Photo: Chris Randle
blocking
With serendipity, rigour and ingenuity, dance artist Josh Martin performs a solo together with 250 small cedar blocks. Moments emerge and transform: whimsical, primal, risky, futile and tender. Balance is fragile, tested, and there are no mistakes. Composer James Maxwell and light designer James Proudfoot frame and hold Josh with their sound and light, expanding and condensing his world. Developed through a collaboration with Josh that has spanned four years, Helen Walkley’s choreography reveals the body, breath and stillness.
Generously supported by SFU Woodward's Cultural Programs and SFU's School for the Contemporary Arts, Link Dance Foundation, The Dance Centre (Isadora Award, Lola Award and Special Projects and Partnerships) and the BC Arts Council.
Photo: Chris Randle
Project Created by: Helen Walkley
Key Artistic Collaborators:
Creative Collaborator/Performer: Josh Martin
Composer: James Maxwell
Lighting Designer: James Proudfoot
Construction of the blocks: Chris Nichols
Performance type: This work is built for the theatre & This work is built for outdoors or alternate venues/spaces.
How do you define this work: Dance with set, sound and light
Length of performance: 50 minutes
Audience type: General Audience
General Technical Requirements: A movable set of 250 2”x4”x6” cedar blocks is provided by the company.
Stage Details
30’ (9m) wide playing area - wing space 10’ (3m) each side,
30’ (9m) deep,
15’ (4.5m) to grid/lighting positions.
Floor
Black dance floor required, it should cover the entire performance space, black vinyl tape to be used on all seams. Performance area should have a flat floor, no rake, with a smooth sprung wooden surface. The company will not perform on a concrete floor or a floor laid directly on a concrete sub floor.
Sound
Computer with QLab to playback show audio.
Lighting
A venue specific lighting plot will be generated upon receipt of the venue information and drawings.
The technical requirements will vary dependent upon the context/venue and community.
Alternative Venues/Spaces/Outdoors: blocking is built for a theatre, suited to an intimate venue, and we can be flexible, within reason, to allow for the work to be shown in a variety of situations, venues and circumstances including, and not restricted to, black box studio theatre, proscenium stage, gallery setting and others.
Required amount of time for tech set up: A technical residence is not required and a minimum of one day in the theatre is necessary. The duration of tech will vary in an alternate venue. Please see the attached tech specs for full details.
Number of Performers on tour (including choreographer): 2
Number of Support Staff on Tour: 1
Availabilities: 2025/26 Season, 2026/27 Season
Helen Walkley
There are multiple meanings in any given moment, dependent upon the point of view of the experience. This is the pathos and beauty of our existence and can render any heart and mind tender.
It is this which compels me to create my work, and it is with this that I go out the door every morning to meet all the incidents of a single day.
Everyone’s story meets, sometimes colliding and careening, in unarticulated moments as simple as being jostled on a crowded bus. This exposes humanity. It is heartbreaking and mind opening and a basic premise of my work.
Through a layering and cross-referencing in my processes there is an energetic transmission through space and time in performance and each viewer receives their own story. Hearts and minds are touched in a way unique unto themselves, and there is the potential for a sharing of experience.
Performance History & Upcoming Performances
blocking, Dancing on the Edge, the Firehall, Vancouver, world premiere June 2024
Project Details
Outreach Activities
Contemporary dance artist, somatic movement educator and certified Laban Movement Analyst, Helen Walkley, teaches, facilitates and mentors in diverse populations in age and experience: the professional, pre professional and community-based populations.
She offers the following processes:
Improvisation…
A warm-up process will developmentally connect and mobilize our whole bodies. Improvisational structures will follow to develop dynamic range and spatial relationships.
Movement Patterning….
This training integrates and coordinates the body in motion and refines the connection between the mind and the body.
The somatic processes of the Bartenieff Movement Fundamentals and the developmental patterns are the basis of this work.
The context and duration to be negotiated with each presenter dependent on their community, wishes and needs.
We are available for interviews and artist talk backs.
If a specific community engagement initiative or opportunity emerges with a presenter Helen and the blocking team are open to conversation.