Making it with the dancers

The dancer/choreographer relationship I grew up with- there are a few notable exceptions - exists on the vertical plane. The choreographer sits on top and the dancers toil beneath him/her. Movement vocabulary is created by the choreographer, then learned by the dancer, and then molded by the originator, much like a piece of malleable clay. The clay, depending on temperature, its constituent properties, its relative humidity and any number of other properties, has something to say about the final product, but not much, and certainly not in any original and personal way. The creation model that excites me the most these days places the choreographer and dancer on the same horizontal plane. Ideas, responses, vocabulary, dynamics, intuitions, impulses...any and all of these are valued as potential sites for making the form and content of a dance from nothing. Anne Bogart talks about this in her Viewpoints work. This 'lead collaboration' invites multiple voices into the room. The participants, given space to engage in numerous ways, find ownership in the final product. This translates to authentic performances more readily accessible to the viewer. Communication is immediate and profound.
Some days I loose track of these insights and flip back to the vertical plane. I can't help it. Many factors come into play: the pressure of multiple deadlines, self-doubt, fatigue, ill-preparedness, grumpiness, a sore toe, not enough lunch. The sensitive and ever-vigilant dancers take note of my tangential wanderings and gently bring me back. Just do the work. Read Full Post...

Finding Common Ground

The company dancers and I are mid-way through the re-working period of things in between. Originally created in 2004, I am taking the opportunity now to find new ways into the subject matter alongside the dancers and new collaborators who are bringing their own responses to the subject matter into the studio. We are finding our way, slowly each day, coming to terms with the new group, new energies and lots of exciting potential. We began the season by spending two weeks training in Viewpoints, a theatre-based approach to training actors and making new work. Articulated by American Anne Bogart with her company, SITI, it is a refined methodology that looks at the basic building blocks of creation: time and space. The irony of the approach, which is gaining a considerable following here and in the US, is that it was first articulated by a dance artist, Mary Overlie, who began her research and investigations during the seminal post-modern movement of the Judson Group in New York in the 60's-70's.
Bogart's writing is powerful and clear. I intuitively knew, and have used, many of these strategies and ways of working for years but was energized in particular by her dependence, intentionally so and in the most positive sense, on the artists who were in the room with her and how she relied on them as primary collaborative contributors to a work's content and form. I had been craving ways into understanding and talking about such a model as a direct response to my own experiences as a performer. With some exceptions, of course, for most of my career as an interpreter for others, I had acted as willing and malleable clay in the hands of some outside creator, whose vision I had no say in, no contribution to make, other than to respond as faithfully as I could to the directions with all of my skill and ability. This vertical model brought me great joy and satisfaction for many years. But something was missing. Or maybe, something else was possible. Bogart revealed that there was. More on that the next time... Read Full Post...