I’ve just returned from Paris where I was MDing/performing in Lost Dog Dance’s latest work Ruination. We were at Royal Ballet and Opera all the way through December and were there two Decembers ago too.
I first met the Artistic Director and now favourite collaborator, Ben Duke, in 2017 when he created Goat for Rambert Dance Company; I MD’d, composed the arrangements, and played piano within the jazz trio accompanying a singer. The music for it was all Nina Simone songs, a musician I’d later find out Ben had a deep interest in. It wasn’t just her sound or her arrangements but the way you were never quite sure how much of her delivery was a performance and how much was her revealing all kinds of truths about herself. It makes her relationship with the audience sometimes incredibly intimate and sometimes unnerving and uncomfortable.
Goat finished with our version of Simone’s version of Feelings which accompanied a heart-breakingly raw duet on-stage. I hadn’t listened to the song since. What an incredible amount of sounds, talents and, well, feelings to live inside one woman.
How much of yourself can you share in your work without risking your emotional safety?
2 thoughts on “Nina Simone”
I loved your collaboration with Ben Duke on Ruination. I’ve been a fan of his work for some years, and obviously a fan of yours too, so to see the two of you work together is exciting.
I never saw Goat though. It sounds like a really special show. There’s no one quite like Nina Simone. Wow that Feelings video is something else! The rawness, the talent.
In answer to your question, I think it has to be up to every individual artist and may well change over time. Comedian Sara Pascoe did an interview where she talks about how and why she shares so much of her personal life in her comedy https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0026v4t?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile
Thank you, Sonia! Yes, I love working with Ben – as he’s someone who does lots of things and doesn’t really look for the edges between disciplines, we’re a happy match! And thank you for that Sara Pascoe link – I really like her stuff and I’ll be sure to check it out…