What a joy it was to be back in this stunning village. A place that now feels like one of my many homes. A place that feels very familiar yet so far removed from my usual day-to-day urban surroundings.

Some questions and reflections:

What does it mean to be an urbanite in a village?

Being that my time here has always been so site-responsive, it became a necessity to wait until I set foot back into this mystical place, before I even thought about what could be. All I knew is that I wanted to find ways of body percussing to the pace of the river. Simon suggested that we can swim in the water, my city-boy-body froze...

What are our individual experiences and relationships to rivers and water in general?

The added bonus of having my favourite cinematographer, James Williams, and my body percussion protégé, Jon Rodd, alongside me, did everything to disobey my fears around what would be. They both grew up in such spaces, and I was always fascinated when they found ways of responding to the landscape that would never have crossed our minds e.g. they both wanted to get into the water haha. We gave each other the space to create within the construct of a few rules, which we were free to experiment with as we pleased. Structured improvisations were performed where we could listen, respond, and listen again; with ears, eyes, camera, lens, microphones and screen; to each other, the river, the wind and the people.

It’s not all about the beauty is it? Why can’t the villagers swim in the water all the time?

Understanding what it feels to create a body percussion dance-film in affective-proximity to the river and its community, allowed us to think more communally about the production process as a whole. Amongst the beauty of Abercych’s ecology were also themes of darkness, pollution and the underworld. Many thoughts were thrown into the ether of how to address this binary in what was recorded, and not just be sucked into the magic of it all.

How do we make the editing process site-specific?

On this occasion, the residency culminated in a new experience for me and the team - a sharing of the footage to a community audience - something that is so often performed in isolation. It was an undiluted joy to feel the responses of the local community, in order to think about how this will effect the final edit of the film itself.

A huge thank you to Maynard Abercych and the wonderful community volunteers that got involved in the film. I look forward to seeing how the piece will come to fruition after this experience. I also look forward to hearing the response to the work from other water surrounded communities. But for now, James, Jon and I leave with our creative and physical nervous-systems nourished and plenty of footage that will eventually form the pieces of a nuanced rhythmic puzzle.

- Omari Carter