Exchanges of Practice @ DanceEast
A professional development project for independent artists working across dance, performance and the visual arts.
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Coming together through a regional as well as international network independent artists took turn in leading studio sessions.
They shared what is most relevant to them in their current practice. In the documentation below I aimed to capture some snapshots of the dialogues that took place as a way to strengthen and value the diverse voices of artists and of the knowledge and common experiences that emerged in the creative process. Participation was by invitation and free. Events were supported by the Arts Council England, DanceEast, Dance @ University of Suffolk & Independent Dance |
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DOCUMENTATION
The documentation of the workshops is a recording of my own experiences and of the discussions that emerged within the group of participants. Living in someone else's creative process for a brief moment had long lasting effects on me, regardless of how much overlap there is with my own artistic interests. I feel very grateful for the shared vulnerabilities and provocations which formed an integral part of this project. |
WORKSHOPS 2014 - 2019:
2019 May 3 Takeshi Matsumoto (JAP/ UK), Mar 29 & Apr 5 Joshua Hubbard (UK) 2017 Feb 25 Maresa von Stockert (GER/FR/UK) 2016 Dec 10 Amrou Al Kadhi (UK/IRQ) & Jay Jay Revlon (UK), Jul 11 Annie Hanauer (US/FR), May 27 & 28 Martin Hargreaves (UK), May 18 Debbie Watkins Jones (UK) 2015 Dec 19 - 21 Mark Lorimer (BEL/UK), Dec 5 Mirra Arun (IND), Oct 26 Divya Kasturi (IND/UK), May 27 Lucy Blazheva (UK), Apr 8 Laura McGill (UK), Feb 18 Kate Flurrie (UK) & Tom Hobden (UK) 2014 Dec 17 Juan Guerra-Valiente (SP/ UK) & Stephanie Schober (UK/ GER) |
Friday May 3, 2019, 11.30am - 4.30pm
Takeshi Matsumoto has a wide range of experiences in various styles of performance such as physical theatre, Butoh, Japanese folk dance and drum, and has been collaborating as dancer with Hagit Yakira. He trained as a Dance Movement Psychotherapist working mainly with autistic children. He led an explorative studio session introducing the group to his artistic ethos and explaining the range of influences on his practice. It was all about making space to pay attention to each other. The workshop culminated in a beautiful moment when the participants paired up to 'dance together spontaneously'. The quiet qualities of non-judgemental observation had developed by interacting with each other. In the subsequent talk Takeshi introduced the making of his short film entitled “We Belong” (2019) which was made with stateless children in Thailand to explore and capture a sense of identity and growth.
Takeshi Matsumoto has a wide range of experiences in various styles of performance such as physical theatre, Butoh, Japanese folk dance and drum, and has been collaborating as dancer with Hagit Yakira. He trained as a Dance Movement Psychotherapist working mainly with autistic children. He led an explorative studio session introducing the group to his artistic ethos and explaining the range of influences on his practice. It was all about making space to pay attention to each other. The workshop culminated in a beautiful moment when the participants paired up to 'dance together spontaneously'. The quiet qualities of non-judgemental observation had developed by interacting with each other. In the subsequent talk Takeshi introduced the making of his short film entitled “We Belong” (2019) which was made with stateless children in Thailand to explore and capture a sense of identity and growth.
March 29 & April 5, 2019, 11.30am - 4.30pm
Joshua Hubbard is a dancer, choreographer, actor and model. He has appeared in numerous music videos, films and drag shows, alongside creating his own work. He is the founder of the Manchester and London based HOUSE OF DECAY, a creative Kiki house for Vogue. Over the two days he led a dance session in the studio combined with discussions around his artistic interests and influences. Firmly rooted in the LGBTQI+ community his work is about queer desire and celebrating freedom of expression. He says: 'I encourage people to make an effort with how they dress, the best description I can give, is like they're going on a night out or to at least stand out, something to make them feel more confident.'
Its interesting what happens to your body when putting on a pair of heels. With your weight shifted forwards the simple walking pattern - leaning forwards, falling, catching yourself - seems accelerated, like running non stop and the floor is far away. To teach a diverse group of dancers with no previous experience in Vogue must present some challenges. By inviting people to introduce themselves with a personal fact and to state their preferred pronouns Joshua managed to set a clear tone from the beginning of his workshop. He doesn't care about your dance cv and everyone is welcome. What matters is to commit to a positive atmosphere.
Watching Joshua dance, there is a lot going on at the same time: sharpness and speed thanks to extended practice of dancing in heels, subtle adjustments to maintain balance and alignment in this destabilised state, arms moving fast in complex sequences, articulating every joint. His hands are the main point of focus, their expressivity is hard to match. It is comforting and reassuring to be in the room with someone who is so alive and alert to his surrounding, and who communicates this through dance with such complete ease.
With the help of House of Decay member Micah Holmes, Joshua introduced different aspects of ball culture and vogue categories, from new way and hand performance to old way and femme. We had the opportunity to learn movements, understand the technique better and have a go at improvising with all of that. The emphasis rests on making an immediate impression - 'as soon as you enter you are performing, you've got about 30 seconds '. Competition and a fixation with one's image were explicit which was contextualised through the sharing of key historical influences such as Crystal LaBeija and 'Paris is Burning' as well as current practices including examples of Joshua's own work. Transferring some of these elements into practice was fun and surprising, and freeing. It also felt rough and provoked fear to potentially inflict new insults. Whilst the socio-political context is clear in pointing towards resistance and solidarity the current practice is full of contradictions that needed to be navigated with great care and awareness of power relationships. Perhaps this is why it all felt so relevant and urgent.
One of my favourite parts was an exercise we did at the beginning, just walking and posing. It was telling how difficult this was, even in such a supportive crowd, to just inhabit a space unapologetically, with confidence but without the dance material to distract from oneself.
'Totally liberating and just what I needed' (participant)
Joshua Hubbard is a dancer, choreographer, actor and model. He has appeared in numerous music videos, films and drag shows, alongside creating his own work. He is the founder of the Manchester and London based HOUSE OF DECAY, a creative Kiki house for Vogue. Over the two days he led a dance session in the studio combined with discussions around his artistic interests and influences. Firmly rooted in the LGBTQI+ community his work is about queer desire and celebrating freedom of expression. He says: 'I encourage people to make an effort with how they dress, the best description I can give, is like they're going on a night out or to at least stand out, something to make them feel more confident.'
Its interesting what happens to your body when putting on a pair of heels. With your weight shifted forwards the simple walking pattern - leaning forwards, falling, catching yourself - seems accelerated, like running non stop and the floor is far away. To teach a diverse group of dancers with no previous experience in Vogue must present some challenges. By inviting people to introduce themselves with a personal fact and to state their preferred pronouns Joshua managed to set a clear tone from the beginning of his workshop. He doesn't care about your dance cv and everyone is welcome. What matters is to commit to a positive atmosphere.
Watching Joshua dance, there is a lot going on at the same time: sharpness and speed thanks to extended practice of dancing in heels, subtle adjustments to maintain balance and alignment in this destabilised state, arms moving fast in complex sequences, articulating every joint. His hands are the main point of focus, their expressivity is hard to match. It is comforting and reassuring to be in the room with someone who is so alive and alert to his surrounding, and who communicates this through dance with such complete ease.
With the help of House of Decay member Micah Holmes, Joshua introduced different aspects of ball culture and vogue categories, from new way and hand performance to old way and femme. We had the opportunity to learn movements, understand the technique better and have a go at improvising with all of that. The emphasis rests on making an immediate impression - 'as soon as you enter you are performing, you've got about 30 seconds '. Competition and a fixation with one's image were explicit which was contextualised through the sharing of key historical influences such as Crystal LaBeija and 'Paris is Burning' as well as current practices including examples of Joshua's own work. Transferring some of these elements into practice was fun and surprising, and freeing. It also felt rough and provoked fear to potentially inflict new insults. Whilst the socio-political context is clear in pointing towards resistance and solidarity the current practice is full of contradictions that needed to be navigated with great care and awareness of power relationships. Perhaps this is why it all felt so relevant and urgent.
One of my favourite parts was an exercise we did at the beginning, just walking and posing. It was telling how difficult this was, even in such a supportive crowd, to just inhabit a space unapologetically, with confidence but without the dance material to distract from oneself.
'Totally liberating and just what I needed' (participant)
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FEBRUARY 25, 2017, 2 - 5pm
Tilted Productions’ work combines contemporary dance and circus, object manipulation, physical theatre and performance art. Artistic Director Maresa von Stockert states that 'she seeks to create illusionary worlds that are inspired by, and comment on, human themes – social, environmental and political observations. Real life issues are dissected, played with and taken into the realm of the surreal with thought provoking consequences.' And that 'her work features a constantly evolving interest in the physical dialogue between human bodies and objects. Whether every day objects, specifically designed props, transformable sets, architectures or landscape elements, their role is integral as catalysts for movement and metaphors within the theatrical concept.'
In her workshop she explored ideas around the manipulation of card board boxes, making reference to her current outdoor work 'Belongings'. We were joined by two of her company cancers, Elisa Vassena and Cecil Rowe. During the session we experimented with range of tasks in which the boxes were explored as objects in their own right, objects that have an identity or specific characteristics. They also became spaces between dancers, which reinforced listening to each other in quite unexpected ways
Tilted Productions’ work combines contemporary dance and circus, object manipulation, physical theatre and performance art. Artistic Director Maresa von Stockert states that 'she seeks to create illusionary worlds that are inspired by, and comment on, human themes – social, environmental and political observations. Real life issues are dissected, played with and taken into the realm of the surreal with thought provoking consequences.' And that 'her work features a constantly evolving interest in the physical dialogue between human bodies and objects. Whether every day objects, specifically designed props, transformable sets, architectures or landscape elements, their role is integral as catalysts for movement and metaphors within the theatrical concept.'
In her workshop she explored ideas around the manipulation of card board boxes, making reference to her current outdoor work 'Belongings'. We were joined by two of her company cancers, Elisa Vassena and Cecil Rowe. During the session we experimented with range of tasks in which the boxes were explored as objects in their own right, objects that have an identity or specific characteristics. They also became spaces between dancers, which reinforced listening to each other in quite unexpected ways
DECEMBER 10, 2016
"Queer Robin Hoods - Ransacking the Edifice of Mainstream Culture"
Since 2010 Amrou Al Kadhi has been creating and performing with his drag troupe Denim whilst also making his work as a filmmaker and writer. In his work he explores queer strategies for playing with and manipulating mainstream culture: He is interested in finding new ways to undermine and critique dominant culture whilst using its language. Amrou has invited DJ, drag queen and voguer Jay Jay Revlon / Jason Cameron to lead a studio session. It was an amazing insight into Jason's approach to voguing and his influences providing an opportunity for us to try out the wide palette of gestures and walks associated with this art form.
"Queer Robin Hoods - Ransacking the Edifice of Mainstream Culture"
Since 2010 Amrou Al Kadhi has been creating and performing with his drag troupe Denim whilst also making his work as a filmmaker and writer. In his work he explores queer strategies for playing with and manipulating mainstream culture: He is interested in finding new ways to undermine and critique dominant culture whilst using its language. Amrou has invited DJ, drag queen and voguer Jay Jay Revlon / Jason Cameron to lead a studio session. It was an amazing insight into Jason's approach to voguing and his influences providing an opportunity for us to try out the wide palette of gestures and walks associated with this art form.
JULY 11, 2016
Originally from the US, Annie Hanauer is an independent dancer, teacher and maker working in the UK and France. Annie has led classes and workshops for diverse groups of people around the world, and her approach is shaped by her belief that talented dancers come in all forms. Annie has been a dancer with Candoco Dance Company from 2008 - 2014.
Annie Hanauer's workshop was focussed on structured improvisation and strategies for 'composing in the moment'. She drew from her current research and the many influences she gained throughout her dance career, in particular choreographer Thomas Hauert who was commissioned to create a work with Candoco when she still was a dancer in the company.
Her workshop began with some fun movement, sound and name games. Annie then developed this into a longer task, a combination of 'flocking' (maintaining the same facing in a group) and the 'morphing' of individual's movement and sound into one coherent idea within a group. The process included instant copying of each other and individual strategies to influence the group's direction.
Most interesting was when the group became more familiar with each other and the rules naturally relaxed. Everyone then was less busy to do the right thing and seemed to have more space to listen to each other, to back each other up or to take the lead and inject new ideas. Many often funny scenarios emerged spontaneously.
Originally from the US, Annie Hanauer is an independent dancer, teacher and maker working in the UK and France. Annie has led classes and workshops for diverse groups of people around the world, and her approach is shaped by her belief that talented dancers come in all forms. Annie has been a dancer with Candoco Dance Company from 2008 - 2014.
Annie Hanauer's workshop was focussed on structured improvisation and strategies for 'composing in the moment'. She drew from her current research and the many influences she gained throughout her dance career, in particular choreographer Thomas Hauert who was commissioned to create a work with Candoco when she still was a dancer in the company.
Her workshop began with some fun movement, sound and name games. Annie then developed this into a longer task, a combination of 'flocking' (maintaining the same facing in a group) and the 'morphing' of individual's movement and sound into one coherent idea within a group. The process included instant copying of each other and individual strategies to influence the group's direction.
Most interesting was when the group became more familiar with each other and the rules naturally relaxed. Everyone then was less busy to do the right thing and seemed to have more space to listen to each other, to back each other up or to take the lead and inject new ideas. Many often funny scenarios emerged spontaneously.
MAY 27 & 28, 2016
Flamboyant Gestures: Camp expressivity.
To camp is a mode of seduction - one which employs flamboyant mannerisms susceptible of a double interpretation; gestures full of duplicity, with a witty meaning for cognoscenti and another, more impersonal, for outsiders. (Susan Sontag, Notes on Camp, 1964)
A former editor of Dance Theatre Journal, Martin Hargreaves currently is a lecturer in Fine Art at Goldsmiths and in New Performative Practices at DOCH, Stockholm.
This is a summary of Martin's seminar topic in his own words:
"Camp is a term that has a variety of meanings and that suggests, eventually, the uncertainty of meaning-making. The word ‘Camp’ is grammatically flexible, has a disputed etymology, and conflicting histories of usage. In addition to this slipperiness it is often used to describe something that is non serious and is not to be taken seriously. We will take this elusive phenomena or sensibility as the starting point for our interest in gestures which seem to express one thing but also say another. We will look at Victorian hysterics and drag queens, butch/femme dynamics and political speeches, tracing how the performance of gestures produces affective relations. Central to this will be the notion of the copy as either inferior to the original and as a perpetuation of a style. The citation and the quote are central to camp and we will consider these as choreographic tactics. This workshop explores flamboyance, duplicity and a theatricality which invites multiple interpretations."
The two days were packed with references to an eclectic mix of artists across different generations, and the discussions that evloved around their practices. It was great to look at so many different artists, and to get a sense of how historical events and political climates at the time are reflected in their work. Yet the works themselves don't change very much, but seem to maintain their identity. Karen Finley stuck with me. I was captivated by the humour within all the urgency that flows through her work and acts like a form of protection from being pinned down into the predictable. I was also fascinated by Ryan Trecartin. His digital video work is so dense and fast paced that it invites you to watch it over and over, and discover new detail and meanings each time. I thought he was exploring an obsession with manipulating and sharing images of ourselves made possible through the easy access to new technologies. By embracing the 'fake' and the 'over the top acting' as an artistic strategy he seems to uncover new potential to understand and reinvent oneself outside of conventional mainstream representations. Yet at the same time he is using new media to influence and perhaps subvert conventional aesthetics. I saw this as a confident desire to communicate openly with audiences on many platforms. It was also difficult to not immediately make connections to one's own cultural background, and interpret all in relation to that, for me this is Polittunten from Berlin in the 1990s, which have influenced my own perspective. Judith Butler's writing was a good point of reference providing a way of questioning and challenging assumptions about gender that are perhaps more common place than expected, and giving her support to the LGBTQ rights movements through her philospophical enquiry.
Some thoughts from the workshop participants include:
'I wasn't 100% sure of what to expect with Martin and in someway it felt like going back to study in school. I'm guessing it being a lecture gave me this feeling. I don't think having the memory of studying in school as a bad thing but it has been a long time since I've approached work in the way he does. There is something very beneficial about re-establishing this way of connecting to work. My main thoughts at the end of the two days were; how much is consciously constructed when a work is being created and how much do we project or read into things as an audience? Also, how open does a work need to be to allow the audience to project their own feelings onto the work. I don't think that these need to be answered but I feel keeping this in mind will aid me as a creator and performer.'
'I hadn't researched Martin and I think that was a good thing. He enlightened me.'
Flamboyant Gestures: Camp expressivity.
To camp is a mode of seduction - one which employs flamboyant mannerisms susceptible of a double interpretation; gestures full of duplicity, with a witty meaning for cognoscenti and another, more impersonal, for outsiders. (Susan Sontag, Notes on Camp, 1964)
A former editor of Dance Theatre Journal, Martin Hargreaves currently is a lecturer in Fine Art at Goldsmiths and in New Performative Practices at DOCH, Stockholm.
This is a summary of Martin's seminar topic in his own words:
"Camp is a term that has a variety of meanings and that suggests, eventually, the uncertainty of meaning-making. The word ‘Camp’ is grammatically flexible, has a disputed etymology, and conflicting histories of usage. In addition to this slipperiness it is often used to describe something that is non serious and is not to be taken seriously. We will take this elusive phenomena or sensibility as the starting point for our interest in gestures which seem to express one thing but also say another. We will look at Victorian hysterics and drag queens, butch/femme dynamics and political speeches, tracing how the performance of gestures produces affective relations. Central to this will be the notion of the copy as either inferior to the original and as a perpetuation of a style. The citation and the quote are central to camp and we will consider these as choreographic tactics. This workshop explores flamboyance, duplicity and a theatricality which invites multiple interpretations."
The two days were packed with references to an eclectic mix of artists across different generations, and the discussions that evloved around their practices. It was great to look at so many different artists, and to get a sense of how historical events and political climates at the time are reflected in their work. Yet the works themselves don't change very much, but seem to maintain their identity. Karen Finley stuck with me. I was captivated by the humour within all the urgency that flows through her work and acts like a form of protection from being pinned down into the predictable. I was also fascinated by Ryan Trecartin. His digital video work is so dense and fast paced that it invites you to watch it over and over, and discover new detail and meanings each time. I thought he was exploring an obsession with manipulating and sharing images of ourselves made possible through the easy access to new technologies. By embracing the 'fake' and the 'over the top acting' as an artistic strategy he seems to uncover new potential to understand and reinvent oneself outside of conventional mainstream representations. Yet at the same time he is using new media to influence and perhaps subvert conventional aesthetics. I saw this as a confident desire to communicate openly with audiences on many platforms. It was also difficult to not immediately make connections to one's own cultural background, and interpret all in relation to that, for me this is Polittunten from Berlin in the 1990s, which have influenced my own perspective. Judith Butler's writing was a good point of reference providing a way of questioning and challenging assumptions about gender that are perhaps more common place than expected, and giving her support to the LGBTQ rights movements through her philospophical enquiry.
Some thoughts from the workshop participants include:
'I wasn't 100% sure of what to expect with Martin and in someway it felt like going back to study in school. I'm guessing it being a lecture gave me this feeling. I don't think having the memory of studying in school as a bad thing but it has been a long time since I've approached work in the way he does. There is something very beneficial about re-establishing this way of connecting to work. My main thoughts at the end of the two days were; how much is consciously constructed when a work is being created and how much do we project or read into things as an audience? Also, how open does a work need to be to allow the audience to project their own feelings onto the work. I don't think that these need to be answered but I feel keeping this in mind will aid me as a creator and performer.'
'I hadn't researched Martin and I think that was a good thing. He enlightened me.'
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May 18, 2016
This workshop was led by Debbie Watkins Jones. Her research interest is choreographed movement in relation to the drawn mark and/or other visual art work. Debbie is interested in questions about how we relate to objects in space, whether they are everyday objects or art works. How does the response to the presence or sight (or memory) of an object affect our movement and become dance? Through a series of short movement tasks we explored our response to known/imagined/created visual stimuli. We started off with quick doodle drawings, which became scores for movement. We then tried a group improvisation with 'post it' notes, before we worked with a more crafted artefact. Debbie also presented a work-in-progress which has been made with her performance group 'Dance From the Heart''. The piece captures the dancers' responses to photography of August Sander, 1876 - 1964.
This workshop was led by Debbie Watkins Jones. Her research interest is choreographed movement in relation to the drawn mark and/or other visual art work. Debbie is interested in questions about how we relate to objects in space, whether they are everyday objects or art works. How does the response to the presence or sight (or memory) of an object affect our movement and become dance? Through a series of short movement tasks we explored our response to known/imagined/created visual stimuli. We started off with quick doodle drawings, which became scores for movement. We then tried a group improvisation with 'post it' notes, before we worked with a more crafted artefact. Debbie also presented a work-in-progress which has been made with her performance group 'Dance From the Heart''. The piece captures the dancers' responses to photography of August Sander, 1876 - 1964.
December 22, 2015
We have just spent three days with Mark Lorimer, who has been leading our first more intensive choreographic lab. Since graduating from the London School of Contemporary Dance in 1991, Mark Lorimer has worked as dancer, choreographer, teacher and rehearsal director. His main collaborations as a dancer have been with Rosas/Anne-Teresa De Keersmaeker (1994 - present) and with ZOO/Thomas Hauert (1997- 2005). Alongside these he has worked on many projects with (among others) The Featherstonehaughs/Lea Anderson, Bock and Vincenzi, Mia Lawrence, Jonathan Burrows, Deborah Hay, Alix Eynaudi and Boris Charmatz. As a rehearsal director he has worked on several creations with Rosas and continues to tour with "Vortex Temporum" while dancing in Boris Charmatz's most recent work "Manger". As a choreographer he has made two full-length evenings "To Intimate" with cellist Thomas Luks and fellow Rosas mainstay Cynthia Loemij, and "Dancesmith - Camel, Weasel, Whale" again with Cynthia plus graphic artist and dancer Clinton Stringer. He has also made works with students of the Laban Centre, London and a duet with Chrysa Parkinson - "Nylon Solution". Mark teaches regularly at P.A.R.T.S., and has been invited to teach at Impulstanz in 2015.
Working in trios he introduced us to his analytical methods, which provided new and clever ideas for transforming basic movement material, i.e. walking, into something truly rich and unexpected.
Mark describes his workshop under the title Darwin's Dance:
" In Darwin's Dance, the aim is to first develop a very short movement loop - our simplest dance organism - and transform this, through various clear choreographic procedures, to evolve into an infinitely more complex creature. With the combination of a range of mutations created by any one task, plus our (not entirely) 'natural' selection, we will at each new task choose the new mutation to be carried on through. Where 'theme and variation' usually refer back to their starting point, here each change will organise a constantly forward-moving development - each change creates the new material for the next change. My interest recently has been analysing separation and focusing on the transformation of various aspects inherent within movement, but I hope, in addition that we can work together to develop other new choreographic and performative processes. What happens if you attempt to desynchronise or alter the time, space, dynamic, mechanic or coordination inherent in any movement phrase whilst maintaining the rest? What sort of sophisticated mutants or hybrids can we create?"
The workshop enabled us to not only focus on finding new possibilities within our own movements, but also to work as an ensemble, to make collective decisions when setting as well as when improvising materials. As part of the warm up we experimented with Mark's variations on 'Flocking', a way of following each other spontaneously. The group feeling that developed through this exercise seemed to become an important foundation for everyone to take into the more intensive group work that followed. The detail and quality of movements always remained important. Mark is one of the best communicators I have met, and just watching him demonstrate and articulate his ideas made me want to dance.
Some comments from the participants:
'What I enjoyed most was being mentally and physically challenged, the group evolution and the refining of listening skills.'
'I really enjoyed the sense of group agreement and complicity in the flocking'.
'What I liked most was Mark's approachable and direct manner'.
' Experiencing workshops like this allows for me to engage in another person's practice without the financial pressure or the expectation if I was employed by them.'
Photos below by Jason Haye.
We have just spent three days with Mark Lorimer, who has been leading our first more intensive choreographic lab. Since graduating from the London School of Contemporary Dance in 1991, Mark Lorimer has worked as dancer, choreographer, teacher and rehearsal director. His main collaborations as a dancer have been with Rosas/Anne-Teresa De Keersmaeker (1994 - present) and with ZOO/Thomas Hauert (1997- 2005). Alongside these he has worked on many projects with (among others) The Featherstonehaughs/Lea Anderson, Bock and Vincenzi, Mia Lawrence, Jonathan Burrows, Deborah Hay, Alix Eynaudi and Boris Charmatz. As a rehearsal director he has worked on several creations with Rosas and continues to tour with "Vortex Temporum" while dancing in Boris Charmatz's most recent work "Manger". As a choreographer he has made two full-length evenings "To Intimate" with cellist Thomas Luks and fellow Rosas mainstay Cynthia Loemij, and "Dancesmith - Camel, Weasel, Whale" again with Cynthia plus graphic artist and dancer Clinton Stringer. He has also made works with students of the Laban Centre, London and a duet with Chrysa Parkinson - "Nylon Solution". Mark teaches regularly at P.A.R.T.S., and has been invited to teach at Impulstanz in 2015.
Working in trios he introduced us to his analytical methods, which provided new and clever ideas for transforming basic movement material, i.e. walking, into something truly rich and unexpected.
Mark describes his workshop under the title Darwin's Dance:
" In Darwin's Dance, the aim is to first develop a very short movement loop - our simplest dance organism - and transform this, through various clear choreographic procedures, to evolve into an infinitely more complex creature. With the combination of a range of mutations created by any one task, plus our (not entirely) 'natural' selection, we will at each new task choose the new mutation to be carried on through. Where 'theme and variation' usually refer back to their starting point, here each change will organise a constantly forward-moving development - each change creates the new material for the next change. My interest recently has been analysing separation and focusing on the transformation of various aspects inherent within movement, but I hope, in addition that we can work together to develop other new choreographic and performative processes. What happens if you attempt to desynchronise or alter the time, space, dynamic, mechanic or coordination inherent in any movement phrase whilst maintaining the rest? What sort of sophisticated mutants or hybrids can we create?"
The workshop enabled us to not only focus on finding new possibilities within our own movements, but also to work as an ensemble, to make collective decisions when setting as well as when improvising materials. As part of the warm up we experimented with Mark's variations on 'Flocking', a way of following each other spontaneously. The group feeling that developed through this exercise seemed to become an important foundation for everyone to take into the more intensive group work that followed. The detail and quality of movements always remained important. Mark is one of the best communicators I have met, and just watching him demonstrate and articulate his ideas made me want to dance.
Some comments from the participants:
'What I enjoyed most was being mentally and physically challenged, the group evolution and the refining of listening skills.'
'I really enjoyed the sense of group agreement and complicity in the flocking'.
'What I liked most was Mark's approachable and direct manner'.
' Experiencing workshops like this allows for me to engage in another person's practice without the financial pressure or the expectation if I was employed by them.'
Photos below by Jason Haye.
DECEMBER 5, 2015
The public talk with MIRRA ARUN was attended by members of independent artist group Locus, by dance students at University Campus Suffolk, Gitta Wigro, Independent Dance’s co-director, and Helen Dawson, producer at DanceEast. First Gitta introduced Re:Imagine India, a scheme jointly conceived by Independent Dance in London and Gati Dance in New Delhi to foster artist exchanges between the two cities. Artists are invited to either participate in or to lead a choreographic workshop or to contribute to the other creative development opportunities that are offered to independent dance artists by both organisations.
Mirra Arun was the first artist who was selected to come to London. She participated in the week-long choreographic intensive workshop led by Susan Rethorst. She also presented a solo entitled 'According to official sources', followed by audience feedback.
Mirra explained that in her process she draws from a range of influences, including pop culture, and her approach is multi-media. The sharing of her solo was very well received by the audience at Independent Dance, but she was a bit puzzled by one of the audience member’s responses that it was unexpectedly ‘contemporary’, and that some people seemed to have expected from her to make reference to classical Indian dance forms.
The conversation at DanceEast enabled us to find out a bit more about Mirra’s career so far and how she had arrived at her own creative process. After completing her degree in Commerce Mirra had realised that she had been 'daydreaming about dance all the way along'. Without any formal training (this wasn’t available at the time) Mirra successfully auditioned for Attakkalari Centre for Movement Art in 2002, which is based in Bangalore. The internationally touring dance company was set up in 2000 by its artistic director Jayachandran Palazhy who had spent some years in London training at London Contemporary Dance School. As well as directing his own work, Jayachandran Palazhy has also been inviting international choreographers including Yael Flexer and Constanza Macras to create work for his company.
After leaving the company in 2007, Mirra set herself up as an independent artist.Mirra’s first choreographic work was a duet for her 2 year old son and herself, which she created and performed in her own house, to family and friends and fellow artists. She made a few realisations in this process: ‘The first performance was a flop, he didn’t want to do anything once the audience had arrived. I realised that I need to follow him rather than try to make him do things. I also realised that if you want to create something you can do it anywhere’. This first work was the beginning of a series of improvisation based works with children that Mirra has been creating since.
Working with children has been popular across the globe in the past decade, in fact as the conversation went on, Anna Williams and Tom Roden were performing ‘Doodle Dance’ in the DanceEast’s theatre downstairs, a work that had been created in collaboration with their daughter. Helen explained to us that DanceEast had set up a scheme (MOKO) to commission new work for children. This was created in response to the apparent lack of dance work (there are lots of plays) for children aged 8 – 13 years.
The conversation shifted to support structures dance artists are creating for themselves. Mirra spoke about the collective efforts amongst a group of dance artists in Bangalore to build the infrastructure necessary to research, make and tour dance. We tried to define what type of infra-structures are most useful to us. This includes someone to take care of administration and planning ahead, someone who has a network, access to a studio, access to technical equipment, opportunities to show work at platforms/ festivals, opportunities to engage in professional development, even just the possibility to connect with peers is a form of infra-structure.
To present her recent solo in India, Mirra got together with 4 other artists to tour a mixed bill on an entirely self-funded basis. She is also part of a group of artists who meet spontaneously to share work, to teach each other, and to occasionally invite someone to lead a workshop. Mirra was frustrated by the perceptions she occasionally encounters that local artists’ work was ' less interesting' than those of ‘international’ artists. We all could quickly recall similar situations where it was assumed that people within our local neighbourhood ‘don’t know anything’. Access to conventional studio and stage spaces is a major issue for Mirra’s collective of artists. One imaginative way of responding to this situation was to create an improvisation based ‘art-walk’ through the city.
The public talk with MIRRA ARUN was attended by members of independent artist group Locus, by dance students at University Campus Suffolk, Gitta Wigro, Independent Dance’s co-director, and Helen Dawson, producer at DanceEast. First Gitta introduced Re:Imagine India, a scheme jointly conceived by Independent Dance in London and Gati Dance in New Delhi to foster artist exchanges between the two cities. Artists are invited to either participate in or to lead a choreographic workshop or to contribute to the other creative development opportunities that are offered to independent dance artists by both organisations.
Mirra Arun was the first artist who was selected to come to London. She participated in the week-long choreographic intensive workshop led by Susan Rethorst. She also presented a solo entitled 'According to official sources', followed by audience feedback.
Mirra explained that in her process she draws from a range of influences, including pop culture, and her approach is multi-media. The sharing of her solo was very well received by the audience at Independent Dance, but she was a bit puzzled by one of the audience member’s responses that it was unexpectedly ‘contemporary’, and that some people seemed to have expected from her to make reference to classical Indian dance forms.
The conversation at DanceEast enabled us to find out a bit more about Mirra’s career so far and how she had arrived at her own creative process. After completing her degree in Commerce Mirra had realised that she had been 'daydreaming about dance all the way along'. Without any formal training (this wasn’t available at the time) Mirra successfully auditioned for Attakkalari Centre for Movement Art in 2002, which is based in Bangalore. The internationally touring dance company was set up in 2000 by its artistic director Jayachandran Palazhy who had spent some years in London training at London Contemporary Dance School. As well as directing his own work, Jayachandran Palazhy has also been inviting international choreographers including Yael Flexer and Constanza Macras to create work for his company.
After leaving the company in 2007, Mirra set herself up as an independent artist.Mirra’s first choreographic work was a duet for her 2 year old son and herself, which she created and performed in her own house, to family and friends and fellow artists. She made a few realisations in this process: ‘The first performance was a flop, he didn’t want to do anything once the audience had arrived. I realised that I need to follow him rather than try to make him do things. I also realised that if you want to create something you can do it anywhere’. This first work was the beginning of a series of improvisation based works with children that Mirra has been creating since.
Working with children has been popular across the globe in the past decade, in fact as the conversation went on, Anna Williams and Tom Roden were performing ‘Doodle Dance’ in the DanceEast’s theatre downstairs, a work that had been created in collaboration with their daughter. Helen explained to us that DanceEast had set up a scheme (MOKO) to commission new work for children. This was created in response to the apparent lack of dance work (there are lots of plays) for children aged 8 – 13 years.
The conversation shifted to support structures dance artists are creating for themselves. Mirra spoke about the collective efforts amongst a group of dance artists in Bangalore to build the infrastructure necessary to research, make and tour dance. We tried to define what type of infra-structures are most useful to us. This includes someone to take care of administration and planning ahead, someone who has a network, access to a studio, access to technical equipment, opportunities to show work at platforms/ festivals, opportunities to engage in professional development, even just the possibility to connect with peers is a form of infra-structure.
To present her recent solo in India, Mirra got together with 4 other artists to tour a mixed bill on an entirely self-funded basis. She is also part of a group of artists who meet spontaneously to share work, to teach each other, and to occasionally invite someone to lead a workshop. Mirra was frustrated by the perceptions she occasionally encounters that local artists’ work was ' less interesting' than those of ‘international’ artists. We all could quickly recall similar situations where it was assumed that people within our local neighbourhood ‘don’t know anything’. Access to conventional studio and stage spaces is a major issue for Mirra’s collective of artists. One imaginative way of responding to this situation was to create an improvisation based ‘art-walk’ through the city.
OCTOBER 26, 2015
The workshop was led by dance artist Divya Kasturi, who trained in South Asian dance styles Bharatanatyam and Kathak. Besides creating her own work she is also a classical vocalist with credits including Sir Paul McCartney and Nitin Sawhney in the UK, and has performed with Theatre de Complicite. Her workshop began with an introduction to her current performance piece Forgot Your Password, which is a response to her personal experience of her email being hacked. The work deals with emotional experiences of virtual realities and significance of the virtual identities we need to create of ourselves to be able to enter into those immaterial worlds. Through experimentation with new technologies, tactics of coping with the multiplicity of events in our daily lives are explored. Divya’s artistic practice includes working with complex film projections and with 3D holograms (in collaboration with MUSION).
Following Divya's introduction to her current process, some points around creating with new technologies were discussed with the group:
The workshop moved onto two main practical explorations that currently are a focus in Divya’s process:
1. How can South Asian dance vocabulary manifest itself in a contemporary dancer’s body?
Divya taught us a short phrase that was rich in gestures and rhythmically precise. She then invited us to interpret it freely. The group members presented their versions of the material, having made a range of modifications to the original, such as:
- making it more internal
- introducing level changes and turns
- using gestures as a way of initiating a movement flow through the whole body
- replacing set rhythms with continuous flow
- changing stomps into steps
- listening to the feelings that are evoked by the images and rhythms of the original and responding to these with a personal theatrical answer
- responding to the fragmentation and layering of the original phrase by finding own way of doing several things at the same time
Someone asked Divya: ‘Is it a very different experience for you to perform classical South Asian dance compared to a contemporary dance performance?’
Divya answered: ‘Yes it’s completely different. In traditional Indian dance performance, the preparation is very important, even just putting on the costume and make up. The whole event is very long, and the performance is just one part of it.’ Divya explained that she has even performed in situations where she was unaware of any audience being there with the exception of just a few who might have briefly passed by. Still it was a worthwhile experience for her having to find the mental and physical stamina to sustain her event without audience.
2. How do Western contemporary choreographers access and express emotions?
Emotions were not something that most of us had worked with so specifically as a starting point. Working from memory, stories and with breathing were mentioned, before Divya started to explain the 8 Rasas (disgust, wonder, anger, fear, love, laughter, energy, grief) as a key element in classical Indian dance. Divya demonstrated three variations of laughter, which all appeared so authentic. She seemed to be able to pull this off without any obvious warm up. Some of us tried to experiment but it was difficult to find an entry point.
Divya referred to Richard Schechner’s writings as a resource. In his essay entitled ‘Rasaesthetics’ he states that
“emotions in the Indian aesthetic performance system, far from being personal – based on individual experience, or locked up and accessible only by means of an emotional memory exercise or a private moment (Stanislavski and his disciples) – are to some degree objective, residing in the public or social sphere” (in Banes, S., Lepecki, A. ed (2007) Senses in Performance. Routledge: USA, p.15)
Someone asked Divya if she felt the emotions she was performing. Divya left this quite open, saying that ‘you must feel something’. She explained that the aim was that the audience can ‘taste the flavour’ of the performed emotion, which requires a lot of concentration.
MAY 27, 2015
The workshop was led by dance artist Lucy Blazheva. In collaboration with other dance and visual artists Lucy is currently working towards an exhibition which will take place in a disused library, now a gallery, next May. She has some concerns about how she will be able to attract and engage an audience in this event. Her concerns overlap with her recent personal experience of moving to a new place. In her new environment she seems to be encountering difficulties to explain to people what contemporary dance is and more specifically what she does. So her workshop was a way of sharing and exploring this with the group through conversation and movement.
We started in pairs, imagining hypothetical scenarios, where artists would need to introduce themselves. Taking turns one would talk, the other listen. Lucy gave the listener instructions of how to react to prompt more articulate explanations from their partners.
We discussed what we observed in each other when we tried to explain or sell an idea. This was then translated into a movement duet.
Lucy then gave us some words she had taken from dance job descriptions, like ‘act the part’, ‘problem solving’, ‘thought-provoking’ or ‘detailed’. These were interpreted and incorporated in some way into the emerging duets.
The group reflected on some questions that had emerged in this process and to which different people had quite individual responses to:
- Was there any pleasure in this kind of conversation?
- What sort of relationship are you seeking?
- Does your personal voice come through and how?
- Is time pressure an important factor in this?
- Does how you talk reflect how you create?
- How did you feel about transitioning from a conversation into movement?
- Did it clarify some things you discovered about ourselves or was it forced?
Contemporary dance still seems a mystery to a lot of people, requiring its practitioners to be attentive and explain things that might be common knowledge in other art forms.
APRIL 8, 20
This session was led by choreographer Laura McGill. She codirects ‘Glasshouse’ with fellow choreographer Sarah Lewis, a dance company based in Norwich. Laura and Sarah are interested in making work that is performed in the street and other non-conventional locations. They are concerned with human issues, inviting their audiences to recognise the familiar and to connect with the individual performers through telling stories. They are less interested in spectacle.
The workshop was an opportunity for Laura to revisit the process of making their first site-specific work entitled ‘You, Me and Everybody Else’. This piece has a cast of performers of different age groups, jointly telling the story of a couple’s journey. Laura explained that she likes to use the same creative tasks with professional dancers, actors or untrained performers:
1) Moving around in a group, shake hands, say ‘I really like you’, then repeat and develop without words
2) In partners, one is trying to look away, while the other is trying to catch their partner’s attention
3) In partners, both are trying to touch each other, but they can’t, then they try to pull away from each other but they can’t
Some reflections that came up in the group:
- I really enjoyed being unselfconsciously physical, not thinking about my movements
- It was nice to be able to make choices of how physical to be
- I most enjoyed the pauses, when people took a moment to think about what to do next
- I really liked to slow down to create some intense energy between two body parts without touching
- There were moments where we needed to break away otherwise we got to a standstill
Laura explained that during the performances of ‘You, Me and Everybody Else’, she felt that the middle section, a part where the couple is going through a crisis, didn’t communicate with the audience as well as the first section danced by the youngest and the last section danced by the older couple. Laura wondered whether the darker side of the troubled relationship was something that the audience perhaps recognised but not enjoyed watching. The humour that they had created in the studio didn’t seem to translate so well in the real performance.
We started to talk about complexity and nuance, and how that might be counter-productive in a site-specific context. It might be more powerful to stick to simplicity when naturally there is so much competition from what else is happening in the environment.
‘Glasshouse’ has also just been commissioned by Suffolk Art Link to create a new performance piece for residential care homes. The work will have a participatory element, and it is anticipated that some of the audience members might have dementia. This is a new challenge for Laura, so she also wanted to run a few of her initial ideas and concerns by us. Some shared some of their own experiences of working with people with learning disabilities and physical impairments:
- Keep things simple and direct
- Resist the temptation to wanting to refine and craft the work in detail, when it might not be beneficial to the work and distract from the performers
- Think about how performers will remember or might not remember material. The suggestion was made to always spend some time sharing the material created by individual performers with the whole group. This would be a way to build a common body of knowledge that also allows the choreographer to hold onto and develop materials when working in unpredictable conditions; people might not attend regularly, or physically not be able to repeat what they did before. Or become very frustrated with their changing health conditions.
- Stay open to what is happening in the moment
- Develop some strategies to shape the overall composition that keeps the performers’ own stories at its centre.
The workshop was led by dance artist Divya Kasturi, who trained in South Asian dance styles Bharatanatyam and Kathak. Besides creating her own work she is also a classical vocalist with credits including Sir Paul McCartney and Nitin Sawhney in the UK, and has performed with Theatre de Complicite. Her workshop began with an introduction to her current performance piece Forgot Your Password, which is a response to her personal experience of her email being hacked. The work deals with emotional experiences of virtual realities and significance of the virtual identities we need to create of ourselves to be able to enter into those immaterial worlds. Through experimentation with new technologies, tactics of coping with the multiplicity of events in our daily lives are explored. Divya’s artistic practice includes working with complex film projections and with 3D holograms (in collaboration with MUSION).
Following Divya's introduction to her current process, some points around creating with new technologies were discussed with the group:
- The dependency on expert knowledge when working with new technologies, and often overwhelming the time and cost implications associated with these ("don’t ask me how much I paid…")
- The lack of spontaneity in the creative process; it takes much longer to programme a function than to ask a dancer to change their material
- The exciting questions that are opened when introducing an ‘avatar’ as a performer: What is the relationship between the projected and the real performer? What happens when the technology is so advanced that the audience can’t tell the difference between the two? Why do people want to attend a live event even when the performer is not actually there in the same space?
The workshop moved onto two main practical explorations that currently are a focus in Divya’s process:
1. How can South Asian dance vocabulary manifest itself in a contemporary dancer’s body?
Divya taught us a short phrase that was rich in gestures and rhythmically precise. She then invited us to interpret it freely. The group members presented their versions of the material, having made a range of modifications to the original, such as:
- making it more internal
- introducing level changes and turns
- using gestures as a way of initiating a movement flow through the whole body
- replacing set rhythms with continuous flow
- changing stomps into steps
- listening to the feelings that are evoked by the images and rhythms of the original and responding to these with a personal theatrical answer
- responding to the fragmentation and layering of the original phrase by finding own way of doing several things at the same time
Someone asked Divya: ‘Is it a very different experience for you to perform classical South Asian dance compared to a contemporary dance performance?’
Divya answered: ‘Yes it’s completely different. In traditional Indian dance performance, the preparation is very important, even just putting on the costume and make up. The whole event is very long, and the performance is just one part of it.’ Divya explained that she has even performed in situations where she was unaware of any audience being there with the exception of just a few who might have briefly passed by. Still it was a worthwhile experience for her having to find the mental and physical stamina to sustain her event without audience.
2. How do Western contemporary choreographers access and express emotions?
Emotions were not something that most of us had worked with so specifically as a starting point. Working from memory, stories and with breathing were mentioned, before Divya started to explain the 8 Rasas (disgust, wonder, anger, fear, love, laughter, energy, grief) as a key element in classical Indian dance. Divya demonstrated three variations of laughter, which all appeared so authentic. She seemed to be able to pull this off without any obvious warm up. Some of us tried to experiment but it was difficult to find an entry point.
Divya referred to Richard Schechner’s writings as a resource. In his essay entitled ‘Rasaesthetics’ he states that
“emotions in the Indian aesthetic performance system, far from being personal – based on individual experience, or locked up and accessible only by means of an emotional memory exercise or a private moment (Stanislavski and his disciples) – are to some degree objective, residing in the public or social sphere” (in Banes, S., Lepecki, A. ed (2007) Senses in Performance. Routledge: USA, p.15)
Someone asked Divya if she felt the emotions she was performing. Divya left this quite open, saying that ‘you must feel something’. She explained that the aim was that the audience can ‘taste the flavour’ of the performed emotion, which requires a lot of concentration.
MAY 27, 2015
The workshop was led by dance artist Lucy Blazheva. In collaboration with other dance and visual artists Lucy is currently working towards an exhibition which will take place in a disused library, now a gallery, next May. She has some concerns about how she will be able to attract and engage an audience in this event. Her concerns overlap with her recent personal experience of moving to a new place. In her new environment she seems to be encountering difficulties to explain to people what contemporary dance is and more specifically what she does. So her workshop was a way of sharing and exploring this with the group through conversation and movement.
We started in pairs, imagining hypothetical scenarios, where artists would need to introduce themselves. Taking turns one would talk, the other listen. Lucy gave the listener instructions of how to react to prompt more articulate explanations from their partners.
We discussed what we observed in each other when we tried to explain or sell an idea. This was then translated into a movement duet.
Lucy then gave us some words she had taken from dance job descriptions, like ‘act the part’, ‘problem solving’, ‘thought-provoking’ or ‘detailed’. These were interpreted and incorporated in some way into the emerging duets.
The group reflected on some questions that had emerged in this process and to which different people had quite individual responses to:
- Was there any pleasure in this kind of conversation?
- What sort of relationship are you seeking?
- Does your personal voice come through and how?
- Is time pressure an important factor in this?
- Does how you talk reflect how you create?
- How did you feel about transitioning from a conversation into movement?
- Did it clarify some things you discovered about ourselves or was it forced?
Contemporary dance still seems a mystery to a lot of people, requiring its practitioners to be attentive and explain things that might be common knowledge in other art forms.
APRIL 8, 20
This session was led by choreographer Laura McGill. She codirects ‘Glasshouse’ with fellow choreographer Sarah Lewis, a dance company based in Norwich. Laura and Sarah are interested in making work that is performed in the street and other non-conventional locations. They are concerned with human issues, inviting their audiences to recognise the familiar and to connect with the individual performers through telling stories. They are less interested in spectacle.
The workshop was an opportunity for Laura to revisit the process of making their first site-specific work entitled ‘You, Me and Everybody Else’. This piece has a cast of performers of different age groups, jointly telling the story of a couple’s journey. Laura explained that she likes to use the same creative tasks with professional dancers, actors or untrained performers:
1) Moving around in a group, shake hands, say ‘I really like you’, then repeat and develop without words
2) In partners, one is trying to look away, while the other is trying to catch their partner’s attention
3) In partners, both are trying to touch each other, but they can’t, then they try to pull away from each other but they can’t
Some reflections that came up in the group:
- I really enjoyed being unselfconsciously physical, not thinking about my movements
- It was nice to be able to make choices of how physical to be
- I most enjoyed the pauses, when people took a moment to think about what to do next
- I really liked to slow down to create some intense energy between two body parts without touching
- There were moments where we needed to break away otherwise we got to a standstill
Laura explained that during the performances of ‘You, Me and Everybody Else’, she felt that the middle section, a part where the couple is going through a crisis, didn’t communicate with the audience as well as the first section danced by the youngest and the last section danced by the older couple. Laura wondered whether the darker side of the troubled relationship was something that the audience perhaps recognised but not enjoyed watching. The humour that they had created in the studio didn’t seem to translate so well in the real performance.
We started to talk about complexity and nuance, and how that might be counter-productive in a site-specific context. It might be more powerful to stick to simplicity when naturally there is so much competition from what else is happening in the environment.
‘Glasshouse’ has also just been commissioned by Suffolk Art Link to create a new performance piece for residential care homes. The work will have a participatory element, and it is anticipated that some of the audience members might have dementia. This is a new challenge for Laura, so she also wanted to run a few of her initial ideas and concerns by us. Some shared some of their own experiences of working with people with learning disabilities and physical impairments:
- Keep things simple and direct
- Resist the temptation to wanting to refine and craft the work in detail, when it might not be beneficial to the work and distract from the performers
- Think about how performers will remember or might not remember material. The suggestion was made to always spend some time sharing the material created by individual performers with the whole group. This would be a way to build a common body of knowledge that also allows the choreographer to hold onto and develop materials when working in unpredictable conditions; people might not attend regularly, or physically not be able to repeat what they did before. Or become very frustrated with their changing health conditions.
- Stay open to what is happening in the moment
- Develop some strategies to shape the overall composition that keeps the performers’ own stories at its centre.
FEBRUARY 18, 2015:
Filmmaker Kate Flurrie and choreographer Tom Hobden led the second workshop. We were also joined by two young boys from his dance group Boys United and Di Gooding and Alexandra Carter from DanceEast's Elderberries project for older dancers.
Tom and Kate are in the process of setting up a new dance company whose members belong to different age groups and have differing levels of experiences with dance. They are keen to question conventional assumptions related to 'intergenerational dance', and have taken inspiration from Candoco, one of the UK's leading contemporary dance companies, for placing disabled dancers firmly on the map. They have also been influenced by 'Kiss & Cry', a performance by Belgium based Charleroi Danses at the Barbican last year.
Tom and Kate began the workshop by asking us to observe the relationships that emerge when people dance together. And to question whether these were all just down to the individuals' personalities or whether we might fall into typical roles when we work with someone older or younger?
Sharing a point of contact: Connecting forearms, one is leading the other through the space, than swapping roles, then swapping partners
Finding empty spaces: One dancing freely, the other moving into the empty spaces in between the first dancer's movements, staying closely together, then swapping roles
After participating in and watching each other initial observations emerged:
- Some felt they fell at times into expected roles such as ‘looking after’, ‘slowing down for the other’, ‘ being careful with giving weight’, others didn't feel that way, ‘we connected and took off’
- Some enjoyed simply watching different people’s physicalities working together, i.e. a tall man and young boy, 'something you don't get to see very often'
- Some enjoyed making up their own interpretations of relationships, i.e. between a young boy and an older women, making connections with their own emotional lives, ‘I knew what this was about as soon as I saw it'
- More questions emerged about the influence of music in this process, most thought music contributed a lot to how people responded to the tasks
- Questions emerged about how to introduce a narrative, whether this could create a better entry point for the dancers and audiences or whether it could be counter-productive
- Other discussions developed about how to establish a more intensive creative process when working with a group of people who all have mixed experiences with dance, and about the importance of paying and contracting all dancers
Filmmaker Kate Flurrie and choreographer Tom Hobden led the second workshop. We were also joined by two young boys from his dance group Boys United and Di Gooding and Alexandra Carter from DanceEast's Elderberries project for older dancers.
Tom and Kate are in the process of setting up a new dance company whose members belong to different age groups and have differing levels of experiences with dance. They are keen to question conventional assumptions related to 'intergenerational dance', and have taken inspiration from Candoco, one of the UK's leading contemporary dance companies, for placing disabled dancers firmly on the map. They have also been influenced by 'Kiss & Cry', a performance by Belgium based Charleroi Danses at the Barbican last year.
Tom and Kate began the workshop by asking us to observe the relationships that emerge when people dance together. And to question whether these were all just down to the individuals' personalities or whether we might fall into typical roles when we work with someone older or younger?
Sharing a point of contact: Connecting forearms, one is leading the other through the space, than swapping roles, then swapping partners
Finding empty spaces: One dancing freely, the other moving into the empty spaces in between the first dancer's movements, staying closely together, then swapping roles
After participating in and watching each other initial observations emerged:
- Some felt they fell at times into expected roles such as ‘looking after’, ‘slowing down for the other’, ‘ being careful with giving weight’, others didn't feel that way, ‘we connected and took off’
- Some enjoyed simply watching different people’s physicalities working together, i.e. a tall man and young boy, 'something you don't get to see very often'
- Some enjoyed making up their own interpretations of relationships, i.e. between a young boy and an older women, making connections with their own emotional lives, ‘I knew what this was about as soon as I saw it'
- More questions emerged about the influence of music in this process, most thought music contributed a lot to how people responded to the tasks
- Questions emerged about how to introduce a narrative, whether this could create a better entry point for the dancers and audiences or whether it could be counter-productive
- Other discussions developed about how to establish a more intensive creative process when working with a group of people who all have mixed experiences with dance, and about the importance of paying and contracting all dancers
DECEMBER 17, 2014:
Fine artist Juan Guearra-Valiente and choreographer Stephanie Schober led this first workshop for the group, exploring portraiture through movement and drawing.
Filling in: Outline your partner who is filling in his or her own outline
Wrapping: Share a piece of paper to wrap around body parts and trace 3D outlines
Capturing: Record the movements and outlines of people dancing on paper
Fine artist Juan Guearra-Valiente and choreographer Stephanie Schober led this first workshop for the group, exploring portraiture through movement and drawing.
Filling in: Outline your partner who is filling in his or her own outline
Wrapping: Share a piece of paper to wrap around body parts and trace 3D outlines
Capturing: Record the movements and outlines of people dancing on paper
