Three by Three: Guest Artists in Focus

QUESTION 2.    As Artistic Director of Yskynna Vertical Dance, you specialize in site-specific aerial work in nontraditional spaces. What qualities make a location inspiring or suitable for vertical dance?

• ANSWER 2.    Locations of non traditional spaces engage passers by and people going about their y routines. Choosing spaces often comes down to the vision of the producer/project director asking what is possible here. Creative rigging and having a knowledge drawn from years of aerial rigging enables most spaces being viable for some form of creative development and placing bodies in these spaces and performers working at height change perspectives and relationships to spaces. My heart lies with nature so working in woodlands and coastal locations offer a more visceral and elemental engagement.

David Greeves
Somatic Practitioner Movement Director (Martial Arts and Aerial Choreography)

BIO: David Greeves from Cornwall UK is a Movement Director, Combat Specialist, and Aerial Choreographer with over 27 years of international experience across opera, Bollywood, circus, and large-scale live performance. As Director of Yskynna Vertical dance theatre company, he is dedicated to creating site-specific aerial and vertical dance & theatre works in non-traditional spaces for cultural, community, and artistic engagement.

He has built a global career as a movement director, martial arts and aerial choreographer, creative rigger, and actor, bringing a distinctive blend of physical storytelling, aerial craft, and
performance experience to each project. He continues to expand his creative practice through Yskynna and through ongoing collaborations across international opera, theatre, and site-specific performance.

AI is a tool, a development and extension of human intelligence, a time saving device and is there to aid in an ever increasing time focused world. Although algorithmically creative and intelligent itself, it does not have intuition, it does not have a sense of vibrational empathy and cannot connect with nature or the divine, for as an artist I believe it is through these mediums we create.

WEBSITE: DJGreeves.com

QUESTION 3.    Drawing from more than 20 years of martial arts training, how do you translate combat forms like Wushu, Tai Chi, Muay Thai, and Battodo into choreography that is both theatrically compelling and safe for performers?

• ANSWER 3.     There are often too many combat scenes that rely heavily on camera action rather than real time action, the difference between stage and film is that the stage is live and action is viewed in real time. To enable an actor or performer to fight realistically, they must understand and train in actual combat technique with real application. Safety is paramount, so all training has this underpinning the system taught which utilizes hand to hand and weapon forms, however there is no point in just hitting stick against stick, the body or head are the target! Building up a repertoire of attack, defense, maneuver and arrest of delivery, whilst developing a range of reactions to actions enables a comprehensive knowledge of combat technique. I use pads and impact techniques for hand to hand, I use pells for weapon work to give the actor a realistic understanding of what it feels like hitting and to be hit.

QUESTION 1.   Your career spans opera, Bollywood, circus, and large-scale international productions—how do you adapt movement direction and aerial choreography to match the vastly different aesthetics of these performance worlds?

• ANSWER 1.    Each performance world is shaped by those within it, their energy, motivation, creativity and ability. Reading the room and introducing movement through the context of the project enables an understanding of the requirements of the participants and how to structure future sessions whilst being guided by the parameters of the project. Timeframes may help or hinder the process, however careful planning and prep enables delivery of required skillsets and movement outcomes.

Title

Title

Title

Yskynna's 2019 production follows Estah a Bal Maiden on her journey of heart, home and hearth.at Heartlands, Pool Cornwall, animating the Gardens of Diaspora and the historic architecture of the Engine House and Head Frame in collaboration with the Red River and Ingleheart Singers.

All copyright and reproduction rights are reserved by David Greeves.
Artwork may not be reproduced in any form without the artist's express written permission.

CLICK IMAGE FOR FULL VIEW

CLICK FOR VIDEO

CLICK IMAGE FOR FULL VIEW