I’m absolutely delighted to announce my first collaborator!  Chris. Dugrenier.  (See Chrisdugrenier.com or see her NTW community profile). Chris is an inspirational performance and choreographic artist who has a beautiful way with words and movement and an incredibly present and open way of working that leads to refined and pared down performances.

I think it is pretty unusual for a Waleslab project to be bringing together a new collaboration, rather than working with an existing creative team. But I wanted the project to help me broaden and deepen my practice, to forge new connections to people working in different fields.  So when my first conversation with Chris flowed so beautifully, and I left the call, an hour later completely inspired, I knew this slightly risky approach had been worth it!

Chris seemed to curve so gently into where I’d got to, deftly moving things on, questioning and deepening my thinking and inquiry. Our conversation flowed from a shared love (and sponsoring) of cuckoos to the words remnant, fragment, shard, trace. We shared experiences of how to work with a site, in response to it, working with its atmosphere and to how that might fit with the symbolism of the last supper, and of having two hosts, present and past. We talked of ghosts and shadows, of stories, of creating immersive environments, of how important it is to pay attention to the motivation for and the way participation is developed and testing different approaches – Chris suggested a different one for each course of the meal, for example. We contrasted the instinct for migration and travel with what makes people rooted in place, of Chris’ travel, of my having lived here longer than anywhere else and my yearning to stay here forever, to be welsh, of identity. We talked of the people who may have thrown away the objects I’ve found in my garden, of their lives and deaths, of their travel physically and through the objects they brought in from overseas. And we agreed to start putting all our ideas into a metaphorical box, so we can take them out as potential ingredients the development week at the end of April.

After our conversation, I went to the barn, and had a big clear out, and a huge bonfire. This is a new beginning.