COMMON GROUND is a proposition for two performance companies to create a collaborative work that is devised and rehearsed separately but presented together, overlapping on the same ‘stage’

“The body as a territory of rebellion” 

Background

Julie Barnsley has lived in Venezuela for over 30 years and formed her company AKTION KOLECTIVA. Which has performed in Caracas and internationally. In 2022 she published The Unloved Body: The Body as Territory of Rebellion.

Terry Smith is a UK based artist working with performance whose recent works have been shown in Folkestone (2021) Whitechapel Gallery in (2023) and The Place (2024)

Julie and Terry first talked about making a collaboration in Caracas around 14 years ago. But due to an escalation in political situation in Venezeula planned trips back to Caracas were postponed. They never met in person and all correspondence was via email.

In April 2024 they eventually met in person in London. So in this sense the seed of the idea between the two key participants have already been laid down over a decade earlier. In London they discussed this project in detail and both are excited by the potential of a ground breaking opportunity to create long term relationship between the two artists, companies and Countries.

The British Council International fund was perhaps the way forward to help support this unique collaboration.

So the Question was how to make a physical performance with two companies in different countries. How could workshops and rehearsals happen online? The physical body is at the centre of this work and the experience and development of the work is dependent on actual presence.

So there needs to be a different approach .

It was decided rather than make any compromises, create a project where distance becomes a virtue. There needs to be simple, straightforward and pragmatic approach that secures the integrity of a collaborative work and at the same time explores new ways of working and new means of collaboration. The project is an experimental and dynamic proposition that could be a model for many future projects made internationally.

There will be some common ground, the duration and brief which will be devised jointly by Terry Smith (UK) and Julie Barnsley (Venezuela) through email and online meetings and once decided the groups in both countries begin the process of constructing the works in advance of the first performance.

The Plan

There are two groups (A) based in Caracas and (B) based in Folkestone.

Both sets of performance groups (A & B) begin the first phase working separately, one in Caracas and the other in Folkestone, working from the prepared brief.

The duration of the piece and a common starting point has been decided, Both groups workshop and rehearse in their home countries and produce a fully choreographed piece of work. Part of the brief will be common strategies to cover the improvisation needed when unplanned encounters between performers occur.

Each performance piece is constructed separately knowing that there will be another set of performers occupying the same space but whose movements and actions are unknown.

When the two groups come together, they will perform at the same time in the same place ‘blind’ with no prior knowledge of the other groups actions.

The result is a performance that will be as new to the performers as it is to the audience. It will be a premier in every sense of the word.

Outcomes

There will be two main public performances one in Venezuela and one in the UK. These pieces will be both choreographed and improvised. The performance will be fresh and dynamic and the audience will be fully aware that this is an experiment and that this piece will be a one-off experience shared by everyone.

Following the performance there will be a two-day workshop and discussions.

The workshops will involve participants working together with both groups to develop and play with ideas around about how to turn movement and actions into performance.

The discussion will cover topics including the history of performance and serve as a platform to generate interest in contemporary dance.

The whole process from start to finish will be fully documented both by video and still photography and there will be a resulting film that documents the performance, process and workshops, and will form part of the material and evidence of the project.

During the workshops and discussion in Caracas there will be a new brief devised that will be the starting point for the UK performance. Where there will be a mirror of the same procedure with performance followed by discussions and workshops.

The finished documentary film will be in English and Spanish and will be used to not only document the process and events but also to promote further such collaborations.

Common Ground not only describes the act of performing in and on the same physical ground but describes the need to find a common ground of ideas and humanity.

ACCIÓN COLECTIV / AKTION KOLECTIVA

WORKINPROGRESS