Mountain Rescue: Lady Climber Saves Partner
A vertical dance duet performed by Kate Lawrence and Simon Edwards, commissioned by and performed in the bar area of Galeri, Caernarfon, on 11th November 2011, in the interval of mountaineer Andy Kirkpatrick’s lecture about his new book, Cold Wars.
The artistic concept is drawn from stories and experiences of climbing partners, in particular those between male female partners of yesteryear. The audience emerged into the foyer for the interval and discover the climbing partners frozen as if in a photograph. Once the audience had gathered, music began to play and a story of ascent (and descent) unfolded in which the partners are dependent on each other. The duet used a counterbalance system in which a single rope is attached through a pulley with a dancer attached to either end of the rope. This enables the dancers to move up and down by counterbalancing one another, like a human funicular, or cable railway.
Unusually, the duet was not advertised. This was a deliberate choice made in collaboration with the venue programmer. We wanted to surprise the audience who had come to see something different. Other audience members included people attending a curry night and a wine-tasting in the building.
The duet has also been performed in the Beacon Climbing Centre, Caernarfon, for their opening celebrations and at Take pART 2014 at Venue Cymru, Llandudno.
