“Beating/Breaking Shell” is a duet featuring live violin and dance. It is inspired by concepts such as light/dark, chaos/order, death/rebirth, stillness/motion, pure geometry and arithmetic. A main focus throughout the work is architecture, the use of external and interior space within the sound and within the room, and the sensation of presence within the space. The piece began developing through an exchange of emails, musical sketches and videos through the internet. Without the physical presence and the information that can be derived from being in proximity to another, there is only so far a piece of live performance can be developed. So in a sense the ritual, the rules, were established long before the work in the studio began. It is no coincidence, then, that the feeling of unity vs. dichotomy and of merging and fusing opposites should feature so prominently in the making of the piece. The first section of the piece was first performed at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow through Dancehouse in January of 2009. The second part was developed in Brooklyn and shown at Open Perform through Movement Research in March of 2009. An earlier version of the piece was performed at the Soundings Festival in Aberdeen in October 2009 as part of Dance Live followed by a symposium on music and dance the next day. With support of Creative Scotland it was then developed for the opening of Trongate 103 in September 2010. “Beating/Breaking Shell” is the first collaboration between Masson and Lewis, and continues to provide the foundation for the development of their collaborative language and style.

Rosalind Masson is a performer, choreographer and dancer working in the UK and Berlin. She has a BA (hons) from London Contemporary Dance School and an MSc in Media Arts and Imaging from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design. She has worked extensively with dance in relation to other mediums primarily film, sound and installation. Performances include “The Birth of Venus” and “Plaza Minuet” at the ICA by Pablo Bronstein, The Darktown Cakewalk – by Linder Sterling – commissioned by GI Festival and shown at Chisenhale Gallery and AVALANCHE by Kerren Cytter. Her own work has been shown in the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, ada studio, Berlin, Dance Base – Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2011,The Robin Howard Theatre in London, Dance Theatre Workshop in New York and at The Tramway in Glasgow. Rosalind is an international correspondent for Movement Research’s Performance Journal in New York and a member of the artistic panel for The Workroom in Glasgow.

Aaron Jonah Lewis is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and sound artist. He studied at College of the Atlantic in Maine/USA graduating with a BA in Human Ecology. He currently works in Berlin and frequently tours in Europe and the USA.