Laura Gibson and Effie McGuire Ward

Contemporary Dance

Laura and Effie would like to extend the offer to viewers to be collaborators in this shared space. Before you watch read how to participate below and look out for the symbols for inspiration:

︎ ︎ ︎ ︎︎︎

Duet; contemporary dance (2020)
Laura Gibson and Effie McGuire Ward

︎ Participation Activity 1 - Audio

None of the films have a sound accompaniment, so before you watch, make a choice of what you would like to listen to simultaneously. It might be the song playing on the radio, a track you have been listening to regularly during this period, a piece of music you haven’t heard in too long or the natural sounds occurring in your space.

︎ When you are happy with your accompaniment, let the video above begin playing and enjoy.

You may notice words or images that reflect each other, or rhythms in the music and movement will coincide in agreement all by chance.

︎ Try another sound accompaniment – does it change the way you respond to the films – did you notice something different?

︎ The artists have put together a playlist to inspire you, it is set to collaborate so you can add to the list! - you could even add something from our Music for a While pages:

︎ What happens if you turn volume of the music down - and listen to natural background noise?

Half a Duet

Half a Duet (Laura) contemporary dance (2020)

Half a Duet (Effie) contemporary dance (2020)

︎︎︎︎ Participation Activity 2- Create

Laura and Effie invite you to dive deeper in your creativity and choose one of the ‘Half a Duet’ films (above) to partner with and create a new duet of your own. Your creative input to these new duets could take any form you can imagine, including but not limited to the following examples:

︎ Hanging up your own outdoor shadow catching sheet and offering your half of the duet in a movement response

︎ Composing your own sound accompaniment, considering the potential to use voice as a layer: either as an instrument or in introducing language – writing/ reading/ improvising/ speaking a stream of consciousness, a poem, a recipe etc.

︎︎ Responding in a different medium – sketching, painting, sculpting (this could also be filmed as a movement response and layered over the top)

About the Artists

Laura Gibson and Effie McGuire Ward are local contemporary dance artists. During this period of lockdown they have attended online classes together from their separate home living spaces, and have practised and experimented with teaching each other through Zoom. Since March 2020 they have only seen each other dancing in isolated boxes on their computer screens, but were interested in creating a film in which they could share a box together – virtually, if not physically. They hung white sheets in their respective gardens to serve as a common canvas to catch the shadows of plants in the sunlight and create a ‘shared’ space in which to move, improvise and play. The result is 3 films – Laura’s half of the duet, Effie’s half of the duet and a duet itself layering the two halves together.

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Laura Gibson and Effie McGuire Ward

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