandt.

Message from Hannah McBrian

Hi Filip,

Would just like to say I am really enjoying Retina Springs, can't wait till Tuesday to be dancing some more:D Think the hand dance is awesome,

Many Thanks

Hannah

Retina Springs Day 4

Week one has finished and we are looking forward to the start of week two on Tuesday. All groups have created loads of material and we are starting to look at a structure towards the final performance next Friday. The performance is on Friday 28 March at 7pm at the Sandfield Centre Nottingham. Tickets can be obtained through Retina on 0115 957 62 02 (ext. 225) or through the performers.

Week 2 starts on Tuesday with more people joining the groups.

For people who would like to see Retina's current performance of This is not a body can still do so but only for a further 4 times over the next couple of weeks. Please check the performance dates on our website.

Looking forward to week 2, have a great Easter break

The Retina Team

Springs 08 day 3

Day 3 and time to introduce two emerging choreographers working at the Retina Springs 08 LAB, based at Dance4 in Nottingham.

Eleni Edipidi










Antje Hildebrandt












The Lab gives these young choreographers the opportunity to experiment, create, develop skills, devise their own work, communicate and find different ways to approach their choreographic process and ideas. All this during 8 days and under guidence of choreographer Filip Van Huffel and Laban Movement Analist Natalie Gordon. They both work with the same 5 dancers and they can also dance in each others work so we hope they get a complete experience out of it. Apart from collaborating with Filip, Natalie and the dancers, they also work with composer Matt Marks.

The outcome together with all the other groups working around Nottingham will be presented during a sharing at Sandfield Centre Nottingham on Friday 28th March at 7pm.

The event is called Washed Away

Threatening, thought provoking, ever changing, ever present, individual, collective.
WASHED AWAY is the account of a group of people from the NOW generation! A generation reflecting on what has been and what has yet to come. Can these people make a difference? Is there any room for the future? Or are they literally bouncing their heads against the wall?!

We live in a time where everything is set in stone, everything is in place, everything is done and things are hard to shift. Maybe things can only change when we start from a place where everything has been Washed Away!

Springs 08 day 2

Day 2 of any dance project can be difficult! The muscles are aching, the brain is overloaded and then some Belgian choreographer asks you to start the day with rolling down, find the floor, connect your head to your tailbone and work through the pain. Here at Springs things were no different this morning but it was amazing to see that during the class bodies were returning to their normal elasticity and brains seem to just accept new information.

Today was intense but productive. The two groups at Lakeside and the LAB group at Dance4 carried on working on new material and are starting to introduce the concept for the final performance. We are vaguely looking at what it means to be of the NOW generation in a piece called Washed Away. We will explain more about this later but here is something short written by Rohanna who is working with group 2, the professionals:

Springs has been split into three groups, we are working with a group of seven from both the uk and europe. So far we've been making material and playing with different ideas. We're trying to find a balance between working quickly enough to make content for the piece but also allowing time for things to be explored and developed. As each person is coming with different expectations and hopes for the project we are looking for a common ground to help people develop in different ways and create something of quality. Watch this space.........

Springs 08 on the way

Retina Springs 08 is the Easter contemporary dance festival from Retina Dance Company taking part in and around Nottingham in England from Monday 17th March until Friday 28th March. The project exists out of a workshop programme for contemporary dancers of different levels, a choreographic lab and a culminating performance on the final day by all the participants. Retina's Artistic Director Filip Van Huffel and dancers Laure Bachelot, Rohanna Eade, Tory East and Stephen Moynihan are leading the project and Matt Marks is the composer who will be creating the music for the performance alongside the dance.

Over the next 2 weeks we will post images, video footage and reactions from the dancers and collaborators here so please feel free to return to this blog. You can also find more information about Retina Springs, other projects and general company stuff on Retina Dance Company's website.
Please feel free to comment and join in with more Retina events.

Filip