Folding - interview with Kim Tan & Ashley Dougan

Where did the idea for Folding come from? What does it mean to you to be able to express these things through music and dance?

Kim: Folding as a concept was something I’ve been thinking about for a really long time, since I was at university. I was thinking about what my creative process is, how ideas develop into manifestations of either art works or performances. I found it a really apt metaphor for how influences and new things come about in textured, layered ways, which is also supported by some philosophical ideas I was reading at the time. Folding is essentially an iteration of how I view creativity, its relationship with the past and how it can become new again. There are baroque, contemporary and improvisatory elements in the show, but each one of these might not be what you’ll expect from the genre - there is a traverso flute, but it’s not doing what traverso flute normally does; there is an improvised element, but it’s not what improvisers normally do with Baroque music. This show is an expression of how I've personally created things in my life, because all of these elements make up my creative experiences.

Can you tell us more about the new work from Evan J Lawson that is part of the Folding program and how it relates to the overall body of work?

Kim: A couple of years ago when I first approached Evan to write a piece for the traverso, it was merely because I think the traverso flute is a lovely instrument in its own right and that unshackled from its baggage in baroque authenticity, it deserves to be composed for. Evan also knew my concept for the performance, this idea that the way we express ourselves creatively is folded by many different aspects which include things we have gone through and things that we hold in our body. So that was the idea behind the piece.

Kim Tan. Photo by Suzanne Phoenix.

Folding brings together early and new music, period instruments and contemporary dance. How do you approach this entanglement between the past and the present?

Ash: I’m a big believer in the phrase, “everything has been done before, just not by us.” So I accept that some of what I’m doing in dance is not necessarily breaking new grounds, but it’s the first time I’m doing it and the first time someone is watching me do it. Dance in particular is very ephemeral. No matter how many recordings there are, how it’s been notated and written down, dance is always just contained in the moment and then it’s gone. The feeling of being present for someone moving in space is a different feeling than just watching a video. The audience who watch the performance are going to be the only people who will see it in that moment and they will never see it again. Even with two of the same show, the audience of each performance would never see the exact same thing twice. That’s the beauty of dance.

Ashley Dougan. Photo by Darren Gill.

What are you hoping the audience experiences during the course of Folding?

Ash: I don't ever like to telegraph to the audience what they should be feeling and what they should take away from it. I think the program notes will give them some ideas, but what they take away from it is theirs and that’s great.

Kim: I think the main thing to take away is to embrace the concept of being folded. We are all in our own way being folded, we all have enveloped our experiences, our encounters and our understandings into our being. Each audience as they come also contribute to the way the event is folded, so in many ways if they come with an expectation, that will form part of the interpretation, but if they come with no expectations, then there are no set outcomes. I’m here to embrace what other people bring to it. I try not to say too much about it to leave it open for interpretation, but just enough for people to receive it how they wish.

Folding will be held on Oct 18th, 7:30pm at the 11th Hour Theatre in Fitzroy.