Images 2004-12.

Plainsong (2010, 30min)

Plainsong by Nikki Tomlinson and cellist Hannah Marshall is based on a shared score and composed in real time, with each performance building on the memory of the last while responding to its new site.

Plainsong references the simple lines of plainchant and two paintings; a grid-like abstract work by Juan Uslé, 'Soñé que revelabas (Inquieto)', meaning 'I dreamed you were revealed' and The Water Carrier by Goya.

The movement in Plainsong is almost entirely in profile to the audience, shunting backwards and forwards as though the body is scanning the space, never quite stopping, but looping like a swimmer from wall to wall. The sound is also composed in real time, within a structure that allows us to be more or less influenced by each other, or deliberately counter each other.

For From Morning, curated by Florence Peake at Christ Church Spitalfields, three versions of Plainsong were performed; at 9am, midday and dusk.


Images from Plainsong at Clarence Mews Space, London 2009. Colour stills from video documentation by Carrie Mueller, black and white photographs © Joe Green

"a beautiful performance... time disappeared" Mildred Rambaud

"such mesmerising time and attention, the resonance between the strings and your body, resonance through the space and light but also across time and memory. I was absorbed and moved" Theron Schmidt

Plainsong was made during a residency at La Caldera (Barcelona) and through mentoring with Rosemary Butcher on Independent Dance's Critical Pathways project.

Versions of Plainsong have been shown at :
Christ Church Spitalfields, London (May 2010) and at Clarence Mews' Moving Architecture weekend, London (July 2009); Arcola Theatre, London (June 2009); Siobhan Davies Studios, London (June 2009)

Plainsong (short edit), created by Nikki Tomlinson with Hannah Marshall from ashley michael briggs on Vimeo.

Plainsong (16min edit), film by Ashley Briggs. from ashley michael briggs on Vimeo.

Staithe (2007, 6mins) showing at The Place : 14 December 2012

Staithe by Nikki Tomlinson and Lucy Cash is being shown at The Place on Friday 14 December 2012 (3pm - 6.30pm) within Dance & The Other, a programme curated by Joe Moran with students at London Contemporary Dance School. The programme features live and installation work by Stina Nyberg, Florence Peake, Stephanie Skura, Joe Moran, Alex Howard, Henry Montes, Marcus Coates, Rahel Vonmoos.
Full info here

Staithe is a video distillation of a 3-year performance project, saw/sore/soar, looking at memory, habits and the nature of change. Filmed on Burnham Overy beach in Norfolk in 2005, here it is re-cut by artist Lucy Cash as a single-screen video. Earlier versions involved a performance operating as a duet between live and pre-recorded material. The original version was a 25min solo performed live with no film, and with sound by The Magnetic Fields and Blondie.

saw/sore/soar was shown in London at: The Place, Hoxton Hall, Hackney Empire, and at Sensitive Skin (Nottingham); Spring Collection at The Point (Eastleigh); San Francisco Fringe Festival; Masdanza (Gran Canaria).
Staithe has previously been shown in London at the Intimacy Across Visceral and Digital Performance symposium at Goldsmiths; Falling Wide's Outsider Dancing programme at Toynbee Studios; the Chisenhale Biennale curated by Richard Layzell and Alana Jelinek at Chisenhale Studios.

Bird (2006-7) by Nikki Tomlinson & Lucy Cash

Bird: Nikki Tomlinson & Lucy Cash, all images by Ole Birkeland.

Bird (2006-7, 25mins)

A site-specific piece choreographed and performed with Lucy Cash, Bird was made in response to the tactile architecture of Clarence Mews studio in London, with its unusual overhead view onto the floorspace. Bird used simple abstract movements drawn from disparate sources including aerial photography, ballet, geometry and Josef Albers' Cables. It was also influenced by some of Rebecca Horn’s work, her notion of futile machines for example, with the performers attracting and repelling each other, drawn like magnets to each other and to the audience looking down on the space from above. For InsideOutside, curated by choregrapher Caroline Salem and architect Ed Frith for Architecture Week 2007, Bird took the form of a moving installation, with each audience experiencing a different version of the piece.
"There was an irrational desire to jump down to you..very powerful on a dreamlike level." (Emily Young, filmmaker)
Photography below by Ole Birkeland.

Folk Dance (2007-8, 40mins)

Folk Dance is a performance installation for an audience of between two and six, influenced by the circularity, harmony, simplicity and ritual often associated with folk traditions. It is a mix of live and recorded dances, a series of super8 films featuring friends dancing to Lie to Me by Tom Waits, a video projection of sheep on the South Downs and a live performance threading between these images and influences. Much of the movement happens within arms' reach of the audience, who sit within the gallery or studio space.

Developed at La Caldera (Barcelona), Pen Pynfarch (Wales) and Clarence Mews (London) and with the participation of Sebastian Baczkiewicz, Liz Drown and Frances Scott.
Video stills below by Roger Lapuente, super8 stills by Nikki Tomlinson