resource from
thealstonstudio.com
Soda Lake (1981)
Performed in silence
Lighting
Charles Balfour
Design
Nigel Hall
Soda Lake (1981) is a solo dance originally created for Michael Clark. The piece is a choreographic
response to Nigel Hall’s sculpture of the same name. It is essentially an abstract work, as is the
sculpture.
The set comprises a sculpture entitled Soda Lake, created by Nigel Hall in 1968. The sculpture is a
response to Soda Lake (a dry lake) in the Mojave Desert, an area of the North American landscape.
Of the desert, Nigel Hall says: ‘The scale of Soda Lake was so vast…the place had sparse features,
so sparse that they served only as minimal markers- an occasional rock, plant or telegraph pole in an
otherwise empty landscape’.
The sculpture itself comprises two separate pieces that are hung from above. One piece is a plain,
large black free hanging rod hung perpendicular from the ceiling. Its tip does not quite reach the floor,
so it appears to hover just above the ground. Hanging to its left is a piece which comprises an oval
hoop aligned parallel with the ceiling, from which a plain narrow rod descends at a steep diagonal, its
tip touching the floor.
The piece deals with two aspects of Hall’s sculpture:
The shape and the way it affects the space: The piece makes choreographic references to
the shape and line of the sculpture, as well as embellishing the space in which it stands.
The original starting point for the sculpture: In certain sections of the work, the dynamic
qualities of the movement material allude to the movement qualities of small desert creatures
(rapid flurries of movement and curled safety positions beneath the sculpture). The use of
expansive peripheral gestures and large travelling phrases appear to conjure up a sense of
the never-ending expanses of land uninterrupted by the obvious landmarks. There is also a
sense of stillness and calm that comes through the silence, resting moments when the dancer
is not moving and through a careful use of focus.
Soda Lake is performed in silence. It was originally intended to have music created by composer
Nigel Osborne, but when he saw the piece he felt that it was complete in itself and that music would
detract from the work rather than enhance it.
There are several key positions and motifs in Soda Lake which are repeated and varied as the piece
progresses. Some of these include
the dancer lying on one side, resting on their arm
the ‘big bird’- a distorted attitude to the back, arms raised above the head, chest open, upper
back arched
the ‘sentinel’- the dancer balances on both knees with one arm reaching out and the other
acting as a support, looking out into the distance
a side fall which is repeated in different variations
a turning sissone
From the 2002 Resources for Teachers by Rebecca Seymour, edited by Katherine Rothman in 2011
resource from
thealstonstudio.com
Richard Alston spoke briefly about bringing Soda Lake back for the company’s 2002 tour: “Soda Lake
exists because we rescued it from a really disintegrating, distorted video [of Michael Clark] which was
falling to bits…That was the only record there was of the whole dance apart from The South Bank
Show. In the 1980s, a whole bunch of video tapes at Rambert were corroding and we just managed to
get Michael off of one of these before he disappeared totally.
“But what has been really good this time is looking at The South Bank Show quite a bit with Martin
[Lawrance] and Amanda [Weaver] and getting back some of the things that were particularly clear
with Michael’s physicality. There have actually only been five performers up until now- Michael Clark,
Mark Baldwin, Ben Craft, Kate Price and Amanda Britton. So Amanda Weaver will be the sixth and
Martin Lawrance will be the seventh.
“I brought Soda Lake back this year because I wanted to see Amanda do it. I’ve wanted to see it
danced again for a long time, but it needs to be for a long-bodied dancer and Amanda is so right for it.
Whilst working on it this time, I’ve been remembering a lot of things that went into it when it was
originally made. So in a way I feel it’s closer now to what it used to be; certain physical details have
come back to me. In some of the sections, when I first created it with Michael, I was desperately trying
to make something that was hard for Michael to do, because he could do anything! I was always
trying to challenge him as he always looked like he could do everything and it always looked beautiful
and elegant. He had a tremendous facility and was very co-ordinated. So some of it was quite strange
in order to push Michael. That’s how the movement came into being, but not really what’s important
about the piece. I think Amanda is going to be terrific. I’m really excited by the way she does it- she’s
so long and the movement looks beautiful. In a funny sort of way I think she’s quite like Michael,
perhaps more than anyone else who’s done it. But the piece looks very different on stage now,
because we’ve lit it very differently. In the theatre we brought some lights up and it looked great, so I
said let’s go with that and not go with the original. It’s more monochrome than it used to be and
darker- it looks very striking. Nigel [Hall], the sculptor hasn’t been to see it yet, so he has the right to
say ‘no’, but I don’t think he will!”
From the 2002 Resources for Teachers by Rebecca Seymour, edited by Katherine Rothman in 2011