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.
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.
Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7eAxAEo1V0
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.
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
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
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
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!
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
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)......
Follow the links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhLman_pxi4
Enjoy. More to come!
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
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....
Click here to watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABwH1xTrDaY
(posted on youtube because this site was being challenging!)
Thursday, July 29, 2010
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