IPP sketch

I was thinking now to do a huge map with all my ideas and to have them on the same piece of paper just to be able to follow it's progress...

Crossing Borders

Ros Warby – Creating work from the practice of performance

   Making , not attaching to anything, eliminating any task...taste what I haven't taste before (I find this challenging)

•  Her key for identifying her interest- in relation to sound (composer, designer) is self observation in relation to different moments that just happen and again not attaching to any set idea. The composer and the designer just do what they do and at some point the dialogue becomes common. The music fixes the piece and the dance goes flexible around the design and sound, so teh dance represents the most flexible element of her performances.
•  She thinks that the question is not about the relation between dance and sound (I don't agree with this afirmation at the moment, as I respond naturally to music, I think this is a challenge for me).
• Trying to find tricks to sustain those moments of attention, a person who thinks through ideas, phrases, communicate verbaly what you are making, being able to say it out., it is tricky because you need not to limit your ideas in order to giving it a certain shape.
•  Dealing with inside and outside as a choreographer.
•   How do I start into a studio without having any idea? This is a question to myself as I enjoyed all workshops we have done, it's not about picking up a certain path?
•  It's about trusting the intelectual management?
•   Allow the ideas to come from the body...imaginitive capacity...give yourself the possibility of happening by trusting yourself.
•   Her performances are not shaped, but they have pathways...the voice is part of the body, so it is not fixed
•   Including the audience in her visual field
• I am lucky to study in this university, to have these teachers, I learn from them, I get experience, this frames me, prepares me for being a performer/dancer...I do celebrate that!
•  The idea of performance as a practice, and learning from it! You don't need rehearsals or warm-up, you just experience. I feel a bit scared of it as I never thought of a performance like that, without ideas or rehearsals, but I think it will be challenging for me to try, but then I would feel like "it" is not developed, there wouldn't be extended and clear enough...
•  Being a solo artists ( exactly what we have to do for the IPP2) underlines the possibilites

IPP research [H2]

1. Trinity

I don't even know if this can be considered as an art work, but I found some interesting connections with the last hand-out (the cycles). The film is called "Dexter" and he is investigating a killer who commits a cycle of murders: he kills 3 people every year in the same location, in the same way, as a ritual for those who he has lost many years ago. His sister was killed in a bathtub, her mother jumped from the top of a massive building and his father got beat to death. The ash of his family motivates him to do this ritual and to choose his victims according to his dear and lost family and to kill them in a simmilar way, in simmilar locations, so that he accomplishes a full cycle every year: firstly he kills a young girl in a bathtub, than he pushes a married woman who has 2 children from the top of a building and then he beats a father of 2 children untill he dies. This is his code, his ritual, the expression of his feelings, his "art work". The art is considerated as a NEED, not a luxury, but a need that may haunt and push someone to non-existent boundaries.
The stucture of his work is progressive and the theme and the variation are very obvious. I looked more attentive to his movement while making his ritual and I can say it has a natural pattern, progressive rhythm and it definately has a narrative.
2. Species

 I was looking more carefully at Gemma's piece's structure. The creative process that I have been through is more easy to understand now that I have the hand-outs about the structure. I enjoyed the way we all developed the movement from little gestures, we amplified it and the addition process is more clear for me now. The narrative was not clear, or maybe inexistent, but there was definately a very interesting collage of ideas in this work. Saying out words with no sounds, moving from the heart, using all senses, climbing walls, being up-side-down and moving like a creature- all came out from a simple observation of some tarantulas.

3. Salsa

 My third piece of art is the salsa culture. This week-end I have been researching about how salsa came to life and it is incredibly interesting. It is actually a fusion of manifestiations of different african sclaves that have travelled from their tribs ( Yoruba, Bantu and Efik) to different places like: Cuba, Dominican Republic, Miami, Ney York, etc. This dance represents different rituals toward many Gods that belong to old religions like Santeria. It keeps changing by adding intruments, by playing with rhythms and by repeating some lyrics/words/sounds. The duration of any song is for about 3-4 minutes and it has a clear narrative, as the lyrics talk about love stories. During my research I have noticed the development of this culture, the way it travelled and what transformations it had suffered, its relation to the gods and people. The slasa is danced all over the word by people who don't even know each other but they use the same language: dance.

Form and compositional structures

This study is for the IPP2 final "sketch"...I will post some quotes that I found interesting.

• "form is present throughout nature, in all the forces of the universe, in all stages of life"
• "forming devices: cycles, progressions, stages of development" (water cycle, evvolution of species, structure of the stars and galaxies)-this one gave me some ideas about [H2].
• process of developing material and process of giving it a structure
• "choreographic devices are ways of developing nuggets of movement, enriching and extending an initial movement in order to build a greater body of choreographic material, by manipulating and amplifying the main material"
• "developing and filling out movement seeds"
• organic form- natural growth patterns, like a flower that progresses from seed, to sprout, to plant, to blossom and them to seed again...
• AB form- contrast and variety---> unity
• narrative- the use of stories
• collage- assorted bits and pieces of material (juxtaposition, etc)
• theme and variation- movement phrase repeated a number of times with different shadings.

{ The Intimate Act of Choreography, Blom and Chaplin, 1982}

Card for Katye Coe

My aim for this module of the second term is to allow the movement to simply happen, to arrive rather than making it happen, by searching deeply for the "essence" of myself, "it's all in there", as Kirstie Simson said. I need to listen to my body and to follow my curiosities.

Another thing I'm feeling keen about is the creative process, how to "compose" work, I have already started to read about the compositional process and I feel it is the time to experience that on my own body.

I also feel like even I have this aims, when you lead the session, they just happen, I don't even need to think about them, you simply make them be present!

Thank you!

Oana

Letter to my IPP2's [voice]

Dear IPP2,

First of all I want to say that I am very sorry I missed the last 20 mins of our last session and it won't happen again! As I didn't have the chance to share with you my thoughts about our explorations, I'm writing now a few lines:

Julia- I think that your exploration crossed over my expectactions and the power of your voice and the quality of your input feelings just amazed me. It was interesting to notice the connections between your voice/sounds and the movement and you remembered me of the voice as a part of the body, as a limb, by using it in relation to your moving body or your still body. I believe you are about to discover yourself, your essence and to let go all "self-judging"...

Fiona- A very misterious character who, in my opinion plays a theatre role by using the voice as well as the body. I also appreciate the naturaless and honesty that comes out of yourself and I noticed a very interesting composition of your exploration (using repetition and different volumes, tonalities, feelings, levels). I was actually thinking now of how you could link this type of work with exploring frames (maybe it won't work, but maybe you can find your own way to connect your ideas somehow)....Well done!
Joana- As usually a very powerful and funny artist who just captures me everytime she creates something. I could see how comfortable you are with using your voice in a creative way and I also noticed the "playfulness" of your work. This makes me think that for future you might be challenged to create something out of your "comfort zone", which I believe is "not a funny work", but I still think your voice can transmit a lot as well as your moving body.

I feel like the focus of this little group makes me a very inspired "creator" and our development process is so clear, I can see it through all of us!

My own exploration- I felt attracted by the sounds rather than saying our words, and the way that the sound travels through my body, bones, muscles, eyes and then gets out through my mouth and then maybe it goes to you (my little audience) ...my curiosity is actually what happnes with my sounds next? how do you perceive them? do they tell you something? do they make you feel something? or do you just ignore some of them? endless questions ...Travelling wth my sound, physically and emotionly, experimenting some sounds again, and again, and again, going back to them, or just letting them go... I think it's a continuous journey...

Thank you Amy for this session, I feel like so many doors open every session you deliver to us, and the Body Space Image hand-outs lead me towards making a little "something" , acutally frame a way of working, of exploring , developing some curiosities.
Thank youuu!!

P.S. I wish I knew your impressions about our explorations :( Sorry I've missed them:(

Much love,
Oana

SRT [2nd year-term 2]

[the use of the mist image travelling along your bones, tissues, skin...]

Readings....
"Releasing is discovered in the doing"
This little phrase makes me think of how I see SRT now, after I have already been through all this material once again, theoretical as well as practical. Now I feel like it's there, it's sort of set into my body and now it makes more sense. Even if I was used to "no pain no gain" I can admit that this type of work changes the phisicality and the mentality of my whole self. It even made me aware of another sense of the human being, the "kinesthetic sense", maybe at the end of the day, we are not who/what we think we are...as Kirstie Simson has said.
I just like this definition: (it makes sense for me anyway)
"SRT can be described as  a system of kinesthetic training which refines the perception and performance of movement through the use of imagery".

 Principles:

• suppleness
• suspension
• economy of movement
• autonomy
• multi directional alignment
• balance
• disorientation
• effortlessness
• immersion
• disori

The Art of Listening [Moved...by Decoda]

WOOOOOOW!!! simply amazing!
know I understand what we are talking about!
At the beginning I felt very stiff and tensed because I was working with my own teachers ( what a great opportunity) but at the beginning of the day my aim was to be free...
I think this workshop can't be described in words... it simply happened, it changed me!
Thoughts

• simple
• natural
• follow the instinct, the interest (rather than making it happen)
• listening to the body intelligence
• the GOOD NEWS is that we are NOT what we think we are... it is a lot more there...
• To blieve is what matters...

7 hours/day of moving with Kirstie and that amazing group didn't feel like 7 hours . Why? ... maybe because it was just about listening and reacting, following rather than thinking about moving or trying to show my skills...
How important is to LISTEN...in dance and in life, that's what I realised these 2 days.
Kirstie amazed me with her generosity and modesty, but in the same time with her power and energy, she was fantastique!!!
I have also learned some "hands on" exercises that really worked on my body and made a simple but useful introduction to the workshop and leaded directly into it, rather than changing the mood.
It was also a good reminder to move through breath...to listen to the breath, to feel my partner's breath into my hands and body.
She kept saying that is not about what we achieve, what we demonstrate we can do with our bodies...but it's about going really deep and finding the essence of myself, that is a spource that never dries...it's always there!

Kirstie Simson

Tomorrow is the big day!!! Kirstie Simson's workshop and lateron in the evening, her performance (film)

Energy Sculpting [part 1]

Kirstie Simson biograpghy

Kirstie Simson is one of the legends of British Dance and one of the greatest exponents of Contact Improvisation Time Out Magazine, London

Kirstie did a three year dance training at the Laban Center, London. After completing college she became interested in pursuing contact improvisation and the art of improvisation in performance whilst working with the Rosemary Butcher Dance Company in 1979.
Over the course of the next twenty-five years she has worked extensively, performing and teaching throughout England, Europe and the USA. She has collaborated with many dancers and musicians who share a common interest in working with the freedom to explore ever new and exciting ways to go beyond limitation. These performers include Julyen Hamilton, with whom she worked in close partnership for some years, Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith, Simone Forti, Pauline de Groot, Alessandro Certini, Andrew Harwood, Chris Aiken, Katie Duck, Philip Hamilton, Peter Jones, Russell Maliphant and others.
She has been seen at the Dance Umbrella Festival in London, at DTW in New York City and many other performance venues worldwide. Kirstie has been a regular guest teacher at the School for New Dance Development Amsterdam, Dartington College England, the Laban Center London, P.A.R.T.S. School in Brussels, New York University, George Washington University Washington DC, Oberlin College Ohio, and Movement Research NYC. She has also been teaching dance companies all over the world, including Sasha Walz and Guests Berlin, Siobhan Davies Dance London, Felix Ruckert Company Berlin, and DV8 Physical Theater Company. She teaches classes and workshops at many other colleges and centres throughout the world.
Over the past 4 years Kirstie has worked collaboratively with dancer / choreographer Christian Burns who is a classically trained dancer from the US. They have presented their work in Europe and the US. Their research is bringing a synthesis of ballet and modern / postmodern dance through their mutual interest in improvisation, which they are interested in sharing with students from diverse dance backgrounds. Kirstie has just taken a job as an associate professor at the University of Illinois, USA. She will be working there full time from January 2008.

what an amazing person...

White Man Sleeps- by SD

I feel surprised and honored to read one of my teacher's articles about choreographic developments and the contemporary dance in Britain in a great book. She even gives some tasks at the end of ther chapter that I am definately intending to try.
After Siobhan's trip in America her attention droped on the "body in much smaller units- in terms of tiny joints, subtle placing of the weight and what the focus of the eye could do to the face"- fact that raised to my attention in ny first year of study.
Another interesting idea in this chapter was the piece "Make Make" (1992), where the dancers were set to find out how a phrase performed in the upper body could be performed with a phrase made for the lower body, which is an unusual place to be, and represents performing less simply co-ordinated material.
It might be useful to my FMP

"Make Make" piece by Siobhan Davies [videos]