A piece by Siobhan Davies- Wyoming.

From the piece I can see a large canvas that creates what seems like hills creating images of  the vast distance of the Wyoming landscape. The texture of the canvas suggests a very natural environment, maybe a more earthy surface like sand. There are also markings painted onto the canvas which could be related to Native American writings, being as the dance is inspired from Wyoming.  There are also rumples in the canvas evoking the idea of a ragged skyline of rocks/mountains.
After some research I found out the designer was David Buckland. He accompanied Siobhan Davies on her trip to America, therefore directly experiencing the landscape of Wyoming.

Within the film, I think there is a lower intensity of light on stage right, picking up on the canvas rumbles at the back. This again suggests a distant horizon. From stage left there is wall of dominant lights that create a strong parallel beam, giving the idea of landscape but at the same time hinting at sunlight. Throughout the piece there are changes in light intensity and patches of shade to emphasis different qualities of light or times of the day. The lightning effects depend on where the dancers are and camera angles.

From looking at the film their costumes were high waisted fitted trousers and baggy work-men like shirts that were tucked in. I would say  also say the costumes are non gender specific. The clothes were natural colours to give the idea that they had faded giving a sense of a lived in/everyday feel. The shirts gave a roughness and texture, which echoed the canvas. Lastly they had bare feet and free hair suggesting a everyday environment.

The movement material within the five solos, seemed to me, to be the dancers response to their environment. There is a lot of pedestrian movements e.g. walking, starring into the distance and arm gestures. The dancers also managed to reflect the idea of vast space within their movement phrases. In the second part there are a mixture of duets, trios and ensemble work. The main theme that shone through for me was the idea of encounters and influence of other beings in a such a desolate place.

The last major component within the piece was the use of the camera. By filming the dancer work, I believe Siobhan Davies has created a greater sense of space reflecting the Wyoming landscape. At the start of the dance work, there is an overlay of images;sand, water, grass, these naturalistic images reinforce the landscape qualities of the dance. In the dance piece they use a lot of cuts, framing and mobile camerawork which seems to create an idea that you are with dancers experience what they are seeing and feeling too.

Siobhan Davies Archive

As part of D-Traces Project the whole class had to take part in a library session, exploring the Siobhan Davies archive and creating a scrapbook of; videos, pictures, written resources and biography that intrigued us. Even though I had studied Siobhan Davies before, I had never had access to the volume of resources that were now present at my finger tips. Siobhan Davies had been key in my choice to enter the contemporary world, the way shes uses all aspects of the artistic world strongly in her pieces, fascinates me. It was also a great introduction to a project that been drawn from her archive. Lastly it would aid my studies for researching, writing, choreographing and improvising.

Firstly I choose the video of her piece Wyoming because I had previously studied the first section at GCSE and was curious to see the development of the dance, as I found the first section very inspiring and considered it maybe to be a creative stimulus in the future. I also saved the cast sheet, article and details about the piece carnival, this being because I had watched the piece but had no understanding about what it was about or who the dancers were. Also in my scrapbook I saved images and videos of a piece called Bank, this simply was because it had been mentioned by some of the dancers at the Siobhan Davies dance day that they were part of and I was interested to see how they moved and to see what the piece was about. Overall I believe I would use the archive again to definitely aid my studies.