Title: Dance Work
Work: Embarque
Summary
First performed by Rambert Dance Company in 1988, Embarque was created after Davies' visit to America and is another work that seems to be influenced by her American experiences. Music is by Steve Reich, the minimalist composer. The texture of the music changes as the work progresses creating a continuous series of subtly different sound-worlds and rhythmic patterns throughout the piece.
Analysis
‘The constantly shifting structures of Steve Reich's composition Octet (1979) equalled Davies’ sense of the vast distances she and her family had travelled in the United States while she was on a Fullbright Arts Award. The subtle changes that took place over the endless miles of landscape could have gone unnoticed. However, Davies had become intrigued by the varying textures and, and gradually began to notice how the effect of a whole day's changing light impacted on the map of their journey, animating the long hours. These rolling shifts influence the form of Embarque’ (Deborah Saxon, 2009).
‘It is a fast and intricate piece...The patterns of movement and grouping of the dancers subtly shifts and changes, rather like the topography of the vast plains and deserts Davies travelled through across America’ (programme note, 1993).
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