Down in the deep, sea women sleep…
Seaweed (Gwymon in welsh) is usually anchored and sways with the movement of the sea. This work explores a primal female connection to the sea, based on myths and stories of women and the sea, for example, dangerous sirens luring ships onto the rocks. Like seaweed, which can be nutritious but poisonous if left to rot, this dance explores contradictory extremes of female power. Anchored by ropes, the eyes of the women scan the horizon, searching, their bodies swaying and undulating with the motion of the darting, rocking, swelling sea. Gwymon draws inspiration from the work and life of writer Eluned Morgan (1870 – 1938), who was born aboard the ship Myfanwy travelling to Patagonia. In 1909 she published Gwymon y Môr, describing a voyage from Britain to Patagonia.
The performance features specially commissioned score by Rob Spaull with stunning original vocals in Welsh by Eve Goodman. Costumes were designed by Sabine Cockrill and developed by Ceri Rimmer.
‘…an astonishing display of horizontal, diagonal and vertical choreography… The synchronous movement shown by these two performers was among the tightest I’d seen all weekend, and this is two women dangling from the end of ropes down the side of a building!’ Steve Stratford reviews
Gwymon (seaweed) began as a research and development project funded by Arts Council Wales hosted by Galeri Caernarfon. It was held on the outside balconies, facing Victoria Dock, in August 2013 during the Mor a Mynydd (Sea and Mountain) festival. It was then performed in 2014 in the theatre at Galeri as part of the North Wales Dance Collective’s Casgliad evening, on the balconies over the audience seating. Gwymon was then reworked as a wall piece for the exterior walls of the MJC building in La Baule, Brittany, for the opening of the 2014 Rencontres de Danse Aerienne festival and on the exterior wall of Venue Cymru as part of the Llawn 02 Arts Weekend. This year it was performed in the Glanfa foyer at Wales Millennium Centre for British Dance Edition, on the Galeri balconies for BBC Wales Get Creative event and most recently on the Welsh Government Building in Llandudno Junction for Trakz Festival.
‘Beautiful and elegant’
There are 2 versions of Gwymon for different types of architecture: plain walls, or balconies.
Credits
Choreographer: Kate Lawrence
Performers (2 or 4): Despina Goula, Kate Lawrence, Catherine Ryan, Lisa Spaull
Composer: Rob Spaull
Costume designer: Ceri Rimmer (remake), Sabine Cockrill (initial design)
Rigger: Simon Edwards
Leaflet design: Chloe Rafferty
