Tha-at’s right (2019)
16mm film (digital transfer), 4:3, 11 mins
Tha-at's right is a film in which three dancers and a small crew attempt to choreograph a dance from a dance review, written in 1957 by critic and poet Edwin Denby titled Three Sides of Agon. Denby’s review articulates Stravinsky’s final ballet Agon via an idiosyncratic stream of metaphors. Tha-at's right takes Denby at his word, translating his imagery back into the language of dance.
The work was commissioned by An Assembly for a UK tour alongside pieces by composers Louis D’Heudieres and Charlie Usher.
‘...a seemingly disconnected parade of musical and choreographic gestures that swing - like Denby’s prose - between baroque grace and withering bathos. It’s funny - but more than that, it raises questions about translation, the fitness of words to sounds or movements, the role of criticism, and the authority of the score.’ - The Wire
‘Like in a Robert Ashley piece, only with movement instead of words, the music does its work while the audience is distracted, a deadpan “No comment” while slipping a diffuse, brittle collage of chamber music past our ears.’ - Boring Like a Drill
‘“Desire is deferral,” Rowland once said to me. To sustain the pleasure of desire, you have to delay the consequence. Perhaps rehearsal is a kind of defferal, a kind of desire...With its fickle cut, drifts and parodies, Rowland’s film indulges in the textures of rehearsal, while the finality of performance is only a flirtation.’ - Bryony Dawson, Motor Dance Journal, 2023
16mm film (digital transfer), 4:3, 11 mins
Tha-at's right is a film in which three dancers and a small crew attempt to choreograph a dance from a dance review, written in 1957 by critic and poet Edwin Denby titled Three Sides of Agon. Denby’s review articulates Stravinsky’s final ballet Agon via an idiosyncratic stream of metaphors. Tha-at's right takes Denby at his word, translating his imagery back into the language of dance.
The work was commissioned by An Assembly for a UK tour alongside pieces by composers Louis D’Heudieres and Charlie Usher.
‘...a seemingly disconnected parade of musical and choreographic gestures that swing - like Denby’s prose - between baroque grace and withering bathos. It’s funny - but more than that, it raises questions about translation, the fitness of words to sounds or movements, the role of criticism, and the authority of the score.’ - The Wire
‘Like in a Robert Ashley piece, only with movement instead of words, the music does its work while the audience is distracted, a deadpan “No comment” while slipping a diffuse, brittle collage of chamber music past our ears.’ - Boring Like a Drill
‘“Desire is deferral,” Rowland once said to me. To sustain the pleasure of desire, you have to delay the consequence. Perhaps rehearsal is a kind of defferal, a kind of desire...With its fickle cut, drifts and parodies, Rowland’s film indulges in the textures of rehearsal, while the finality of performance is only a flirtation.’ - Bryony Dawson, Motor Dance Journal, 2023
Credits
Director Rowland Hill
Producer Scout Stuart
Cinematography Paul Daly
Editing Rowland Hill
Additional editing Ralph Pritchard
Colourist Paul Daly
Dancers Svenja Bühl, Regina Laasmäe, Danielle Summers Choreography Rowland Hill, Svenja Bühl, Regina Laasmäe, Danielle Summers
Music Rowland Hill with Jack Sheen, performed by An asssembly
Screenings, exhibitions and features
2024 54 Programme, New Cross, Manchester
2023 Motor Dance Journal feature by Bryony Dawson
2023 SET Film Festival - SET Space, Peckham
2022 UK New Artists - Phoenix Arts Centre, Leicester
2021 No-body’s room x LUX - The Room Projects, Paris
2020 Correspondance / Correspondence - Videographé, Montreal
2020 Visions in the Nunnery - Bow Arts, London
2020 Hold On - The Koppel Project, London
2019 Fracto Film Encounter - ACUD, Berlin
2019 6X6 Project - artist moving image online streaming platform
2019 Bankley Open Call - Bankley Gallery, Manchester
2019 neo:art prize exhibition - Bolton Museum and Art Gallery
2019 A5 magazine, February 2019 Issue
2018 An assembly - 3 part UK tour with live accompaniment
Director Rowland Hill
Producer Scout Stuart
Cinematography Paul Daly
Editing Rowland Hill
Additional editing Ralph Pritchard
Colourist Paul Daly
Dancers Svenja Bühl, Regina Laasmäe, Danielle Summers Choreography Rowland Hill, Svenja Bühl, Regina Laasmäe, Danielle Summers
Music Rowland Hill with Jack Sheen, performed by An asssembly
Screenings, exhibitions and features
2024 54 Programme, New Cross, Manchester
2023 Motor Dance Journal feature by Bryony Dawson
2023 SET Film Festival - SET Space, Peckham
2022 UK New Artists - Phoenix Arts Centre, Leicester
2021 No-body’s room x LUX - The Room Projects, Paris
2020 Correspondance / Correspondence - Videographé, Montreal
2020 Visions in the Nunnery - Bow Arts, London
2020 Hold On - The Koppel Project, London
2019 Fracto Film Encounter - ACUD, Berlin
2019 6X6 Project - artist moving image online streaming platform
2019 Bankley Open Call - Bankley Gallery, Manchester
2019 neo:art prize exhibition - Bolton Museum and Art Gallery
2019 A5 magazine, February 2019 Issue
2018 An assembly - 3 part UK tour with live accompaniment
Motor Dance Journal, Duets and Dialogues edited by Isabelle Bucklow & Hannah Woods. Design by Audrey Solomon