PROPOSALBen Townsend Bava year 3 Sherkin Island

I am looking to consider the movement of the body as a form of response and in relationship with its surroundings exploring a tension between art and life and dance. Focused Movement can still the mind and allows us to be more present to our surroundings. For my project I will be working with the old Dun an or, a boat wreck sitting on the shore on Sherkin Island, which once used to ferry people from the mainland. The boat has a history and an energy all its own. I have been drawn to the boat and spontaneously moved on and around the wreck. There is an emotional reaction to the now lifeless boat lying on its side that once had a Captain, crew & a purpose. Feelings arise and guide my movements, I continue to move with and trust in what is being felt. I try to get a sense of her story and how she came to be here.My movements led by my own inner beat are in response to how it may have been to sail in her, to the people who have been to sea in her and also to her now bereft state of being. The movement gives weight to the time when there was life all about her. The boat is a catalyst that helps to plumb the depths of the deeper mysteries of life and death. It helps me to charter the territories of myself.As I move there are natural sounds that occur and no one can control. There is the movement and the sounds. One does not support the other but they are mutual spirits.My movement has its own origin, which is in time as we know it and space. I move from A to B on and off the wreck, my weight supported. The physicality of my weight and the rhythm are what makes up the movements, I can wait and let the moment have its fullness of time not dependent on anything.Through the mediums of drawing, film, animation, text, sculpture and performance I hope to create a tapestry where I take fragments of everyday moments and create a piece that may engage and intrigue ones imagination, a ballet of unfamiliarity, visual delight, playing with space and time that might unsettle the preconceived notions of the viewer.I have been researching the form of Japanese dance theatre known as ‘Butoh’ and other artists such as Pina Bausch and Amanda Coogan.