Output details

The English Channel

The research for ‘The English Channel’ is a tightly scripted integrated live dance and film composition written, directed, performed and designed by Aggiss. A film runs throughout the 57 minutes 31 seconds of the work to which Aggiss performs live and solo, her performance trapped within its timeline. The title of the piece positions Aggiss as the performer, as a cultural conduit or as a medium through which to ‘act out or act up’. She presents a feminist perspective on mortality, and on the pain, pleasure and paradox of the stage, by reiterating the feminist conundrum, ‘Do I please you or do I please myself?’ This work also continues to interrogate the changing nature of audience expectation and public presentation.

Embodying and positioning personal narrative within the construction of the film and script, the development process was undertaken over a year. It included literature, film, photographic and media archival research; script writing and dramaturgical developments; and visual and costume research to create the film, including a number of archival mash-ups. This subsequently led to choreographic studio research, ‘scratch’ performances and workshops with professional dance practitioners, to test and share the content, context, and the integration of film and live voice alongside the relationship of image to space.

Building on the ideas outlined in ‘Survival Tactics’ (Output 1) Aggiss challenges the conventions of dance, its potential for audience engagement and for transgressing the distance between performer and viewer. This work explores particularly the framing of the mature female dancing body situated within a challenging, ludic space within which audience and performer are enmeshed.

‘The English Channel’ (previewed 7 June 2013 at Yorkshire Dance, Leeds) was supported by Arts Council England (£30,000), South East Dance Leverage Production Fund (£500), and Dance4. SEE DIGITAL OUTPUT.