Victoria Sheldon writes on her contribution to this year’s Turn micro-festival of dance at Manchester’s Contact:
My ‘Who Are You Fighting Against?’ piece was inspired for my love and lifestyle of martial arts. I’ve been involved in martial arts since the age of five, seems a lifetime ago! My mother basically took me to class because she had encountered some not so pleasant times during her life and did not want the same to happen to me. At the time and I wanted to do was climb trees and play football, but I’m so grateful for it now.
Once involved I found a love for it, almost instant – but I always wanted more. I didn’t start dancing until age 14, so that was the only thing I had, and took seriously. I left freestyle karate and kickboxing age 12 and jumped straight into Muay Thai boxing, which is my passion – that’s where the grounding of my piece comes from.
My piece was made to display the mix of confusion, excitement, focus and nervousness that you feel before a bout, as well as the constant battle you have with yourself as an artist day to day weather it be dance/acting/writing/martial arts etc.
My aim was to make the piece as physical and realistic as possible, so towards the end of the piece, the same as towards the end of a bout, fatigue starts to show – but there is no other option than to finish. Being female and involved in martial arts has always been some what of a ‘concern’ for people.
I usually hear ‘You’re a girl, I don’t want to hit you’ or . . . ‘I’ll take it easy on you’ – neither of which I enjoy hearing, mainly because it’s offensive to somebody who takes something as seriously as me and also because the people saying it do not know how I train. I wanted to make sure that through my piece it was shown that as a female, I could offer just as much if not more than any male ‘artist’. It was a battle at first because I had to tap into a lot of personal stuff which is a challenge to me, but after it was like a release! Every time I perform it, the same feeling of release is there, I love it.
See http://www.wordofwarning.org/current/2015-turn/ for details of the Turn Festival at Contact, Manchester.