Confessions of a Screendancer

The Screendancer has moved

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:45:22 +0000

Confessions of a Screendancer has moved to a new home, still on WordPress but now at this address – http://fireboxdance.wordpress.com

I decided to make the move to a new address so that all FireBox stuff; dance, film, websites, clubbing events and general musings will be at the easier-to-remember-and-makes-more-sense-address. I will also make more of an effort to blog regularly as so much has happened with FireBox over the past few months but I’ve been a bit busy to blog about it. We’re currently in rehearsals for a new piece so head over to the new blog and I’ll let you know more…

Bye for now x

White Noise

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 10:52:12 +0000

FireBox is working on a new piece with 6 dancers, 2 screens and a collection of TV sets based on the idea of images appearing and disappearing into white noise. With so many components this will probably be one of the most technical pieces to date so I’m expecting lots of late nights editing footage that will be displayed on separate screens and relate to each other.

White Noise will be premiered at The Foundations Collective evening of dance at St. Brides, Edinburgh on Thursday 23rd April then performed again as part of a Blaze/FireBox evening of dance in Gilmorehill G12 Theatre, Glasgow on Tuesday 30th June. More details to follow.

What’s in a Name?

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:55:56 +0000

Quite a lot, I think, so it’s time for me to get everything together under one name and get it all onto one site. Details to follow but I aim to do this at the weekend so keep your eyes peeled.

Scratch Moves

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 10:37:25 +0000

Thursday 5th March 7.30pm Pay what you can.

This exciting new event for all things physical uses the ‘talkback’ Scratch format, this month exploring movement and image. Artists include award-winning German video editor/dance video maker Sabine Klaus, choreographer Susan Elena and visual artist Anna Henson (MFA, Glasgow School of Art).

To Scratch contact lj@thearches.co.uk

FireBox are pleased to be involved in the first ever Scratch Moves night, after being approached by The Arches, to rework As the sparks fly upwards… into a performance piece.

New Work

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 10:18:27 +0000

The visuals for Underneath the Arches didn’t work out quite as planned. We didn’t get the costumes in time so had to stick with the Death Disco visuals rather than filming our own. It wasn’t ideal but it worked and it fitted in with the night overall.

We do get a chance to do it properly again at the beginning of March as we’ve been asked to perform the piece at an evening of dance at the Arches which will be good. As the sparks fly upwards was originally a durational performance that the audience could come in and out of but for this event we’ll be altering the piece so it becomes a timed, sit down performance.

THEN at the end of April we’ve been asked to perform at St Bride’s in Edinburgh to launch a new dance collective’s website. Time for a bit of inspiration I feel.

Going Underground

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 11:34:44 +0000

Underneath the Arches is happening tonight and, like most theatre/arts/performance events, there are a lot of things which have been left to the last minute – including my visuals. I have the back up of using some Death Disco visuals, courtesy of the brilliant Jaygo Bloom, but ideally I’d like some visuals of the dancers themselves in their brand new costumes but the wardrobe assistant is still buying them and I haven’t been able to get the dancers together any sooner than yesterday.

It’s not an ideal situation but I’m planning on quickly filming the dancers in costume this afternoon and incorporating those visuals into the Death Disco visuals if they work together. It’s all very last minute and fingers crossed which is strange for me – I’m never normally working this close to the edge but it’s just one section in a huge performance so it’ll all pull together tonight.

Underneath the Arches

The Arches

Sat 17th Jan 10pm – SOLD OUT.

Submission Central

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 21:10:38 +0000

I’ve spent all day today filling out submission forms for various video dance festivals so fingers crossed Dark Matter, itch and These Things Happen will continue on their own little world tour.

I’ve also had a little urge to make a new piece today but am still looking for ideas on what to make… time to get my thinking cap on.

New Year New Work

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 20:53:48 +0000

I realise I have been slightly remiss over the last month or so in terms of posting so here’s a little catch up.

Burn Baby Burn

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:08:24 +0000

Project Y DVDs are currently burning.

I am very pleased to be finishing this job.

The saga continues!

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 17:09:42 +0000

The YDance saga is beginning to bore me now. After finally finishing everything and getting all the film clips placed nicely into a DVD menu to be burned they’re too big. Options are to split the files over two discs, remove the individual pieces so the viewer can only watch the full performance or buy double layer discs. Thankfully this isn’t my decision to make so I can only wait until Monday for the boss to decide.

In the meantime I thought I’d add the 1 minute promos for Project Y and Free to Dance to my portfolio but the stubborn wee buggers aren’t playing ball. I’ve spent all day importing the QuickTime files into Flash to be added to the website and, even though I’ve already done all the other films in the same way, they’re just not appearing online. All the files are in the same place, they’re recognised by the FTP host and they even work in the preview window but they just aren’t making it onto the website.

I’ve got the web server people onto it as I have a feeling it may be something out of my control but in the meantime I’m uploading the videos to vimeo and will embed them that way.

In other news, I’ll be filming at Death Disco tonight so if you see somebody with a camcorder who isn’t out their face, say hi and give me a twirl!