'There is an intensity and life force in us all that if not expressed "translated through you into action, will never exist through any other medium ... [It] will be lost. The world will not have it." (1)
'And yet I have a love-hate relationship with dance. Of all the art forms dance is the most stereotypical. By implication images of dancers must be young, thin. It presumes that it can only be a short career - and that the expression of the artist cannot be an integral and lifelong part of the person's expression... In other ways it is far ahead of other art forms in its areas, however small, of inclusivity, difference and excellence - audiences need to see difference to be inspired - or can end up being voyeurs, spectators of something vicarious, alien even... I enjoy inspiring and long to be inspired particularly by older dancers, there are so few role models...
'My childhood was fundamental to making me who I am, to the character that is me but more fundamentally to the artist that is me. I cannot remember a time when I did not dance and when I did not know what I would be doing with my life. Dancing fed my childhood - perhaps because my father left home when I was three and my mother was left to bring up three children with very little - yet she always found the money to pay for my dance. From a very early age I danced - ballet, national, tap, modern, ballroom - taking shows to old people's homes, to garden parties, to hospital wards - a radical approach in the 1960s. I also started teaching from the age of ten.
'It was during adolescence that I realized that I was not "the right shape" to be the classical dancer I had hoped to be. How was I to continue my craft, to go on growing as a dancer myself and not to just stand at the edges?
'In 1968 I went to the Royal Academy of Dancing [RAD] where we were introduced to a new form - without shoes and in contact with the floor. Suddenly there was a medium that was powerful, expressive and had the potential to accommodate difference. It was just as technically demanding but gave me the freedom to begin to find the "original" dancer in me ... Martha Graham's work had begun to filter into Britain. And it was at The London School of Contemporary Dance that I was able to realize that my body had to strip off layers of habit to find the "original" me - the dancer that was hidden behind an unsuitable technique. I found myself "jealous" of those with so little affectations - innocent bodies eager to learn.
'The Place presented infinite possibilities far beyond technique and choreography. Workshops with artists such as Bob Solomon taught me how to improvise; Carolyn Carlson that a battement tendu can be different flavours; Dan Wagoner that dance can be playful; Meredith Monk that you can eat on stage or be a dancing angel in the street and Remy Charlip that dancers can paint the backcloth as they perform. He was later to inspire me to make the artist journal so central to my research and choreographic process. I left The Place excited, inspired.
'I began to break rules, written, unspoken, in my head, in the dance world's head. I knew I would have to create a new, untrodden route - there was to be no fixed pathway - but rather a series of branches deeply rooted, interconnected.
'My performance work was integral to my teaching and directing. But with the birth of my first child came the realisation that it is the artist in me that makes me who I am - the mother, the partner, the dancer, the director, the teacher. To dance an autobiographical work was viewed then as indulgent, private, yet I knew other artists who did this - poets and painters were fed by personal experience.
'I found working with Extemporary Dance inspirational - particularly Grace and Glitter directed by Emilyn Claid and Maggie Semple. This powerful work looked at sexism and racism and gave me permission to express myself through choreography. From this came my first solo show Extensions, which was built predominantly for mothers and babies. A residency in Oxford led to my taking performance work very deliberately into new spaces. I spent three years collaborating with artists - working in the Museum of Modern Art and also in shopping centres, beaches and parks. I continued to use projects to refer directly or indirectly to my growth and experiences as a person - breaking rules - performing in my next piece There Once Was an Ugly Duckling with six children, the eldest being my daughter, Emily.
'Without knowing it, without planning I had begun to sow a seedbed which if planned would have been dry, less organic. My life in Oxford had become permanent and I learnt that working within a community is a two way process - that artists don't live in a vacuum. Over 17 years children, mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, grandparents, began to dance because they were excited and committed to the subject, growing and developing as people. These dancers will not say as adults "I can't dance" but rather "I can dance, I can choreograph and I can perform."
'The potency of this human experience forms "another thread in that beautiful and, at times, unbearable bond" (2) with our families' deepening relationships, providing opportunities to grow further - rather like an orchard - nurtured, nurturing - ripe. In retrospect I think I would have strongly denied that I would want to have spent 17 years teaching dance predominantly in one place, but realize that this evolution has resulted in the most satisfying and deeply important body of work. And when I reflect as to where and how my work fits into the definition and status of art - I realize that if "high art" is the equivalent of building castles, mine is about building houses - since more people dwell in them - this for me is true excellence and "equally high art"'.
"The values that Cecilia's work promotes - respect, individuality and groupness" (3) and the invisible networks that evolve - are evident not only in Oxford Youth Dance, DugOut Adult Community Dance Company and intergenerational projects but also in her teaching with students at Coventry University: "Difference is not a problem; it is not an issue... through her positive and inclusive approach she draws out beautiful clear expression... dancers ... totally at ease with their movement and creativity." (4) Here is an opportunity to confirm and celebrate the importance of inclusive arts practice: 'We talk of building ramps for buildings but the more important, far harder thing to do is to build ramps in our minds, ramps that can change our rigid thinking, that allow us to make our courses accessible ... we are deeply involved in this practice and celebrate a much wider learning experience for ourselves and our students.'
Collaboration with dancers such as Adam Benjamin, Rosemary Lee, Miranda Tufnell and artists Alan Franklin, Carole Waller and ongoing training in releasing techniques has offered discreet inspiration and sustenance to her work as both artist and performer.
As part of this ongoing process Cecilia developed her desire to work for a significant period of time with a small group of dancers spanning all ages. She wanted to look at the stereotyping that is inherent in our society about age and to spend time playing, confounding and changing perceptions. Crossover Intergenerational Project comprises eight dancers [four female, four male] aged between ten and 60 who worked and performed together for nine months, celebrating their differences and unexpected similarities to create Future Remembered, Past Imagined, which is now touring.
'Through improvisation - used as a tool to warm up, to research, to evolve the performance - they found time to play, to argue and to grow together - each inspiring the other. The resultant "tapestry" is ornamental and fundamental. It has broken more rules. Crucially it "showed how neither age nor disability is a barrier to creating and performing ... [expressing a] more diverse range of humanity and human experience." (5)
'There is a depth of experience shared that never ceases to feed me and move me. There is a profound force that dwells in this dancing community, of which I am proudly part, that symbolises everything possible about life - it gives all of us hope and feeds our souls - there is a feeling of no limit to the possibilities of this work. Each project that ends seems to point to the next one as dancers grow wiser, older - new layers are revealed - underneath fresh fertile soil, the horizon ahead shining with invitations to dance.
'But for dance to achieve its true "reach" and visibility it needs to be meshed into both the dance industry and the community. They are interdependent. I now know that it is essential I continue to break rules about this dance world that I so love.
There is an evolution to Cecilia Macfarlane's work that is fundamental - bigger than the sum of its parts - her unique gift deeply imprinting on a community and on the lives of so many, precipitating significant change ... "to enable you to be yourself, but in a different way, to find another bit of yourself..." (6)
And of her own evolution she says: 'My final dance will be my last blink...'
Cecilia Macfarlane: 07968 073763 or ceciliamacfarlane@talk21.com
References
1. Graham, Martha, source unknown
2. Leyser, Mathilda, Arts & Culture for Development - In Profile 2003, The British Council, 2003
3. Davies, Sue, Arts & Culture for Development - In Profile 2003, The British Council, 2003
4. Lee, Rosemary, Dancing Nation: Four people, Four stories, Four Communities, 2001, Foundation for Community Dance
5. Bradbrook, Dr Gail, Director, Comm.unity, Business in the Community, Stalybridge, 2003
6. Spafford, Jeremy, Dancing Nation: Four people, Four stories, Four Communities, 2001, Foundation for Community Dance