Caro Meets Dance & Physical Interview Spoken Word Interview

Lizzi Kew Ross: Reading With Bach

By TW Editorial | Published on Wednesday 16 April 2014

I was intrigued when I heard about this event, and not just because I love books; it’s a piece that takes the act of reading as its inspiration, and is performed by dancers and musicians. The show is the creation of Lizzi Kew Ross, a choreographer who likes to focus on “the mercurial territory between dance and theatre”.

‘Reading With Bach’ makes its way to no less than four London venues (two of them aptly libraries) in the next few weeks, so that’s quite a lot of chances to make sure you don’t miss it; in the meantime, read on, to learn more about this fascinating sounding work.

CM: This is a “meditation on the act of reading”, yet it’s a performance featuring dancers and musicians. Can you explain the format, and what happens?
LKR: It started as I observed people walking in London. We live in the square mile and my son and I counted the number of people emerging from the tube reading books… so that was my starting point. I began working with students at Trinity Laban on the ideas before I returned to it a couple of years later. The interior nature of how we choose to read and where interests me, and it has been a feature of how we as a group of performers have devised the work.

CM: It’s been developed from your ‘Walking And Talking Books’ events, which took place in the City of London. What did those events involve, and what was the inspiration for them?
LKR: The Culture Capital Exchange had a winter walking event and I applied to be part of the weekend with an event where we walked and talked about books. One of the creative team on ‘Reading with Bach’ is Mary Ann Hushlak, a dramaturg, and she interviewed the performers on their Desert Island book choices, which became important for the development of the piece. For ‘Walking and Talking Books’, she and one of the dancers, Meg Saunders, led walks linking spaces and sites in London with ideas in the two books they chose, engaging the audience in discussion as we walked.

CM: What do you want to convey about reading through these works? How does Bach fit in to it?
LKR: Another one of my children said as we walked through the National Gallery recently that every event should have it’s own sound track. I have listened to Bach for years and the opportunity to work with two violinists and with Ruth as a composer was such a gift.

CM: The music has been composed by Ruth Elder. How did she get involved, and how did the collaborative process work?
LKR: I worked with Ruth on a project for Dance United in response to the William Morris exhibition. She was so good and easy to work with, and for me I think the collaborative relationship has to involve liking being with someone for quite long periods of time. Conversation and shared creative responses are a hall mark of good collaboration.

CM: How would you sell a show like this to people who shy away from art forms such as dance and classical music?
LKR: Well, we are hoping that people who enjoy reading may come along too! We are touring to libraries so we are hoping it will be a different take on the act of reading.

CM: What are the ideals and aims of your company? How would you describe the kind of work that you produce?
LKR: I enjoy making dance music pieces with performers for unusual spaces. as that changes the audiences expectations of how to view the work, and creates a different environment for performance.

CM: What can we expect from you next?
LKR: I hope we can tour this piece nationally, and I am keen to tour another piece I did at The Old Vic Tunnels back in 2012, ‘Without Warning’, based on the images in Brian Keenan’s book, ‘An Evil Cradling’. And I am working on developing a series of pieces in response to paintings.

Reading With Bach is on from 23 Apr – 7 May at various London venues. See this page here for more info.

LINKS: www.lizzikewrossandco.co.uk | vimeo.com | twitter.com/lizzikewross