October 27, 2007

Video Highlights: Wild Meadows 2007

Last summer I co-organized the Wild Meadows Improvisation Intensive with founder Cyrus Khambatta. The two of us, plus Nicole Bindler and Sharon Mansur, led a week long study of diverse approaches to improvisational exploration and performance. The participants were other colleagues and professionals from Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Ohio and the mid-atlantic region. Two of our main themes were exploring authenticity and awareness, which we did through a number of structures and points of view. We touched upon Laban work, The Feldenkrais Method, 6 View Points, Contact Improvisation, meditation as well as performance scores and lots of late night jamming in the barn. Here are some hightlights:

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October 24, 2007

Creating a History

What are we doing when we make work? What is this process of creating a performance with a group of people? What does it mean to choreograph or direct a work?

I'm sure alot of people have both personal and more general perspectives on these questions. And, all artists create a process, or a couple of processes, to lead them through the making of work. For a while now I have thought of this process as creating a history with the other performers. Each rehearsal we make alittle more history - have experiences, gain better understanding, deepen relationships and find more options. These experiences become the history that we then perform - we don't, and can't, perform all of our history, but it is there - like a back story that a novelist knows but is not in the book, but influences what the reader gets to read. And, each performance becomes part of our history as well. When we performed at Carter Baron Ampitheater we had an experience that was unique for those people who were there - it is something we share and understand. If you weren't there you can't understand. These events and moments add up to what becomes the next performance. Even the moments at the beginning of each rehearsal where people are warming up and chatting - learning about one another's lives, or thoughts or funny quirks - this becomes part of the history of the work, or this group and, I fully believe, influences the work. It is partly a matter of building trust between the performers, but is is also intimacy, familiarity and understanding.

Most of the work I do takes quite a bit of time to create because we do spend so much time just dancing together to begin to have a history together - of course as The PlayGround stays stable with its members we already have a history and can move forward quicker. I have a colleague who once bragged about choreographing a dance in 3 rehearsals - I usually barely have an idea about who we are, let alone what the dance is going to be at 3 rehearsals. But, different processes for different folks, as they kind of say...

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October 20, 2007

Structuring Rehearsals

I'm interested in how we structure the rehearsal process when building work.

Firstly, if you are unable to have a separate company class, how do you include the building of a common language or point of view into the rehearsal structure. What I mean is creating an understanding that is larger than just the dance you're working on - concepts, approaches, etc.. that carry over and build from dance to dance. How do you make time and space and not feel like you are loosing time on "the piece"?

Secondly, how does your rehearsal process change due to the work your creating? Obviously the more time I have the more slowly I can build and discover the work. But, beyond that, does the subject matter or structure of the work change your working process? Should it? How?

I think right now, this fall, I'm enjoying our rehearsal process, and that is partly because we are taking a lot of time to dance and explore different approaches and concepts (some of which I'll write about here soon). But, in the next couple of weeks, we'll be spending more time with specific information, images and ideas for My ocean is never blue, but right now we're getting to know one another - especially with our new company members. 

Not long ago I was talking to a fellow choreographer and he was, in a way, boasting about how he had just choreographed a dance in three rehearsals - I couldn't quite wrap my head around that possibility. Even with dancers I know and am familiar with it takes me three rehearsals to even begin to find my grounding in a work. Not that his approach was wrong - it certainly worked for him - but, I do wonder about the end product and is it a fully authentic  expression. Maybe it is and I'm just a slow poke...

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October 16, 2007

(c.)ontact and Weight

Today in my improvisation class I'm currently teaching I introduced (c.)ontact (i.)mprovisation and the idea of giving and receiving weight. It is always such a challenge to get people to use their weight in relation to another person - there is hesintancy to really use weight - "I feel like I'm going to crush them." Though, I find that most people either have a fear of giving their weight or a fear of receiving weight - some, a few, are either fearless or fearful of both. Most people fall into one camp. So, I start slow - with lying, gently giving alittle weight and then alittle more. Slowly lying on top of their partner - not doing anything, just lying there. And then gradually adding in small rolling and shifts. Usually, and it was true today, there are looks of disbelief and then giggles and finally "Wow! I feel so relaxed." My main point this first day was for them to start to experience the difference between partnering work in c.i. and other forms of dance - mainly, in c.i. we support our partners and in other forms of dance you lift your partner. Lifting is done with muscles and supporting is done with bones and structure. We can support alot more weight than we can lift. But, we start slowly.

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October 11, 2007

Drought

Water is everywhere. Well, kind of. Earlier this week on the Kojo Nnamdi Show (DC/NPR radio program) had a discussion about the state of the Chesapeake Bay. Today on the front page of the Washington Post in an article about the lack of rain fall in the DC area. On the Kojo Nnamdi show it was mentioned that Maryland would be the third most impacted state due to rising oceans after Louisiana and Florida - mostly likely because of the bay. And, some counties are starting to put restrictions on water use because their reservoir are low. It will be interested to see what happens if water becomes more of an issue in the DC region. Adding drought to the fact that the Potomic and Anacostia Rivers are incredibly polluted, it just might get some people's attention. There is nothing like having an international crisis all of a sudden in your backyard - as when all the senators and congresspeople can't water their lawns... I'm not saying this would be a good thing, but it might get things moving. 

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October 9, 2007

Breathing Together

Last weekend (Fri & Sun) we began rehearsing with the new members of the company. It is always interesting to have new people and their energy in rehearsal. These first couple of rehearsals are more about getting to know each other than about creating work. I try and take time to just move together, to establish a language and a sense of one another. Rushing to quickly into trying to be productive always seems to be counter productive. So, for these first rehearsals we really just worked on different improvisational skills, structures and concepts. We started each rehearsal doing some Contact Improvisation and moved into solo and group scores. On Sunday we went through some scores that focused on the breath. Here is a brief description of the solo and groups scores:

Breath Phrasing: First just breath. Follow the inhale and the exhale. After a time, begin to move - doing only one movement with each breath cycle. One movement that spans the inhale and the exhale. Continue like this for a while. Then begin to do one movement with the inhale and one movement with the exhale. Two movements for each breath cycle. Continue to do this for a while. Begin to change the number of movements per inhale, per exhale. Maybe do 3 movements during the inhale and 2 during the exhale. Or, 4 during the inhale and 1 as you exhale. Keep playing with the number of movements during your breath cycle. Let movements overlap from one to the next. Continue. Breath Coordination: Standing in a circle, one person begins to coordinate their breath with a simple plier - inhale and straighten the legs, exhale and bend the legs. As the rest of the circle coordinates their breath with the first person they add in to the plier. All breathe and plier together for a time. Gradually dancers can begin to explore their breath phrasing while staying in breathing coordination with one other. As the phrasing develops, let the circle dissipate, move through the space, all the time keeping the intention of being in breath coordination with one other. Continue to let it develop.

These scores, which are such a nice way to connect inner to outer and individual to group, were inspired by my music for dance teacher at Sarah Lawrence College, Norma Dalby.

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October 4, 2007

Library Videos

Two people videotaped our performance last week at the Martin Luther Kind Library, as part of the DC Improvisation Festival, and posted these videos to their blogs. Here they are:

The first, from Shallom, posted to her blog Dance in Time and Space, is an excerpt of the middle of the work:

The next video is an edited version that Boris Willis posted to his Dance-A-Day site:

Click To Play

I had two reactions to these videos - 1. I loved that the performance was videotaped and then shared on the web - especially since I didn't get it together to get it videotaped myself. 2. I wondered what the protocol is to videotape someone else's work, edit it and then post it to your website. Neither of these people asked permission to video or post the video even though the work is copyrighted and clearly under my direction. Now, with Boris, I follow his Dance-A-Day site and thought he might videotape the performance and post it, but never had a conversation with him around that. I had no idea Shallom was even videotaping and wouldn't have known about the post if I didn't see it listed on another blog. Again, I'm actually fine with the fact that it happened, it just made me wonder about the legal and moral responsibilities of this kind of act. Is it necessary to ask permission? Is it just good manners? Does it even matter?

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October 1, 2007

The Library Performance

Last Friday (9/28) the company performed a version of My ocean is never blue in front of the Martin Luther King Library as part of the DC Improvisation Festival. For this performance we took a couple of sections we'd worked on and re-edited them together to make a short (15 minute) work. It was interesting to go down to the site without rehearsing there, and making a couple of decisions on the spot - including our actual performing space. So, the structure we created had to be some what flexible. Luckily we had performed in August at the Carter Baron Ampitheater in the woods as people entered, so we were somewhat prepared. Just before our performance Kelly Mayfield and her company, Contradiction Dance, performed. It was interested to see our two different approaches. Kelly did a full on work that could easily be moved into a theater, or, rather, was moved out of a theater to the sidewalk.

I, and the company, eliminated a lot of the more theatrical elements (including our normal costumes) and really scaled down this version. I could probably be proved wrong, but I think it is hard to do layered work that needs alot of attention outside. You are competing with too much and people's attention is less focused. Kelly had a sound system, live text, costumes, props, audience participation and a combination of choreography and improvisation - and it is a fairly intense work about hope, America, etc.... I'm just not sure I was able to take it all in with people talking, moving in and out, trucks driving by, and the such. I always find that simpler work works best outside. For this version we started with a slow walk, followed by a simple gesture score, some solos and then a stillness/movement score. Nothing fancy, just trying to get to something essential. Now, people did really enjoy Kelly's performance, so maybe I'm wrong. But, as a performer I've felt much better when I'm not competing with the environment, but kind of sliding into it to slightly shift a perspective. To change the space a couple of degrees so that people see it in a new way.

photo by Claire Walker

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