Phil Thomson, ComposerI have been working on music for a dance piece by Sara Coffin, a recent winner of the Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award. The work is called taking your experience for mine, and performances are coming up at the ScotiaBank Dance Centre on April 29 & 30. Tickets are $15 on April 29 (International Dance Day!) and $25 & $18 on the 30th. You can book online!
Working with Sara is always a treat, and we have worked together many times in the past. Our collaboration this time has been a lot more ‘hands-off’ than usual, due to my busy schedule, but once in a while I get to hang out in the studio with Sara and the dancers, which is where I belong after all!
The music for this work is a bit of a departure for me, in that a lot of it is quite beat-oriented. I have done the odd beat-oriented thing in the past, mostly when writing for dance, but most of the choreography seemed to demand a more hip and ‘electronica’-type score. I’ve really enjoyed getting in touch with my inner electronica artist, though this music is quite a bit more rhythmically complex than most of the ‘four-on-the-floor’ electronic music out there.
Sara’s choreography is developing quite nicely. She has always had a nice movement vocabulary in her shorter works, and it’s nice to see her stretch out into an evening-length work. I think she’s doing a great job of tackling a lot of the formal problems that such a work entails.
I hope you can make it out to the show if you are in town!
taking your experience for mine. Choreography by Sara Coffin. Music by Phil Thomson.
