Research
Taxi commenced a period of professional development in April 2023, kindly supported by Arts Council England. The above work in progress plus associated creative practice continues to be investigated, refined and disrupted through mentorship during this time. Workshops on queering movement-sound/choreomusical work, plus other performing arts practices that utilise movement and sound, have been delivered in Berlin, July 2023, and London, February 2024.
Reflective improvisation of “Mickey Mousing”, “Donald Ducking” and jump-squeaks.
Prior to this, Taxi undertook an R&D period from January to April 2023 that explored dancer-musician creative practice ahead of the grant period.
Producer
Producer and performer: Taxi Rank (Rho Thomas)
Producer and performer: Rho Thomas
Rho founded the first London chamber ensemble specialising in orchestral reductions for small scale/fringe opera productions in 2010 with composer/arranger Danyal Dhondy. Their first production of this nature was Madama Butterfly with OperaUpClose.
COMPOSITION
States of being: 1. Hopefulness
For bass clarinet drag performer with backing track and audience participation. First movement premiered 2019 at the TheyThey Show, SET Dalston, London.
Version for solo drag bass clarinet with clarinet and saxophone octet completed in 2021 can be heard in the audio examples for movements II and III.
PERFORMANCE
Producer/performer: Taxi Rank (Rho Thomas)
Creative practice
The Cabinet
This pilot project follows on from Rho's masters research. Applying the dancer-musician and Lazovski methods, two performers blur the boundaries of dance and instrumental music.
Producer/dancer-musician/arranger: Rho Thomas
Dancer-musician/choreographer: Oren Lazovski
Original Score: Louis Spohr - Clarinet Concerto no.4
Identities | Four Quadrants
Dancer-musician: Rho Thomas
Composer: Daniel Mills
Identities explores the relationship between performer and instrument as well as feelings of being bound to the bass clarinet and learning to embrace it. Resonant frequencies of the studio itself are used to define the score.
This video comes from research and development into audio-motion detection software and how four quadrants (mapped in the space and triggered by movement to produce electronic sounds) respond to a dancer-bass clarinettist. In all of these these sessions we refined parameters, tested usability, improved functionality and developed objectives and a methodology for the creation of performance works.
Connect It - Anna Meredith and David Ogle
Rho joined fellow Trinity Laban students as a dancer-musician in the 10 Pieces Prom performance of Connect It for body percussion in 2015. They also helped the creators present a section of the work at the Last Night of the Proms in Hyde park for an audience of 40,000.
Co-directors: Katarzyna Witek, Elliot Galvin
Producer/dancer-musician: Rho Thomas
DIPTIK blurs the boundaries of sound and movement. Their debut performance at the Resolution! 2015 festival explores the idea 'dance is music/music is dance' and the use of score and notation.
Daniel Mills, Composer
Bass Clarinet: Rho Thomas
The Sea of Trees is the title of the project that represents Mills's major composition assessment submission for the Masters course at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in 2014. Utilising music, dance and film, the piece explores themes of suicide and depression within the context of the famous 'Suicide Forest', Aokigahara in Japan.
Turner and the Sea at South Bank
Producer/dancer-musician: Rho Thomas
Supporting the Animate Orchestra, The Turner and the Sea collaboration was presented at the Clore Ballroom at the Southbank Centre in April 2014.
Turner and the Sea, Collaboration
Producer/dancer-musician: Rho Thomas
As part of the 2014 Trinity Laban CoLab festival, this work explores ideas and themes drawn from the Turner exhibition at the National Maritime Museum and was performed in the Samy Ofer Wing of the museum. The performance was then featured in the CoLab Showcase at the Bonnie Bird Theatre.
Danyal Dhondy, Composer
Clarinet/Saxophone: Rho Thomas
An adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories, for a family audience.