Sunday, July 19, 2015

This is Not Your Regular Rehearsal

In the common dance world there is a usual set up of events that lead to a performance:  
  1.  A choreographer premeditates movement or an idea for a rehearsal with dancers
  2. Dancers and choreographer show up to regularly scheduled rehearsals where the choreographer shows or facilitates movement to be learned by the dancers
  3. The dancers take on the role of emulators of movement and feeling, basically they do what the choreography tells them to do
  4. The choreographed dance is performed by the dancers in a performance space where the outcome is clearly defined and foreknown
 As a choreographer and performer I have always valued the ability to make choices in performance, and as I have matured in age as well as in my art form, I increasingly am investigating choice making, sensing, being, and active sharing of responsibility in performance.  
Here is the third installment of the movement accumulation for this summer project.  Two dancers are watching and embodying the movement contained in the videos over a set period of time.  The two dancers are tasked with using their own bodily knowledge (they must stay truthful to their own thought-body) to translate the movement.
P.S. Anyone is welcome to try this at home.  Can you take this simple, pedestrian movement and allow your body to speak it? 

 

3 comments:

  1. Thie video, being the longest so far, was the hardest to pick up for me. I began to notice myself concerned about the sequence more than the essence of the movement. It took several days for it to feel like it started resonating in my body. I am still working on this one, and finding ways to make it more me. I find that there are places that very very comfortable, reminding me of some somatic practices and therefore, I get comfortable in those spots and forget to keep going in the movement. Maybe that is my body telling me something though, and maybe I should listen and stay in those places until my body wants to move on to the next thing. Something to think about.

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  2. I have to agree with that this video is really hard to pick up. Also, with me still recovering from a surgery, I haven't negotiating floor work in a while. So I'm a little nervous but interested in what will manifest on stage.

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  3. The task for performance is to stay in truthfulness, remain a truth-telling body. When you negotiate a choice within this movement and in the performance construct, make a choice that fits the levels of responsibility:
    1st make choices that are right, good and functional for you, the performer
    2nd make choices that are right and good in communicating with the other bodies in the performance space
    3rd make choices that are right and good for the integrity of the work

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