A collaboration between Geoffrey Armes and Choreographer Christine Dakin. Filmed during the summer of 2007, this nine minute dance film was directed and edited by Robert Dodson. The cast features Nya Bowman, Helen Hansen, Brenda Nieto, Liz-Lotte Pitlo, Gabriela Prieto, and Rebecca Van Kessel.
Hazrat Inayat Khan was a pacific Sufi musician, and so was his daughter, prior to Hitler's invasion of their adopted home country of France. Escaping to London in 1940, Noor returned to her beloved Paris, as an Allied Spy. She was to die in Dachau just over a year later. Posthumously Noor was awarded the George Cross in England, and the Croix de Guerre in France, where she is affectionately known as 'Madeleine de la Resistance' This is the story that inspired the music crafted by world-fusion songwriter and composer Geoffrey Armes, and now, in its turn, this music has inspired new dance created Christine Dakin, lovingly filmed and edited by Robert Dodson.
The Choreography consists of a series of site-specific phrases and vignettes, each correlating with distinct phases of Noor's life, and the feelings engendered as a result.
Geoffrey Armes notes: "It was the explosion in online video that got us thinking about creating a film or ‘music video’ for Noor. It didn’t take long for us to realise that given the kind of collective experience that we have, it was inevitable that said work would incorporate contemporary dance. I originally approached Christine Dakin thinking that she’d steer me towards an appropriate choreographer, but she immediately offered to accept that role herself. We set to work selecting the dancers, some of whom had already expressed warm appreciation for the music and the concepts informing the project, others came in on the basis of their love for myself or Christine. All are extremely gifted both technically and expressively. The concern was that the ‘right’ people should join us. We discussed the meaning of Noor’s life, the pathway walked between inner work and work in the world, and the kind of inner resilience she needed to walk that which, seemingly, was ordained for her. They, Christine and the cast, created and rehearsed together through a hot summer. When not in a sweaty studio without air-conditioning they were either in a dank tunnel or on a broiling roof reliving via movement something of Noor’s experience. We visited, commented, went away, waited. Ready after ninety hours, we then filmed over two days with rented lights and a fair amount of graft. The results are now uploaded on this page: http://www.noorcd.com/
