Duck&Snaith: Girls at Work (2015 - 2016)

 

A collaboration between Katie Duck and Yolande Snaith

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A collaboration that evolves around chosen objects, text and movement. Duck & Snaith engage with juxtaposition, conjunction and interaction. They willfully give their presence as female artists with an unusual flavor of humor accompanied by a surprising energy and clarity of movement activity embodied by their experience over the past 35 and 39 years.

 

These two women have relentlessly continued to conduct their research as professional choreographers, teachers and performers, Katie for 40 years and Yolande for 35 years. Under the pressures of the shifting tides that have effected the field of dance and performance, they have continued their artistic vision to reveal a physically charged meaningful theatre space. Deeply inspired and respectful of each other’s diverse artistic histories, ’Duck&Snaith’ seek to merge their creative processes, navigate new artistic territory and inform each other in this innovative collaborative project.

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Devised and performed: Katie Duck and Yolande Snaith / music: Alfredo Genovesi, Stephen Kent, James Blake, Jean-Jaques Palix and David Coulter.

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Girls at Work evolved over a two year period of working both in San Diego, US, and Amsterdam, Netherlands.The work premiered as part of the LIVE ARTS FEST at the WHITE BOX THEATER in San Diego, April 2015, and toured to Amsterdam (OT301), Berlin (DOC11) and Surrey University (UK) in February 2016 

 

Press:

Snaith and Duck’s different approaches to performance and the materials developed created a whole picture of things placed next to one another, starkly designed spatial orientations, intermeshing at times. The differences in presentation style, and audience performer relationship- Snaith, prepared and warm- Duck, improvised and irreverent, created a perspective of the performers as themselves in the world performing in Girls at Work. The performance title offers a humorous hint to the way these two performers engage their gender politics in relation to performance, as the piece seems to take a stand in relation to ‘Girls at Work’ . . . . . . .Duck and Snaith focus on aging in less or more obvious ways in the Dance, but the body itself tells us something about age that I found especially interesting in relation to experiential knowledge, where the dancing offered an incredible perspective on what a dancer would hope to be able to do at any age. It was a truly somatic place of efficiency and fluid organisation.  Vincent  Cacalano,  Journal of  Dance and Somatic Practices(JDSP)

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Once I Dreamed I Was a Dinosaur Swimming Backwards / 2016

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A solo work by Yolande Snaith in collaboration with composer Ryan Welsh, for the San Diego International Fringe Festival. This work was a development of Yolande's solo material from Girls at Work. Presented at The Geoffrey Off Broadway, June / July 2016.

 

“Once I Dreamed I Was a Dinosaur Swimming Backwards constructs and imaginal space where the living body and inanimate objects invite multiple projections and possibilities, whilst simultaneously bringing intrinsic histories and truths into the present. I am interested in creating a world where the personal and the universal hold hands, where meaningfulness and meaninglessness collide, where fantasy and reality converse, where the unseen stories etched into the skin of things are revealed, where the body brings its life story to every action, with and without intention”

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​Press:

There’s more dance theatre in the visionary solo “Once I dreamed I was a Dinosaur Swimming Backwards.” Don’t let a solo with a long title scare you.  Run to it.

Yolande Snaith creates a fantasy with pathos and humor, and the work is so intriguing it could become a short film.  Snaith is a conjurer.  Kris Eitland, San Diego Story

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Woman For The Sake Of It  (2016)

 

Woman For The sake Of It was a site specific research performance project for a group of San Diego based women dance and music artists ranging in age from mid 20’s to mid 50’s. Yolande Snaith invited this group to undertake a short, intensive collaborative process during 6 days at the RAW space. Driven by a desire to explore a non hierarchical, non ego-centric creative process of shared authorship, this work embraced the diverse and multifaceted voice of the group, whilst also supporting each individual’s unique attributes.

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Situated within a raw environment of objects, lighting and layers of eclectic sound and music, the resulting performances shared an exploration of collaborative, spontanous performance making with audiences, inviting viewers into their wild, provocative, unpredictable, multidimensional and transformative playground of female expression.

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Yolande Snaith was joined by a cast of San Diego based dance artists - Anya Cloud, Karen Schaffman, Kristianne Salcines, Gina Bolles Sorensen, Veronica Santiago Moniello, with live sound and music curator Mary Oliver.

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Presented at RAW Space Off Broadway, San Diego, March 20016.

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Measuring The Dream (2016)

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Measuring the Dream was a multimedia dance collaboration that drew on "The Dream", by the 17th Century Mexican nun Sor Juana Inez De La Cruz. Artistic direction Yolande Snaith, production design Victoria Petrovich, composer Ryan Welsh, lighting design Jose Lopez, dancers Erin Tracy, Aurora Lagattuta, Heather Glabe and Veronica Santiago Moniello. Choreographic scores by Yolande Snaith, Erin Tracy, Anne Gehman and Veronica santiago Moniello. Costumes designed and created by Yolande Snaith.

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This project embraced a creative process of cross pollination of artistic ideas and practices, blurring the distinctions between the artists respective disciplines and conventional roles. The choreographic process was a collective endeavor, bringing together several scores created by Yolande Snaith and the dancers in response to the text of ‘The Dream’ and research into the life of Sor Juana Innes de la Cruz. This work does not attempt to convey a linear narrative, but aims to bring the space to life through a collective response to ‘The Dream’ and evoke an essence of Sor Juana’s thoughts and vision.

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Presented as part if IDEAS Performance Series at the California Institute for Telecommunications  and Information Technology(Calit 2), San Diego, US.

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