Somewhere Out There
So the Movement Research Festival is going on right now. Their theme this year is "Somewhere Out There". Go! Bring a friend! As far as I am concerned, they are far and away the most interesting, intellectually significant dance org in New York right now. Sorry if I just offended anybody with that.
Especially check out the party at Judson on June 8th. The Cheapcake Dance Club will be performing, and they're pretty much the best improv/research/performance group that I've ever seen... er... been a part of. But seriously though, we're working with some very interesting issues, and i think very highly of my Cheapcake colleagues.
Anyhow, the "Somewhere Out There" theme is hugely relevant for me: as of last Saturday, I am an official inhibitor of somewhere out there. I've left New York after 22 years, and am making a go of it in Berlin. However, as of right now, I am left with a series of interesting new problems. I have left New York, but much of my work remains there.
Anna and I have 6 weeks until the Emerging Choreographers show as part of Zia Artists SummerDanz series at DTW. The question is: how do we develop and deepen our practice of the work in this period? How do we use our new perspective as an advantage?
Some thoughts:
--Re-examine the foundations of the specific work. As the piece that me and Anna are doing for this show is highly improvisational, that means returning to the initial improvisations. I want to go deeper and re-examine the breadth and the specificity of what we're working with, so that when I return, I feel very comfortable in the context of the piece.
--Use the new perspective as an advantage. Making work in which I will also perform is quite hard. It's not easy to get out of choreographer mind and avoid making choreographic decisions when you are wearing the dancer hat. I find myself trying to edit the piece from the inside, rather than only working on the frame and allowing myself freedom when I am dancing the piece. I want to use this time as an opportunity to shift that perception. The work is more or less set now. I got to free my mind, and the rest will follow, as some very wise women once said.
--Start sharing. I plan to share a couple clips of the piece online with mentors and collaborators to get some feedback. This will (hopefully) make me more comfortable with having it be seen, taking ownership of it, and will make the process of it going up less stressful and more fulfilling.
--Hold the questions. When you're rehearsing many times a week. You can sit with questions as you're going, but you constantly have to confront them as you're working. With the hard questions about the nature of the piece, you don't have time to distance yourself enough to get new vantage points. Sure, there is definitely an advantage to inundation, but there is also an advantage to having the opportunity to really meditate upon the central questions and problems of the piece.
Let's see if these things help me.
Also, I just want to take a moment to plug another long distance piece I'm doing.
My piece, "Im Bade Wohnen (Bath Living)", will be performed at the Tank on June 14th an 15th as part of a shared evening curated by my good friend and talented colleauge, Bryan Campbell.
Or just buy tickets right now
here.More plugging of that to come.
Posted by
Jacob Peter Kovner on May 29, 2008 12:32 PM
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