Under/Line 2001
SlotArt CH4 Dancer Diane Payne Meyers, Choreographer Wayne McGregor
Dancing under the Dustcover 2000
CH4 11min dance/Animation with Diana Payne Meyers
Another and quite different portrait was of Diane Payne Meyers. My interest in older dancers led me to be on the lookout for them, to see who was around and what they were doing. In a newspaper article I spotted a picture of Diane, aged 70, who apparently was appearing naked in a production. I looked for more information about her and thought she seemed lively and energetic so I got in touch with her. When I asked for her CV she said I would have to meet her to see it which puzzled me but I agreed. At the time I had in mind another film, which made a more concentrated attempt to fuse the dance and technology. However seeing Diane’s CV changed this.
She unwrapped the CV from a brown paper bag. What emerged was a small 1950’s travel guide to Rome. She had covered the RO on the title so the front cover reads ME. And coloured it pink.’ For rose coloured spectacles’ she told me. Inside was her life conjured up from scraps of paper, shopping lists, theatre programmes, old photos, scribblings about events, comments all stuck into the guide book. On some pages little transparent plastic sachets contained further reviews, lists and jottings. The most glorious disordered collection of mementos. It was clear to me that the film was in the book. The book should be brought to life.
This was not a portrait with a focus. It was an impression built around Diane’s collections and possessions. Her flat echoed the book, or the other way round, filled with eccentric but meaningful bits and pieces. Toys, costumes, colourful scraps, a kind of make- believe world grounded in the theatre. Diane had a vast fund of stories from the past. She described herself as ‘a jobbing dancer’ in her typical self-deprecating manner. This film had to be short so the number of things included had to be limited. I had to concentrate on the book itself and not deviate. In order to do this we worked with dancer and choreographer Matthew Hawkins who had partnered and choreographed Diane in several of his shows. She admired and trusted him. Unlike Jane who invented, Diane wanted to be directed rather than originate her own material. Yet her world is clearly one of great invention and richness.
I didn’t’ have the same amount of time to work with Diane and had to make a more surface portrait in Under the Dust Cover. It is bright and eccentric and really does evoke her but I knew there was another Diane in there.
As she talked and told her stories this other Diane appeared. The Diane who dressed up and went on demonstrations, who had once been ‘accused’ of communism. The Diane who took a great interest in politics and the arts. Her career had been based in ballet, variety shows and minor acting roles on stage. In her older years it seemed she was cast as an object to be abused in several of the performances. Her role was not developed; it was comical (she has a real talent in comedy) and maybe even debasing. She was cast in character roles rather in the way ballet dancers ‘of a certain age’ start appearing as old people with stately walk on roles, or jokers who scuttle around not having to dance. I felt that this didn’t allow her to show what she was capable of by choreographing to her strengths. I talked to choreographer Wayne McGregor about making a dance piece with her and UNDER/LINE was created. She was both delighted and nervous at the prospect because Wayne is known for ‘serious’ work. Her instinct was to say she couldn’t do it but this came from years of playing the clown and feeling safe with that. Wayne worked with the movements she could still do, she is elegant and graceful and this short film really shows the other Diane.
For an audience the portrait aspect of UNDER/LINE is only apparent if I am there to tell them about it or to show both films at once. DUSTCOVER is about the past. UNDER/LINE is the going forward the new challenge, the proof of the ability and creativity of the elderly. It didn’t need computer enhancement because there is something pure and simple about it and that’s what I chose over the technology although we did use a bit of movement repetition in the editing. It stands on its own as a dance piece but to me it is something more, the completion of the portrait, the Diane that is rarely seen, the new piece of work that moves her on.