Dancing
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This website is a repository for my hoarding and reflections of dancing years, much of it about Dancework. Dancework was a small company based in Muswell Hill founded by Christine Juffs, Silvy Panet-Raymond and Tony Thatcher in the mid -1970s. We received little funding from the Arts Council of Great Britain but managed to tour quite a lot within the UK and occasionally in Italy. Dancework in its few years of existence 1975 to 1984 performed and taught as part of regional arts funded tours.
Many friendships, working relationships and people met through dance were a source of pleasure and made for a meaningful fascinating life. Teaching dance technique and creative workshops, making choreography and devising pieces was never a lucrative career, but it had other rewards. The life of a self- employed dancer / teacher / choreographer was extremely difficult financially. We had to be resourceful and frequently generated our own work. Creativity, no matter in what media or form it takes it seems to me is a vital element in aliveness. Without interests, we become dull and lacking in vitality.
Recollections of what it was like to be entranced by ballet as a young girl in a small provincial village – going on to train in London in the late 1960s. Of all times to be young and living in London this has to be perhaps the most exciting. But it was truly a struggle to eke out a career in a competitive world with very little money! Life takes many interesting turns – not all of them positive perhaps – but nevertheless all part of lifedance. As the great French mime artist Jacques Lecoq so eloquently illustrated in his programme of “Tout bouge” = everything moves.
Dancing from the age of 11 provided me with many amazing experiences and travels abroad for which I will be forever grateful and happy. Dance (guest teaching) took me to France, Belgium, Italy, Sicily, the former Yugoslavia, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the USA. If I had not danced I am sure I would have done very little travelling. Travel and dance acted as a stimulus to learn other languages – from a few words and sentences (Swedish) to a modicum of fluency (Spanish, French and Italian). I still recall a lot of these languages, but all are rusty due to no longer using them. Dance can bring one into contact with many people and different cultures. One of the joys of dancing was getting to stay in the homes of so many people. So many glimpses, experiences and tastes of life abroad. Precious memories of many friends although it is impossible to maintain contact with most of them. Treasures – all through the opportunities afforded by dancing.
