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A view of Beinn Ghobhlach in the Scoriag peninsula.
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For the last
three weeks, I have been researching in the studio for a new dance and music
project with Glasgow based composer Matilda Brown: Footsteps Marking Time, The
Cape Wrath Music and Dance Project.
I
met Matilda a year ago, during the creation of This Town, with Dundee Rep
Creative Learning. We were immediately drawn to each other’s practice and we
were soon determined to collaborate again in the future.
Footsteps
Marking Time will go beyond the usual scope of music and dance collaborations: it
will, literally, burst out of the studio walls and go into the wilderness. The
work will be inspired by two simultaneous endurance experiences: Matilda’s walk
of the Cape Wrath trail through the Highlands and my own voluntary ‘confinement’
for three weeks in a studio in the community of Scoraig, a remote peninsula on
the West Coast of Scotland.
During
this first stage of the process Matilda, who is an experienced mountaineer, is
walking over 200 miles between Glen Finnan and Cape Wrath, the top North West corner of the UK. It is a journey that no
other woman – as far as we know – has undertaken alone and in one go. For the last weeks, Matilda and I have been
constantly in contact, sharing our experiences and thoughts, as well as
pieces of text and music.
Our research has been directed both outwards
and inwards: on one side we are exploring our relationship with the environment and those who inhabit
it; on the other, we are confronting ourselves with questions about our sense
of self and personal identity, and its transformation (at physical, emotional
and spiritual level) through endurance and struggle.
Matilda
is due to arrive to Cape Wrath in the next couple of days, when my time in
Scoraig’s studio will also come to an end. The finished piece, a new full
length dance and music composition will feature Matilda’s chamber ensemble and
solo dancing by myself. The première will be at the MacPhail Centre in Ullapool
in Autumn 2014. More information about touring dates around Scotland soon.
