Rosie Kay Dance Company

It was decided pretty early on that the dancers would never carry weapons- I did not want to see rifles, fake or real, on stage.  However, I felt that learning how to hold and practise with a rifle was really integral to getting into the dancers roles and physical understanding of a soldiers life.  Not only are they incredibly heavy to hold for a long time, they are hugely powerful objects, which once you learn how to fire shifts something in your head and perception.  Infact, rifle training had been a stange point for me in my military training period at 4 Rifles- I had asked to be as phyiscally involved as possible, but they still scared me.  After training, I realised I had started to look at them very differently, understanding them, feeling how they worked, knowing how to use one,  and that REALLY scared me.

At Warwick Arts Centre, we spent a day exploring the physicality of the weapons, the fire manouever procedure, tried on helmets and body armour, and basically exhausted ourselves with the very wonderful Wilky from Perdix.  Wilky, a former Royal Green Jacket (now Rifles) taught us light infantry drill which we incorporate into the work

Rosie Kay Jan 2010