Nikki is researching and thinking about a new performance work generated through embodied writing practices. The project straddles spoken word and extended vocal sound arising through breath and gesture, touching on the limits of perception and precarious transitional states.
Nikki on her residency experience:
“Over the last ten days I have been at Critical Path researching and writing for a new performance project. The research room provides a ‘room of one’s own’ – to read, to write, to dream, to listen, to get up to date – with myself and the world. Settled in this cosy nook by the harbour, I have been able to collect my thoughts. To think things through without interruption. To move ideas around.
There is a useful blend here of having privacy and isolation, yet being simultaneously close to the buzz of other arts workers and dancers inhabiting the building. As an independent artist that sense of connection and mutual respect of/with others’ creative process is incredibly beneficial. I never underestimate the value of free-flowing exchange and support within our dance community, not just at an individual artistic level but also as a healthy barometer of our larger creative cultural praxis. Thank you Critical Path for the space and the nurturing support, two conditions that are essential for growth and movement.”
ARTIST’S BIO:
Nikki Heywood is a Sydney-based interdisciplinary artist working across dance, performance, writing and live art. As a performance creator with a deep focus on embodiment, her long professional practice has centred upon devising and directing original movement based performance work. She has been creatively informed by early influence of Grotowski, Body Weather (via Min Tanaka, Tess de Quincey & Frank van de Ven), her work with Deborah Hay, and the somatic practice Body-Mind Centering, studying over 20 years with Alice Cummins. Her long-standing improvisational practice, often working with musicians, has resulted in a body of work spanning solo and collaborative performance. Her work has toured to festivals inter/nationally.
IMAGE CREDIT: Nikki Heywood, photo Heidrun Löhr