Observations of Siobhan Davies' Works

After watching sections of In Plain Clothes and Two Quarters I have noticed things about the way Siobhan Davies choreographs her pieces.

For a start the shape of the stage is the same - rectangular and even though the audience are only sat on the one side, it appears that the performance could be watched in the round due to positioning and directions of her dancers.  There appears to be no off stage for the dancers especially in In Plain Clothes.

At the beginning of each piece there is stillness and silence, which instantly got me involved as an audience member. After the stillness in both of these pieces then the dancers begin to walk, not dance movement, just normal pedestrian walking. This stillness and silence is a recurring idea throughout the dances also the idea of repetition sneaks into these dances at various points.

The dancers appear to work and dance as soloist’s within group dance; it was rare that I saw all of the dancers dancing the same movement in unison unless it was pedestrian movement – walking and running. The majority of the time there were only a few of the dancers dancing at one time sometimes separately and sometimes as duets. Whoever was dancing the movement it all appeared to be rather gestural.

In plain clothes consisted of just sounds rather than using music I noticed that these pieces. For me this seemed to add the piece and without it, the piece would not be the same. The sounds seem to link with the movement even if there was not a direct link between the two.

The two pieces I looked at do have similarities and differences as anyone would expect from the same choreographer, the main idea being the stillness and pedestrians movements which are use most of her choreography works.