Matthew Robinson, a London Contemporary Dance School graduate and a Scottish Dance Theatre dancer, is returning to Resolution! on Saturday 19 January, with his first new choreography after two well-received collaborations with fellow Scottish Dance Theatre dancer Toby Fitzgibbons. Having featured him as one of the people to watch in this year's Resolution!, we caught up with him to find out more about Vacant Skin, and about his work. You can find out more about him, and buy tickets for his show at the bottom of the page.

Tell me about your ideas about Vacant Skin, and what inspired you to create it.


The work really began in early 2012 when I created a short film with four dancers from Scottish Dance Theatre, the ideas of which came to me sat in an airport in Sweden. I'd noticed the silence that existed in a space with so many people, who were these people, and how had we (including myself) detached ourselves from the reality we were in? In that moment I also found myself looking through a fashion magazine (iD magazine, I think) and somehow connected this situational detachment I witnessed in the airport with what I was seeing in the pages.

Since making the film I always had the intention to make a live work and was spurred on further after seeing Damien Hirst's 'A Thousand Years', in which flies are born, live and die in a controlled environment. This made me consider how much do we individually really control who and how we are and the environment in which we live? Advertising has become very good at convincing us we are making an individual choice. The moment of death in Hirst's work was especially interesting to me, where an electric fly trap tempts the flies to their death - how much do our image-driven desires lead us towards our own fly trap?

Describe your choreographic style, and what motivates you to choreograph.

Art should somehow hold a mirror up to society, either just to witness ourselves, or perhaps question ourselves, others, the world around us, the choices we make, or do not make. I believe dance too is capable of doing this, and firmly believe in dance as an art, able to transform and tilt perspectives.

Describing your own style is always very difficult, and I feel like mine is evolving constantly. I generally do not just create movement for the sake of it. I like to be highly physical but to imbue each moment with purpose, I think this only makes movement stronger. I think very geometrically when I am structuring work, I like imagery to be very strong, using the space effectively to transform it for the audience.

How would you say that you've grown and/or developed as a choreographer since being a student at LCDS?

I discovered theatricality, have worked with some incredible choreographers and just grew up a lot. I look back and see what I made at LCDS as a series of experiments in choreographic construction. Life throws up so many questions, and life experience can only make your work more relevant and connected to the world which exists around you; I was only 21 when I graduated.

You've had a diverse choreographic career so far, with the Scottish School of Contemporary Dance (SSCD) commission, the collaborations with Toby Fitzgibbons and now a return to choreographing alone. What have you learned from each, and what have you enjoyed about each?

All experience teaches you something. Commissions are really valuable opportunities to develop your practice and work with experienced students or professional dancers. My commission at SSCD was a joy and I had a great time working with a lovely group of people. It was a fairly pressured situation as I really only had a week to make a piece, so it taught me to be decisive and clear.

My collaborations with Toby were really the most valuable thing I have done developmentally since graduating. Having someone you trust to question you every step of the way encouraged me to think about the choices I make, I generally trust my instincts, but knowing why is invaluable. It was very odd making work without him again to start with, as we would talk so much about our ideas.

I guess with 'Vacant Skin', I have created a work which sits somewhere between the work I used to make and the work I created with Toby. There's no jam, balloons or girl in a bin unfortunately, but a sense of purpose and interest in theatricality remain.

You've recently ventured into film work too, what inspired that and is it something you'd like to pursue alongside dancing & choreography?

Film is something that interests me. I think it is very difficult to work with film and dance and admire those who do it. The immediacy of seeing a living breathing person in front of you is near impossible on film. But I try to use it as a tool to do things you wouldn't be able to do live; I'm not interested in just filming somebody dancing as I personally would rather sit and watch them live.

What's it been like for you to create a new work by yourself?

Working alone is a lonely process as many people would agree I'm sure. But I'm working with three incredibly talented dance artists. All have danced or are dancing for Scottish Dance Theatre, plus Nicole Guarino has also danced for Introdans in work by Sidi Larbi, William Forsythe, Itzik Galili, and Jonathan Lunn, as well as performing with Mark Bruce Company. Eve Ganneau has performed for Staatstheater Wiesbaden in work by Jiri Kylian and Stephan Thoss. Naomi Murray worked with Scottish Dance Theatre until 2011 and has worked with choreographers such as Hofesh Shechter, Liv Lorent and Ben Duke and is deeply interested in improvisation. So as you can see, with all that experience in the room, it has so far been such a rich experience.

I'm also working with two incredible designers. Emma Jones (lighting) is the technical manager for Scottish Dance Theatre, and has some exciting plans up her sleeve, and Matthias Strahm works internationally in dance, theatre and fashion contexts, his latest drawings and test costumes looked great!

What's it like to return to Resolution! - did you get positive feedback and interest from the last ones?

Resolution! this year feels totally different for me, almost as if it is the first time, bringing a work entirely of your own making is certainly different to bringing a collaboration in which our are performing. My collaborations with Toby generated some touring to Liverpool and Plymouth in previous years which we were able to schedule around our commitments to Scottish Dance Theatre. The feedback was really encouraging as we were both exploring unknown territory.

Has your work with Scottish Dance Theatre helped develop you as a choreographer, and vice versa?

Yes completely. Experiencing all those vocabularies in your body, going through many choreographic processes all develops you both as a dancer and choreographic artist. I love my job with Scottish Dance Theatre, and it continues to throw up exciting new challenges and opportunities all the time.

Has it been challenging to create new work (both this year & last) as a full-time dancer? What other challenges have you experienced?

I think creating work is always challenging, and it should be. The hard things are time and the logistics and costs involved in getting a production like this down to London. You rely on a lot of favours from friends in London to make it happen and I cannot thank people enough for allowing dancers to stay, helping with flyers, attending meetings, the list goes on. Scottish Dance Theatre have been great in allowing me to use the studios after working hours; I love our studio and find it a very inspiring atmosphere to be in.

What are your future plans for Vacant Skin, and where would you like to go as a choreographer?

Vacant Skin is a project I hope to continue throughout the year. If time works out, I would love to take it to some more venues, but it is not something that will disappear: I intend to use it as my choreographic enquiry, and hope to develop it further over the year, in different contexts.

As a choreographer, I'd like to create a commissioned work this year, or in the near future, and continue to work with new people and develop more work with the dancers I am currently working with. I would also love a good chunk of time in the studio with one or two dancers to really invest some time in something over a week or so.

I also of course have an exciting year ahead with Scottish Dance Theatre, with plenty to get my teeth into as a performer!

 

 

Tickets for the premiere of Vacant Skin at The Place on 19 January: www.theplace.org.uk/15921/whats-on/georgia-tegou-watkinsdance-matthew-robinson.html
Matthew Robinson's website: www.matthewrobinsondance.co.uk
Facebook page: www.facebook.com/vacantskin