African Rhythm & English/Patwa (Patois) Langauge & Creating Chimeras & Chiaroscuro

A single pulse of an old african diaspora five beat rhythm in my mind -is the vision for the entire piece. As it underpins the choreopoem of our project , all the text. choreography, movement - the whole dynamic of the piece etc is structured on these five beat cycles . In writing the text this is from within me and moves without . I aim to infuse it into the creative team and for it to be fully internalized by all of them. The same later on by , audiences - but on a more subtle level. For now as we work , we will be further aided by my setting of, the precise bpm (beats per minute) and tempo , recording it and building on it further on it for edits and soundscape etc.. One of my key influences for theatre e.g. Berkof (alongside Peter Brooks ) displays keen attention to language and rhythm e.g.Berkof's work East - this is also the case for Shakespeare's works too. I reflect my identity. african peoples musical legacy , alongside the universality within many popular forms of diverse music , embodying this african rhythm. By my use of it thus, it becomes all the more critical for the actual words/language of this specially created argot . A s it is not iambic pentameter that is usual.

For our next film/digital test session, my preparation all centers around the creation of the character's nemesis who appears as nightmares. She is a chimera , frightening by turns, not quite visible . Our last creative team discussion centered a lot on lighting. I like the chiaroscuro effect and will explore this further for this key part - but also overall in line with the artistic themes and motifs that I have previously set. There is also special costume to finalize and a headdress to make all on deadline. I have enjoyed designing these bespoke costumes both for the effect, period/culture , dance movement, ease of wear, and to work with lighting etc. In costume key influences , range from africa, china and India - places of inspiration for all divas down the ages. I delight to find key design shapes , fabrics and ornamentation ideas, that are shared and span theses great continents and their diverse cultures. Thereby affirming important links and welcoming the world, through our aesthetics for the piece .

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Diva - Watery Revelations

I had my meeting with my dramaturge, there was much expectation due to me wondering about her reaction to the completed backstory. Anxiety too as we were to discuss my unsuccessful previous G4A arts aplication ... I was relieved that she liked my backstory and she referred to many of her favourite parts , many I myself liked. She is a lovely, very qualified , experienced insightful gifted person, she was able to highlight where I needed to tweak and expand a bit , what she did not believe, the clarity of seeing the narrators voice and the solo characters actual journey through the piece, the idea of these as two separate yet parrallel journeys/paths that meet, understanding more needs and wants better, showing the crisis point ,the actual choice the character makes and why, the different types of truth who is the character actually speaking to this was all great really helpful and took me deeper and happily into re-writing. Also preparing the next process we touched briefly on this next stage and we were both delighted to find we had similar ideas as to how score the piece, how to use music dramatically, the pattern, rhythm and beat of the piece

Her advice and our discussion included acknowledging how hard I had worked and that I had everything I needed in place (bar more money) information other support etc, more importantly how stressful the application and production process had been to date. A big point was the revelation - that I had a real difficulty focusing on myself as an artist of value as opposed to being always the producer (I felt I had to do this to work to gain recogniton and experience ) mentor mode etc for other artists) It made me feell really vulnerable all of a sudden, this induced some spontaneous water works on my part at the newness of of this feeling.

So the arts grant application form advice is sumarised ;-

JUST ANSWER THE QUESTIONS !
BE MORE BRIEF
FOLLOW THEIR NARRATIVE STRUCTURE i.e. FOLLOWNG THEIR QUESTIONS
MAKE IT VERY CLEAR I AM DOING EXCITING INNOVATIVE WORK
MAKE THE PITCH
AM AT A CRITICAL PIVOTAL POINT IN MY ARTS PRACTICE I NEED THEIR SUPPORT IN ORDER TO DO THIS PROJECT TO TAKE ME TO THE NEXT LEVEL IN MY ARTS CAREER,
I AM NOT JUST DEVELOPING MY OWN ARTS PRACTICE BUT ALSO THE OTHER ARTISTS I AM WORKING WITH COLLABORATIVELY,
THIS PROCESS IS BEING DOCUMENTED TO LEAVE A LEGACY FOR OTHER ARTISTS LEARNING