Some thoughts after the first weekend run of INHABIT
How can we develop a formula in which we monitor our own performance over the course of the run?
What is ok and what is not ok in the realm of improvisation/change inside this specific choreography?
What defines “ok”?
What are the elements that relate to unchange: that hook us together, give us confidence and define this work?
What are the elements that relate to change and in the moment decision making?
Tenants of Deborah Hay
1. You are becoming or are already skilled at monitoring your own performance.
2. Integral to your experience of performance is an exclusive regard for the presence of your audience.
3. You are without fear of appearing foolish in your capacity to violate form in order to recognize where and why it exists.
Quote of Deborah Hay
I recognize my choreography when I see a dancer’s self-regulated transcendence of his/her choreographed body within a movement sequence that distinguishes one dance from another.
What is the wholeness of INHABIT?
Aaron - A day in the life – from waking up, arriving, the tasks of the day, a series of events going and taking us in different directions – all taking us closer to night, sleep, reflection and dream.
KT – A good party – from good energy / buzz, entering, eating, drinking, worrying, wondering, hoping, looking, gathering information, getting clearer, forming opinions, making choices, getting agitated, excited, shifting, slowing down, taking pause, reflecting, changing.
Bianca – How specificity can become universal. People and personalities move in both directions simultaneously – toward the universal and toward the individual. Shards of the four of us in a setting of “anybody”. The more we show ourselves in these different scenarios, the more ourselves transcend to the “anyone”. It is the lens we give.
Dustin – Shifting the way the guests views the work. Putting them in an environment that allows for self-reflection. We as hosts are able to admit who we are in all the funny, strong, difficult, beautiful ways we are. It allows the guests the permission to see that and take it back to themselves, giving a personal voyage for them. The anti-whole – if we were to do these as a series of solos onstage – it might be cathartic, but wouldn’t set up the correct environment for the guest to have an experience.
Questions relating to the first weekend
Do we put the space hold solos back in?
What changes to we make with a smaller audience?
If we shift our own solos – how can we be clear to the others as we make those shifts?
How do we create the potential for growth and discovery while staying true to the bones of the piece and the movement? That balance is essential and difficult.
The way we relate to movement
Dustin – If he is dancing with someone, it shifts the permission he feels in the movement. Looking for codified moments of unison – wants it to read as such. In unison, to the degree possible (we will always have our own spice) wants to look the same.
In the upside down material, he has the same desires but he feels more room. The patience of it. Us not having to do every single move at the same time. A different kind of unison. There is just pure facility – will never have the same shape as another – doesn’t see it as a negative. His flexibility (or lack there of) comes into more focus if he is trying to look exactly like another.
In solo – the clearest moment is when he give someone a note and does the solo re: to the note – that is when he feels the most permission re: his movement. It gets reigned in other places – standing solo or rock solos don’t really feel like solo to him. When he veers from the track he has beaten down, he looses more than he gains.
Aaron – happy with the movement – the strongest and most reliable part of the piece to him. Struggles with dynamic/sharp vs. sustainable/nourishing. Inhabiting in the body in a way that feels good. Question of individuality – there IS room for individual energies in the movement even though the movement is the same.
The way we relate to time / music
Dustin
I will rush instead of cut
I am distracted to the guests but want to be committed to the music
I will always go for the early end – I am ready to end before someone else does.
The number of people affects time. Less audience = perception of too slow and more audience = rush of time.
KT
I will always try to be with the music
I have a sharp sense of time that makes me not trust something being extended
I rarely indulge
I feel responsible for time and for the company in time and for that matter all the guests in time too.
Aaron
I have trouble listening to the music analytically
I feel torn because the music pushes us but on the other hand it rushes audience interaction and image.
Bianca
I don’t know the music.
The way we relate to space
The way we relate to each other
The way we relate to the guests
The way we relate to the philosophy
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
There is so much in this chunk, it is hard to keep it straight to respond/further the thread. I think about my relationship to the space, which is complexifying as more experiences and memories are added over time. I hope for this to allow me a deeper connection with the present, ie a more poetically charged space still connected to the moment even while richened by the past. HOw will the space change due to weather and sunset time, how can we shift our interactions in space so it doesn't feel like we are mainly in the same areas (I feel concentrated at the bleachers by the windows).
Relationships, I don't want to just assume performance blinders and charge through the material, I am interestedin deepening and challenging our relationships in the peice, which it has the capability to do as well as being agreed upon as an interest in the process. Face offs comes out as a place where relationships can be given fuller reign. I desire more permission there, a real sense of private in public, and letting the intensity come from that. Also finding a better way for processing so that its not a next day getting ready for the show thing. Maybe a once a week beer type thing, a super process about all the weeks shows, but also just a hang.
Switching gears since I can't remember the next question. The thought what is "OK" is large in my mind. What feels good is our most common rudder, audience feedback the other big one. What patterns can we tap into that are larger and more objective. For me there can be so many criterion, the mind can really get going on its ways of rationalizing our actions and inactions. Perhaps I will create a little bit more rigorous practice of remembering 10 things from each show, images, moments, sections, challenges. Yes, I see how this is connected to what is OK, just having a greater facility with what happenned, and thus being able to examine it through more lenses, and at the same time honing those lenses through use. There is so much more, but Kaveh is ready to go.
Post a Comment