Creating for a Digital Stage

In this episode we talk to Rhiannon Faith and Ben Duke about their experiences of conceiving and creating dance films and we ask them, with the benefit of some experience and hindsight, how they are now approaching the use of technology and the digital experience as they conceive their next work.

We discuss the uncanny similarity between the themes at the core of Rhiannon’s ready-to-tour show Drowntown and the filmed prologue Drowntown Lockdown she ended up making - and she lets us into a trade secret about how to get the best shots using apparatus borrowed from her 4 month old’s nursery! Ben confessed to wondering ‘what am I and what is this thing I do without an audience?’ and admitted feeling reluctant to start making digital dance until the need to orchestrate pressure and deadlines to break the inertia of lockdown propelled him back into creation mode.

Together they discuss whether the digital outputs they created could replace the live experience, whether they were able to reach the kinds of audiences they aim to touch with their live work, the shift as we curate considered audience experiences rather than chase audience numbers and how we all, now, simply feel like beginners.

Recording date: 2 November 2020

Talking Moves is a Greenwich Dance production
Presented by Melanie Precious
Production by Carmel Smith, Lucy White and Melanie Precious