Deborah Hay Test Filming

Deborah Hay Score Project

Test Filming February 2011

Deborah Hay’s score project for Motion Bank is based on her existing solo No Time to Fly, which she first performed in March 2010. No Time To Fly has a written score, a copy of which can be downloaded here. Deborah’s relationship with language and writing is an important aspect of the research for her score project. The existing score for No Time to Fly provides a critical resource for the development of her digital on-line score for Motion Bank.
'No Time to Fly' Score. Photo: Motion Bank

Ros Warby, Jeanine Durning and Juliette Mapp, performers with experience working with Deborah, each received a copy of the score with instructions to create a solo adaptation from it. They would develop and practice this daily over a period of three months and come together in April 2011 to film their adaptations. They would return in Autumn 2011 when Deborah would choreograph a group piece based on their adaptations.
Ros Warby & Jeanine Durning at The Frankfurt LAB, Oct. 2011. Photo: Jessica Schäfer

From 21-24 February 2011 Deborah Hay and the score team met in The Forsythe Company Studio in Frankfurt, Germany to test the filming setup for these solos adaptations with Deborah herself performing No Time To Fly several times. The test filming gave the score team the chance to try out different recording technologies including the Kinect camera from Microsoft.
D. Hay (foreground), A. Weber, M. Streit & S. Kahn. Photo: Jessica Schäfer

Part of the fascinating challenge of developing an on-line digital score for Motion Bank based on the choreography of No Time To Fly is expressed in one of the notes in the written score. The note, on page 11, says “The movement may change, but the choreography itself does not change”.
Deborah Hay, Test Filming, February 2011. Photo: Jessica Schäfer

Based on this and many insights derived from discussions with Hay, reading her publications and watching her work, the score team decided to record as many versions (layers) of the performance as possible in order to look for structures consistent with the multiplicity of possible expressions of the same dance.
Deborah Hay Layers. Video Processing: Amin Weber

Video Impression: In this brief video, Deborah explains her approach to choreography to the score team assembled for the test filming (the subtitles are to help overcome the poor sound quality).
Video: Motion Bank

Video Impression: Amin Weber and Scott deLahunta talking about beginning to work with Deborah Hay's approach to choreography.
Video: Anna Berger

Deborah Hay's Process Documentation Pages:

http://motionbank.org/en/event/deborah-hay-test-filming

http://motionbank.org/en/event/deborah-hay-score-project-solo-filming

http://motionbank.org/en/event/deborah-hay-guest-performances

http://motionbank.org/en/event/deborah-hay-final-filming

http://motionbank.org/en/event/deborah-hay-score-production-session-no-1

http://motionbank.org/en/event/deborah-hay-score-production-session-austin

http://motionbank.org/en/event/tanzkongress-deborah-hay-beta-release-workshops