The Big Three... oh.

Work is under way to bring all the ideas I've had, along with your stories, thoughts and general input, onto the stage. I have been rehearsing with Rachel Drew as part of a ten week creative residency at Space@Clarence Mews, and we have already come up with a structure for the piece. Here's the blurb for it:

"Perceptions of age, combined with issues of unfulfilled career potential, insecure housing, the dreaded biological clock and the way all these things affect women in particular invade the stage while Despina and soon-to-be-thirty Rachel try to make their way through life's hiccups to get to that mythical place of happiness/ stability/ accomplishment (delete as preferred). Will they make it? Does this place exist, or is the whole project one big circular argument?"

time and other pressures....

... mean that a blog is at the bottom of a very long list of things to do! However, I feel there should be a brief update as to what we did with the information we asked you to provide. So here goes:


We have (pretty much) put together a piece called "How Far Are You Willing To Go?" - it's a short dance theatre piece that will be performed as part of Cloud Dance Festival: Dream On on Sunday 28th September at Chisenhale Dance Space. The company now consists of 6 performers, Meaghan Brister, Iris Calheiros, Berit Kuennecke, Despina Mavrou, Paula So Man Siu and Emily Waits. We are using music by my dear friend Sudha, whose work inspired the piece's title as well as its tempo.


Following the performance, we will probably be taking a break for a while. I am about to start a PGCE (teacher training), which is pretty much a full-time thing X2 for a year. But Piece By Piece will be back sooner or later, so don't you worry!

Thanks for reading, now go to the Cloud Dance Festival website and buy your tickets!

xxx
Despina

in the name of beauty...

Welcome to this, the first post on our blog! Primary reason for starting it? Other interactive sites (I won't name any names, you and I know what they are) don't allow for anonymous comments. Why, you ask, would we want that? Read on...

Piece By Piece Company (aka Berit and Despina, plus various other lovely people) are back in action! We're in the beginning stages of creating a new piece (unnamed as yet) and we need your help! Here's the deal:

As women, we have various habits - or rituals - that we go through daily, or regularly in the name of beauty (or health and fitness, or losing weight etc.) Some are generally widespread, e.g. plucking eyebrows, putting on make up, or shaving legs/bikini line, and some are less so (does anyone remember the Sex and the City episode when Charlotte wanted privacy so she could look at her pores through the magnifier?).

What we'd like is to hear from all you women out there about what your rituals are. Sincerity is key - hence the option to stay anonymous. We would like anything from a couple of sentences to a paragraph, and just keep it simple and descriptive (e.g. "Every morning before breakfast I run 6 times up and down the stairs, and then drink 5 glasses of water. I then have 20g of bran flakes with 175ml of milk and two and a quarter strawberries.")

Men are welcome to contribute, either by sharing an outsider's observation of such rituals or by pointing women from family, friends or colleagues to this blog.

We will keep you updated on the progress of the piece!

xxx
Despina