Cecilia 'Leaps and bounds' performance at Porthmeor studios, St.Ives, UK

Cecilia, 'Leaps and Bounds' , a performance at Porthmeor studios , St.Ives, Cornwall, UK
29th Feb 2020


About 25 of St.Ives arty cognoscenti assembled to watch this 13 minute free performance.
I invited someone from the Pool club but he said it would be ultra sophisticated middle class impenetrable nonsense.


So was it?


The dancer was a largish woman, probably over 50, who moved very deliberately and confidently, using various props and with a recording playing of seagulls, song and guitar.


There was a photo of a young man, a womb shape on the floor outlined in red cord, blank paper at first cradled like a baby and then torn up, finally some of it made into a bird shape that could fly away. There was some vigorous sort of South American dance, a bit scary at eye level from where I sat. There were stones moved and placed in a line and the performer sat gazing out of the window, sometimes reacting as if sharply noticing something.


I took it to be a sorrowful discarding of the torn up paper, perhaps the unlived life of a son who died? The dancing seemed a wild attempt to maybe pretend to be happy, or a brief respite from sorrow, followed by looking through the window for a shred of hope.


It had meaning to the maker but wasn't all that clear for the viewer. Dance usually has a written program that tells you the story and can be read before or after. As it was, seeing it cold, I spent all my time puzzling over the meaning.


At the end we were invited to ask questions but this was rather cut short by the performer saying she had said what she wanted to say in the performance. We were given cards on which to respond. Most people reacted by doing curvilinear drawings which were pegged on a line. I put a question mark.


I thought it was for the artist a lost opportunity to find out honestly what folk made of it.
These opportunities are rare outside college and here was a group of people who could have helped her communicate better in future - if she had been really interested in their understanding.

Reflecting on it I seem to have formed a cohesive interpretation - so perhaps inviting a response by email later would have been appropriate.


It was not nonsense, it was an effort to express something meaningful, done with serious intent and worthy of respect.







Note: I found out later that Cecilia is a student on the Porthmeor Programme - a lengthy mentoring course for artists.