I've experienced so many shifts of brain space since last week, I don't know where to begin. I think I'll move backwards.
Liz Lerman said something today which I would like to make note of: There is nothing at the Dance Exchange that is not about expertise. That her mandate (and I'm rephrasing here) in starting the company was to have equal commitment to themselves on stage and equal commitment to the world. In other words, while yes, the Dance Exchange does a great many activities that may be considered in the realm of "community dance" and they also do work on the stage - that the two areas of dance do not need to live on a vertical spectrum. That in fact, placing things on a vertical spectrum is an impoverished way of thinking. She and the Dance Exchange have discovered and continue to propagate the idea that they can be artistically excellent and engage in the community in a horizontal, collaborative, synthesized way of being. Boundaries can be recognized, but they also need to be permeable.
We shared our dance space (the last day of Generating/Crafting Dances Institute) with 40 or so Truman Scholars today. I had no idea that the day would begin with so much insight. Having a large group of young academic achievers in our mist and being part of their experience really underlined how powerful art and physical experience can be. We began with blind lead. Liz related experiences of waiting with eyes closed for a leader to find you with the difficulties of being a follower. Hypersensitivity, desire to nurture, be clear, with the difficulties of being a leader. The desire to break the rules or perhaps change them, with the recognition that entire groups of people can function within a structure and then decide as a group when rules need to be broken, or the structure recreated in order to get to a new place. Someone observed the pleasure associated with simple touch. Again the vertical spectrum, touch has been outlawed in some places because of abuses of touch. What a disaster this is! People can go years without any form of human physical contact. Blind Lead and Sculpting (shaping someone's frozen body) allow complete strangers to engage in a form of touch that requires trust, listening, responding, and mutual respect. Someone observed that they could get ideas for movement by watching others. Liz highlighted the idea that people so often confuse creativity with originality. That in fact, copying in one of the most used forms of creativity. That it's okay to learn and experience from what others have done.
When I told people that I was coming out to intern with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, some assumed that this must mean that I was moving into the realm of "community" dance and leaving my stage pursuits behind. Not the case. So you ask why I'm here? I'm here because my world matters to me. Dance matters to me. And I want to learn how these two things can be mutually enhancing.
Showing posts with label blind lead. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blind lead. Show all posts
Friday, June 29, 2007
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Personal Response Stuff
So, this is where things get interesting. I've been meaning to get to this for a while, and it seems sort of out of date now, but, well, still relevant.
Day one of the Institute with Gerri, I found myself in what was I thought a workshop, based around technique, in a room with very different movers. I found myself struggling with the notion of experience and countering it with the idea of professionalism. I kept asking: "what is my job here?" At each turn, I found a different answer, and a different challenge. I think in the end all, the easiest approach was to simplify things: my job is simply to learn from my experiences, whatever they may be. By doing that I think I opened up doors to new possibilities of learning that continue to grow.
Blind lead is always a wonderful learning tool: what strikes me the most is how people's personalities are expressed in how they choose to lead or follow. Creating movement from this experience was also enlightening - the pathways of memorable movement patterns were very clear and easy to recreate because of the aspect of touch involved, and the focus and attention directed to one's partner. Scripting a phrase and then taking that experience and placing it over the original material was an interesting way of inserting meaning, intent and familiarity into movement that had been given to you. It added possibilities of a narrative, visceral, or emotional experience to be layered onto the movement. As a result we had a brief discussion about different processes and the need for different adaptations. Different dancers scripted the same phrase very differently, resulting in very different subtexts. This process allowed room for different adaptations and learning processes to take place with different dancers (very different kinds of movers) performing the same movement phrase. At the end of the day I realized that "doing the job" never changes - regardless of who is in the room - be it young experienced movers capable of high virtuosic dancing, someone in their 4th dance class ever, or someone adapting the movement due to physical limitations. In fact, I realized in some ways the job becomes more challenging - as you become even more aware of your place and your role in such a diverse group, instead of struggling to stand out, you struggle to work at a high level while still allowing room for everyone else.
Day one of the Institute with Gerri, I found myself in what was I thought a workshop, based around technique, in a room with very different movers. I found myself struggling with the notion of experience and countering it with the idea of professionalism. I kept asking: "what is my job here?" At each turn, I found a different answer, and a different challenge. I think in the end all, the easiest approach was to simplify things: my job is simply to learn from my experiences, whatever they may be. By doing that I think I opened up doors to new possibilities of learning that continue to grow.
Blind lead is always a wonderful learning tool: what strikes me the most is how people's personalities are expressed in how they choose to lead or follow. Creating movement from this experience was also enlightening - the pathways of memorable movement patterns were very clear and easy to recreate because of the aspect of touch involved, and the focus and attention directed to one's partner. Scripting a phrase and then taking that experience and placing it over the original material was an interesting way of inserting meaning, intent and familiarity into movement that had been given to you. It added possibilities of a narrative, visceral, or emotional experience to be layered onto the movement. As a result we had a brief discussion about different processes and the need for different adaptations. Different dancers scripted the same phrase very differently, resulting in very different subtexts. This process allowed room for different adaptations and learning processes to take place with different dancers (very different kinds of movers) performing the same movement phrase. At the end of the day I realized that "doing the job" never changes - regardless of who is in the room - be it young experienced movers capable of high virtuosic dancing, someone in their 4th dance class ever, or someone adapting the movement due to physical limitations. In fact, I realized in some ways the job becomes more challenging - as you become even more aware of your place and your role in such a diverse group, instead of struggling to stand out, you struggle to work at a high level while still allowing room for everyone else.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
End of a long week
Tired, oh so tired. Coming to the end of a long week. But I'm feeling much more excited then I was yesterday. That's hump day for you I guess. I feel like I reached an exciting creative place today, and have begun to process a lot of thoughts I was having earlier in the week. For those of you who don't know, the Dance Exchange is a very unique place for a variety of reasons; because of the work they do, how they do it, and who they work with. (Who gets to dance and why? See the website...) The "institute" or workshop that I'm taking this week as a way to start off an internship with them is but one small example. Hosted by the company, led by artistic directors and company members, as well as the much esteemed Gerri Houlihan. Participants of a variety of experiences and abilities working together to figure out who they are behind their dance. Inserted into the institute are a number of creative/dance generating and group facilitation exercises from Gerri and the Dance Exchange. Here is a short summary of what we have done:
Day 1
Blind Lead
Blind Lead with scriptive elements placed on top. (Sliding/sweep, airplane/dive, breathing/length, taken from a phrase learned in the mornings technique class).
Blind Lead/Script: creating a short movement phrase from experiencing the previous exercises. The phrase is then witnessed with a partner and then half the room at a time.
Creating our own Script: Scripting the same phrase from the mornings technique class in our own words. Then creating a movement phrase based on the new script. (Group split in half to divide task of scripting the phrase).
New Phrases shown and process discussed (see personal response below).
Parameters: (used as a warm-up after lunch). In partners, improvise for a few minutes and your partner makes note of what is happening physically describing movements and patterns that they witness. This forms collum A - collum B, we discuss what the opposites might be. Choose three, and then improvise again focusing on this new script. Discuss then switch roles.
Day 2
Go Shopping: Find a partner who scripted the other half of the phrase and learn their phrase. (might be an interesting idea to learn their script, and create a different phrase as well - or combine scripts and work together on a new phrase).
Scripted duets: new full length phrases (in duets) performed as quartets.
4 Corner Writing: Divide a page into 4 quadrants. The first quadrant take 5 min to jot down highlights from the last 36 hours - can be anything from meeting new people to what you had for breakfast. 2nd quadrant: a journey that you and someone else made together. 3rd quadrant: we started to learn a bench duet choreographed to Shuman. What did the music make you think of? 4th quadrant: your life if it were a musical score. Would it be an opera or musical theatre? How would it be written, what would it look like? What would it sound like?
(over lunch we were given more time to delve deeper into a quadrant of our choosing.)
Script from writing: look back at your 4 quadrant writing, and put on your choreographer's lense. What is the choreography? Pull out statements, phrases, or sections that denote movement. Change images into action.
Point A to B: with this new script, with a partner get from point A to point B. Use movement from your scripted duet created previously (can be the same partner or someone new.)
End of Day: In a circle turn to the person on your right, and share with them a personal highlight of how they contributed to your experience.
Day 3
Arms and Legs (Gerri): Group split in half, one is to choreograph a 16 count phrase individually, using only their arms and upper torso, the other half of the group the same but using only their legs.
Arm/Leg Phrase: partner with someone from the other group and combine arm and leg phrases. Perform as duets.
Physical Detail: observe the room. Find something that captures your attention and create a shape or gesture (go with first impulse). Do this twice.
Physical Detail #2: recall the journey that you wrote about. Picture three postcards from that journey - moments that stand out to you frozen in film. Choose one. Pick three physical objects from that postcard. Set a shape or gesture for each. Combine these with the first two.
Shopping for details: Find a partner (we used the same partner from the arms and legs exercise) and learn two or three of their physical detail movement/shapes.
Quartet: With your partner, find another duet to work with. Use this score: movement from physical detail and arms/legs duet can be used, there must be a moment of unison, a moment of group improv, a moment of distance, and near or physical contact.
End of Day: Grid. Create a grid. 1st collum: importance to me, importance to my community, importance to the world, and wild box (for errant thoughts.) Top row: each exercise that was used that day. (this exercise has many applications - can be used for reflection on a project or work... anything).
Day 4
Build a Phrase: "I packed my grandmother's bag" (Gerri). In a circle each person adds something to grandmother's bag through movement or gesture and the phrase is repeated as it grows. Phrase is performed. Phrase is improvised (same material, moving through space, using movements however you wish - and relating to the group).
Environment Detail: standing in a circle, come up with a synonym for bag. Pick a type of bag and explore it. What does the space inside feel like? Look like? How can you fit into different nooks and cranies of the bag? What are the details of the bag?
Detail + Phrase gestures: Take the gestures from the grandmothers bag material and put them into the bag you were just exploring. Set or improvise a phrase.
Postcards: You have 2 minutes to write each postcard. #1: To someone who has proceeded you in life. #2: To yourself. #3: To someone who will follow you in life.
Phrase with Text: Place the text from one of your postcards over the movement phrase in the environment of the bag.
Commision: We learned a bench duet off of video on the first day (choreographed by Gerri). Now asked to create a beginning and or end to the duet with a partner, using whatever material from the week we wish.
Day 5
Time spent learning Critical Process (to be discussed later.) And working on duets, performed at end of day.
Day 1
Blind Lead
Blind Lead with scriptive elements placed on top. (Sliding/sweep, airplane/dive, breathing/length, taken from a phrase learned in the mornings technique class).
Blind Lead/Script: creating a short movement phrase from experiencing the previous exercises. The phrase is then witnessed with a partner and then half the room at a time.
Creating our own Script: Scripting the same phrase from the mornings technique class in our own words. Then creating a movement phrase based on the new script. (Group split in half to divide task of scripting the phrase).
New Phrases shown and process discussed (see personal response below).
Parameters: (used as a warm-up after lunch). In partners, improvise for a few minutes and your partner makes note of what is happening physically describing movements and patterns that they witness. This forms collum A - collum B, we discuss what the opposites might be. Choose three, and then improvise again focusing on this new script. Discuss then switch roles.
Day 2
Go Shopping: Find a partner who scripted the other half of the phrase and learn their phrase. (might be an interesting idea to learn their script, and create a different phrase as well - or combine scripts and work together on a new phrase).
Scripted duets: new full length phrases (in duets) performed as quartets.
4 Corner Writing: Divide a page into 4 quadrants. The first quadrant take 5 min to jot down highlights from the last 36 hours - can be anything from meeting new people to what you had for breakfast. 2nd quadrant: a journey that you and someone else made together. 3rd quadrant: we started to learn a bench duet choreographed to Shuman. What did the music make you think of? 4th quadrant: your life if it were a musical score. Would it be an opera or musical theatre? How would it be written, what would it look like? What would it sound like?
(over lunch we were given more time to delve deeper into a quadrant of our choosing.)
Script from writing: look back at your 4 quadrant writing, and put on your choreographer's lense. What is the choreography? Pull out statements, phrases, or sections that denote movement. Change images into action.
Point A to B: with this new script, with a partner get from point A to point B. Use movement from your scripted duet created previously (can be the same partner or someone new.)
End of Day: In a circle turn to the person on your right, and share with them a personal highlight of how they contributed to your experience.
Day 3
Arms and Legs (Gerri): Group split in half, one is to choreograph a 16 count phrase individually, using only their arms and upper torso, the other half of the group the same but using only their legs.
Arm/Leg Phrase: partner with someone from the other group and combine arm and leg phrases. Perform as duets.
Physical Detail: observe the room. Find something that captures your attention and create a shape or gesture (go with first impulse). Do this twice.
Physical Detail #2: recall the journey that you wrote about. Picture three postcards from that journey - moments that stand out to you frozen in film. Choose one. Pick three physical objects from that postcard. Set a shape or gesture for each. Combine these with the first two.
Shopping for details: Find a partner (we used the same partner from the arms and legs exercise) and learn two or three of their physical detail movement/shapes.
Quartet: With your partner, find another duet to work with. Use this score: movement from physical detail and arms/legs duet can be used, there must be a moment of unison, a moment of group improv, a moment of distance, and near or physical contact.
End of Day: Grid. Create a grid. 1st collum: importance to me, importance to my community, importance to the world, and wild box (for errant thoughts.) Top row: each exercise that was used that day. (this exercise has many applications - can be used for reflection on a project or work... anything).
Day 4
Build a Phrase: "I packed my grandmother's bag" (Gerri). In a circle each person adds something to grandmother's bag through movement or gesture and the phrase is repeated as it grows. Phrase is performed. Phrase is improvised (same material, moving through space, using movements however you wish - and relating to the group).
Environment Detail: standing in a circle, come up with a synonym for bag. Pick a type of bag and explore it. What does the space inside feel like? Look like? How can you fit into different nooks and cranies of the bag? What are the details of the bag?
Detail + Phrase gestures: Take the gestures from the grandmothers bag material and put them into the bag you were just exploring. Set or improvise a phrase.
Postcards: You have 2 minutes to write each postcard. #1: To someone who has proceeded you in life. #2: To yourself. #3: To someone who will follow you in life.
Phrase with Text: Place the text from one of your postcards over the movement phrase in the environment of the bag.
Commision: We learned a bench duet off of video on the first day (choreographed by Gerri). Now asked to create a beginning and or end to the duet with a partner, using whatever material from the week we wish.
Day 5
Time spent learning Critical Process (to be discussed later.) And working on duets, performed at end of day.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Day One, Gerri Houlihan Institute
Only at the Dance Exchange do you find a hard working cohesive group of people taking an intensive dance workshop whereby the individuals participating include movers over 60, (sorry, make that 70), professional dancers, dance instructors, the physically disabled, and young dance students. Damn right this is radical! Today (and for the next four days) the schedule will be this: technique class, creative lab 1, lunch, creative lab 2, and ending with repertoire with Gerri, running from 9:30 - 5:30 every day.
I'm not sure how to best organize this blog but given that the main purpose is to share my experiences with the dance community in a way that might be useful, I think I will focus on the use of specific tools, and then add a short section for personal response/observations at the end.
We applied and combined a couple of Dance Exchange favourites in the morning by starting off with Blind Lead (leading a partner with eyes closed, through the space) and moving into Scripting (generating movement from a written script or vice versa). An interesting twist was using blind lead as more then just an introductory/warm up exercise, but actually using it to generate movement. By having the experience of leading and following several times over we were able to recall the movements and sensations of leading and following thereby easily creating a short phrase from our experiences. We then switched to scripting by returning to a short phrase we learned in the morning session and taking a moment to "script" it, or in other words briefly describe each movement on paper. The script could be quite detailed or quite simple i.e: running hand over a hedge and pressing down firmly with palm with turn of head vs sweeping/push. we then used this script to create a new phrase. to be continued... night night for now. :)
I'm not sure how to best organize this blog but given that the main purpose is to share my experiences with the dance community in a way that might be useful, I think I will focus on the use of specific tools, and then add a short section for personal response/observations at the end.
We applied and combined a couple of Dance Exchange favourites in the morning by starting off with Blind Lead (leading a partner with eyes closed, through the space) and moving into Scripting (generating movement from a written script or vice versa). An interesting twist was using blind lead as more then just an introductory/warm up exercise, but actually using it to generate movement. By having the experience of leading and following several times over we were able to recall the movements and sensations of leading and following thereby easily creating a short phrase from our experiences. We then switched to scripting by returning to a short phrase we learned in the morning session and taking a moment to "script" it, or in other words briefly describe each movement on paper. The script could be quite detailed or quite simple i.e: running hand over a hedge and pressing down firmly with palm with turn of head vs sweeping/push. we then used this script to create a new phrase. to be continued... night night for now. :)
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