In the beginning: what is the something that that is?

(a short warm up) Laban graduates of 2006, Janine and Elodie have worked individually in various professional capacities over the past two years. Both have sought to continue their professional development outside of institutions, building upon the knowledge gained through study at Laban and a playing with the application of our creativity. We are now developing a long-term collaboration, defining our research ground and devising a way in which to work between the UK, France and beyond. Our trajectories have passed through some common ground- separately we participated in Simone Forti's Logomotion workshops- Elodie in France, Janine in Italy. I think we are in agreement that the experience of this work has formed a keystone of our mutual enquiry (more about this later). For one year Elodie was engaged as a dancer for several artists in New York, and there experienced a desire to source work not only from the body but to explore the remit of her field within the art world more generally. Elodie returned to Paris restless with vibrant creativity and set about choreographing a solo work (premiered in February 08), teaching and wondering about a creative practice which does not as its premise determine any one mode of expression. Meanwhile in the UK and Europe, Janine had been working in various collaborative situations with visual, fine and digital artists. Projects included a film/ live art installation afewsquaremiles for one audience member, commissions from Duckie and the Light Surgeons (site specific) and presentation of work for the stage. Janine has recently been dancing for Valerie Preston-Dunlop's heritage film project, Unearthed and in Southeast Dance commissioned film Opus:One in Folkestone. Our process began in Charente, France in August with a 10 day residency chez Pras exploring with film, photography, movement of bodies and objects. We were exploring ideas of lineage in personal histories of objects, familial relations and movement properties, stating " I know that there is a thing shared, but what is the something that that is?"/ "How do these things belong, what makes it so? From a seeming logic can there develop a new taxonomy whose proposed polarisations and relationships suggest inventive co-ordinates for creative play?" We are interested in new opposites, false tallies and how close we are to being really really very shiny. It's playful, curious work in which we will not compromise technical skill but will enforce compositional discernment through the rigour of the method we devise.