The apple harvest of 2024 was one of the most prodigious I’ve known. Dancer Jo Dyer and I performed a dance to celebrate the apple harvest on 12 September 2024 . We picked apples using them as a movement and drawing construct. Not unlike the dancing/dance drawing with potatoes in Residuals #4, and Residuals #7 but now apples. (Pomme rather than pomme de terre!)
My allotment in Cowley, Oxford was the setting for Residuals #8 with Jo Dyer and the Coxes apple tree. The tree sits at the back of the allotment which is about 8.5 x 20 metres in size. At the front, there are beds seperated by grass walkways where vegetables are grown. Blackberries, gooseberries and currant trees are at the back of the plot with the apple and a cherry tree – we could say it’s an orchard.
Preparation
In a dance composition then a score is often used. We used a dance score which involved the preparation for the picking, picking, drawing, and leaving the allotment with a walked dance. Within the score, improvised elements where used including techniques from contact improvisation.
Paper which was 1.5m wide was laid under the apple tree to catch falling apples. But initially, we had to remove the apples which had already fallen ‘windfalls’ and other items which made the ground uneven. The paper needed to be flat on the ground.
When the ground was cleared, straw was placed under the paper and also on top of it, completely covering it. The intention was that the apples would fall from the tree onto the straw and the straw would prevent the apples from rolling away. Thus we could record the place on the paper where an apple had landed.
We shook the tree by the trunk and branches to make the apples fall off. Jo and I then picked up these apples, as well as some apples remaining on the tree branches and put them into plastic buckets for their collection.
We explored and improvised techniques for picking the applies together – for example both holding one side of an apple and moving it together. Since an apple is spherical then it offers a high degree of freedom of movement around it. The simple connection and contact through the apple necessitates a duet!
The apple tree is not so tall. Standing then you’d be standing among its braches which are from waist height up! Much of my and Jo’s movement was therefore on our hands and knees, squatting or bowing. I particularly recall one movement whereby we were sat back-to-back and one of us reached up to pick an apple. Let’s call that person the over-dancer-apple-picker!
In order to transport the picked apple to the collection bucket then the non-reaching dancer (under-dancer) offered their back and a movement into table with the over-dancer lying back-to-back and on top. This transported the over-dancer holding the apple, towards the bucket. The outstratched hand with the apple in it was able to drop the apple into it.
Other duetting movement happened when Jo and I was squatting and moved on our feet – waddling like ducks at times – towards the bucket with apples. There were all sorts of other movements which were partly shaped by the confines of the apple tree and its low branches.
Paper marking
Apples had fallen from the tree when the tree was shook. Jo and I picked them up these apples from the straw. Lifting an apple from the straw on which it lay, straw was moved aside with our hands to reveal the paper. Powdered charcoal was sprinked onto the paper, and using our gloved hands we compressed and rotated the black powder to mark the paper. Thus the spatial distribution of fallen apples was recorded on the paper surface.
Chance was involved in the falling apples. The use of chance – a kind of improvisation technique – has been used by many artists. One of my favourite artists – Hugo Demartini a visual and performance artist – would throw items into the air and allow them to fall onto his canvas so as to use chance in its composition and design. To some extent, the location of these fallen apples determined our movements as each apple has a place, and we moved to that place. Hence the apples-fallen-by-chance plays a part in the movement composition too.
Summer storm
As Jo and I were about to finish the apple picking dance then there was a torrential rain storm. Quickly, we took shelter in the shed and waited until it past.
I had started to clear the straw from the paper under the apple tree when the rain started but it was so sudden that I simply left the paper which soon became sodden. Water collected in pools on its surface; in some places beside the black charcoal marking.
After the storm, I photographed the pools of water which reflected the apple tree and its branches on its surface. They’re all black-and-white as this was the film in the camera and I’d completed the colour film prior to the rain – mostly during the apple picking and drawing part of the performance.
Recording the dance
It was difficult to record the dance as we didn’t have another person to record it.
We set up our phones on a tripod but but mostly we were off camera and the so the dance wasn’t shown in any detail. But there was a beautiful abstract film from Jo’s phone which was recorded in low resolution, creating a mosaic effect that merged the dancers, the tree, the fruit, the light and the shadow. See above!
It was difficult in the confined space under the tree. I used a film camera too which meant lots of photos of Jo but none of use both as I was behind the camera.
Last part of the performance
Dance exit
To end, Jo and I had a walked dance with contact improvisation techniques up and down the grass walkways between the vegetable beds. As we passed some of the beds then vegetables were picked for Jo and her family.
We walked from the allotment to the bus stop and Jo left to return to London. Back at the allotment, I rolled up the sodden drawing and placed it in the shed to dry.