October 20, 2007

Stillness Scores

In our work with rider-less horses we practice "Stillness Scores." They are performed most successfully when the horses are grazing in a large, open field.

The "Stillness Score" is a quiet mirroring exercise in which we spatially align our spines - head and tail - with our equine partner. We mirror the smallest shift of weight or change of focus. We try to find a common breath.

Our stillness is what catches their eye.

Before long the horse's ear is on us.

Once this has been accomplished release the intensity of time and space.

Walk away. Move out of stillness. Open the space between...

Second rule of engagement. Release.

Repeat this process many times: Approach. Retreat. Shrink the space.

This becomes a dance that is all about shaping the space between myself and the horse.

Patience.

If I practice this score long enough, if my movement is fluid enough, if my stillness is patient enough, I might become the leader.

Posted by JoAnna Mendl Shaw at 8:53 AM - Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

October 16, 2007

I begin with my hands...

Hands are tremendously important in our dances with horses.

This is a brief description of how they convey intent and meaning.

Hands

I begin with my hands.

One hand placed on the shoulder. My palm is fully in contact with the muscular contour of the horse's shoulder. I find a gentle anchor with the heel, palm and fingers and adjust my chest, pelvis, legs and shoulder girdle so that I can feel my point of contact falling through my vertical skeleton and simultaneously into the vertical skeleton of the horse's shoulder girdle.

I can rest my hand there for a while. As the horse shifts I keep my hand there and readjust my body. If there is a large weight shift I disconnect. Here the score diverges in several possible directions. If the movement is a turn of the head, my body will spiral with the directionality of the head. If the horse moves his feet I shift with him. If he drops his head to graze, I lower my torso, legs straight, til my fingers touch the ground.

Again the score diverges here. I can either place my hands on the ground in front of me, reaching as far as possible before I settle my weight into my hands and finally fold into lying into with my weight resting onto one elbow.

Or I can remain in that poised pike position, listening to the rhythm of pulling grass and chewing. With my next action I try to match that grazing and chewing pace. I pull up a handful of grass up and toss it, first randomly, then with slight intention towards the horse. A horse can feel a fly on his back. So the tossed grass elicits an attentive response. I time my pull and toss to the horse's pull and rhythmic chewing.

Now he is listening to me. I can shift the rhythmic pressure from tossed grass to a rhythmic flicking of the hands. Or arms. How and where the horse moves his feet, I mirror the motion. Exactly. Matching center of gravity. Matching weight, matching speed, matching the flow of the muscles as they contract and release.

He moves forward. I match his legs. Right for right. Left for left. If the movement continues I continue.

Usually at this juncture there is a pause, a checking in. He begins to follow me, sponging off my sense of time and flow.

Now we are in direct dialogue.

Posted by JoAnna Mendl Shaw at 11:11 AM - Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

October 13, 2007

Speaking Eloquently to Non-verbal Creatures

Doug Fox, creator of Great Dance, approached me a few weeks ago at Dance/NYC's goodbye party for Bob Yesselman. Doug asked what I do and when I informed him that I choreographed performance works for dancers and horses, he was immediately interested. That is not always the reaction I get from people in the dance world.

Puzzlement would better describe the typical response. The various sub texts of that puzzled response might include: "Is this really dance?" "How do you choreograph for horses?" "Where do you rehearse?" "Do you perform in New York City? Where?"

I would like to have my performance work for dancers and horses receive the ear and  full attention of the dance world. A blog seemed like a terrific opportunity to talk to the dance world, and other worlds as well. I decided to join forces with Doug  Fox and create a blog about my work.
So here is my first post. In it, I would like to give readers some background information about how I started doing this work:

Making work for dancers and horses began with a commission from Mount Holyoke College in 1998. I was asked to make a work for the 20th Anniversary of the Five College Dance Program (Amherst, Mount Holyoke, Smith, UMass and Hampshire College). The performance would coincide with an alumnae weekend and the kick-off for a major Mount Holyoke College ( MHC) capitol campaign.  My objective was to bring dance into the foreground of alumnae and trustees' consciousness, to create a performance work that would showcase the amazing Five College dancers and the excellent MHC Equestrian Team. To accomplish this I created a trilogy of works for three venues on the Mount Holyoke College campus.

The trilogy In the Landscape: Dancing with Horses featured, in total, 33 dancers and 12 horses. Hillside was a work created for a large hillside with a cast of 25 dancers, all in white and a white horse and rider and dance soloist. The work involved dancers and non-dancers from the MHC and Five College community. Hillside was visually spectacular and hugely challenging to create. It took untold hours of coordination and would have fared better as a 2-hour installation than a performance work for captive audience. The white horse we planned to use was a dressage horse that did not fare well when ridden in an outdoor venue. We filled in with a Northampton friend and her white trail horse. The second work was a dressage piece for 6 horses and 8 dancers created for the central green at Mount Holyoke College. For this work my composer, Cam Millar, timed the equine gaits for horses on the Dressage Team and wrote music that perfectly suited their movement. The following spring the MHC Dressage Team used Cam's music for their group ride competition!

The third work in the trilogy was Body on Body, created for three horses and riders and five dancers. This was the most successful portion of the trilogy. Created for the Mount Holyoke indoor equestrian arena, Body on Body was about women and horses. During the creation of this piece we spent hours improvising with the riders and their horses. The dancers developed a feeling for how to guide the horses from the ground with precisely chiseled phrases that shaped the space. One memorable afternoon we realized the horses were following the dancers. In that moment I realized we had stumbled on a movement language that could speak eloquently to non-verbal creatures. If ridden with a slightly loose rein, the horses would make their own decisions about gait and direction. The horses were responding to the dancers. Thus began a decade of intense choreographic investigation.

Posted by JoAnna Mendl Shaw at 3:47 PM - Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)