Monday 5 May 2014

List of Books from What Festival

During the festival I discovered some new books that I take in consideration as further research:
  • A process model By Eugene T Gendlin
  • The crisis of the criticism edited by Maurice Berger
  • Choreographing Relation. Practical Philosophy and Contemporary Choreography by Petra Sabisch
  • Embodied wisdom edited by Elizabeth Beringer
  • The soul at work by Franco Beradi
  • Tools of gravity by Ivan D. Illich
  • The eyes of the skin: architecture and senses by Juhani Pallasmaa
  • A general theory of Love by Thomas Lewis
  • The gift- how the creative spirit transforms the world
  • Ancient land
  • Of wolves and men by Barry Lopez
  • The philosophical aesthetics of dance. Identity, performance and understanding by Graham McFee
  • Nanopolitics group
  • The place of dance by Andrea Olsen
Next step after uni is to keep feeding myself with information as well as practical workshops at ID London.

Pilates, Yoga and Aerobic activities

As part of Movement Studies 3 module I managed to organise myself and lead a daily practice. Even if my university schedule and my life in general is super busy I managed to carry on with Pilates, Yoga, Swimming and Aerobic activities so that I keep and develop what I have achieved during these 3 years at Coventry University. I keep expanding my flexibility, resistance or endurance, muscle mass, relationship between body and mind. I am taking classes at the Coventry Leisure Centre, where I have a membership. I could not carry on with the classes organized by the university from financial reasons but at the Leisure Centre there are plenty of classes that I absolutely enjoy and that I use in order to feed in my continuous practice.

Feldenkrais

As I only started the Feldenkrais classes at at the end of December it did not make complete sense to me. So I started focusing on more readings in order to gain an understanding of the reason why we have this class as part of our module Movement Studies 3. After doing the session I was surprised how my understanding shifted and the outcome was a bit different than what I thought.

I gained:

  •  a sense of honesty in movement
  •  self-image and what background of understanding and meaning we bring to a simple movement
  • breaking habits down in order to observe the natural motion of our bodies
  • kinesiology/ human kinetics and thinking
  • relation to SRT
  • it's application to life as well as movement.
  • I appreciate the gift of having one hour per week when we apply a minimalistic approach to our practice because all the other movement studies sessions bring to life big, large movements , different speeds and meanings. 

Improvisation

I appreciate a lot year group mixture and the variety of improvisation sessions. 
  • text
  • voice
  • installation
  • Lisa Nelson scores
  • exposure
  • talking score
  • blind journey- listening to the space
  • soundscape
  • being present/ paying attention
  • counterpoint
  • games
  • in between/ over/ under
  • tasks
Led by KC

Land Art

Land Art at Mead GAllery

Fiona Jackson manifested her interest in land art and went to this exhibition.

Also I have a few names of artists that interest both of us:

 *** Michael Grab ***





***Cornelia Konrads***





***Sylvain Meyer*** 





What-now Festival 2014 by ID London

What-now Festival 2014 at Siobhan Davies Dance Studios- organised by Independent Dance London

Fantastic and inspiring weekend.

***


  • what are we?
  • who are you?
  • who do you think I am?
  • what do you imagine me doing in the future?
  • who do you think you are?
  • who do you think you can be or you will be?

I have witnessed a collection of artists-curators who were asking a lot of questions in regards to dance through different ways: talks, movement, drawing, writing, discussing, etc. It was shaped as a public residency, a festival of processes and activities.
There were a few interesting talks:
  1. Derek McCormack - Thinking and moving with atmospheric things. Increased understanding of atmospheric things, a sense of happening in process, a sense of affective doing. Enable constraint for thinking in movement. 
  2. Caroline Bergvall - Writing Gestures. What a performance, what an unexpected beginning. Performative talk. Cells of Release, Matta Clark, What is fugitive nature? Bilingual, transcriptions, interruption, calligraphy. Ann Hamilton 
  3. Joris Vlieghe - Being-Entirely-Flesh. Philosopher and Educationalist - human corporeality. He argues that the bodily experiences are of the greatest importance. Existence. He investigates bodily dimensions and he also refers to theories of Merleau- Ponty; all of this related to my dissertation topic. He investigates notions such as attention and presence- key to both my dissertation and final major project.
  4. Laura Cull - A(n Interrupted) Lecture on Attention in 9 Parts. Further research: Franco Berardi's notion of attention, Henri Bergson, Allan Kaprow. Can performance and philosophy produce counter-forms of attention? Thought as an embodied perceptual practice available to us. 
This festival was proposed by Frank Bock and curated by Katye Coe, Hamish Mac Pherson and Efrosini Protopapa.

 ***

Just being in that building was fascinating. I have listened to a few talks and learned and I use this learning as stimulation for further research and investigations. A lot of questions. It was useful to hear different artists talking about their condition as artist and to understand what life as artist means. Maybe my life expectations are different now and I think a bit softer about my future as a movement artist. Being included in this art network feels like a gift and I do value it a lot. I felt happy when I recognized a few faces and people, I met lovely Amy Voris, a few tutors and another artists. We were participating to different workshops. 


Movement Ritual - Helen Poynor


I would like to start with the fact that I planning to continue working with Helen Poynor and experience her Walk of LIfe Training. 

***

In February 2013 I have participate to the Movement Ritual with Fiona Jackson in Devon, Beer. The 3 days workshop was led Helen Poynor and she has learned the ritual ftron Anna Halprin. 

***

The Electro-Magnetic Waves of the Body and their polarity. The electro magnetic lines of force inthe human body arising from the center core and the prain polarity, whirling in opposite directions, anterior and posterior

***

creating a movement routine/pattern that repeats every day as a frame of my lifestyle-finding repetition very useful-finding different layers of attention each time I perform the same movement - looking at the body from different perspectives-how? when? why? who?






***


I felt overwhelmed the that entire place and air, by the participants of the workshop. Tears went out after movement exploration and free writing/drawing.
I feel like my free writing is a bit personal and cannot be exposed on this blog, but I am very happy to talk to anyone interested about my experience. This workshop happened in a particularly significant moment of my life and it had a major impact from many points of view. 

***

Every morning we had a 40-50 minutes of walk along the coast with Fiona in order to get from our accommodation to where the studio was. Receiving a different type of information. Nature. Maturity. Movement pattern. Learning about ourselves.

***




***

So this is when and where we started writing/ drawing post cards to each other.


  


Katy Coe morning class at Independent Dance London

13/03/1014 -notes from my journal


  • light
  • saying yes
  • exploration of the skull-transporting a skull into the space
  • supporting parts of the body and making space to be supported
  • discussion around expectation versus intuition - I found out that while moving slowly I almost expected those place where I am given support but when I started to move a bit quicker (keeping the same intention) my partner and I found a lot of surprising moments and new ways of giving/ receiving support
  • skeleton in space
  • moving at unconscious level and not giving the brain a chance to think how I place parts of my body and this is how the supports happens 
  • expectation-surprise-conscious-unconscious-suspension- the space feels like it's calling for me and asking me to be attached to it. 
  • or to simply extend my intention out into the space and then just notice how the space around me changes. 
  • sphere of energy and directions
  • sending out that energy that;'s already happening inside and across my body 
  • changing roles feels very natural this time- being familiar with one person
  • solo work-orbiting around the space  and from time to time when you less expect it- being offered support. This possibility is now open for everyone in the space.
  • Sateliting and blending / being invited and saying yes. Or finding different ways of accepting that support.
  • it's also something about allowing that support to dissolve itself - a lot of was for that to happen. 
  • I have participated at this class with Fiona Jackson and it's so interesting to notice how my body's memory activates itself and how familiar it is to move with my dear friend. Our past movement and projects informing these two hours of individual and partner work session. Finding old connections which now transform themselves. It's like we are using our backgrounds to build up now something even stronger; I believe she will be a life time movement researcher with me and around me and about me and always there when I create or we create. 

Group phrase with Trish and Ben


***

  • I definitely need to be familiar with a phrase in order to perform it at my full potential, otherwise there is a big insecurity going on and that's when I start criticising myself
  • journey of my left arm out into the space- shoulder lifts-make sure I soften it
  • a lot of tension in my hands; just watching ONLY my hands I realise that I think I pay attention to them but actually there is a LOT going on in my hands
  • skull taking me all the way down to the floor and finding a beautiful spiralling
  • condensing and expanding my body/curling and uncurling my spine and how my body organizes itself when I work with a set of intentions
  • BMC again- finding a diagonal across my body and enjoy that moment
  • short pelvis moment
  • transition between floor and standing up (SD and Helka) 0 I believe there is a lot more that it's going on in terms of unnecessary movement so I am now researching how to let go the unnecessary in order to achieve the purest-most simple movement
  • and just that release running at the end of the phrase how much it says about what happened before it. 



Eat the space




This is the jump exercise from AB technique classes and I found it particularly challenging.
We do have a list of targets ( point the feet, soft landing, flat hands-no ballet preparation and so on) which do feed my practice but there is something else around this phrase. One AB said Eat the Space and that stayed with me and will always stay with me. It's about the energy my body produces and its about sending myself out into the space in some particular directions. Just like multitasking. How can you spine lengthen out into the space above and and in the same time my feet finding a softness into the ground; how do my knees support this activity of going uprads in the space and downwards into the floor in the same time?And then how can my arms find a continuous journey with no meaning, no preparation, no suggestion. BMC classes come back to me with finding that yield into the floor and then reaching up into the space with my whole being. It's interesting how different class ideas support some others. Felling like I'm handing somewhere in the space.

Siobhan Davies Dance

I came across a very interesting work by Siobhan Davies in collaboration with Helka KAski

Manual - Live movement installation

Siobhan Davies and Helka KAski

She invites the audience to help her perform a familiar action: getting up from lying down. The audience's task is to give her simple verbal instructions; I find very interesting in what is happening during the journey.


Sunday 4 May 2014

Skinner Releasing Technique by Polly Hudson at MAC



I would like to start by saying that this 2 days workshop was a gift toward our final major project as it has a huge impact on my movement with Trish Martin. It happened in a new place with now movers, new visions. 'Today I enjoy being soft, gentle and sensitive'. Somehow this thought is moving me rather than me moving with this thought. By suspending the torso I became aware of much much space there is between the pelvis and the torso. Also my focus dropped on a new spot that I have never moved from: chest a tiny space where the ribcage comes together. I was very satisfied because I found sooo much new movement. I broke the habit and it happened. The uncertainty manifested itself and took its risks. Another interesting image was the relationship between feet and hands. Found loads of rhythms and god how enjoyable it was! My whole being was laughing and screaming out loud: I LOVE IT!!!! From little awakening sensations to large full movements and how my dayes continues after such an experience. My personality becomes larger, softer. Soft thinking. And again finding the connection with the ground through my feet from the centre. Balance. Eat the space. A lot of life aspirations came to me and future ideas and opportunities. I simply opened up. I had the impression it was magic. It was knot magic, but it was magical... 
Patterns of energy-connectivity-dialogue-river-discover








Moving & writing

Moving into writing and writing into moving. It's not about the activity itself, it's more about the transitions.


                                                  ***





***


And then if it's not writing then what is it? It does feel like vomiting my dance on a page by using a tool, a blue pen this time. How do these activities inform each other? Is it about feeding or letting go of experience. We cannot talk about any of them without mentioning the thinking process. I believe there is an interesting parallel  between moving and writing as they both express, they are both born somewhere inside your being and they both involve the thought. 

Free writing after a couple dance explorations-it transformed into messages, codes, lines and conclusions of my dancing. Or is it a continuation of it? Katye mentioned: 'Take that movement with you and let it free on your page'. It did rip my page, my pen went through a few pages by leaving impressive marks in this journal and my dance. 

***




***


I would like Katye to know that I found a clear connection between movement practice and writing during my FMP journey. It felt like writing was a main part of my research. It felt like it was as important as the water or the air.  Distortion. Notes and signs. It became a need or a continuation of something that would have not existed without writing.

***

Expressing what my skin and my pen want, wait and see, finding drops, letting go and slicing levels on the rest of my page, Jackson formula on your white book, douleur exquise, bonjour, Londooooooner ma mananca si iara. texting. 
03/03/2014 KC

In discussion with Adam Benjamin at ID London

Interview with Adam Benjamin: The space that we leave behind

·         What do you mean by ‘the space left behind’? (after a score/performance)
·         What is the relationship between the dancer and the space?
·         How do you experience the space?
·         What is the relationship between the inner and outer space?

My interest is in regards with the moment when we leave the space, or exit. There is a kind of resonance or residue, a feeling and sensations which may have a positive resonance or a negative one. I am interested in how we aim as dancers/improvisers, how we deal with that in performance, in set work / choreographer intent to leave us with a certain sensation or a question mark hanging over the space that may be the intention. There is something about the way we’re working with ourselves as performers in the space, ourselves or other people, we extend ourselves. The more we extend out the more we begin to identify qualities and feelings and it’s so easy with non structured improvisations to just decide when the end is. There is an intriguing notion of being which is about what we offer within the performance space, sometimes called the extra-ordinary space. The space we improvise in, we generate particular atmosphere, or we develop particular qualities of feeling, and if we take a step back into our ordinary world, in that moment of departure we make it into a practice. How do we make that transition?

·         Open magnified sensation deals with transition
·         Attention on exchange
·         One place to another
·         Investigation

There is a rich analogy – what we feel when anybody leaves there is a moment of readjust – leave something tangible in the space. We affect the space that we left and we also we notice an interesting shift and a fertile ground.


From an improviser’s point of view by being in the space we develop an awareness of it. We think about the space between people, we sense connection. We also think about the architecture of the building, people inside the building, the history of the space as well as the possibility inward journey. And it is this journey that makes us super aware or external space. Going one way implies an effect on the opposite way. So while we are making a very profound internal journey it is impossible that the outside space to stay the same. Still, it is not a reciprocal relationship. Both journeys should be able to feed one another. We should never forget what we share as performers: if we expand too much into the outside space and the inner world is forgotten or ignore, the performance is not veritable. The ideal place to be as a performer is at the point where you find a balance between the 2 spaces, an equal dialogue. 

Kirstie Simson ID London Dec 2013

Interview with Kirstie Simson: The sensuous journey through life and dance

1.      What is the aim, outline and focus of the Winter Laboratory Workshop?
 I asked Adam Benjamin if he would teach the Winter Laboratory Festival with me because I like the fact that our teaching of Improvisation is so totally different, and yet despite this our fundamental principles about the form are coherent. I think this makes it interesting for the students to study different approaches without hopefully feeling too much confusion or discord between the morning and afternoon sessions. 

2.      What is the method that you used for delivering your knowledge?
I have developed a way of working with improvisation over the course of my practice over the past 32 years. It is based on my own interest in the field of dance improvisation, which is the practice of 'freedom' and the challenged of teaching this subject. I continually question myself about how much 'form' to give students, in order to support and facilitate their own investigation and discovery of freedom in movement. I try to give a foundation of technique that will ground them in their own exploration. I also attempt to create a safe space in which students feel supported to make their own discoveries, and in which they are unafraid of sharing and expressing themselves in their work. I have honed my skills of teaching for some time now and yet it is very difficult to say exactly how I do this. Perhaps it is through the extensive work I have done on myself through my own practice, and the tremendous love I have for this form of expression that I am able to transmit the knowledge I have to students without imposing too much of my own perspective onto them - thereby giving them the space to make their own discoveries, so ultimately they can use this knowledge as a helpful tool in their own practices.  

3.      How have you arrived to the theories that you shared throughout the workshop?
I arrived at the theories I shared in the workshop through my love of this form of dance. When you love something a lot, you take great care of it. You pay enormous attention to what you are doing, and make sure you keep it alive. This is what I have done for 32 years. I also find that I have been able to incorporate all of the learning about life from as long as I can remember into my work. I have always been fascinated to find out everything I can about life, what it is, what we humans are and why we are here. All of this learning is incorporated in my work. For me it has always been a life-practice, and apposed to an art-practice. I don't differentiate between the two. This is why I have been interested in improvisation as a process of discovery, as apposed to set choreography that is perfected and performed for an audience. The process of improvisation is the process of living - of continually moving beyond what we already know. This is what makes the work ultimately exciting. I try to share this passion with students through my work. 

4. What is the center or the source of you practice?
 The center or source of my practice is the human experience, and because the work for me is about coming together with others, and is a form of non-verbal communication, the practice of deep listening and quiet is central to what I do. You cannot listen or hear clearly if you are agitated and distracted. In order to be able to listen and feel deeply, you have to discover a way to become calm, relaxed and extraordinarily focused. Then everything begins to fall into place and the communication, the dance between the people working happens by itself and the participants are listening to the communication/dance as it emerges. It is like a form of magic. If you get too caught up in 'making it happen' you lose the calm quiet focus and become almost distracted by all the action - then it's difficult to hear the music/dance/communication. So it's a very quiet act of balance that is quite extraordinary and yet simple and profound. Very human.

5. How does your practice relate to the environment or to the Earth? In your opinion how do we perceive/ encounter the world around us and how does this idea affect your practice?
My work cannot take place in isolation. It is all about exploring one's relationship with the environment. For instance lying on the earth and feeling the force of gravity and the expanding force of the universe as it works through our bodies. It's not something you can consciously feel, but I have found that continuing to practice awareness of these physical fields and forces and dancing with them, my body has changed dramatically over the years. It has become softer and more fluid, more resonant and malleable, more open and vulnerable and more adaptable, as I consciously appreciate and focus on the forces that create our physical world and experience. Then I find nothing is as I think it is, but there is a different kind of knowing that I can sense which is hard to articulate. It is like a soft resonance of happiness, or contentment, or physical ease and grace that is with me always. This is the interplay of my being in connection with everything, not separate and differentiated. For me this is central to dancing and being happiness which is something I have discovered through freedom in movement with others. It is a rich embodiment of knowledge that is at once hidden and yet known. Again a kind of magic that makes me tremendously grateful for life and dancing. 

6. What is your conclusion after the Winter Laboratory workshop?

 I felt very content after the Winter Laboratory workshop. The group was very harmonious and responsive to my work. By the end of the week I felt that everyone had been enriched through our experience together and this made me feel good about the week. Of course I can never know fully how much people have learned or gleaned from the experience, but I have great faith that if the group truly comes together in an open learning environment that is free and joyful, then each individual will have done the learning they need to do at this particular junction in their lives and then I am happy. I went away feeling this had been accomplished. 

Walk 25

I was thinking back to my IPP Project Walk 25. I a aware of a strong relationship aith Fiona Jackson while working on this project. Land Art. Live Art.










another thought and a resource list

Desire for challenge, refreshment, contemplation, self examination, forming new ideas, expand the range of movement, possibilities, transformation, finding relationships, explore my movement language in the studio, clarify systems, develop sensibilities about momentum, forming theories, finding new solutions and conclusions, limitations, thinking.





Resource List


  • Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices
  • Sensing, feeling, action,
  • How life move
  • Body Space Earth by Andrea Olsen
  • Body Space Image
  • Emotional Intelligence
  • Bone Breath Gesture
  • The thinking Body
  • The knowing Body
  • Anna Halprin books
  • BMC website 
  • The Walk of Life with Hellen Poynor- Movement Ritual Workshop
  • Independent Dance Website + Crossing Boarder Talks
  • Skinner Releasing website

Assenza _ Final Major Project in collaboration with Patricia Martin








'Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity, and change.”'
Brené Brown

This live work brings together four independent movement artists with mutual curiosity to explore a greater depth in performance with the philosophical concept of being present. The piece will display the potential intersection across movement and sound whilst acknowledging the instabilities and shifts in thinking patterns. 

A collaboration with Patricia Martin, Fiona Jackson and Benjamin Price

Photography by Alexander Hacking

BMC 7th Friday - last session of delivering material




I appreciate the start: revisiting hands-on work - diagonals of the body- always return to the centre.

Curiosity in cellular touch and paying attention. So soft and easy. Interesting feeling of witnessing today. While offering connecting with my centre, with my mind and becoming ore aware of my feelings/sensations. Brushing, elongation, pull, rocking, lengthening, stroking. Being moved away from my centre towards hers. Rocking through the tissues- new information---> duet: witnessing with our bodies, sensing each other, soft touch, finding head to tail connection once again and what it does to me, finding spiralling and again finding the ground and the air around, seeing eyes are coming with me as usual and how this experience vitalises me and changes me. Almost like I'm feeding myself with life and energy and absorbing it all!

Writing after the duet with Natalie:

'softness and cellular touch connection with such an inspiring human emotions and intellect being aware of all her background and our history together, moments, eyes, 3 years, up, even more up opening, cry, arriving, absorbing, having it understand'

Creating a little choreography from a few words that came up in our free writing. So what is the transition from improvisation to set material? I feel so alive and free when I improvise and I a spontaneous so when I pick and redo a certain movement feels dead and empty. why does it feel that way? Still judging? So is it right or wrong? 

Further research into instant composition- challenge. 
I mentioned spontaneity- I think I wrote about that topic already.



BMC 31/01

During this class I had a surprising moment: I understood why Katye and Natalie always practice their material one day before they actually teach it to the class. I believe that only while practising we achieve a personal and unique way of articulating what is that we want to share with other movers. I used this strategy for preparing myself for our teaching assessment. Initiation points. 

  • getting dizzy
  • simple
  • pattern
  • need 
  • dancer or mover?
  • real, simple movement
  • witnessing
  • moving, learning, understanding 
We also experienced the contralateral pattern - connections on a diagonal - muscular system becomes active- related to the use of voice- appetite to reach towards something.  

BMC 24th- intention and detail

Looking back at the BMC class on the 24th of January I have noticed a shift in my teaching interest. Even if I was exhausted from many points of view at that time (dissertation + final major project) I found myself in a very curious mode when Natalie asked us to create a homologous pattern phrase and to teach it to peers by using verbal instructions. I have changed the way I look at movement and at myself in motion. My intention became clearer and suddenly every little movement became about *intention and detail*. I also became aware of different ways of demonstration.


*intention*detail*attention*being present*focus*dedication*moment*honesty*sharing*thinking*

Friday 2 May 2014

ID London Artists

One of our tasks was to look at the ID website and pick up 2 artists and to look at their backgrounds.

1. Kirstie Simson


 Kirstie Simson at ID

Kirstie Simson is an improvisation practitioner. She has a strong background in Contact Improvisation, Aikido and Movement Meditations. She has worked with Steve Paxton.

2. Eva Karczag  was trained in Alexander Technique, Ideokinesis, Qigong and Yoga (meditation) and she has worked with Hellen Poynor.



3. Gill Clarke - ballet, Body Mind Centering, Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais.



Fascinating people and I am absolutely absorbed by Kirstie Simson, they way she moves, talks, breather. Her eyes send out so much, she connects, deep. You cannot put it into words. She's beyond what words can express. She is more than human ( Idea that I found in David Abram's writings)


Dear Blog, ...

Dear Blog,

I would like to start by apologizing for neglecting you. I have been through a very difficult and stressful period and I could not find time to sit at my desk in front of my laptop and focus on this activity of reflective writing.
But from this gap I have learned about the importance of your role in both of my personal and artist life. From today onwards my target is to find at lease a few minutes a day so that I can share with you what I take from my day, or a work, an essay, a thought or an experience. I am very curious how that will change the quality of my day.

You know what? It's incredible how I always find time for irrelevant activities, but never enough time for what it truly matters for me, and I am referring to writing, readings, people, videos, nutrition, etc. Another thing to notice is how we find excuses for not completing a task But then again, if it matters so much to me than why do I not do it? Is it just because it's easier to write in my journal?

On the other hand I can feel the end of 'University time' coming and hitting me with its cold reality and I believe that you, dear blog - you are the only thread that will keep me connected to everything I have ever done during these 4 amazing years. Therefore you are one of my main curiosities to keep exploring after uni.

With love and dedication,

Me.