Babulus is a completely new and devised piece of dance theatre that was created by five dance makers and performers, who are based in different countries in Europe.
Eddie Ladd and me from Wales, Johanna Nuutinen from Finland, Lee Brummer from Sweden and England, and Israel Aloni from Sweden.
Together, we form the collective iCoDaCo, which is short for International Contemporary Dance Collective. It is pronounced “Aye. Co. Dah. Co.”
iCoDaCo happens every two years and I have been involved in the project since 2014/15. ilDance, the Sweden based company directed by Lee and Israel, initiated the project and invited me to take part.
Initially Johanna, Lee, Israel and I were joined by Luke Pell, a wonderful artist based in Scotland. But as with all projects, situations change and demands elsewhere meant Luke had to step out of the project.
After a year or so of working on Skype and across multiple time zones, the hows and wheres were set up. We would work in three main residencies – One in Gothenburg in August 2016, one in Glasgow in September 2016, and one in Wales in October 2016.
Then suddenly I was to have an operation in July that meant I wouldn’t be able to travel to Gothenburg and work with the collective in August. The operation also meant that potentially I may not have been able to dance in the work, at all.
We needed someone who could step in to the process and be a collaborator.
We asked Eddie, who needs no introduction. Eddie was able to step into a process with the other artists at the last-minute. I became an outside/inside eye during the two weeks they were working together in Gothenburg via Skype.
When we started thinking about making the work there were a few things we knew for certain.
That there would be five people in it.
That we would attempt to make the work in a completely egalitarian way with no one taking an overall directorial position.
That it would be collaboration, all the way.
We would make one work (we previously made a short piece together which was performed alongside several individually choreographed works).
There were many things we didn’t know. For instance,
What would it be about.
To find this out, we began describing how each of us make dances/productions, and what our approaches are to choreographing. We spoke a lot about communication within our process, and language. This seemed particularly pertinent, as between us, we spoke at least four languages (English, Swedish, Finnish and Hebrew), with each of us speaking one fluently, and at least one more with varying degrees of ability. Everyone spoke English.
Welsh was to come, once Eddie joined.
The first residency was for Eddie, Johanna, Lee and Israel to find out how to work together, attempt ideas, tasks, propositions.
There was a lot of discussion about communication and language and which route to take. They are two very different subjects.
I Skyped in everyday and was a sounding board for them, offered insights and giving provocations. I saw my job at this point as clearing the fog between all of the discussions and ideas.
It seemed like there were five very different desires and ideas about how the work should be created and what it should be.
The second residency started with me asking the four others what they saw and wanted to include in the work, how they imagined the audience would view the piece, what costumes we would be in, how the piece would run… We found some common themes and ideas.
The process continued… I contributed physically, from the inside… material was being made, a certain costume was brought in to the studio, we had a singing lesson, more discussions were had, some choices made.
Joe Fletcher, designer joined us. He designed a space that had a great impact on our direction.
We landed in Wales with a lot of disparate material. We made the decision to bring someone in to help us shape it into a piece. Our collaboration needed a bit of guidance and we had to accept that. We asked Sara Lloyd the director to be an outside eye. She brought a lot of knowledge and supported us as we tried to find a way.
Even up to the first dress run, we weren’t completely sure of what the piece was trying to say. Then it became apparent that the work was about exactly that, the work. It was about us making it together, how we communicated as a collective, the trials of working as we had chosen to. It became about individual people coming together to make something, bringing with us our own experiences, languages and ideas.
We had a first run of performances in Sweden in November and then the tour in Wales in February. We are hoping for further touring in Sweden and Finland later this year.
In the two years since we started thinking about this version of , much has changed in the world, which has or has not influenced us and the work. However, the subject matter of communication and how important that is when you have so many different ideas, opinions and desires as people, seems to be pretty relevant to what is happening in the world right now.
Performers and makers
Israel Aloni
Lee Brummer
Johanna Nuutinen
Gwyn Emberton
Eddie Ladd
Composer
Oscar Collin
Design
Joe Fletcher
Technical manager
Kris Rhodes
Director/dramaturg
Sara Lloyd
Babulus is by iCoDaCo (Eddie Ladd, Gwyn Emberton with Lee Brummer and Israel Aloni (Sweden) and Johanna Nuutinen (Finland).
Y FENNI / Abergavenny – Chwefror 10 February – 7.30
DANCE CENTRE, PEN-Y-POUND, ABERGAVENNY NP7 5UD
BOX OFFICE: 01873 855544 / WWW.DANCE-BLAST.ORG
TREFALDWYN / Montgomery – Chwefror 11 February – 7.30
MONTGOMERY TOWN HALL, BROAD STREET MONTGOMERY, POWYS
BOX OFFICE: 01686 614555 / WWW.THEHAFREN.CO.UK
Aberystwyth – chwefror 13 february – 7.45
Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Penglais Campus, Aberystwyth SY23 3DE
Box Office: 01970 623232 / https://aberystwythartscentre.co.uk/
HARLECH – chwefror 15 february – 7.30
THEATR ARDUDWY, Harlech LL46 2PU
Box Office: 01766 780 667 / www.theatrardudwy.cymru
CAERDYDD / Cardiff – Chwefror 17/18 february – 7.30
CHAPTER, 40 Market Road, Cardiff CF5 1QE
Box Office: 029 2030 4400 / www.chapter.org