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.
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