Bardi Patricia, Oggetto 10

ences and approaches because there are classical forms being marketed on the fringe that they can describe as 'the style of the eighties'. Audiences overall are not prepared to be provoked, nor do they expect to see demanding performances when coming to view dance. It's really about educating audiences, which has nothing to do with social class, but is more about exposure to a variety of dance approaches and for performers to have more access to audiences. You are a member of Chisenhale Dance Project - what's that about for you? Surely one of the good things about Chisenhale is that there are lots of women around? Chisenhale is developing many things that are really vital both in supporting New Dance/media work and in providing new stimulation to the local East End community. It is fostering a new relationship between experimental work and popular art forms. Being an artist-run collective is really important; so much of our work as artists is done in isolation and we wind up running on parallel lines, competing and holding back from supporting one another. What Chisenhale is doing is joining forces and creating a more unified, thoughtful approach, because as indivi- duals we could never produce what we can as a group, and we have more access to resources. Chisenhale is a great base that gives me something to belong to that is on the pulse of a lot of things that are important socially and creatively. It provides a range of people for support in terms of ideas and relationships. It's a critical force and a constructive one. I imagine that teaching, both private and to groups is a very necessary part of your income, and that perform- ances with a larger group of people would be quite expensive to put on? Well, exactly. I'm not really by disposition a solo performer. I don't have that need for total control Usually if I'm teaching I can also show performances. People can see a method of working and then see the lift and change into performance. Working with other people on the finer details of anatomy and movement and facilitating a more idiosyncratic, personal move- ment style has been instructive. The teaching has been where I've learned the most and the demand to communicate clearly has helped me to articulate and define my creative approach. have also thoroughly enjoyed the collaborations! have participated in particularly with other musi- cians and performers doing improvisation. Without this work I would be in a terrible vacuum which would stifle some real needs to exchange with other people. I have worked most consistently with Chris Cheek, a poet/performer, making an ongoing series called Dick and Jane Books. There has been a real effort to challenge our energy levels in performance and develop a performance style that pokes fun at precon- ceived stereotypes of sex and gender and makes satirical references to media images and clichéd language. What are the conditions you see women working in? in There's plenty of women making and creating good live performance, but access to major, large-scale productions with ancillory help is still rare for women. We're not getting enough chances to get our feet wet, so often we are stilted in the power game, although not our creativity. Power and creativity are linked on the market place, not in any other critical way. In order for women to function in a public way in their creativity they need some capacity to deal with power structures. It was really upsetting in 1984 to see the major reshuffle of the National Theatre not include one woman director. It's hard for us now, but at the same time it's more ... I'd rather not have tokenism. It makes the situation very clear. Yeah, right ... (laughs). Patricia Bardi's Theatre Papers (No 5) have been published by the Department of Theatre, Dartington 1979. Excerpts were reprinted in Contact Quarterly winter 1981, Vol.VI, No.2.