Wednesday 18th
July: Thoughts at the start of the Lab.
There is a very marked
difference in the manner that I approached 'my workshop' this year in
relation to the other Lab's. The fact that the workshop is the
first in an intensive period of time coupled with my role as overall
mentor means that there is the need to start nurturing/facilitating
(and I mean by this, to make participants start to consider) the
independent research project in tandem with the series of workshops
by the visiting artists. Whereas in past Lab there was time to
'isolate' the research from the workshops, to wait to be 'given' by
the artists before starting my own, given the four week condensation,
we cant do that.... independent research is present from the word
GO!. Grab the bull by the horns, what Zoi T called separating the
boys from the men, the tyres hit the track (more here) or like Kiani says in her
page 'dig your paws'....(more here).
Therefore I opt to
focus my workshops on issues concerning 'choreographic/creative
processes' (hear more on this here) and hold back from my particular research focus at the
moment 'touch'/'tactility in relation to changing. Of course these
questions will have some sort of personal bias (if nothing else in
the definition of 'the choreographic'), but still, the emphasis
remains in setting questions to immediately trigger their processes
autonomously from any particular task given.
Thursday 19th
July: Re-visiting some old favourites whilst not repeating myself (is
that possible?)
I
begin by a combination of the 'map of the senses' together with
'ειμαι εδω'. The simple perceptual
tasks – capturing five visual stimulus, four auditory, 3 tact and
then passing the 'map to someone else (for a longer exposition of
these tasks go to the Dream Project, CLICK HERE) are rethought as a
means to set up the question of establishing the indissoluble
relationship between myself and 'my world' (as intimate, private,
public as one may want to define this world), how I define it (as I
experience it and give it 'sense') but also how it identifies me, as
my sense of myself in the world is implicated in the world that gives
me a sense-of-myself. That is happens as 'movement', it
organisation, definition -defined as a boundary containing the
elements that 'define' it, Nancy would say “make it a figure”/
that “figures” in that which I hold as my sense of 'self. In
using the term figure I am purposely drawing from Nancy, a figure
that which 'hovers' between ground and meaning (is that not what a
sense of self is?).
Therefore,
I propose to them that the first issue of any choreographic process
is who am I (now/here) as I begin a process, in and through movement
(and that DOES NOT mean that I am 'narrating myself, I prefer the
Arendtian 'exposition', more here). From here the perceptual captures become
simple movement/actions, explored, defined, redefined, condensed to
be shared following the audible statement of “this is me....”, at
this point all movement performed is a truth in an unto itself.
There is no need for any further qualification of 'truth' than
exposition of action following such statement. At this point there
is much discussion of 'truth', I toss that one out the window
quickly, 'truth' is only relevant if you want to 'say' something' ,
but since for me dance is not a means to 'saying' (as such) such
question for me (following the Caterpillar advice in Alice in
Wonderland) is simply non-sensical. The act is a truth
(material/concrete) in and of itself, it requires no further
(personal or political) refutation as 'truth'. I am so intolerant
of dancers /dances searching for truth. My answer to them, are you
blind? When did you stop paying a-ttention.
Clarity
becomes quickly attuned to the notion of intensity (truth is
similarly implicated). Intensity embroiled with identity of the
microscopic within the macroscopic. What is that clarity, how is that
clarity either sustained or transformed (both equally possible) when
faced with changing circumstances (again, when does this not happen,
I am not the same as yesterday, what is clarity of myself, within
this?). Therefore, we are quickly understanding that WE ARE NOT
DANCING MEMORY OR FROM MEMORY, it is 'that' now, here, but its
exposition a constant state of present presence. What we now posses
is not a muscle memory re instantiated, but an understanding of
identity as a system of operation, it does not require 'memory', it
is simply the application of what has become 'knowledge' to 'define'
the me-in-now (sometimes memory is needed for knowledge, but not
always, I 'know' verticality -and use it- without committing it to
memory).
Therefore
(because I said I would not repeat myself), it is no longer simply
ειμαι εδω, but
rather I am here/where?, ειμαι εδω,
που? as 'where' inevitably betrays a
'how' (however you can consider 'how', without a where?). Think of
the everyday question how are you vis a vis where are you? Which
one brings the more extended, detailed answer? You can just say I am
good, and little is betrayed, but if I say I am home, a universe of
substantive possibilities are betrayed. Just a thought. For me part
of an understanding of the choreographic
act starts with this. From there a
series of consequences unfold, consequences that betray changing
states of being revealed as movement (silence and stillness within
this but not just this). Therefore, structure is redefined as
pertaining to consequence not a fixed aesthetic, consequence as
'sense searching', not meaning -giving. Through the door enters
'ease' and 'difficulty', twin sisters that come to visit
'consequence' their cousin. Other relatives join in:
concentration, meditation, reflection, fear, the 'wall', that
accompany any moment of 'me-in-and-through-movement'.
We
finish the workshop capturing in 'post card form' ( running out of
metaphors at this point), the journey today. The choice of postcard
is important. It has two sides, one tends to be 'pictorial' concise
and condense, summarising a landscape, a region, a people. The other
side, blank, to be filled with the reflection on the iconic (at
times, at best). So in today's journey, considering both what has
gained the status of iconic clarity, like an 'essence', and what
remains poetic, rambling, sometimes too much, sometimes too little,
but which ever way, when received a postcard betrays the experience
of the writer, it is not 'telling' the landscape, it is not telling
'Paris', 'Berlin', but me faced with/in Paris, Berlin (it made more
sense in practice). From this, homework, what was the most
important 'fact of that journey'? How can that fact develop into a
task that you will give someone else?
Friday
2oth July: Sensing, feeling, seeing, thinking in and through
movement, shaping an experience of 'moving'.
We
split into pairs, and exchange tasks. In doing so I ask the group to
consider the language of the task (I do repeat the discussion of task
versus instruction of the Autumn Lab, CLICK HERE), what it sets,
circumscribes, includes and excludes. The task shapes an experience
of moving that we now allow ourselves to see as productive of
'movement' as such. We seek and explore the consequence of that
first task and seek task 2 and task three, not by adding ideas but by
digging into, the material. Digging, a word chosen on purpose, in
order to 'keep digging' you need to keep disturbing the ground
around, you are constantly shifting, you cannot emptily 'repeat', or
you would no longer be digging, but acting as if you were digging, we
call that (bad) theatre, not dance.
There
was a lot of talk about the homework, as in trying to devise one task
there was confrontation with all the issues raised in the session.
Much discussion of paralysis and fear. Why are dancers in fear -what
are we doing wrong in the pedagogy of dance (and we cannot just blame
ballet) that we all speak of fear, not courage.
After
these three sessions, we move into the first sessions of 'independent
lab time', each participant working towards their research
'portfolio' (not just a piece), their explorations....I emphasise
that part of the lab is becoming a support community, where each
represents a source for the others, the lab will be most successful
when what is stronger is the participants exchange, triggered by the
visitors, the visitors are not the point, the participants are. There
are still some 'tasks' given, really more than tasks as such they are
ways to structure the research sessions, but they still provide a
net, just in case, but this moves towards more and more independence.
Kiriakos
Spirou takes over the next sessions. And there will be a jam on
Saturday 28th....
