Deborah Hay Score Project: Test Filming

No Time to Fly Score

Deborah Hay’s score project for Motion Bank is based on her existing solo No Time to Fly, which she first performed in March 2010. No Time To Fly has a written score, a copy of which can be downloaded here. Deborah’s relationship with language and writing is an important aspect of the research for her score project. The existing score for No Time to Fly provides a critical resource for the development of her digital on-line score for Motion Bank.

Ros Warby and Jeanine Durning in The Frankfurt Lab, October 2011

Ros Warby, Jeanine Durning and Juliette Mapp, performers with experience working with Deborah, each received a copy of the score with instructions to create a solo adaptation from it. They would develop and practice this daily over a period of three months and come together in April 2011 to film their adaptations. They would return in Autumn 2011 when Deborah would choreograph a group piece based on their adaptations.

Deborah Hay (foreground), Amin Weber, Martin Streit and Svenja Kahn. Photo: Jessica Schäfer

From 21-24 February 2011 Deborah Hay and the score team met in The Forsythe Company Studio in Frankfurt, Germany to test the filming setup for these solos adaptations with Deborah herself performing No Time To Fly several times. The test filming gave the score team the chance to try out different recording technologies including the Kinect camera from Microsoft.

Deborah Hay, Test Filming, February 2011. Photo: Jessica Schäfer

Part of the fascinating challenge of developing an on-line digital score for Motion Bank based on the choreography of No Time To Fly is expressed in one of the notes in the written score. The note, on page 11, says “The movement may change, but the choreography itself does not change”.

Deborah Hay Layers. Video Processing: Amin Weber

Based on this and many insights derived from discussions with Hay, reading her publications and watching her work, the score team decided to record as many versions (layers) of the performance as possible in order to look for structures consistent with the multiplicity of possible expressions of the same dance.