1.
i have set up my own company where everyone has such a lovely time and no-one ever disagrees with anyone- and we all just love moving- and dancing- and being lovely- and just sharing and caring for each other- and all we do each day is respect each other and just love the way we develop and are different and yet strangely similar in the way we think and move and dance and hope and love and respect each other from a distance and yet close up as well and we only have to look at each other to realise how similar and yet different and diverse we are and all this happens without a cross word and a nasty look or argument or any difference of opinion -or even the hint of any kind of power games because in our world there is no power- no-one takes decisions and yet things happen almost magically- as if they were a group decision- almost as if the group had one mind- almost as if we all thought different things but they were being channelled through the same place- a little like facebook but in real life..…anyhow. you will see us soon…but it might be messier than i am making out.
2.
Just back from an idyllic day in the studio. we were all so in tune we hardly even had to look where we were going or think what we were saying or listen to the music because we were the music and we were the dance and no-one went wrong because there is no wrong - or right-or even just a bit not as right as someone else and we didn’t have to worry about what we were doing because we weren’t actually doing anything or it felt that way because we were so at ease with what we were doing it didn’t even feel like doing anything except for following the flow except we weren’t following because there was no leader although one person got slightly upset i thought for a moment but i think it was just that they were moved to tears because of the together and yet separate way we had arranged our bodies in the space and when we all managed to go for a coffee break at the same time and found out we actually drank the same kind of coffee from the same kind of cup it was a weird moment of togetherness and everyone managed to do exactly what they wanted to do when they wanted to do it in the way they wanted to do it in and there was no feeling that it should have been better or worse because there is no better or worse although i did think there could have been a little bit more space given to some of the ideas i had but that was not important because we had to leave the studio at that point anyway. can’t wait for tomorrow.
3.
new approach after the disaster of the last days trying to stop people laughing at our serious work means we tried a more socio political approach using the methods that the government have suggested we go for with the emphasis on economic return and the promotion of growth and competition mainly focussing on the competition thing so we set up a thing like the voice where the audience all had their backs to us and went through our repertoire including swan lake done in morse code and our epic emotionally draining Scissor Happy Upstarts which is still in development but even though we cut 40% off all our efforts which meant skipping every fourth move in a group of ten and working in nearly a half of the space with 40% less emotion we could still see the backs of chairs shaking so we still have a lot of work to do but at least we got to speak to people after although its hard to have a decent conversation when you can’t see people’s faces so tomorrow we are going to change tack and see if we can stop this laughter using the really important priorities of economic return and growth which we feel are less intrinsically funny but at least we have cut our new work by 40% so it will be shorter quieter and not be so draining to do though I can’t help thinking our promoters and producers and funders and publicists and marketing people are not going to be happy about it but we are off to plan how to get economic growth into our work tomorrow…we are not giving in..…yet.
4.
chaotic end to a difficult week. returned to science in the hope of getting somewhere with innovation- growth-productivity -competition and being taken seriously…
9 am. live streamed physical warm up personalised for netflix output -- audience texting each other with jokes.
9.30 pm- competitive group work focussing on harmonising energies and movements with new element of eliminating least harmonious person - audience downloading our new apps and sniggering.
10 am- innovative verbal tongue twisters sponsored by Big Brands and filmed by online resource dot com- audience twitching in seats and smirking at each other
10.02- quick fire production of gestures and breathing patterns for ad to eliminate stress and anxiety for people suffering from work pressures-audience chuckling at each others screens
10.04 -hyper linked contact work with slow development speeded up for trailer possibility- audience filming each other
10.05 - physical endurance sequence against blue screen for holiday advert and possible touring ads- audience in small group at back of the room
10.10- folk dance footwork from different countries for extending reach-audience sending own videos to each other
10.15- gymnastic session using delicate balancing for photo session by nhs direct to use as image for community awareness- audience japing about for their cameras in silly ways
10. 25- eyes closed work for image to be used for banking backers- hard to tell what audience was doing
11.15 - coffee - audience using the floor and messing about using all our props
11.30- attempting to run through carefully worked out sequence but audience getting in the way
12.30- managing to stay concentrated even though audience now filming themselves showing off and running around
1.pm- lunch= audience seem to have started up their own group and another audience arrive to watch them
2.pm- very confusing now as we return to our slow rehearsal but 1st audience now doing some kind of organised activity which they are copying from their phones and 2nd audience are sniggering
2.50 pm- post run discussion for 1st audience who have some costumes on and loud music and are doing a sequence for a local tv team they have managed to get along and 2nd audience is laughing very loudly at them
4.15- tea break - 1st audience out of control doing really stupid things with blindfolds and all our props and 2nd audience is filming them and each other for some spotify personalising sequence
5.15- we have long discussion about development and management, program design and administration, strategic planning, financial modeling, public relations and advocacy, marketing and branding, real estate development, commercial licensing, capital formation and fundraising, not to mention a talent for diplomatically balancing the interests of diverse constituencies and ways to keep or company going- 1st and 2nd audiences have joined forces and are doing what they like and turning it instantly into a netflix box set which will have personalised content and mainstream appeal…
6.15- we are packing up all the props and stuff and trying to make sure the insurance is still in place for third parties and leaving for the pub while the audience celebrate their good days work..…something seems wrong so we are going to nut it out and come back monday with a bold new approach… feel so grateful to have had the chance to experience this……can’t wait tll next week..
These texts were originally written and published by Wendy Houstoun on Facebook, 2015, https://www.facebook.com/wendy.houstoun?fref=ts