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The Language of Dance

Ian McMillan and guests explore the language of dance and the relationship between poetry and movement. With Ismene Brown, Scott Thurston, Nathan Walker and Maria Ferguson.

What is the relationship between poetry and movement? The Verb seeks to illuminate the conversation between dance and poetry with the help of Ismene Brown, a dance critic who's written for the Spectator and the Telegraph; the poet Scott Thurston; the writer and performer Nathan Walker whose slow-collage-word-terrains challenge how we read poetry; and spoken word artist Maria Ferguson whose show Fat Girls Don't Dance explores her relationship with the F-word (food) with a blend of storytelling, theatre and killer moves.

45 minutes

Last on

Fri 3 Mar 201722:00
BBC Radio 3

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Ismene Brown

Ismene Brown
Ismene Brown is a dance critic who’s written for the Spectator and the Telegraph. The job of the critic, Ismene says, is to sell dance as an art form, and so a review must provide an evocation of the excitement and theatricality of a performance, an idea of what the audience will see, and thirdly it must be judgmental. Imagery is the most important thing in a dance review and if the writing is to have any power or emotion it must come from the heart or the gut.

Scott Thurston

Scott Thurston
Scott Thurstonis an academic, poet and performer whose work attempts to illuminate the conversation between movement and words. One key to this relationship, he says, is syntax and how he handles syntax is one of the most dynamic experiences of movement he has when he’s writing. His new collection Poems for the Dance is out this summer from Aquifer.

Maria Ferguson

Maria Ferguson
In her book and stage show Fat Girls Don’t Dance (Oberon Books) spoken word artist,Maria Ferguson, blends theatre, storytelling and dance to explore her relationship with food. Maria discovered that you can say a lot more by saying a lot less. Movement and dance can be expressive in a way that words sometimes don’t allow and as a result her writing has become increasingly pared down and sparse.

Nathan Walker

Nathan Walker
In his new collection Condensations (Uniform) the poet Nathan Walker choreographs language to createslow-collage-word-terrains in which the words jumble and collide and overlap on the page until they seem to oscillate and move and dance with each other. He sees his poems as a kind of score which seek to interpret language, movement and sound.

Nathan Walker's Collage Poem 'Rake'

Nathan Walker's Collage Poem 'Rake'
Nathan Walker's slow-collage-word-terrain 'Rake'.

Broadcast

  • Fri 3 Mar 201722:00
    BBC Radio 3

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