Observations of Siobhan Davies Work; Bank

I have just watched a piece of Siobhan Davies’ work; Bank. ‘Bank is set to an extraordinary percussive score performed live by composer Matteo Fargion. Davies’ choreography sees simple fragments of movement building up to create complex patterns’ (Dance Umbrella programme note, 1997: taken off Siobhan Davies Replay Archive).

It starts off with a lone dancer on the stage. The movement vocabulary at the start is more focused on the legs with arabesque style movements but not in a controlled ballet form but more of a free-fall movement where the leg causes the dancer off balance and into a fall.

Then another dancer joins the stage and a sort of duet forms where one dancers movement causes the other dancer to move without physically touching the other person. ( N.B. This is another form of duet to remember for myself). The duet turns into a trio, where one dancer performs the first sequence in the dance then the duet do the same movements first together, then in canon, then with slight variations, to go back to walking at the same time.

Although the piece started off slower it soon changes dynamics and the pace picks up. Here they stay lower to the ground in order to move quicker, more efficiently and be able to change directions quickly. The piece also makes full use of pauses throughout the performance. This makes it more intense to watch in my opinion and brings pauses to my attention more. I definitely need to add them into my work more if possible as I think it will develop my work and take it to a new level.Another thing that stands out to me is the use of repetition. The very first sequence is used throughout as well as simple repetition of movements in the trios especially.

It’s very obvious in the piece that the dancers retain a sense of the head to tail connection. This makes movement as efficient as possible and means that they are extending movement as far as possible. Another thing that is quite clear throughout is the use and manipulation of limbs. There are several phrases where either a body part leads the movement or a body part physically moves or manipulate another body part.