The Thousands

‘Tilted Fawn’’s pairing of Warp Records musician Clark and prolific Berlin-based dancer Melanie Lane is one of the freshest collaborations at this year’s Fringe World. Seeing as though Berlin is a Mecca for cutting-edge projects when it comes to art, performance and music, we’re pretty damn lucky that Lane and Clark are bringing some of those boundary-pushing Berlin creative vibes our way.

Having met through mutual pals several years ago in Germany, Clark and Lane hooked up and began to organically develop experimental works that drew on both of their skill sets. Their 2008 work ‘HELD’ explored memory and architecture through textural objects, while in ‘Tilted Fawn’, Clark and Lane create an audio-sensitive universe, utilizing tape machines, objects and choreography to open up a dialogue between sound, space and movement. Lane gave the The Thousands an insight into the piece and her process this morning – we can’t wait to catch the show.

Danielle Marsland: You live in Berlin – when did you make the move from Perth? Is it a good base for you?
Melanie Lane: I left to go overseas after I finished study at WAAPA in 2000. In 2000 I moved to London, did a lot of auditions, then got a job in Germany and ended up staying there. I danced for various companies then focused on developing my own works. Berlin’s a great place to live, it’s extremely cultural and a great city for the arts. It’s also really central, so you can travel a lot around Europe to work on different projects – it works as a good base.

DM: What’s a typical day for you in Berlin?
ML: Because I work freelance there’s no such thing as a regular day! I have a residency at a studio called Dock 11, but I also spend about half the year traveling around Europe, working.

DM: Berlin plays home to a lot of electronic music performances – did you meet Clark at one of his gigs in Berlin? Did you approach him to work with you?
ML: I actually met Clark through friends, and we were both interested in each others’ work and possibly doing something together, so it developed naturally from there and we began to create projects together: ‘Tilted Fawn’ is the third work that we’ve done together.

DM: Does Clark work on performance pieces very much?
ML: He’s really only worked on this type of thing with me. We’re partners as well, so we work together often, and hope to keep on doing so!

DM: How did the process of creating ‘Tilted Fawn’ work – did Clark create the music, and then you created the dance? Or was it more collaborative?
ML: We had a residency in France together, and so we tried things out in the studio every day, with the sound and the movement, discovering what worked and didn’t work – it was very much a collaborative working process.

DM: So you guys used old analogue tape machines to create the sound installation – how many machines do you use? Was it hard to track them down?
ML: We have ten analogue tape machines we use- they produce the sound and are used to initiate the dance movement in the piece, as well as the movement of sound in the space. It’s kind of like an orchestra of tape machines – Clark has designed a voice for every tape machine and they all work together. They were hard to find, we bought them online and bought the last ones we could find in Germany, so hopefully they don’t break!

DM: And the tape machines are presented in boxes, right? What is the rationale behind that?
ML: Yes, they’re all concealed in boxes, we use them as building blocks to build visual landscapes in the piece. It was less about seeing the machines, we wanted it to be concentrated more on hearing the sounds than a more visually transparent thing.

DM: You’ve already performed the piece in Berlin, Portugal, France, Melbourne… what aspect of ‘Tilted fawn’ do you think audiences find most challenging?
ML: Because it’s such an abstract and different universe of performance, it might take a while for an audience member to enter into the show. Once they do though, it’s very immersive. We were really trying to create something new, that people haven’t seen before.

DM: And when the Fringe World performances wind up, what will you be involved in next?
ML: We’ll return to Melbourne for some more performances of ‘Tilted Fawn’. Also, Clark and I have been developing a new work in Melbourne, Merge, commissioned by Lucy Guerin Inc, so we’ll be busy with that one.