Art and Environment: Ros Masson

I have seen you perform both choreographed work and improvise ... and now I think about it, you have done some interesting dance on screen work. What are you bringing to dance base  and how does it relate to these strands within your work?

I'm bringing a dance piece that I have composed specifically for the fringe festival. It was important for me to see if I could express ideas through movements and structure that are decided beforehand. At this point I am challenging myself to see if I can approach choreography with the awareness it takes to improvise well.

One of my favourite things to see in dance is when the choreography takes over. You see the dancer responding in the moment as the movements begin to happen 'to' them and they deal with the consequences. I don't mean they're out of control or going into a trance state or anything. More that they have the ability to take movements to their full potential, push the boundary a little in whichever sense but also be able to bring it back.

I'm not just speaking physically here. I'm also talking about an approach to composing. It's about knowing when to take something away and when to hold it back. Having this discipline is something I'm beginning to appreciate more and more. I think it makes the difference between something being safe and satisfying and something being exciting. Of course you can improvise within choreography (sometimes you have to, especially when working with props) but how that improvisation manifests is really up to the director. Whether it's a section within a choreography or whether you are working within a score or set of parameters. I am always thinking of the visual aspect of the work and working with video has been a part of the process. For me these elements support one another in the creation of work for sharing in one or all of the strands. It's interconnected but the outcome is different each time.

As you have worked across disciplines, why have you stayed with dance: have you not been tempted to say, become a film maker? What keeps you dancing?

For me, film is all about movement and timing, timing of the camera in relation to subject, of the body in relation to space and takes into account all the things you might when composing a piece to perform live while also being able to work in non-linear time and space through editing and post production. That's a lot of fun. It's a whole other parallel realm but at some point I realised I needed to come back to my body. I had adopted a more sedentary lifestyle so I was realising that things were changing in me and this fascinated me.

It was like my body was beginning to relax from my training and my perspective was shifting through working in this other medium. That's when I thought: okay, there's more I have to discover here and the floodgates opened. Actually that's when the floodgates opened and a can of worms rolled out. I like that evolved metaphor, because that's what it's like. More and more cans of worms - in the most positive way possible of course! I have this theory that if dance, music, crafts and the arts were more a part of everyones everyday life and culture then I wouldn't be doing this whole thing.

I guess contemporary dancers end up becoming these spectacles that sacrifice themselves - not for their art but from a frustration about the general state of things. I wonder what Ultimate Dancer would have to say about this? The artist sharing the double bill with me.

Although you are far more than just a glasgow dancer - you do work in Berlin and London - I was wondering whether you would put any sort of description on the work that comes out of the west coast: I am thinking about you, Tom Pritchard:  is there anything that connects your approach? And does Glasgow add anything to this that you don't find in other cities?

In my opinion, what connects Tom's work, my work and the work of other artists based in Glasgow  is our awareness of the power of dance to unite people and of the many different ways dance can make positive changes in people's lives.

In someways I feel like I'm the least active in this sense. Despite being at different stages and having different approaches, I don't think any of these people decided in to live and make work in a city like Glasgow to escape social reality. The work that comes from these artists is people centric, whether it's the subject matter or the process - I can't really talk for myself here.

I'm just saying what I see in other people's work. I think this in broad terms is what connects us but this is also true of dance in general. It's a people centered art form. It's about navigating human landscapes. Whatever your landscape is you deal with that and if you're lucky enough to have the beautiful Clyde valley to influence your work then that's just bonnie!