At the time I was researching a practical
realisation of human ability for a new book I was writing for Wildwood House
called 'Sense, Think, Act'. I was attending dance and bodywork classes run by
the X6 Dance Collective.[1]
At the time dance was being challenged by new ideas such as 'release', Contact
Improvisation, gymnastics, Aikido and Tai Chi. This was not an open collective.
I had a relationship with one of the members, Emilyn Claid, but I was not a
member of the X6 group, which was based in a large old tea warehouse in Butlers
Wharf near Tower Bridge.[2]
In 1976 X6 initiated a magazine 'New Dance'. I became part of the separate open
collective that produced this between the end of 1976 and 1978 (New Dance
magazine went on until 1987). At the same time I took part in performances
which grew out of this network such as those directed by Sally Potter and Rose
English.[3]
As I looked through the
early issues of New Dance I noticed that two of the reviews were of performances
that used home movies and presage some of the later preoccupations of this
thesis. The first, written by me, is about a performance by Mary Prestidge and
the second is written by Prestidge about a performance by Sarah Green:
An
acute shaft of orange sunlight. Most of the windows are blinded. A small
sprawled audience watch two films, both home made. One, showing top Olympic
gymnasts going through their routines, is on 16mm. The other is of Mary's gym
work and is on 8mm. Both films are running together, Mary is talking about
scenes from her past. She pauses frequently. She mentions her relationship with
her mother." (New Dance No1 New Year 1977 p12)
The 'stars' of the film are the Green family, but we
the
audience see Sarah warmly alive in contrast to the bright projection
on the back wall. Her shadowy figure moves with ease in and out of skills,
but the magic and quality of the performance for me lay in the dialogue and
relationship that was created between Sarah and the changing images on the
screen. (New Dance
No3 Summer 1977 p15)
[4]
[1] X6 consisted of Jacky
Lansley, Fergus Early, Maedee Dupree, Emilyn Claid and Mary Prestidge. They had
variously had previous careers in such mainstream companies as the Royal Ballet
and Ballet Rambert. The main published accounts are Christie Adair, Women
and Dance
(Macmillan 1992), Stephanie Jordan, Striding Out: aspects of contemporary
and new dance in Britain (Dance Books, London 1992).
"X6
provided a political feminist framework for the movement language of new dance,
focusing particularly on radical subversive experiments in performance, and the
performer as political being and subject of her own work". (Yes, No,
Maybe: the practice of illusion in dance theatre performance, PhD Thesis by Emilyn Claid,
University of Surrey, 1998, p59)
[2] I was also 'member 1396' of
the London Film-Makers Coop in November 1976 but was only active as a member of
the audience. According to Paul Burwell there were meetings c1977 between the
London Musicians Collective, the New Dance Collective, The Fitzrovia Cultural
Centre (David Medalla's squat) and the London Film Makers Coop (Resonance 8/9 No 2 p23).
[3] Sally Potter has become a
leading film director and Rose English is also well known for her flamboyant
theatrical performances.
[4] Sarah Green went on to be
one of the leading members of the Greenham Common Women's Group.