Plethu/Weave is a poetry and dance cross-artform collaboration.
Literature Wales and National Dance Company Wales have commissioned myself and poet Alexander Wharton to collaboratively create a short film for the Welsh Government’s Wales in Germany 2021.
The really beautiful thing about this commission is that while there are specific themes - care for the environment, nature, and sustainability -there is so much space to explore how those themes will be explored and presented through our collaboratively created film.
This process began on January 19th when Alex and I met, via Zoom, to discuss the first steps of the process. We discussed our practices as artists and what this theme meant to us in the context of our artistic mediums. I’m an avid note-taker so after our chat I was able to circle words that I felt most inspired by.
Suspense.
Repetition.
Care.
Grow.
Quietude.
Serenity.
I've been using these words to influence the creation of some movement motifs and explored taking Alex's idea of the poem developing the same as nature grows as a format for how I develop by movement throughout the film.
I’ve also been compiling a shot list for when we film the work and I’ll spend this week refining that list to the shots that most capture the theme and our vision for the finished work.
One of my favourite things about performing are the COSTUMES!
For me, when I think of creating a piece, I first consider what I'll wear and how that will influence my movement and how I interact with the space around me.
My first messages were to my favourite costume designer Emma-Jane Weeks. She’s designed costumes for my show Whimsy and for my film Rewild and owns her own slow fashion sustainable boutique Prickle and Stich.
“Sustainability in costume is quite far and few so it would be so great to make a piece hat demonstrates how possible it is to make good choices when costuming as well as fitting with the theme of the piece.”
Emma-Jane’s sketch of the costume.
The creation process with Emma-Jane is always exciting, explorative, and collaborative.
I share my initial ideas and Pinterest boards and she immediately dives into the work and creation of our next costume.
We always aim to use sustainable modes of making with costumes but for the themes of this film it was even more important.
We're exploring natural fabric dye, upcycling clothing, and ways of allowing this costume to mimic nature with very textured designs and materials.