Nisha Ramayya

Tantric Poetics
Some Exercises in Translation
27 February @ 5.00pm

I would like to present critical and creative studies of a few aspects of translation: the dictionary as authority; the lexicographer; cultural translations; and multilingual poetry. I will relate discussions around feminism, history, etymology, and Indology to the work of selected women writers as well as to my own creative practice.

Brief Bio
I am a Practice-Based PhD student in Poetic Practice. I am undertaking a study of experimental feminist poetics from a Tantric perspective, drawing comparisons between subversive strategies, focus on female divinity, and use of the body in ritual and performance.

http://www.tantricpoetics.blogspot.co.uk/

Alan Duffield

A Different Kind of Presence
27 February @ 6.00pm

My work is concerned with developing ideas towards an ecology of dance. Though I am not directly researching  through practice, I am using performed material and direct contact with choreographers like Rosemary Lee and Jonathan Burrows as primary material, as well as my own projects to aid investigations. This presentation looks at the idea of presence in contemporary dance performance, linking it to the uncovering of a ‘rawer sense of self’ (Rosemary Lee). In such a wide field as contemporary dance my work is located within somatic practice and looks at the body as a singularity of performative presence in dynamic relationship with an emerging environment. Presence will be linked to the somatosensory contribution to self and I will refer to current work in neuroscience, particularly though not exclusively Antonio Damasio, concerned with the role of action understanding in a sense of self and other. I shall provide opportunity to see clips from three dance works to demonstrate and provide further focus for discussion of the ideas offered. There will also be a practical exercise or two – I hasten to re-assure you that you will not be asked to ‘dance’. I will finish by outlining a forthcoming collaboration to create a new dance work for public performance with full time dance students at Chichester University and the creative concerns arising in using this as evidence in my work.

Brief Bio
My name is Alan Duffield and I am in the second year of my work in the Department of Drama and Theatre, with Dr Libby Worth as my supervisor. The working title of my thesis is Towards an Ecology of Dance. I have completed a working lifetime in performance education in schools, colleges, and as director of an arts centre linked to advisory support in Drama in Education. I have been concerned with what is termed physical theatre throughout my working life. My initial training was at Goldsmiths in the pioneer days of drama in education and my own work in this area has always been linked to issues of gender, race and class. I have continued to study throughout my life and in 2009 took the Physical Theatre MA at Royal Holloway. It is from this work, looking at the location of meaning in the dancing body, that my current research has developed. I am fortunate to be able to undertake this research in what has come to be termed the ‘third age’.
Alan Duffield. Cert Ed (Drama in Education. Goldsmiths. 1963-66) B.A. (English Literature. Hatfield)  M.A. (Sociology of Literature. Essex)  M.A. (Post Compulsory and Adult Education. Southampton)  M.A. (Physical Theatre and Performance. Royal Holloway).

Zoi Dachri

Bridging the Gaps
An exploration of musical polystylism
13th February @ 5.00pm

In this presentation I aim to discuss the tension and interplay of different musical styles coexisting in a single piece of composition, as well as the relationship between several pieces of my PhD portfolio. As a composer and musicologist I have always stumbled upon distinctive terms such as “concert”, “experimental”, “popular” music etc., in addition to the disparate musical ‘languages’ of tonality and atonality. The development of technology has added manipulation (deconstruction and reconstruction of sounds), noise, soundscaping, not to mention the electronically synthesized sounds. The term “music” itself has been redefined.

At the beginning of the 21st century, access to music, knowledge and means of composition have significantly changed. In this context, I find it inevitable for composers to combine their influences at some level. After all, fusion is nothing new to music, though now the distance to bridge might be longer. In my research I try to consciously weave elements from different musical idioms in what hopes to be a cohesive result. The basic element that interconnects the various pieces that form my PhD portfolio is the recurring reference to Greek traditional music.

Brief Bio
Zoi Dachri is a PhD candidate in Composition supervised by Mark Bowden and Brian Lock, exploring polystylism in both acoustic and electroacoustic music.  She has studied musicology, performance and composition in conservatories and universities in Greece and the UK. She has participated in ensembles of classical, popular and traditional music, and has composed for theatre and film.

Lenny Henry

Q: Who runs the world ? A: Still men, sorry.
Stereotyped women in sports films
13th February @ 6.00pm

The afterglow of the 2012 olympics still shines within all our hearts, and the images of  our gold medallists: Victoria Pendleton, Jessica Ennis and Nicola Adams  are burnt indelibly into our imaginations. But why is this triumph not reflected in terms of mainstream sports cinema?

Women’s roles (even with the advent of feminism) have mostly been a stereotypic affair  in the sports film genre – ‘Wife, cheerleader, temptress or booster.’ How has this situation been allowed to continue? Which are the movies that have perpetuated these stereotypes? And which ones have flipped the script? And are women’s sports films really sports films – or a kind of melodrama?

All these questions answered plus some jokes…be there.

Brief Bio
Lenny Henry has been a show business professional since 1975 when he won a talent show called New Faces as a comedy impressionist. Since then he has worked constantly on TV ,stage and radio in programmes like: Tiswas, Three of a Kind, the Lenny Henry show, Chef , Hope and Glory, Lenny Goes to Town, White Goods, Alive and Kicking, Lennyhenrytv.com; plus three South Bank shows, various documentaries. He is a founder member of Comic Relief. His recent work as an actor has seen him win critical praise, particularly  his debut stage role in Northern broadside’s Othello (directed by Barrie Rutter)  and for the National Theatre’s Comedy of Errors (directed by Dominic Cooke).

Eley Williams

‘The Zebra Did It’
Dictionaries as Loci for Surreptitious Fictions
30^th January @ 5.00pm

In this presentation I hope to address the ways in which factual dictionaries might be judged to contain or reveal fictitious and fictional content, and whether such content can be assessed as ‘creative’ work. My practice centres upon writing a novel where the main character inserts purposively fictional pieces of information into an encyclopaedic dictionary; my presentation will provide an opportunity to illustrate various strategies by which I have attempted to creatively interrogate the problematic ethics of lexicography (its attempts to ‘register’ rather than ‘fix’ language – and vice versa – for example), literary hoaxes, and whether a dictionary can be claimed as a creative text.

Brief Bio
Eley Williams is currently a PhD candidate in Creative Writing, her thesis focusing upon the meeting points between lexicographical probity and creativity. Previous writing commendations include the Christopher Tower poetry prize and awards from the London School of Journalism, the Franco-British Council and London Fringe Festival Short Fiction Awards. Recent projects have included her short story ‘Hang-Ups’ being developed for an interactive installation with ShadowStage, the country’s first contemporary shadow theatre company, and a prose piece set to music by composer Steven Jackson for ‘Noise of Many Waters’, the Royal Northern College of Music’s exhibitive showcase event.

www.giantratofsumatra.com