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Below is support material relevant to Eliza Sanders application for CNZ’s Arts Continuity Grant.

Two case studies: Triptych and all hOurs

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Please feel free to explore the rest of the House of Sand website or visit these vimeo pages if you'd like further examples of work

Eliza Sanders: https://vimeo.com/user20499175 

House of Sand: https://vimeo.com/houseofsand

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case Studies

Triptych - example of education engagement / flexible, low-impact touring


Triptych is a series of three immersive dance theatre works exploring the nature of parent child relationships, overpopulation, memory and nurturing. The works premiered a year apart at NZ Fringe Festivals, between them winning Best Marketing and Most Promising Emerging Company Awards and nominations for Best Directed Chaos, Most Innovative New Work (twice), Best Ensemble and Best in Fringe awards. 

Knitting While Sleeping (2016) - 16 members of the audience begin lying in rows at the dancers’ feet and are then gently ushered to different positions in the space. They become part of the work’s mise-en-scene while simultaneously observing the dance from unusual perspectives. 

Feet.us (2017) - Feet.us takes place in a complex system of hanging opaque sheets that form a maze for the audience and performers. The performers manipulate the sheets up and down continually transforming the spaces, sometimes separating themselves from the audience and at other times suddenly expanding the space. 

Fear of Eggs (2018) - An ensemble work that utilises associative memory to create dance scores, and incorporates projected footage from performers’ childhoods to become a playful meditation on memory and children at play. Originally created with and performed by final year students from New Zealand School of Dance alongside professional dancers. 

POSSIBILITIES FOR REDEVELOPMENT in a post-COVID environment (early ideas):
The Triptych works feature ‘layers of experience’. Conceptually it could be appropriate to add a digital layer to provide the ‘next layer out of the experience’. This could be experienced via streaming to digital platforms and filmed in ways that enrich the subject matter and online audience experience, such as:

  • following a single dancer’s journey (Feet.us)

  • showing the on stage audience perspective (Knitting) 

  • re-thinking how existing digital projections can be experienced by online audiences including purpose-made footage (Fear of Eggs).  

Triptych invites collaboration with tertiary institutions. This enables: 

  •  Deeper connections between educational institutions and independent artists

  • Valuable educational opportunities for students, including integration with professional artists to help transition into the industry 

  • Opportunities to create choreographic residencies 

  • Greatly reduced tour parties for large ensemble works

  • Potential financial partnership with educational institutions, which could also support a commissioned presentation (by enabling co-investment). 

The works can be presented individually, so suitable for smaller commissions, however the goal is to redevelop and present them as a triptych to: 

  • Generate an integrated, epic dance experience over three nights

  • Enable audiences to engage with a body of work in close temporal proximity, to encourage deeper reflection of content and form (either online or in person). 

WHY TRIPTYCH
In the wake of prolonged forced separation, work that is physically interactive will be more relevant than ever. When we come back together in the ‘real world’ we will all be engaging in a process of understanding what it means to share physical space once again. Dance is an important and relevant medium that enables us to acknowledge, understand and explore our physical connections; to remember what is possible when we share space, energy and movement. 

Images: Knitting While Sleeping 2016, Fear of Eggs 2018. Photographer: Stephan A'Court.

Fear Of Eggs Promotional Video: Filippo Gasparini

 All hOurs - an example of creating over distance / incorporation of digital elements into creation process and presentation 

all hOurs is a free 24-hour performance event that takes place in public spaces, combining dance, contemporary music and video art. The work was commissioned by Sydney Fringe Festival, premiering September 2019. 

As the public comes and goes over the 24 hours, the artists remain; continuously dancing, making music and filming the work in real time. At each hour, footage is added to an ever-expanding video art installation which grows up around the performance. 

all hOurs is at once a spectacle of stamina and a reminder that challenges cannot be overcome alone. The tremendous energetic feat of performing all hOurs is only possible because the experience is shared among the artists and with the audience; it is a celebration of the power of community. 

AN EXAMPLE OF NEW CREATION METHODS

The creative development for All hOurs took place 90% online with the four key collaborators meeting on Skype from Wellington, London, Sydney and Melbourne over three months. 

The movement, musical and videographic scores for each hour were developed together online. The last 10% of creative time was spent individually testing various ideas, equipment and processes. The creative team then joined in person for three days of rehearsal prior to performance.

Ten local dance artists were engaged to perform alongside Eliza for three of the 24 hours. Eliza met with each artist online for 1 - 3 hours to discuss the work and creative scores; they were then briefed in person one hour before their performance. 

After the 24 hours, the video art installation remains in the space as a record of the unrepeatable one-off performance and a picture of a life cycle of the location. 

This creation process for all hOurs is adaptable, providing us a solid model on which to base the redevelopment of existing works for these uncertain times. 

POSSIBILITIES FOR REDEVELOPMENT in a post-COVID environment (early ideas):

all hOurs is suitable for any indoor or outdoor public space with regular foot traffic e.g. city square, esplanade, gallery, arts centre foyer or private business. The original iteration took place in a CBD office foyer. 

New presentation models to explore include:

  •  A version in which we collaborate with 24 different musicians, one for each hour of the work, working with local artists in the host city

  • If presented by a festival, the work could include guest artists appearing elsewhere in the festival (similar to Talanoa Mau for the NZ Festival 2020).

These models create opportunities for: 

  • Connection with local artistic communities 

  • Broader audience reach 

  • Cross-cultural collaboration 

  • Cross-art-form audience development 

  • Employment of local artists

  • Creative innovation through reinvention of the work to suit new spaces, collaborators and cultures

  • Keeping touring team small while presenting a production at scale. 

Digital dissemination: 

all hOurs has the capacity to be augmented by a substantial online presence (the original performance was live streamed and attracted over 3,000 engagements). 

Through investigating further technical possibilities we could explore:  

  • Publishing the titles and descriptions of the hours online, allowing audiences to attend at hours that are of most interest to them. 

  • Engaging the wider community by inviting them to send in:

    • words and dances of support for the artists to be displayed on an additional screen called ‘All Of You: the community out there’

    • requests for songs, movements, videography styles etc. 

  • Share the beautiful cinematography - which is uniquely stylised for each hour - to the live stream, as well as a wide shot of the event

  • Enable live streaming to another public location

  • Creating an expansive, creatively and thematically integrated social media campaign. This would share dance to screens in ways that connect audiences to live experiences, without compromising the quality of the digital or live experience.  

Dancer/ Choreographer: Eliza Sanders 

Dramaturge/ Producer: Charley Sanders 

Composer/ Performer: Brendan Anderson 

Video Artist: Jacob Edmonds