"It’s that dance thing again…"

Dance Umbrella Roundup
What a wonderful journey; from the very long walk around London Paul-André and Jeanette took in January to decide on a location, to presenting thirty intimate, surprising, occasionally soggy, but always inspiring performances during October in Dance Umbrella 2007. The final figures are still being counted, but we know that there were - literally - thousands of people who watched Paul-André Fortier’s Solo 30x30 as well as accessing it online. Many people were encountering contemporary dance for the first time and reactions included "odd", "beautiful", "weird" and "relaxing". Along the way, Paul-André and his Rehearsal Director Ginelle Chagnon also coached post-grads studying choreography and theatre practice at Laban and the Universities of Surrey and Middlesex, inspired music from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, encouraged first-time choreographers in Bloomberg’s workplace and were captured on many Londoners’ mobile phones.

Now that we have come to the end of this project we would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our volunteers without whom we would not have been able to look after our lively piece of street so effectively. They are: Alex, Angelika, Catarina, Chryssa, Fátima, Freyer, Gemma, Haris, Hayley, Isabel, Jessica, Karin, Laura, Megan, Nasreen, Rosie, Sandra, Sarah, Seth, Silvia and Sophia. We would also like to thank staff at the Bishopsgate Institute, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, our associated artists and, not least, all of our specific supporters who made the project possible here in London: Bloomberg, City of London, Canada House Arts Trust and Quebec Cultural Office.

If you saw Solo 30x30 and want to share your thoughts with us, feel free to drop us an email.

The London performances will live on through this online blog, but Paul-André himself is moving on to Rome where he will once again perform for 30 days rain or shine. Buon viaggio!

The team hard at work!

Guildhall Roundup

On behalf of all the composers and performers involved in this year's collaborative project between Dance Umbrella and Guildhall School of Music and Drama, I'd like to say a big thankyou to everyone who came down to the concert last Tuesday.

It was fantastic to have such a well-sized and enthusiastic audience to see and hear the culmination of this exciting project.

I think that there were some remarkable moments that evening. Moments when, whether by chance or design, the newly-composed music and Fortier's movements really 'fused' and interacted in unusual, unpredictable and sometimes beautifully wild ways.

It's fascinating the way in which the mind makes connections between what is seen and what is heard, and how different these cumulative sensory impressions are from person to person. It has been great to hear some audience members' individual reactions to the event. Everyone I've spoken to seemed to take something different from what they witnessed. If you were there and would like to share your thoughts about the event with myself and/or the other composers, please do get in touch.

Thank you for those who have read the blog over the last weeks, and thank you to the wonderful people at Dance Umbrella for making this project possible. It has been a joy for all involved.

Ed Finnis

Performance - Day Thirty

Can you believe it, day thirty has arrived! Our last day at Liverpool Street was certainly one of our busiest. It was very hard to keep track of how many people there were especially with the majority staying for the duration, as well as the usual traffic of city workers. The mass of people seemed to create a barrier or a blanket around the space protecting Paul-André from the chaos of the city, which felt quite poetic for his last show.

A number of 'regulars' came by especially to watch including one who has been to over twenty performances. We asked him what he was going to do now that Solo 30x30 would no longer be here and he simply replied "I will have to go and watch something else".

We wonder if anyone will turn up tomorrow to see if he is still dancing...

We asked Paul-André to share his thoughts with us:

The crowds gather for the final performance:

A final goodbye: