Rosalind Crisp is an Australian dance artist based in Paris with her company Omeo Dance at the Atelier de Paris-Carolyn Carlson, developing her ongoing project d a n s e. She was back in Australia for Dance Massive in March, presenting 'No one will tell us...' in collaboration with performer Andrew Morrish, musician-performer Hansueli Tischhauser and lighting designer Marco Wehrspann.

In an interview with Urszula Dawkins, published on the Dance Massive website, she explains where the title comes from:

“The long title was No one will tell us when it’s the end of the world. We decided to be a bit less dogmatic about it and stop halfway. So it’s not that we’re trying to make a piece about the end of the world – it’s more an intense inspiration to stay awake, be present in the moment. It’s really about saying ‘Wake up. This is it’.”

After meeting Ros outside the Spiegel Tent in Melbourne we made our way to a quiet spot in the park whilst talking about improvisation and the structure of 'No one will tell us...'.

Rosalind Crisp: The whole structure has to keep responding to the way we are driving the piece. On every level it is about us being awake to the decision-making. What is set it that I always start with a solo. The musician Hansueli comes in usually between seven and nine minutes, and Andrew is always third. But that's all that's structured. I suppose what's starting to set is this understanding of what it takes. We each warm up separately, to deepen our own intentions. We're all independent in that sense, we don't really need the others. I think what's being accumulated is a sense of how to be with your own material but at the same time very permeable to the others. That is the job, that is the piece. There are a lot of things that accumulate through the practice we do together, in a way we have temporal roles and spacial roles rather than character roles. I am present all the way through the piece somehow, even though I leave sometimes; Hansueli does big blocks of being on and off; and Andrew tends to come and go. So he's the glue that holds us together, but he's also in between the piece and the audience. (Laughing)

I definitely felt that was Andrew's role, and his use of text came in at the right moments for the audience to stay engaged.

He's trying to respond to us. He's not trying to explain the piece, none of us are trying to make it easy. But his text is what makes it accessible in a way. It's true, I really like that about what Andrew does. It is very imaginative, but it's also kind of very normal and they're words. (Laughing). I think audiences have to develop other ways of perceiving, to really enjoy dance that is not explainable, like music is not really explainable.

Can you tell me a bit more about the collaboration between the three of you?

It's bloody complex. There is actually four of us, the lighting guy is also playing. It's really complex, but it's so exciting when it works and, as I say, I think we're kind of understanding what it takes now. I don't even know if I can verbalise it, but I feel like I learned a lot this time about going with the changes and letting them happen around me, without trying to control the piece. 'Cause I can't and that is the joy of it. Actually not being able to control it. And it really is trust, trusting my material of the body and I totally trust the others. I know that we don't need each other, which gives a lot of confidence. Something that started to happen recently is this sense that we are making it together. We found out now how to coexist.

So how did you end up in Paris?

Quite simple really, a French producer, Michel Caserta, who was the director of festival Biennal de Danse du Val-de-Marne, came out here. He did a tour around Australia and met lots of choreographers, this was late 90s. He came to my studio in Sydney where I was working with a couple of dancers and he was so excited because all the other choreographers had met him over coffee and I was in the studio where I was every day! He had the most amazing feedback, it was so exciting. I'd never had that kind of feedback before, just wonderful wonderful food. And then he invited me to Paris. First, I went there in 2001 to a small platform. He then commissioned me to make a piece in 2002 as one of four Australian choreographers he invited. I had two blocks of money, one for a solo and one for a quartet. In 2003 I was in his festival with the quartet. So that was the beginning and when that happened we decided it was time to take the leap. I just needed to move really, I think I was in danger of becoming bitter and twisted in Australia. I had a couple of friends who had kind of given up in despair. It's hard here, people don't value art, fundamentally. It's a small community, and a wonderful community in lots of ways. The general population doesn't really value art. It is kind of like a rotten root. You will probably never feel it because you come from somewhere else. But if you grow up here, people ask 'why don't you get a real job?'. Totally different than in Europe, it's really a disease here. It's just part of the way we grow up here.

Is the reason for you coming back to Australia to keep a connection with the dance scene here?

The first few years I kept doing things in Sydney, because that is where my company was. I had the studio there, Omeo Dance Studio. I felt I needed to come back to keep working with Australian dancers because they were the ones who had my work in their bodies and I didn't have that history with French dancers yet. Until I developed a company there with dancers who are really great and I feel so privileged to work with. They are really into the work and feel it gives them a lot of freedom and responsibility they don't often have with French choreographers. After the first few years I sort of drifted away a bit, but I come back for the bush and my family. I grew up in the bush and I miss it a lot. I've been back a couple of times and just gone up the bush without doing any teaching or performing or anything.

Do you keep travelling out of a desire to stay open and have new experiences, or is it mainly a financial necessity?

You have to, I mean if I had big company funding, I would maybe stay in one place. But I love teaching and performing elsewhere, and it is just the life. I don't know if you can just live in one city unless you are incredibly well-funded. You have to tour and, I don't know, I suppose it's what I've chosen. I do find it really refreshing to move, it's just the life, being a gypsy really.

Rosalind Crisp and Andrew Morrish perform and teach workshops regularly in Europe and around the globe. In fact, Andrew will be at Chisenhale Dance Space in June 2011.

More info:

Omeo Dance

Andrew Morrish