| This project began with a series of conversations which began to involve more and more people as it developed. The first conversation was with Dick Matchett whom I have known since I began working with the International Workshop Festival (IWF) in 1989. He later became Chairman of IWF and appointed me as Artistic Director in 1993. More importantly, he has acted as my mentor from then until now. Although we have both left IWF we frequently go to see shows together. Toward the end of 1995 we bumped into Ramin Gray, an Associate Director at the Royal Court, in performances at The Place Theatre. Ramin had taken part in an important IWF workshop in 1991 since when we’ve kept in contact. Why, we wondered was a director of New Writing, going to see Contemporary Dance? We asked him, and discovered that he was looking for a choreographer for a forthcoming production. The end result was Hofesh Schechter’s collaboration in Ramin’s production of Motortown, a play by Simon Stephens.
Another result was Writing on the Body, Writing on the Page. Ramin, Dick and I began a conversation about the process
of composition for dance and theatre, and when we asked Simon Stephens if he would be interested in meeting choreographers to discuss this process, the answer was an enthusiastic and unequivocal ‘yes’. I then contacted Julia Carruthers at the South Bank and she agreed to host the event free of charge. Dick Matchett, resourceful as ever, encouraged me to apply to the Bonnie Bird Choreography Fund, who enabled us to have the first series of conversations
in 2006. Julia Carruthers then found funds from DanceWeb (Europe) to post transcripts of those conversations online. More›››
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