Arts AdminArts Admininvisible dances... developed in different spaces in different cities and became an exploration into the perception of space and a meditation on ideas of absence. With the use of various technologies Bock & Vincenzi have developed a series of musical, spoken and visual texts that remain unseen/unheard by an audience. Each of these texts, in different ways, demands the un-presence of the performer. They have led to the development of different physical states and spaces for the performer to inhabit. They insist upon the performers being caught within the representation of absence and often result in extreme and beautiful physicalities.
Download text on invisible dances... by Martha Fleming (pdf)
Here, As If They Hadn't Been, As If They Are Not forms the final act to the Invisible Dances series that began with Prelude at the Royal Opera House in 2004, followed by L'Altrove at the Venice Theatre Biennale in 2005. In an attempt to explore the notion that 'Everything that appears is an image of the invisible" (Anaxagoras), Here, As If ... will be adapted and restructured for each of its presentations at Nottdance, Nottingham; Kunsten Festival des Arts, Brussels; and Laban Theatre, London in May 2006.
The most complex and unsettling (in the festival)
La Republica, Sept 2005
Conceived by Frank Bock & Simon Vincenzi
Directed by Simon Vincenzi
Choreographed by Frank Bock
Music by Luke Stoneham
Lighting by Chahine Yavroyan
Video by Andy McGregor
Text by Fiona Templeton & James Brown
The Invisible Dances triptych was developed through a series of commissions from Snagged & Clored, Royal Opera House & The Venice Biennale with additional support from Arts Council England, Dance4, Laban and Queen Mary, University of London and the British Council.
L'Altrove (trans. 'The Elsewhere')
15 & 16 September 2005
Venice Biennale: 37th International Theatre Festival
L'Altrove take the form of a play with no plot, no beginning and no end, which probes and reveals the stories that are contained within the body. Twelve performers, both blind and sighted, present different 'states' created and guided by different rules and interpretations of presentation.
L'Altrove takes us to a different space, outside time and at different speeds. It will always be happening in some way that we can not see, and what we can see will disturb our attempt to perceive it as a whole. Elegiac in its search for narrative, L'Altrove presents a disturbing visual world or abandonment and beauty, returning to notions of appearance and disappearance and the question whether all is ever visible.
Performed by Frank Bock, Gary Clarke, Theo Cowley, Rose English, Valentina Formenti, Joanne Fong, Tim Gebbels, Nanette Kincaid, Navraj Sidhu, Mike Taylor, Mary Herbert. With music by Luke Stoneham. Lighting by Chahine Yavroyan. Video by Andrew McGregor. Text by Fiona Templeton & James Brown. Costumes by Mr Pearl & Sonya Dyer.
Commissioned by the Venice Biennale with additional support from Arts Council England, Dance4, Laban and Queen Mary, University of London. In collaboration with the British Council.
invisible dances…from afar: A show that will never be shown
5 October – 28 November 2004
A sound work for telephone
A poster campaign by artist Duncan MacAskill
A publication designed by Lewis Nicholson with photographs by Henrik Thorup-Knudsen
A row of masks…shhhh…is any body there?... Masks mean they're looking at me… mean… she twitches…in her mask on stage still… one walks away to the back… in a robe… in a red robe…r, red, reddy reddy… they stand in a row, row, row… broken row… breaking inside her breaks… another naked goes back… backwards… another turns and walks away to the back… are they looking at the watchers? Is any body there? Yes I am. You are. Are you? Are you listening? Are you there?
The Watcher
On the 20th March 2003, in a 'dark' theatre in London's West End, Bock & Vincenzi presented: invisible dances…from afar: a show that will never be shown.
In the empty auditorium sat just one person; the poet and theatre maker Fiona Templeton (The Watcher). As she watched, she recorded her experience of this extraordinary two-hour long performance, so that an audience might later hear it on the telephone. The nine performers knew that if they stopped performing their audience would have nothing to describe and that if she stopped talking that the show would disappear. Individually the dancers explored different relationships between the external body, communication technologies and absence. Through personal earpieces they responded to different 'soundtracks' - a specially commissioned work inspired by the internal sounds of the body, specific instructions for the performers' movements based upon journeys undertaken by someone unknown to them. James Brown (The Medium) was also invited to investigate and record the presence of a spirit audience in the theatre building during the performance. Outside the auditorium sat artist Rose English (The Witness), writing about hearing but not seeing the performance. A fourth person, Henrik Thorup Knudsen (The Photographer) documented the entire show from the back of the stage, taking images with the Hasselblad shutter open for the full duration of each of the 36, three minute, 20 second scenes. As 'part of' the show he also took portraits of the performers, capturing their image as they finished presenting work.
This work explored how an audience could experience a physical event that can not be seen; how a poetic world that is open to the personal interpretation of those present is translated; how you describe the indescribable. The vivid and haunting account of The Watcher could be heard as a sound work for the telephone, by dialling the number advertised on fly posters designed by artist Duncan MacAskill. The piece could only ever be heard by telephone and will never be performed in front of an audience.
'… a first for dance' The Guardian, 2004
It was made with Frank Bock, James Brown, Rose English, Joanne Fong, Valentina Formenti, Tim Gebbels, Doran George, Lisa Haskel, Ian Hill, William J Hulley, Nanette Kincaid, Henrik Thorup Knudsen, Gill Lyons, Navraj Sidhu, Luke Stoneham, Chris Tandy, Koen Van Geene, Simon Vincenzi and Chahine Yavroyan.
Commissioned by Media Art Projects and in association with Dance 4 for Nottdance. Presented in association with Dance Umbrella 2004
31 July, 2004
Snagged and Clored, Clore Studio Theatre, Royal Opera House
Prelude combined elements developed from previous research phases, including material from the audio descriptions by Fiona Templeton and the spirit medium taken from invisible dances…from afar. It also worked with ideas within the Powell & Pressburger film The Red Shoes, much of which was filmed within the Royal Opera House. Bock & Vincenzi worked with a cast of eight performers to present a 30 minute prelude of a show that never happened.
Commissioned as part of SNAG!, Snagged and Clored, ROH2
Block 1 25-31 March 1999, The Place, London
A 'Sound Moves' residency
Collaborators: Mette Edvardsen, Jo Fong, Martin Harrison, Jan Pearson, Navraj Sidhu and Luke Stoneham
Block 2 3-8 May 1999, Dance 4, Nottingham
Collaborators: Jo Fong, Navraj Sidhu, Luke Stoneham and Grace Surman
Block 3 18-28 August 1999, Yorkshire Dance, Leeds
Collaborators: Theo Cowley, Mark Lorimer and Gill Lyons
Block 4 6-17 September 1999, Chisenhale Artists Bursary, London
Collaborators: Tim Gebbels and Gill Lyons
Block 5 2-9 October 1999, South Bank Centre, London
With a work-in-progress presentation of invisible dances... in front of people watching at the Purcell Room as part of The London Festival of Visual Theatre.
Collaborators: Theo Cowley, Mette Edvardsen, Valentina Formenti, Tim Gebbels, Nanette Kincaid, Mark Lorimer, Gill Lyons, Navraj Sidhu, Luke Stoneham and Chahine Yavroyan
Commissioned artist text by Martha Fleming further down page.
Observing each of the performers apparently imprisoned in their own internal world, was a moving experience. The moments of communion between the dancers - an accidental mirroring of movements or the slight touch of a guiding hand on the back - were profoundly touching. This is an experiment truly worth watching and one that deserves an audience
Total Theatre
Bold, uncompromising, intriguing and sometimes frustrating to watch, Bock & Vincenzi's work is undoubtedly the cutting edge of contemporary dance.
Theatre First
Block 6 23-29 October 2000, Akademi for Figuretheater, Norway
Collaborators: Andy McGregor
Block 7 4 November 2000, 'Vital Signs' seminar on arts and disability, Nottingham, England/Zangezour, Armenia
Collaborators: Doran George and Andy McGregor
Block 8 16 July-3 August 2001, Choreodrome residency
The Place, London
Collaborators: Tim Gebbels, Maria Oshodi, Andy McGregor, Mike Taylor and Yen Thou
Block 9 16-23 November 2001, 'Line of Enquiry' residency
Dance 4, Nottingham
Collaborators: Theo Cowley with students from the University College Northampton; Kevin Burns, Abbie Fuller, Katie Holliday, Sian Hughes, Josephine Sitta-Bey, Mike Taylor
Block 10 4 February -1 March 2001, 'Line of Enquiry' residency, Dance 4, Nottingham
Collaborators: Theo Cowley, Tim Gebbels, Nanette Kincaid, Juliet Robson with students from the University College Northampton; Kevin Burns, Abbie Fuller, Katie Holliday, Sian Hughes, Josephine Sitta-Bey, Mike Taylor.
Commissioned artist text by Juliet Robson
Block 11 10-15 June 2001, Dance Base, Edinburgh
Artists in Residence
Collaborators: Arlette George and Andy McGregor
Block 12 2-13 September 2002, Choreodrome residency, The Place, London
Collaborators: Gary Clarke, Nanette Kincaid and Lorena Randi
Commissioned artist text by Mathew Hawkins
Block 13 16- 27 October 2002, STEIM, Amsterdam
Collaborators: Luke Stoneham with Robert van Heumen.
Supported by The British Council
Block 14 11-19 November 2002, Laban, London
Collaborators: 2nd year Laban students
Block 15 20 March 2003, MAP commission/Arts Theatre, London
Collaborators: James Brown, Rose English, Joanne Fong, Valentina Formenti, Tim Gebbels, Doran George, Lisa Haskel, Ian Hill, Nanette Kincaid, Henrik Thorup Knudsen, Gill Lyons, Navraj Sidhu, Luke Stoneham, Chris Tandy, Fiona Templeton, Koen Van Geene and Chahine Yavroyan
Block 16 1-31 May 2003 NottDance, Nottingham
invisible dances... from afar: a show that will never be shown
A work-in-progress presentation of a sound work for the telephone.
Collaborators: Lisa Haskel, Ian Hill, Bill Hulley and Fiona Templeton
Block 17 15-20 December 2003, Stage Electrics, London
Invisible Dances (2004)
- Bock and Vincenzi
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