A Passion for Creative Dance

HELEN SLATER welcomes the launch of the Highlands & Islands newest dance company, and catches up with its artistic director, CATH GILES

THE NEWEST dance group in the Highlands, Isabella Dance, was launched at Ardross Hall in January. The organisation’s Artistic Director is Cath Giles, and the evening was well attended by people working in the Arts. Also there were Isabella’s board members and Cath’s mentor, Claire Pençak of Tabula Rasa Dance Co., various interested local people and children from Ardross Primary School, where Cath runs workshops in creative dance.

As guests arrived and got their glasses of wine(!) the evening began with a short welcome by the chairperson, Susan Warren, before Cath spoke about her vision for the organisation. Isabella is rooted in the promotion, development, education and performance of creative dance. By implication and also crucial, is that each dancer’s contribution is not solely an interpretative one. Cath then spoke about the first project upon which she is embarking.

The piece will be a site specific work to be performed on the mud flats by the Cromarty Firth – one of the project’s main inspirations. The development and execution of the piece will be with three local professional dancers and the award-winning Gaelic singer, Fiona MacKenzie.

left to right: Tar Hodgson, Ayumi Gallagher, Libby Daye (photo- Cath Giles).

The dancers with whom Cath has already been working are Tara Hodgson from Inverness, a well-known figure who has performed nationally and internationally, including in the Highlands a number of times; recent dance graduate Ayumi Gallagher, also from Inverness; and Libby Daye, who previously covered Dance Artist Louise Marshall’s maternity cover at Eden Court, and was performed in Parallel ll Parallels by Plan B Dance Company.

Cath then introduced Fiona, who sang an ancient Gaelic song before speaking a little about her work and her connection to Isabella’s first venture. The project has meaning for Fiona, who has been involved with dance and theatre productions in the past and sees a deep connection between the landscape of the Highlands and Islands and Gaelic song.

For people’s information there were very comprehensive display boards about Isabella Dance; books about the Cromarty Firth location and its wildlife, plus a sketchbook of Cath’s initial ideas with drawings.

During the evening Cath also ran a creative dance workshop for local children based on the theme of the shore and the wildlife that could be found there. Guests were treated to a short sharing of the children’s work which was performed very movingly with Fiona MacKenzie’s solo voice singing.

I caught up with Cath Giles to hear more about Isabella dance.

HELEN SLATER: You’ve come to dance a bit later in life and from a different background than usual, Cath. Can you tell us a little bit about what moved you to start Isabella Dance and where the organisation gets its name from?

CATH GILES: I have always had a passion for dance starting with the typical ballet classes at 5. I continued ballet until 17, but in the meantime had been to see contemporary dance at Sadlers Wells and been blown away by the pared down honesty of it. Later I had the opportunity to take contemporary dance classes and also study the improvised dance form of The Five Rhythms.

During this time I had trained as an art therapist and worked in housing, and dance was a leisure pastime. Although always more than that, there came a time when after a period of ill health I decided to follow my dream and study dance at university.

Here I was exposed to several different dance forms and really found my heart was in improvisation and dance theatre. I love the freedom of creating dance movements and the theatre of performance, and this is what I want to pass on to others. Isabella’s main focus will be on creative dance where participants will enjoy opportunities to create and choreograph their own movements.

left to right: Ayumi Gallagher and Libby Daye (Cath Giles)

Isabella Dance is named after my mother-in-law, who was a ballet and dance lover. We saw many performances together in Edinburgh. She passed away two years ago at the age of 90.

HS: I know that your initial training was in Visual Arts and Art Therapy. How do you think that informs your work in dance?

CG: Although I have a strong kinaesthetic understanding my first ideas are often visual and I tend to see choreography in my imagination when I listen to music or feel an impulse to move. I have a very strong visual and colour sense so often I see costumes and set as well.

During my art therapy training I worked with children. I have a strong affinity with children and they are very open to being creative. I really believe being creative has therapeutic value for all of us and I would like Isabella Dance to offer creative dance to a range of people.

HS: Although you’ve lived in the Highlands and Moray for many years, your dance training was at Chichester University. Can you tell us about your experience there and what your main influences were?

CG: I chose Chichester because of the modular structure of the degree there. This meant I had the opportunity to study other art forms as well as dance and explore how different art forms work together to create theatre. Half my degree involved studying film, installation art and performance. I am very excited about how all these art forms are merging more and more in dance theatre and artists are creating some amazing and inspiring work.

Some of my main influences are Pina Bausch, who is not afraid to break any ‘rules’ in her work, and some then younger theatre dance companies such as Random and Motion House. Charlotte Vincent was another inspiration, hearing her talk about her work and working with her. A lot of these small British companies base their work on contact improvisation. Learning about Steve Paxton and the history of Contact and of Improvisational Dance – which really began with Isadora Duncan – has also been influential.

HS: I understand that one of the main aims of Isabella is through Creative Dance. Can you explain a little about what this means to you and how you are planning to use it?

CG: Creative dance gives participants more ownership of their ideas and allows them to be used and developed. I generally work with a relevant theme as a starting place and offer a series of tasks to enable participants to start creating movements. Over time these tasks build up and can become more complex involving various choreographic devices, so that a structure develops within which the work can be shown or performed.

This way of working allows everyone’s creativity to be valued and can lead to the discovery of new and inventive movement rather than mimicking what is seen on MTV or found in the muscle memory after years of classical classes.

Isabella aims to offer creative dance projects to participants as well as make original professional work for performance.

The two are not mutually exclusive and we aim to try and bring the two together in our first project.

left to right: Tar Hodgson, Ayumi Gallagher, Libby Daye (photo - Cath Giles)

HS: The first project you are working on is a site-specific work. What drew you to the mud flats on the Cromarty Firth and why did you decide not to stage the piece in a conventional venue?

CG: I love the open spaces of the Cromarty Firth. I live outside Alness and the Firth has been part of my everyday life for over 14 years. I am amazed at the constantly changing light, tides and wildlife and have wanted to make a piece of work based on these aspects for some time.

I have considered trying to depict these aspects in a theatre space but decided that to have dancers interacting with the natural environment directly was what excited me more.

HS: You’re working with Fiona MacKenzie on this first project. What made you decide to use Gaelic song along with the movement work?

CG: I wanted a form of music that would be conducive to the ideas and blend in with the natural soundscape that already exists. A lone voice seemed the most appropriate and Gaelic song is not quite as ancient as the land itself but carries with it ancient responses to the environment as well as the stories that are interwoven with it.

HS: Claire Pençak of Tabula Rasa Dance Company is mentoring you just now. What are the advantages to this process so far and what are you learning?

CG: Claire, her teaching and her work have been an inspiration to me since I met her five years ago. It is an honour to have her support in managing my first project. In any creative endeavour I feel it is essential to have an outside eye. When you are making work you can easily fall into the trap of being too focused and not seeing outside the box. Having a mentor can give you the perspective you often need.

HS: The dancers you’re working with have quite a wide and diverse range of experience. In what way and how much do you see them as having a hand in the choreography you’re making? What is the process of that?

CG: The dancers I have chosen are all experienced in working creatively and collaboratively. It is important to me that the dancers have their own response to the environment we are planning to work with. So we will work on the Cromarty Firth as much as possible and use tasks to engender these responses. I also want to use the children’s ideas and interweave these with the dancers own. The process will then be to choreograph and make the work so that the responses remain alive and fresh. This will be done in collaboration with the dancers and the vocal artist.

HS: You’ve been working quite a bit with children doing creative dance workshops. Does the creative work they do have a bearing on your own choreography and what role does education have in Isabella Dance?

CG: I feel children are closer to their own source of creativity and inventiveness and it is always a joy to work with them because of this. Their sense of aliveness and fun reminds me what is important about working with creativity and dance. When I work with children I try and offer them the space and structure to enjoy their own creativity. Education implies a formality and does not express what I wish to offer, although I do work in educational settings and feel that creativity can aid formal education in many ways. However I always learn as much from the children as they learn from me!

HS: Thank you for your time Cath! We look forward to hearing from you again soon!

© Helen Slater, 2009