Revelations

‘Revelations’ continued Pavelka’s collaborative partnership with choreographer and performer Liam Steel (co-founder DV8 physical theatre/dance company) now Artistic Director of ‘Stan Won’t Dance’. Using two narrative sources the project explores the secret worlds of lust, lies and loss to ask the question ‘How far would you go for the one you love?.’ Performance conventions involve the employment of dance, sound and the spoken word in a contained scenographic environment with illusionary components. Often (literally) suspended in a moral vacuum, the performer’s physical environments are a domestic world of a kitchen and a scenographic web representing the outer worlds from which the complex images and figures from ‘The Book of Revelations’ can intercede.

Pavelka’s design was engineered entirely using 2D and 3D computer programmes rather than conventional drafting/modelling techniques, thus representing a departure from usual collaborative practice. This process deepened the critical engagement between choreographer, scenographer and performer throughout speculative phases of the project and its further impact will be monitored and reviewed in later stages. Described as 'the new face of British Dance Theatre' (The Guardian), 'Revelations' was co-produced with the South Bank Centre in association with Laban, commissioned and presented by Dance Touring Partnership and supported by Arts Council England, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Jerwood Charitable Foundation. The production was developed through ‘Jerwood Changing Stages Choreolab 2’ at DanceXchange and at The Lowry as part of its‘Choreographers in Residence' scheme.

Pavelka presented on the collaborative working process context of this project, and offered an analysis of the process of production, and the media used, in a paper given at Tate Britain for the Wimbledon College of Art (WCA) Research Week. Pavelka’s research process and production photographs were exhibited at The Centre for Drawing Project Space, WCA (December 2006).

• http://www.michaelpavelka.com
• http://www.dancetouringpartnership.co.uk...