what people say about us

Just a few reminders:

“In An Evening of Meat they have put together a stunning concept piece that keeps you firmly on a hook for the entire night.” – Tuppence Magazine, An Evening of Meat, March 2011

“I went to bed in THAT WORLD that night. They took me to a journey... The choreography was challenging and arresting.” - http://okimuk.com/ a beautiful mess, old vic tunnels, August 2010

Time Out says: “The March Performance Group is an exciting dance collective, which powerfully explores themes like death, femininity, sex, beauty and exhaustion. Their provocative work can be seen this weekend at ‘At Evening of Meat’ at Dalston’s Old Cholmeley Boys Club. Book now and prepare to be moved.”

Long Distance Relationships: London to ** with Love

It is so difficult to be far away from the people that I collaborate best with. I was very much affected by the performance we did together on September 7th. I have only just now had the appropriate moment to respond to the performance. I was in my living room in ** at 1:30am after that same day being on a train from Ningbo China to Shanghai and then a flight from Shanghai (delayed) to **. I was physically exhausted. When I started to prepare my mind and body for the performance, I wasn't sure what to expect. I didn't know if I would remain tired, if this would show through the screen, or if I was to feel like I was even actually in a performance. In the end, I was in a trance, doing things to the screen and in response to what I perceived from the bodies on the screen. I really felt an intimacy that I didn't think one could feel without being physically proximate. The experience was powerful and emotional. I felt invigorated and inspired. Truly it did not feel as though an hour had elapsed, I think I could have performed all night. Interestingly, I really started playing to the screen with my face or minute details of my body so that perhaps on the projected screen in London I really was a disembodied presence in every sense of the phrase. I felt like I was sharing different parts of myself freely, even disclosing secrets to strangers. Perhaps the best part of the performance for me is that I couldn't genuinely gauge the audience's reaction; all my movements and impulses were coming from an authentic place. It is refreshing to exist as if no audience will judge your actions or your non-action. My collaborators, Laura Cherry and Treacle Holasz (who were gratefully dressed in fashions by Ziad Ghanem), unfortunately had a much different experience with the audience which was in fact very critically and verbally judging them for the duration of 2 hours. It truly makes me wonder about the purpose of performance; the role of the audience; and whether we can make work that both addresses and dismisses outside participants. I hope to develop this work and explore more questions about presence, absence, liveness, and performance states that feel like trances. In the meantime, check out the new gallery of photos (photographer Nick Gough).

I'm also proud to announce we will be working with Experimenta Gallery in Hong Kong for a show on February 14, 2012. Check out their website: http://www.experimenta.hk/blog/

Live Absence, Recorded Presence

MPG members Laura Cherry and Treacle Holasz will be performing a trio with Kate March on September 7th 2011 as part of Debut Contemporary's First Wednesday Series. Ms. March will be performing from **. As the group shifts and explores new ways to indulge in presence through digital media and cinematic dialogues several questions emerge. Can you feel someone's presence through absence? In this increasingly globalized world, how do we begin to value our absence of presence in order to maintain and develop meaningful connections between bodies? Does our physical proximity matter? Can you be remotely interested...

Press Release
How are you watching this? Me? Us? What is happening in your head? What emotion, what memory is this movement stirring in your mind? This performance explores how one perceives live performance and what it really means to be live. This is a physical theatre - dance piece choreographed by Kate March, and her dancers Laura Cherry & Treacle from The March Performance Group. The work has been created through a new question & answer style of multi-media choreography. Kate is working closely with the theme of Live & Life in ** posting videos of her movement online to her dancers in London who create movement directly from Kate's films & send back their filmed movement response. The choreography process & conversation is documented thoroughly due to the nature in which we're working. This enables the work to be more influenced by the thinking process behind the movement itself. The company are pioneering multi-media choreography embracing the technological advancements available to the dance & theatre world.
The group will also be collavorating with fashion designers Rosie Alia and Ziad Ghanem on the night

Taipei

After a move to hong kong in June, I find myself now in Taipei helping to manage and observe 10 choreographers create 10 minute dances over the course of 3 weeks. Watching the performers and the choreographers work together to establish a meaningful connection and a special bond that will be translated into a piece, makes me very much long for my colleagues in London. If we were all together for 3 weeks everyday in a new context and new culture, what could we create together? What will are next theme be? After working together in June and July through cinematic and digital dialogues, the group performed a new section of a developing work, flesh and bones, and reworked our first piece, Phoenix. The feedback was very positive, and interesting to read as I have yet to see anything more than still photographs of the work we developed with our new process. Many people related the essence of the work to Greek tragedy and a few people mentioned the poet Lorca who I have been inspired by in past work in relation to his concept of duende. Perhaps we should revisit this concept together over the course of the next few months. Most importantly, being here in Taipei and considering my very new personal/ professional circumstances I have been contemplating and trying to articulate the value of absence rather than presence in human existence. We place so much effort and emphasis on presence and physical proximity that we tend to forget that such focus is only made on this because of the possibility and the reality of absence in our lives...especially in an age of travel, but always in the human experience, it is because everything will at some point lose physical presence that it becomes tremendously fragile for us. How do we balance presence and absence or remote and proximate? How do we retain a value for flesh and bones and still embrace the bonds that exist without them? I look forward to stewing over these ideas and having them burst into future collaborations near and far....

Public House Performance and Summer Plans

A few weeks ago the march performance group performed in a shopping centre in Elephant and Castle. There was an empty shop which was transformed into a living room space. Audience members were invited into the space for a cup of tea or a drink and to enjoy either visual or performance art over 2 days. In addition, people passing by the shop could participate by viewing through the window (we had many people from all walks of life enjoying a moment to pause and question what it was they were seeing through the window). The group met twice before the performance to begin to work on a vocabulary for a developing piece entitled "flesh & bones" which we are aiming to perform in the autumn. As part of the new associate artist scheme that we are a part of at Middlesex University, the group will be rehearsing at Middlesex this summer to explore themes of separation/disconnection of different parts of the self, renovation, rebirth, and redefinition of self. Ultimately, we may question various notions of presence and absence (in high heels of course). Please view this video for a partial glimpse into the Public House performance which will indeed contribute to ideas for the new project: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKa0qOfvE6k

Please

An Evening of Surprises

March 19th proved to be a triumph of a show. With an audience of over 90 people, the Old Boys Club was full to the brim with interesting and compelling characters. The atmosphere was intriguing and each corner of the room was filled with mystery, ambiguity, light, dark, death, and joy. I felt that each of the performers had their most shining performances both on and off of the table. The tremendous support in set design, costume, and makeup prior to the show, really made everything run so smoothly. Throughout the course of the evening, people at the table and beyond were fed and their pangs of hunger were satiated in several different ways. I could feel a transformation in the room from reality into a surreal world by the end of the night. I think my character began to develop into a whimsical mistress who felt both delighted, in control, and also in a deep agony over the events she was witnessing- I felt very torn at times, and almost with an underpinning of a desire to bring people into the same feeling of conflicted-ness. I neither wanted people to be comfortable and entertained or overly analytical and searching for philosophical meanings. I just hope people were existing and being present in the experience which changes each time it happens. The unpredictability of the night alongside of the controlled structure and timeline are so compatible because it then brings a menu and a mea that adapts to the stomaches of that particular audience. So many moments surprised me and excited me--it is always a pleasure to receive such positive feedback following the show. I look forward to performing this and developing this carnivorous and enrapturing dinner party for many evenings in many places to come. Please see the gallery above for pictures of the night. We will be producing a film of the evening as well. Finally, we are hoping to have a cocktail performance in the months to come.....

March 19th Preparations

Kate March and Laura Cherry held an 'On All Fours' workshop on behalf of March Performance Group yesterday for several 3rd Year students at Middlesex University. The students' work in the position was very sophisticated and demonstrated again, the variety of different ways people physically or emotionally react and perceive the position. I will be interested to explore some of the ideas that emerged from the workshop with the group. Following the workshop, most of the group got together for a rehearsal for the March 19th event. The development of the piece is very exciting as new roles have emerged from Berlin. It is a luxury to be able to develop a work and it is thrilling to fall in love with the piece as a whole each time we rehearse or perform it.

The French chef, Michael Rabinovtiz, has offered a delectable French menu including various canapes for the guest tickets (£15); 4 different quiche choices including Quiche Lorraine, Mozzarella/ Oven roasted cherry tomatoes/ & Basil- Asparagus/ Artichoke & Goat Cheese- Chorizzo/ Black Olives & Manchego Cheese, and finally, his acclaimed mouthwatering Beef Bourguignon as a main (£35 or £45 for premiere seating and service). A beautiful dessert is being designed by a guest baker and will dazzle all senses when it is seen and tasted. Wine will be offered throughout the meal. The After Event will be a convivial celebration of march performance group's favourite month: March, of course.

Valentines Footage

Here is a small sampling of the going-ons of Valentines Day.

The light was not ideal for video (as it usually is not due to the use of candlelight), so one is unable to see the striking makeup design by Mona Ragheb. The music by The Loves, which was quite like a symbiotic relationship, emerges from the video. The set design cannot be truly appreciated through the video, but then again, that is the beauty and the frustration with live art-it is fleeting and transitory.

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7eAxAEo1V0

Bloody Valentines and March Performance

The performance on Valentines Day 2011 at Le Regal in Farringdon, was an intimate affair. The night included delectable sponsorship from Vintage Patisserie and set design by Lizzy Charles and Daisy Beattie. An environment which included candles, rose petals, old love letters, hanging cow hearts, and an halved cow heart, filled the audience and performers with an essence of nearly spiritual, ritualistic, and sensual longing. The evening, which included content inspired by the notion of Geisha Ghosts trying to connect with a human audience/human patrons, seemed to fill the every senses as several host and guest relationships emerged. As a performer, I felt transported into another realm. My feelings and expressions fell across a dynamic spectrum of emotions ranging from jealousy, to companionship, to loneliness, to joy. Other performers seemed to find a range of distance and connection to the audience, whose interactions ranged from shared smiles to various facial and eye contact connections. The relationship between host and guest or performer and audience member (though I hesitate to say audience member, as they seemed fully participatory and the space would not have existed were it not for their existence in partnership with our own) is continuously being pushed, pulled, and negotiated especially with the close proximity and the ritual of eating and drinking and being in the presence of both strangers and acquaintances. This will be a performance I look forward to developing and doing again.

Please view some of the photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=326974&id=671180663

Finally, I'm very excited to announce the March Performance Group's next event. In declaring our new relationship to Middlesex University as Company in Residence, we will be holding a updated rendition of An Evening of Meat on March 19th at the Old Cholmeley Boys Club in Dalston at 7pm. Live music, new faces, and some exciting surprises in store for our guests. To avoid disappointment, pre-booking is required and is easy to accomplish through paypal on the left of this post. Excited to see you there. - mpg

2011- Hair

Happy New Year to everyone!

We have lots of exciting plans for this year and hope to continue to develop our group on a local and international dimension. We are proud to announce that Middlesex University has invited us to become company in residence over the next 3 years. This relationship will enable several exciting things including the opportunity to rehearse intensively and have a base in which to call a supportive home. There will be an official announcement to follow in the next few weeks.

We look forward to developing a new work in the following months to be shown in March. Further updates will follow in the next week. For now, enjoy a new video introducing the new theme of hair.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqJaaajKDuE