Following on from the reviews by Rebecca Nice and Paul Medley of DEC’s Luminous Shadows performance at the Old Fire Station in May, Malcolm Atkins (with the support of Ana Barbour, Susie Crow and Kassandra Isaacson) writes about the group’s activities for forthcoming publication in the Open University Associate Lecturers’ Newsletter.  Oxford Dance Writers is delighted to be able to publish this account of the work of this local Oxford arts collective.

DEC Drawing Dance is a group of Oxford based artists who research interactions across different media (DEC stands for Demonstration, Exploration, Collaboration). We began improvising in collaboration between dance, music and visual art in 2009, increasingly using projection to facilitate immediate interaction between the work of visual artists and dancers and musicians, thus blurring the boundaries of performing and visual arts. Since an initial residency at the OVADA Gallery in April 2010, we have appeared twice as part of the Oxford Improvisers’ Cohesion Festival at Pegasus Theatre as well as at Cambridge Festival of Ideas 2010, and the opening of the Other Worlds exhibition at The Story Museum in 2012. (more…)

The intimacy of the auditorium combined with the technical range of the Old Fire Station theatre make it an excellent venue for the DEC Project. DEC’s unique combination of dance, music and real-time visual art, with significant elements of improvisation, make heavy demands on set-up and technology. In their performance at the Old Fire Station on Friday all three elements of the performance worked together from the audience perspective. The musicians, Malcolm Atkins and Bruno Guastalla, were visible but not imposing on any sight lines, the three artists, Clare Bassett, Kassandra Isaacson and Susan Moxley, were sitting centrally, visible but not within the performance area thus leaving the stage free for the two dancers, Ana Barbour and Susie Crow. (more…)