In a spacious dance studio on the second floor of the Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast’s Queen’s Quarter, Maiden Voyage Dance Company’s latest commission is starting to take shape.
Call To Mind is a dance and live music collaboration created by London-based choreographer Sarah Golding and Belfast composer and percussionist Steve Davis.
“I was approached by Maiden Voyage and asked to come and create a piece for three dancers,” Golding explains.
“So as an initial starting point I was looking for a play or some inspiration that had three people because I’m really into making work that’s about the people I’m in the room with.
“I found a play by Harold Pinter called Old Times and when I read it and listened to it I realised it’s really about memory and how three people have been in the same circumstances but their recollections are entirely different.”
The 40-minute performance explores themes of memory, perspective and how the past influences the present with stories and secrets emerging through the interplay between the trio of dancers and the three accompanying musicians.
“I asked our dancers, Gerard Headley, Clara Kerr and Michael McEvoy to write their own memory of something that had happened between the three of them which was a completely fictional account,” Golding recalls.
“Then they each recorded this fake memory and sent it to me, so I was the only person who knew what this memory was from all three of their perspectives because I asked them not tell each other what this memory was.
“So the physicality and movement in the show comes from these fictional stories that the dancers have created.”
This intricate choreography and fast paced performance is accompanied by responsive and eclectic live sound.
Although the project was a first time collaboration between Golding and Davis, Golding says their partnership was “pretty fluid” from the offset.
“It was so nice to work with Sarah,” Davis adds.
“For me as a composer I saw the project almost like a sculpture - like I had a big piece of putty, and I was just carving away and trying to sculpt sounds around the movement and react to what is happening with the choreography.
“It’s difficult but in a good way because it challenges you and that’s what’s brilliant about the commission because hopefully, I’ve challenged Sarah, and she’s challenged me.”
Call To Mind is part of this years Belfast Children’s Festival aiming to support the creation and presentation of new, high-quality work from NI as well as give young people the opportunity to experience live, professional arts.
“Knowing that the show was going to be performed for a lot for young people didn’t make me think any differently about it,” says Golding.
“I think sometimes we can really underestimate the minds of young people and feel like we need to manufacture things for it to fit into that bracket but actually a lot of young people are super switched on and really connect to works in a way that adult minds maybe wouldn’t.
“I was always going to make a piece that I enjoyed, and the ideas of memory, story, character and physicality are concepts that everyone can connect to regardless of how young or old you are.”
Much like our own memories, what unfolds within the show is open to interpretation.
“If we put a painting in here, we’re all going to feel and take something different from it,” Davis describes.
“I really like the idea of different people taking different things away from the show and there never being a fixed meaning.”
Call To Mind is an opportunity to see the work of seven talented artists both on and off the stage with performances running for just one weekend on March 9 and 10.
“We’re living in the YouTube generation,” says Davis.
“I teach at Queen’s and music students don’t even go to gigs anymore because they watch it on their phones so it’s getting harder and harder to get people to come out.
“This collaboration and commission is great because hopefully people interested in dance and contemporary music will come and bring their children and go, ‘Oh there’s actually a three dimensional world’ and feel something that they don’t get from YouTube.”
Golding adds: “What’s undeniable is the talent that will be in the space you’re going to be watching six absolute masters of their craft perform together, so if you want to see a show with some mad talent, this is it for sure.”
