Tuesday, May 1, 2012

THIRST & THE GLORY ENCOUNTER

After producing/directing THIRST and THE GLORY ENCOUNTER in Hong Kong, I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude towards my collaborators. I sense that there is a need for more experimental, audience participatory, site-sensitive, movement/theatre work here in this unique city. People here are interested, open, and yearning for something sensual, different, and charged with a vibrant passion. I am devoting myself to a period of space before the next project. I will improvise everyday until I feel I have given myself enough recovery to develop a new piece here in what is quickly becoming one of my favorite cities....

Sunday, January 22, 2012

TICKETS for THIRST (feb 16-18, feb 23-25)

$250 HKD per person
Performance Dates: Feb 16, Feb 17, Feb 18 (sold out), Feb 23, Feb 24, Feb 25 @ 9PM
Note: Paypal was being unreliable. Please email me @ katemarch14@gmail.com for reservations and you can pay cash at the door. xxx


6 Additional THIRSTS

Very excited to announce that EXPERIMENTA will be presenting the performance evening THIRST on February 16th-18th and February 23rd-25th @ 9pm...Cash accepted at the door and reservations can be made by emailing marchperformancegroup@gmail.com.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

THIRST


Composer: Kaja Bjorntvedt; Performers: Jade Yung, Muriel Hofmann, Patricia Chiu, Giselle Liu, and Evelyn Wan; Fashion Designer: Natta Thapparat; Experimenta Director: Gina Wong; and a Guest Director, warmly invite you to a private engagement on February 14th at 8PM at EXPERIMENTA located at No. 89-95 Hollywood Road Lower Ground Floor (Shop B), Central, Hong Kong (www.experimenta.hk for directions)

THIRST is an event incorporating film, live performance, original music, multiple selves, and delightful liquid concoctions. The evening acts as an opening for a week long cinematic exhibition by a group of women creating performance and film work in Hong Kong at Experimenta. Bring yourself and your ego or bring yourself and your partner to celebrate this Valentines Day in an unforgettable way.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

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.”

Thursday, September 29, 2011

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/

Thursday, September 1, 2011

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

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

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....

Monday, June 6, 2011

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

Friday, March 25, 2011

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.....

Friday, March 4, 2011

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.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

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.

Monday, February 21, 2011

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.


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

Friday, January 14, 2011

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.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Furniture and Food!

Great feedback from Notting Hill's First Wednesday Programme.
Silvia Nayla was an incredible furniture store that allowed us to use
our bodies as furniture: decorative and useful. Then, Tiny Robot, was an interesting restaurant, and it was an absolutely fantastic challenge. Pictures to come.
Check out what people have said:

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

post-rosa


The name rosa comes from sub-rosa which is latin for under the rose. Sub-Rosa refers to secret operations, links to confidentiality between people, and is overall, something occurring without public notice; essentially, underground going-ons. Though the experience on sunday was private it was also public; part of it was in confidence, and part of it was extremely exposed. For this reason, it was not necessarily sub-rosa; it was a rosa event.

We welcomed our guests to the Marble Hill Pub. Hopefully there, they felt warm, invited, included, anticipatory. Perhaps after feeling warm and comfortable they felt slightly restless, wanting to know what to expect and when to expect whatever it was that might happen. After they followed the performers outside to the park space, unexpectedly they formed sidelines like at a football game. They divided themselves, keeping us in the middle. From the photography, it seems people were making choices about where they wanted to stand, move to, and for the most part, they remained alone in their experience of ROSA. On one hand, how the spectators received the 'performance' was utterly individualised and non-demanding. The spectators had the control over where they placed their bodies, how close they chose to get to the performers, and whether they remained in the bleak cold observing aggression, play, animalistic behaviour, or comraderie. Though it may seem demanding for an audience to watch something outside in the cold, it was their choice to stay. It could also be seen as non-demanding in that there were no specific seating or standing placements, people had the choice to control their body's positioning. Interestingly, many children and dogs were very engaged in what was going on; the public paused to see what was happening. Most audience members braved the cold. Going back into the pub, like post-football or rugby game attendees, was a breath of comfort, a resort to warmth....

My experience was mainly positive. I felt like I could really manifest aggression in physical form without holding back; the contract we had between each other and our bodies was special. We knew nothing was personal; it was just an expression of athleticism and force that we don't often get to approach so wildly without holding back much. I felt proud of myself when I remained standing. Though there was a moment at the end when I was lying on the ground face down and felt Laura and Nefeli lying near me. I suddenly felt more non-living than I could have imagined. I really felt like I was in another dimension. In order to break the tension, my body started a fit of laughter; in essence, I was laughing at death.

Following the performance it struck me how morbid the imagery could be seen towards the end. We embraced being physical with the body; we mocked the violence of society; we displayed people bringing other people down (women bringing other women down); we demonstrated instances of force that may have been seen as extreme as rape; and we were footballers anticipating the ruggedness of the experience or the possibility of injury. But we were in black, covered in dirt, and some of us were immobile and relaxed/exhausted to the point of total stillness towards the end. It could have easily been seen as dead bodies. We were at the end, encircled by the audience; human curiousity is strong. The audience's bodies contained us; they contained our life and our death; ultimately, there is an underpinning for people controlling people; people trying to control (unsuccessfully) death.

My fascination with philosophies of life and death, particularly, existentialism in relation to Simone de Beauvoir and other French feminists, suffuses the performance work we do as a group. I could not ask for more courageous, talented, and powerful women to work with. Also, the spectators that came are becoming and growing as a community. In the future, I think we will play with having just two people, or perhaps having many people. What would happen if men were involved? What if we stayed in our dresses and stilettos? There are many future possibilities and more spaces to explore with these expressions of the fight for survival; the fight to remain in a pack; or just an instance of the 'fight' within.

Will post more pictures in the Rosa gallery very soon. Special thanks to Nick Gough, Oz Owen, and Graham Bradley for taking some fantastic photos. And also to Marc Chmielewski for filming the event.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Pre-Performance Ruminations

It's gray, cold, and gloomy. My body peers out into what's left of the pre-dusk light. How often do we get the opportunity to exhaust and test our physical limitations? I run outside, ignoring the possibility that my muscles will tense from the undesirable conditions. I see my breath, I feel blood coursing to every inch of my body. I can make it go, I can push it, I can struggle, I can fight. But my body chooses when to stop. The control is limited and an illusion.

The past rehearsals have been physical and forceful with an underpinning of affectionate play. What has transformed humans into such sophisticated species; what has led to the harnessing of raw human emotions? Sometimes being cosmopolitan, graceful, and a sophisticate is also exhausting in itself. Is there a place where the exhaustion of the physical and the exhaustion of sophistication can collide? Given the chance, I would rip myself out of niceties and grace and choose a state of rawness and athleticism that pushed my body, and hence, myself, out of the duality of power and vulnerability or of being in control and being controlled. Sometimes when we embrace and allow for physical exertion, the need to control is released and body and mind can exist collaboratively. Though I do not support violence, I believe there are moments when physically demonstrating aggression are more productive than withholding; it is productive to push each other physically; to realise our competitive nature physically. Can we exist as poised, elegant, sophisticated and also passionate, messy, unpredictable beings? The space where both exist is the most exciting place to have presence in.

Sunday November 21, 2010 @ 2:30pm. The Lions and Lambs collide

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Friday, November 5, 2010

Post-Berlin....New Project

Berlin was an amazing and inspiring experience. Felix Ruckert was a great producer and artist to be in the company of while we were there. The response was overwhelming and I think people wanted to ask more questions than ever....We are hoping to bring this to Amsterdam next....

The new project is inspired by fight club...except we're making it our own.

November 21 @ 2:30 at an undisclosed location....

Some new phrase work/gestures I'm working with: (Click the link)


Monday, October 25, 2010

Berlin, Here we come...PR links....

The Berlin PR so far!
October 27th and 28th @ 8:30PM
  1. by Jeanne-Salome Rochat

    London-based choreographer KATE MARCH is bringing her combination of theatre, culinary arts and social criticism to Berlin for a two-night gig in Wedding. The girls dance on dining-room tables and offer food to the audience sitting around them as a way of examining, deconstructing and endlessly reclaiming a female body’s weird power.
    On October 27-28. Details HERE!


http://www.kulone.com/ALL/Event/1246165-GIRL-MEAT





Saturday, October 16, 2010

Berlin quickly approaches and other performance dates

Hello everyone. After several different ways to name the group, I have decided on the march performance group... Like the month of March, we consist of lions and lambs. We make live art and we construct experiences in which audiences become intimately engrossed. Our inaugural tour starts in Berlin at Schwelle 7 where we will show our evening of meat (or girl meat) produced by Felix Ruckert. It is on October 27th and October 28th, for more details please click on the following link: http://www.schwelle7.de/News.html.

We have some press from this performance, please look at the following links:



Finally, the piece we are currently working on entitled sub-rosa, will be performed at the Old Vic Tunnels from December 9-11th starting late. More information to come on this performance event.


Friday, September 10, 2010

Openness

Check out the latest movement ideas by clicking here:

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

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

h.e.e.l.

A project which is a series of live installations and then cinematic responses to each installation created by me. Here is my response to the first installment at the old vic tunnels this past saturday...Episode h (of heel)......


Enjoy. More to come!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

More Still Pictures by Graham Bradley and Oz Owen






UNDONE

Red Light Night! Success...Pictures to come....




The Red Light Night performance at the Old Vic Tunnels was a great success....Pictures will be posted soon. Here is a snapshot...I think I will call the evening: undone.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Monday, August 16, 2010

tunnels preview

Mary Sherwin, Treacle Holasz, Laura Cherry are amazing collaborators who took risks today at our first Old Vic Tunnels rehearsals.

Click on this link:

Monday, August 2, 2010

on the wrong foot.

Jessica Noe` and I are feeding off of each other's bodies....I just took a bite out of what she had ot offer from NYC. This is my response to her nourishment....

(posted on youtube because this site was being challenging!)


Friday, June 18, 2010

gaining some momentum now...taking a stand with lapstances

I was contemplating how I want to use lapdancing as a vehicle for my own views, voice, dignity, and worth. I am considering something I call 'lapstance' where the person in the chair who is awaiting a lapdance actually has to use their own corporeal agency. We will engage in a mutual standing upon one another's lap. First I discard my high heels, and gingerly make my way onto standing on their lap. This isn't as quick as it sounds, it takes some precise timing and placement in order to minimise pain and discomfort...Actually it can be quite pleasurable, like a deep tissue massage if done properly. I return then to my seat (adjacent to them) and put my heels back on. I invite the person sitting next to me to do the same and to stand upon my lap. I assure them they will not injure me, and hope that they don't.....it's a tangible sharing of the body, and of power, of pain, of pleasure...lots of things. I'm sure this will expand....In the following video clip, just imagine the pillow as a person (though it being a pillow is quite amusing in and of itself)....I will lay a cloth over the person's lap before standing...but will not put one over my legs.

Lapdance Series Rehearsal Footage 2

Interesting rehearsal yesterday with nefeli. It's difficult without a body, so Nefeli was
kind enough to lend me her body to try a few things on. A man was sitting next to us (we were at the Royal Festival Hall) and he got up and left after seeing some of the imagery. Later on he came over and asked what I was doing. He told me I looked cheap. The women that do those things have no dignity, they make money, but they have no self value and worth. He said no one likes that kind of thing, and the people that do are 'boozers'. Well, I said a lot of men may disagree with you. Also, what right does he have to place his views and words into the voices of these women whom he has had no contact with? He insisted I do something original. Obviously he didn't get the entire point of this project as trying to re-write the lapdance conventions into my own creative framing. He pretty much proved the very reason I am investigating this. I think there is a lot of controversy about the 'morality', dignity, and rights of both giver and receiver of lapdances. It's only taboo or cheap because we have learned it to be that way. Still constructing, re-constructing, de-constructing, and trying to figure out what the best context to perform this will be. Knowing how he reacted, I think perhaps I may need to discard my idea of having lapdances performed in a bar or club, I think this only feeds into the common way of seeing or experiencing them. It may actually need a theatrical venue to accomplish a new way of experiencing the lap dance. I think as this rehearsal footage shows, it can simply be fun and funny also. It's kind of a unique thing to have two bodies in such close proximity (especially when the strangeness of the situation turns into laughter)...there's a lightness that I am seeking to explore more in this work.....Enjoy.


Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Lapdance Series Rehearsal Footage 1


I have started working on a new piece/event which will include 24 lap dance experiences. I want to demonstrate that a lap dance can be more than grinding myself into your groin; it can be intimate in ways you have maybe never considered. 

Sample a small taste with this first film.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Successful Performance Event! Many Pictures...

It has taken me a long time to follow up on the performance that occurred May 1, 2010 because I was so exhausted, thrilled, still processing, and excited to develop in the future. The evening could not have gone any better. People wrote amazing comments about the piece for example : 'unlike anything I have ever experienced' or 'looking forward to the next one'.... I have an entire visitor's book with comments that truly demonstrated that the point came across: performance need not happen in a stage or in a formal context to change, move, or inspire people.

I felt overly pleased after the show, and also inspired to continue working with the position and the concept. Please enjoy some of the photography documenting the event. Click on this link or just go to the new May 1st page on the right margin of this blog:
MAY 1st Photos (by Oz Owen and Graham Bradley)

I hope to have a film up shortly.

Please join us in Berlin at Schwelle 7 to perform this piece on OCT 26, 27, 28, 2010. More information to follow....If you are interested in upcoming events please let me know.