Kinitiras Choreography Lab projects in the In-Progress Festival

Two of the projects developed as part of the Kintitras Choreography Lab Spring 2011, have undergone further development with support from Kinitiras Studio and Artistic Residency Centre and will be presented as part of the IN PROGRESS FESTIVAL at the Studio in June 13-14 2011.

Logos in Cuts & Spirals (Ongoing Work in Progress)

Choreographic Synthesis/ Performance Device: Io anagnostaki Body-

Mouvement-Voice / Performance : Ana Sánchez-Colberg, Vittoria Kotsalou, Dafni Stefanou, Vasiliki Tsagari

Sound-Music / Performance/Interpretation: Kiriakos Spirou

Cinematography /Live Link/Performance/Interpretation: Maria Katsipataki

An Open -Mutable Score for Intermedial Performances, to be interpreted and performed by artists from different artistic disciplines. The Event Itself is Open –Mutable; the Performers Keep Open the Interaction with the Score Throughout its Performance. Every Performance of the Event is Open to be Varied in All its Elements and Parameters, throughout its Evolution and in every New Performance Version. Open Duration - No Time Limit It is the results of Research in Methodology & Working Techniques + Practises for Interdisciplinary Performances Open Works, Process Orientated , Performer Centred , At the Intersection of Performance - Live Art - Improvisation, With Interrelations of Body –Movement –Text –Voice –Sound –Music –Image, In A Critical Choreographing Practice in Relation to A Broader Nexus: Artistic-Existential- Political-Social

This version is for: 4 Dancers/Performers - 1 Musician Performer - 1 Cinematographer Performer

The Original Research and Development took place in Kinitiras Choreography Lab led by Ana Sánchez-Colberg . The 1^st version was Performed in April 2011 in Kinitiras Studio in Creative Collaboration with the members of the Lab: Anthi Theofilidi, Maria Katsipataki, Vittoria Kotsalou, Androniki Marathaki, Evgenia Sigalou and its Musician Kiriako Spirou.

Origin?

Performed and choreographed by Vitoria Kotsalou

Οrigin within this process is the path of going to my origin. Its a place I know, that exists already, it is what I live with its rain breath and sun. Origin is an ever-changing place. A center point which keeps a question or an answer, a force that guides me to search/discover/learn/build. When I stop to agonize about what will be brought about then what is there shines clearly. Memory comes poetically, nature moves, the body as memory, the mind has intention. Learning to allow the intention, express the memory, transform the self, be within the origin--rediscover the intention thus I am questioning/answering at the same time I m walking deeper into my process. Change is constant, my feelings are numbing out of numbness as I recognize they are fruitful as I am human. The body is full of perception. This process of building a solo, reveals a way of trusting my perception into reality.

*********************************************

‘Λόγος για Τεμάχια & Σπείρες Νο1’ ‘Logos for Cuts & Spirals No1’
Χορογραφική Συνθεση / Κατασκεύη Έργου Ιώ Αναγνωστάκη

Αυτός ο Παραστατικός Οδηγός αποτελεί μέρος Έρευνας πάνω σε Μεθοδολογία & σε Tεχνικές + Πρακτικές για την Δημιουργία, Παραστάσεων Πολυμέσων, Ανοιχτών Έργων, Προσανατολισμένων στη Διαδικασία Επικεντρωμένων στους Καλλιτέχνες-Ερμηνευτές

Και στις Σχέσεις ανάμεσα σε Σώμα -Κίνηση-Λόγο- Φωνή –Ήχο –Μουσική –Εικόνα, Σε μια Εφαρμοσμένη Κριτική Χορογραφική Πρακτική σε Σχέση μ ένα Ευρύτερο Πλέγμα: Καλλιτεχνικό -Υπαρξιακό – Κοινωνικοπολιτικό

Αυτη η Παρουσίαση – Εκδοχή είναι για:

4 Χορευτές Ερμηνευτές -1 Μουσικό Ερμηνευτή - 1 Κινηματογραφιστή Ερμηνευτή

Οrigin?

Σύλληψη-Χορογραφία-Ερμηνεία : Βιτόρια Κότσαλου
Εικόνες που ανακαλύπτουν τη διαδρομή μου. Μια συνεχόμενη αναζήτηση προς το σημείο

προέλευσης. Αυτό το σημείο είναι γνώριμο ζω με την βροχή, την ανάσα τον ήλιο του. Ενα μεταλασόμενο σημείο/ένα κέντρο που μέσα του βρίσκεται μια ερώτηση η απάντηση. Απο εκεί μια δύναμη που με κατευθήνει να ψάχνω να αναγνωρίζω να μαθαίνω. Η αλλαγή ξεδιπλώνεται συνεχόμενα δεμένη μέσα μου, με ένα μακρύ σκοινι, κινούμαι και μια έρχεται κοντά και μία ξεμακραίνει. Η κίνηση μου ξεμουδιάζει καθώς αναγνωρίζω πως μέσα σε κάθε μούδιασμένη κίνηση καρπός ζει μα είμαι άνθρωπος ζώο καπνός. Αυτό το σημείο δε το γνωρίζω, με γνωρίζει αυτό.

Δευτέρα-Τρίτη 13-14/6 στις 9.15μ.μ

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS

Two of the Lab projects are being developed further with support of Kinitiras Studio and Artistic Residency Centre and will be performed as part of the In-Progress Festival at the Studio in June 2011.

Details coming!

Final Performances

The closing performances of the first Kinitiras Choreography Lab took place on the 5th & 6th of April 2011 to full house-audiences at the Studio. Over two nights, nine events were presented which engaged with a wide and varied range of concerns centered around redefinitions and re-articulations of choreographic practice today. The events ranged from performances of open-interdisciplinary scores (Io Anagnostaki), experiments on performing-presence and re-engagements with audience (Androniki Marathaki, Anthi Theofilidi), solo works redefining authenticity in performance (Vitoria Kotsalou, Emmanouela Korki, Rena Konstantaki, Evgenia Sigalou) and works exploring interdisciplinary dialogues (Maria Katsipataki, Olga Halkidou).

Throughout the next weeks, the participants will finalise archiving their works and will post the final reflections of their process in their individual pages. Keep checking the 'Project pages', click here.

We now move on to a new season of the LAB, the summer project IN FOCUS: SOLO PROJECTS, with a new group of international artists who will come to lead and mentor the projects. Applications are now open, please follow the link here for information and application form.

PROJECT PRESENTATIONS 5th-6th APRIL 2011

The participants of Kinitiras Choreography Lab present their independent artistic research projects in Kinitiras Studio! Nine individual projects/events will be presented over two nights, as a sharing of the research and exploration the participants have pursued over the last 2 months.

Tuesday 5th April at 21:30:

Maria Katsipataki

Emmanuela Korki

Rena Konstantaki

Androniki Marathaki

Wednesday 6th April at 21:30:

Io Anagnostaki

Vittoria Kotsalou

Eugenia Sigalou

Olga Halkidou

Anthi Theofilidi

Entrance is free.

For booking information please contact:

Kinitiras Studio Artistic Residency Centre
22 Erechtheiou Str
Athens, Greece

Tel. 210 9248 328

***

Οι συμμετέχουσες στο "Κινητήρας Εργαστήρι Χορογραφίας" παρουσιάζουν τα καλλιτεχνικά ερευνητικά πρότζεκτς τους στο Κινητήρας Στούντιο! Εννέα ξεχωριστά πρότζεκτ θα παρουσιαστούν σε δύο βραδιές, σαν παρουσίαση της έρευνας και της εξερεύνησης που έκαναν οι συμμετέχουσες τους τελευταίους δύο μήνες.

Τρίτη 5 Απριλίου στις 21:30:

Μαρία Κατσιπατάκη

Εμμανουέλα Κόρκη

Ρένα Κωνσταντάκη

Ανδρονίκη Μαραθάκη

Τετάρτη 6 Απριλίου στις 21:30:

Ιώ Αναγνωστάκη

Βιττόρια Κοτσάλου

Ευγενία Σιγάλου

Όλγα Χαλκίδου

Ανθή Θεοφιλίδη

Η είσοδος είναι ελεύθερη.

Για κρατήσεις παρακαλούμε επικοινωνήστε:

Kinitiras Studio Artistic Residency Centre

Eρεχθείου 22
Ακρόπολη, Αθήνα

Τηλ. 210 9248 328

IN FOCUS: THE SOLO PROJECTS

We are happy to announce the launch of our summer session, IN FOCUS: THE SOLO PROJECT. For information,weekly schedule, cvs of visiting artists and application form please click here

Chris Clow Session 2, 17.3.2011

Thoughts on the go..

We agreed----- less talking, fully into practical. We begin by looking at the first documentary Chris did Holds no memory (2005-2006), so that we have a visual shared bank of images/tasks to then move into the practical component.

Practical session -- we divide in groups of three... in a way it is an extension of the task of allowing my material to be seen by

another and allow their 'view' to inform the growing knowledge of my process/evolving material. However, this time the material is seen by two outside eyes, one a 'dramaturg' (cross reference to posting 'LAB TIME 15.2.2011) and the other the camera....each group has 15 minutes, giving us time to discuss -- what we see, how we see, what is revealed, what is useful and how...

Groups finalise their experiments and we view and discuss some samples: a recurrent issue resurfaces, the interrelationship between the performance experience and how it becomes perceivable form. In the specific case of the workshop we consider how noticing details on the film - which would be lost in a panoramic view - may help us makes decisions of how to make it perceivable on stage. That is, if the film alerts me to details of fingers, breath, performer's attention and sense of presence -- what decisions do we need to consider to make this be perceivable on the scale of the stage? The issue of transference from one dimension of the creative process to another is an ongoing discussion which will become even more poignant as we prepare the presentations...We speak about rhythms of viewing, performing and filming.

We speak about having to collect raw material over and over and over again, to give time to see what the material 'discloses' through filming and then make editorial decisions - rather than enter the film, with an already predetermined 'aesthetic'.... (the difference between approaching film as video dance as opposed to archiving and documentation, we are focusing on the last one) again, taking time for the process to happen - as opposed to rush into 'making' seems to be key.

At the end, speaking of time, we seem to be running out of it.... Chris introduces us to presentation and editing sources on line..see the list in the projects page by clicking here

Chris Clow Session 15.3.2011

Thoughts on the go...

We begin with introductions while the media is set up... it always takes that little bit longer to set up. Chris begins by reminding us of the focus of his contribution to the lab: to explore ways by which documentation and archiving contributes to the creative process. Chris addresses that this involves choices, how you document, what you document for what purpose.. how do different types and approaches to documentation help the research as it archives an evolution of practice which may be as important as 'recording' the work itself. How can archiving and documentation help the reflective process (and this we mean beyond 'making decisions' of this works this doesn't). How can archiving and documentation be important to disseminate (make available the various layers --and therefore forms of knowledge- within a creative process). How can the archiving of process be an autonomous yet related aspect of the 'performance'?

In response to Chris' introduction interesting issues begin to surface:

• self documentation is more difficult than documenting the work of another
• how can we use documentation not just as a memory aid but also to help with discoveries?
• an important aspect of documentation is realising what we see and how we see when 'seeing' dance through a frame
• Vitoria raises the interesting issue of the body as an archive and therefore performance as a type of documentation

Unpicking these and more is what is to come...

We find ourselves talking a lot, but this is good as from now on every conversation helps us all clarify our individual research more and more, nothing is outside of the process, everything, in one way or another, becomes relevant....

Coffee and cigarette break...

We start by drawing....how we perceive and materialise visually...a table, a glass, a body from the side, a foot...We see our predisposition to 'see' things in a particular way...Chris brings to our attention the work of Zeki, his proposal that at times it is good to leave things out so the mind has to work at making new connections, if everything is there, given, connections lose their value...stimulus fixation... leaving things out may take us to new connections between what we thought were 'known' elements....

PLEASE JOIN THE PETITION!!!

Dear friends,

We take the opportunity that people around the globe have been following our blog to ask for your support.

As we know under the theme 'the crisis' governments have taken the 'inititiative' to eradicate arts and education.... what kind of future, sense of 'nation', place, citizenship is there without these? how can we speak of the 'good of the nation' without these?

Please read the petition to support Michael Klien and Daghdah, fellow practitioners around world need to make a concerted effort and say Basta!

To view and sign the petition follow this link here:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=206762422668303

A Pre-Kinitiras Choreography Lab blog

I am writing this blog from my home in Sheffield, UK, just hours before I leave for the airport on my way to Athens.

I am keen to write a pre, during and post Kinitiras Choreography Lab blog, so that I can also record my thoughts, process and conclusions of archiving studio practice.

I am really looking forward to leading the archiving studio practice workshops next week, meeting and working with other dance practitioners. I'm also looking forward to coming back into the studio, where I have been away from for some time now. Since moving out of London in 2008 I haven't had as much opportunities to work within an studio environment, were I can explore ideas and concepts. I have however still been able to continue to develop my work of documenting studio practice and how it can aid the development of a work.

In the past I have led similar workshops within a university environment where students are able to use university resources. Leading the workshops as part of Kinitiras Choreography Lab will be a challenge, in that participant will be required to use their personal recording equipment. This challenge is just what I need and also have experience of in my 9-5 job. The focus will be less on how to use each participants equipment but instead how moving/still image and audio capturing equipment can be used to document a process. We will then look at a range of video editing software available across PC and Mac's, how to use them and how to structure your edits. Participants will hopefully gain basic documentary skills, but more importantly will start to re-evaluate how and why they document their own practice, and the value of it. Maybe participants will also start to re-think how they view dance.

Prior to coming to Athens to lead these intensive practical workshops I have been looking back over my B.A. (Hons) degree dissertation. For my dissertation I investigated 'why are three-dimensional moving bodies traditionally viewed from a two-dimensional perspective, similar to that which occurs within the theatre?' I hadn't gone back over what I investigated and the conclusions I came to until now, but re-reading the dissertation has made me realise that the way I approach documenting studio practice, the choices I make and the compositions I create has been an indirect influence/development of this investigation.

Within the first workshop I will highlight aspects of this investigation with the aim it will help participants understand the theory behind my practice. I don't want to say too much more on this investigation until after the first workshop. Once I am back in Sheffield I will publish my dissertation and host it on my website along with documentation of my workshops.

Looking at my lesson plan I have so much I would like to cover but might not fit it in. I am not putting pressure on myself to cover every part of my lesson plan, but am keen to give time for participants to explore, experiment and ask questions.

I best leave it their for now, finish packing my things and head off to the airport.

Chris

Video of Michael Klien's Session 1

A roughly edited video documentation of Michael's session 1 is now available on Vimeo. Click here to watch!

CHOREOGRAPHY LAB PROJECTS SPRING 2011

The Choreography Lab now moves fully into the engagement with participant's individual artistic research projects. For the next 5 weeks each will be developing their own research projects with support from the Lab mentor Ana Sanchez-Colberg. John Paul Zaccarini will also contribute to the final stages of mentorship from the 29th March and up to the presentations.

The presentation of the results of the lab will take place in the evening of Tuesday 5th and Wednesday 6th April at Kinitiras Studio.

The presentations promise to address very different concerns and are not limited to conventional modes of presentation.

Each participant will be reflecting and archiving her individual project throughout the next weeks. Click on the link in the side panel to go to the pages of the projects.

Video Documentation of John Paul Zaccarini's Session 2

We have uploaded a roughly edited video documentation of John Paul Zaccarini's Session 2 (27.01.11) which is available on the relevant page and also through this link.

LAB TIME 1.3.2011

Planning day, verbal presentations of 'draft' project proposals. Much discussion.

Music from Interdisciplinary Session 2

For our second Interdisciplinary (Sound) session we brought musicians in the studio as to explore the possibilities and limitations in music-dance collaborations and to explore the connections, differences and similarities in the practices of both dancers and musicians. We asked two professional musicians to come and improvise with us: Lidija Vujic played the flute and Mairi Skopeliti improvised on the cello (I played the piano). Through different tasks both musicians and dancers discovered new ways of listening to one another: dancers closed their eyes and allowed themselves to "listen" with different parts of their body (for example, they could feel the cello vibrating through the floor boards).

One of the tasks we did was asking the dancers to move in a sound-scape the musicians were creating. The musical ensemble had a small score I had already composed that wasn't really set or "closed". The musicians had fragments of musical notation that they had to mix-up and perform as they liked, depending on the conditions of the movement, the atmosphere, the other musician's playing and so on; thus we performed a structured improvisation to which the dancers had to respond with movement. I encouraged the dancers to close their eyes while moving, as to experience the sonorous aspect of the "event" more intensely. In the following recording you can hear part of the ensemble's improvisation, as well as other sounds from the studio, produced by the dancers' movement. It was interesting to see that the "non-musical" sounds in the studio complemented the "musical" sounds, and even picked up the rhythms and mood of what the musicians were playing.

Then Ana proposed that we did another improvisation, but this time it shouldn't be structured. The only rule was that the dancers should follow what the musicians were doing. In other words, the musicians were creating a sonorous presence to which the dancers had to "plug into" and respond to.

In the last part of our session, we decided to do a task that would involve a structured improvisation by both parts, both dancers and musicians. Dancers were asked to bring into the "event" material that they had already set and created, while musicians were using their composed notation fragments. In the end, the musicians stopped playing but the dancers continued moving until the momentum of the "event" came to silence. You can listen to them moving (their "body music") in this next recording.

24.2.2011 Interdisciplinary Collaborations 2 - Live-Sound-Body

Thoughts on the spot, thoughts on the go...

Space is full: musicians, dancers, recording equipment, flute, cello, piano. I can't help but note the spatial configurations: dancers on half the space on the floor, musicians in another half (towards a corner), recording equipment in corners but with some degree of mobility. Lefebvre would have something interesting to say about this.

More improvisation, trying to understand behavioral resonance, where the motion and sound coming from the musician affects what is perceived (in this case by the dancers) and how this affects their response to the improvised dialogue. After the first warm up-improvisation it is interesting to note that the dancers speak about the effect of sound in/on their bodies and the musicians speak of the effect of the dancers in 'their' space. The body the common element and also the (its?) difference.

There is much talk about space, not time

We move on to move the musicians (out of those corners), trying to establish a more open dialogue in space, not just through space. Dancers take 'time' coming in and out of dialogue with the musician.

From open improvisation to matters of structure, we begin to confront pre-existing dance material with the various musical/sound fragments/sets that Kiriakos has composed for today... It gets quite elaborate as the variables that can come into 'dialogue' with each other are suddenly 'exponientially' multiple

Arriving at complexity: dancers begin by listening into the silence, then begin to move, then musicians listen to dancers, then dancers listen to dancers whilst listening to musicians who are listening to dancers listening to dancers who are listening to musicians...

silence is always a probability...

Message from John Paul Zaccarini in Madrid, Spain, 11.2.11

The Kinitiras Choreography Lab, curated and mentored by Ana Sanchez-Colberg is a unique opportunity to expand, refresh and invigorate one's practice in a safe environment free from external, market-driven pressures. Forms of physical truth are privileged over forms that repeat or conform to existing tastes or trends.

Each international practitioner brings her/his own practice to the space with the Lab Mentor facilitating connections or hybrids with one's own practice, pointing out the liminal spaces between different theories and practices and gently guiding the participants through a meticulously curated journey.

This journey encourages above all dialogue, reflective activities, writing and the opportunity for creative, productive disobedience.

In its structure it allows time for digestion, assimilation, allowing participants to make methodologies that may seem alien to them, personal and “owned”. Sanchez-Colberg's choice of workshop facilitators is based as much on their research and pedagogic practice as their international pedigree and acclaim as artists and is forever blurring the line between educator and educatee.

This is not a laboratory for those who wish to be told what to do by an “authority”.

Along the way, via a continuous on-line blog that all contribute to, participants will encounter a deliciously diverse array of writers, thinkers and philosophers of artistic practice and be allowed time to explore them more or discover relationships with others.

As a practitioner this laboratory feels like a crucial step in an authentic direction.

LAB TIME 15.2. 2011

photos by Ana Gabriela Webb

We continue to explore the process from movement experienced to 'choreographed' form, we dont approach this as a process of editing the material but one of understanding, comprehending what the raw material 'offers' to the 'outside' as both separate and related to its makers. We continue to explore the questions of what makes material 'interesting' (in particular how what is interesting for me - as an issue of choreographic exploration - remains interesting for the other - beginning to address the issue of audience reception). We address interest as a continuum between 'pleasure' and 'difficulty'. I remind them of (I think it was Duchamp) who said the work does not tell me anything, the work brings me in to its world.... How do we bring the audience 'into' the work as opposed to bombard them with empty 'statements'. How does a work enter-tain us, a word that I define as how does a work makes us 'enter' into a particular state/world/perceptive new order and how does it 're-tain' us within it (a view of the word entertainment, which perhaps we all need to consider) so that disclosure (perhaps the old word revelation comes in handy) can take place - disclose what it is and what we are within it...and that includes artists and audience. Therefore how do we create a work that instills a 'search' for/in the audience in relation to the search of the creative process?. How is audience empathy therefore redefined as a sharing in a parallel creative search not one of merely sentimental mirroring, superficial and non-lasting? So lets us waste no more time in deciding -as if it were possible- what the work says but rather in understanding how what we shape has - makes - an impact - through the materials of our medium - in infinite ways.

``

To choreograph a work is therefore to choreograph a search -- in an through the witnessing of actions, sounds, colours, tensions, etc etc etc -- how 'it' makes itself manifest, what the moment offers, but also what we bring to it... the question of 'origin not end' is equally posed to the audience.

We work in pairs, showing, exchanging, finding a language for what 'I witness'. We allow the feedback from the outside eye (in terms of what is perceived, what draws their attention, what comes to the perceptive field) to have an impact -- the feedback helps me clarify what I am doing, to helps me change, or takes me somewhere new, as an artists I accept the view from outside to inform my process, that which was 'foreign' becomes absorbed into the 'known'. We don' t speak of what 'I want to see' as an audience, of his is better if you do it to the right, or four times rather than six (the orthodox corrective treatment of choreographic editing) but rather we expose what I see present in front of me, disclosing the interrelation between the witness and the witnessed.

THOUGHTS ON THE GO II:

At the end of the session each one adds a phrase into the basket of this lab day, something that was left after the investigation, most of them spontaneous thoughts, traces:

• ‘ The Other - Reflects Me ’ (Io)

• Πως ακόμη και μία κίνηση μπορεί να φανεί περιττή ή να χαμηλώσει την ένταση του κομματιού αν δεν έχει βρει το νόημάτης. How even a move may seem unnecessary or lower the intensity of the piece if it has not found its meaning, its purpose. (Rena)

• Είναι ανακουφιστικό να υπάρχει feedback την ώρα που κινείσαι γιατί σε πάει σε μονοπάτια ξένα για σένα. It is comforting to have feedback while you move; it can takes you to unknown pathways and clears blocks of your path. (Anthii)

• Form my experience by experiencing my form. Experiences change my form into experienced process of forming. Forming is an experience of breaking formal form into experiencial form forming pathways. (Vitoria)

• The origin of how we do what we do is the key to influence. This is the start to the journey. Breathe. (Maria)

• Δεν υπάρχει σωστό και λάθος. Υπάρχει η καθαρή πρόθεση.There is not right or wrong. Only the pure intention (Eugenia)

• Το εξωτερικό μάτι μπορεί να σε βοηθήσει να αλλάξεις το ταξίδι, να πλησιάσεις το συγχρονισμό με το presence σου, την αλήθεια σου. The outside eye can assist you change the trip; you come closer to the synchronization with your presence, your truth (Olga)

• The issue is not to answer but simply to question. (Androniki)

• In the universal unconscious lies the seed of any inspiration. When we honestly approach the source then we get a connection. (Rena)

• There must always be a reason to move. Like breathing. (Androniki)

  
  

Thoughts on the spot, 10.2.11

Question guiding the tasks of the session today: how do we move from experience to the more complex issue of creating intelligible artistic (dance) form

Focusing on ORIGIN NOT END in choreographic explorations presupposes a focus on evolution (of series, of species, of systems).... Evolution wants to evolve, it does not aim to end, an end is contradictory to its essence...an anomaly... it insists...origin embrace life forces, end death wishes.... trying to get rid of the nihilistic philosophical inheritance ingrained in art-making (Ana) origin is a place I am going to. (Vitoria). angel=the whiteness of a touch. (Io). clarification of origin is a clarification of the process, as to know what/where is, is already implicated in its evolution, that which makes it this an not another, Arendt over and over and over again... what it is knows -beyond words- what it wants to be, what it wants is connected to its desire in pure existence...want and desire indissoluble, is that not what art is after all all about.... (ana) ? you!I! can shift your finish to an origin..that is a start!? going to my origin makes a noise I want to avoid. (Olga) this place exists i know it so well I live with its breath rain and sun (Vitoria).

Let the hair drop

the Wings of A Body-----How many?

Language /Logos = E-Motion (Io)

Somewhere here is the link between personal experience and the issue -challenge perhaps- of what is normally termed artistic form.(Ana).  Τελικά τί είναι ωραίο; Αναρωτιέμαι... Ποιά είναι η αισθητική της κίησης; Σίγουρα θέλουμε να βγάζει νόημα αυτό που κάνουμε, αλλά ποιά είναι τα όρια μεταξύ ωραίου, ευκρινούς και πραγματικά αυθεντικού; ("In the end, what is Beauty? I wonder... What is the aesthetic of movement? Of course we want what we do to make some sense, but what are the limiths between Beauty, clarity and authenticity?" Evgenia).

Now we move onto first, what is sets up finite(ly) and infinitely ..if this is 'one' (proto), what is 'two'? (Ana)

I Need to Stay with That

Until I Find What Is That (Io)

In what ways is a choreographic process one of (self) knowledge of (self) discovery, only when I know 'my dance' (allow that immersion) will "it become clear" (Evgenia's question, almost an anxiety) if not it is un-intelligible to another, although part of who I am is embrouille in this an-other (damn, Arendt again...).

Ana writes (Ambelokipi, 5.15.pm): We confronted the artistic, aesthetic, structural, technical, performative- challenges within the CHOICE of determining "a first" from the pool of variables contained within the series of exercises today (fragments of 'a dance' began to emerge) ..and from there began to unravel notions of consequence of/from this choice.... only then can any talk of 'right' or 'wrong' choreographic form can take place.

For 'homework' I have asked them to keep the 'fragments' alive from today to next Tuesday, to carry it like a constant present day dream...continuously interrupting daily life, as I have read Mahler used to do with fragments of his symphonies in the making....through that learn its every contour, dynamics, texture, shape, time, space in , space without, it may even acquire a taste, a smell, it may begin to trigger other thoughts, other day dreams...I am not asking them to 'remember' but to keep it constantly present as a latent sense environment ..I want them to be, dare I say to 'live' 'in dance (not just movement as we do live in movement continuously) as constant as possible between now and the next session...it is a character building exercise more than anything else...thinking back to Michael's description of whom he considers a good dancer...this is what it means to know your practice...the studio is only the tip of the iceberg....we give a twist to Michael's statement, "there is no in or out in the process of a work".

News!!!!

To date the blog has received over 1400 visitors, thank you to those who are following our process.

Given the success of this first lab, we are already on the planning stages for the new Summer session to take place May-July 2011 with contributions from a new influx of international artists.

If you wold like information please contact Ana Sanchez-Colberg, Lab Mentor, at: ana@theatreencorps.co.uk

Paradigm shifts

..Michael would call them. Today we begin to set the individual/shared projects 'in motion'. We begin by 'going back to go forward' an expression that has now become common language amongst us. We begin by considering the nature of creative processes; how does a process begin? perhaps a better thought is what are the infinite/finite ways in which a process begins? how does it evolve? how is it modified? how is it 'judged' so that revisions can take place? how does it account for evolving knowledge in and through practice so that artistic development becomes 'accountable' by each individual?

• We begin by considering the nature of 'the task', going back to Evgenia's questions in the opening session (see first post in the blog).
• We re address the idea of 'what we are looking for...", the search driven by an artistic/personal imperative (for which language may be needed, to define what I must and desire to do).
• What are the issues surrounding this creative imperative? How this first layer of imperatives connect to others?

I ask them to go back to 'origin', the 'eimai edo' of the first sessions, that 'ego' is probably now 'disturbed' by the interventions of the past three weeks, what issues, ideas, embodied-thought-int-the-making are emerging now? Start from that place, find its layers, contours, features...from that let it take you to 'the next' which can be related or separable (related only by contingency and contiguity if there is such a word in English). We have 30 minutes. The balance in the relationship between individual focuses and the shared experience of the group is indeed part of the equation.

30 minutes pass by very quickly

I ask them to capture in writing the essence/kernel of the task; what did it set up. This is written in the notebooks as well as a separate piece of paper. It is both my individual process but something that can stand on its own as a strange collection of a concept in the making. I ask them to exchange pieces of paper. Layer 2, what new task is suggested for you from the writing? that is I am not after deciphering 'her task'; but rather what is this set of words -perhaps not unlike Michael's score'- suggesting to me. Does it stand separate to my original task? Does it find a relation?

20 more minutes....

find your other, dialogue, witness each others tasks and responses to the tasks...what do I gain by seeing my 'task' through the lens of another?

we work towards layer 3: what is the new gained from seeing my task in another, from their feedback, from my doing the 'other's' task?

We emphasise and establish the dialogical nature of the process (in one session!), not in generating an immediate set of production tasks...

30 more minutes...

more reflections... we considered the 'working metaphors' that begin to arise from the work. I ask them to consider these nuggets of concepts as being related to the evolving method of their practice, not the thematic of a work... that will come later, indeed they are related, but not the same thing. I ask them to consider the broader application of these words that have arisen from the studio research, how diverse applications of the same term constitute different, discreet and also interrelated layers of the process. As homework, to consider how these very personal working metaphors are related to larger concepts of what we define as choreographic discipline...the relationship of a micro investigation to larger, communal dare we say, issues of choreographic discourse.