Ana Sanchez-Colberg's Session 4.10.2011

There is a palpable sense of excitement and rejoicing as I walk up Erechthiou St to the studio and the start of the Autumn Lab. I dont think I exagerate when I consider this quite an achievement for all involved -participants, visiting artists, the studio - that against hell and high water (or also known as the 'impossible conditions in Greece at the moment') and the unavoidable feeling of paralysis that seems to have struck the nation, this lab is taking place. The scholar of history that lives within me knows that 'history' will be unfair, and whilst re-vivals  of Tanztheater's repertoire for the last ten years taking place at Sadler Wells, (revival:  an unfortunate word, given the absence of Pina), will be celebrated as having 'marked' that which will be known as the history of dance, this humble gathering of individuals, who  single handedly insist that art processses must continue to happen, processes that are not based on reviving methods and aesthetics no longer pertinent to the world, will be forgotten, will not be accounted for.  The crisis continues to highlight the fact that we are nowhere nearer to have the courage to finds new means and new methods of being and engaging with dance, of understanding its specific contribution to today's world.  Perhaps what I am trying to say is that circumstances are asking us to consider what we mean by innovation, it cannot solely be aesthetic innovation, as currently aesthetic innovation tends to happen in contrexts that are embroilled in the very same systems that have produced the crisis. Therefore what I am asking is the question (not new but asked anew)  how does an innovation (an invigoration) of dance happen, if it wants to focus on the way in which dance happens - methods, means, processes, impacts?  Perhaps that is what I am daring to state as an opinion - the 'revolution' is not throwing stones at an invisible antagonist.  I am not referring diretly to events at Syntagma, but rather at so many naive piece springing  about revolution where dancers have stones in their hands staring at the audience, but as it takes place within an uncritically addresssed  proscenium, the supposed revolution is doomed from the beginning, it is dulled by the very systems of representation it was hoping to destroy -- not a stone, literal or metaphorically, is thrown -- everyone goes home applauded for having represented revolution, the performers are actually swallowed into the system and all goes back to the way it was...The great historian Walter Benjamin reminds us that political systems are resillient enough that they not only sustain but actually encourage revolution, like a father that allows the teenage rebellion to take place, only to welcome the prodigal son back to the 'order' of things...sounds scarily familiar doesn't it....so what are we doing, not representatively but actually?

We begin with introductions (to see who we are go to the Participants Pages).  Not surprisingly it is a very different constituency than last Spring Lab, there is clearly an interdisciplinary inclination - with theatre, music and performance art featuring strongly.  I dont even attempt to repeat last Spring's session, even if the description suggests similarities.  Since that Lab I have designed a new BA for Dance, finished two major choreographbic works, delivered two papers and am in the process of a third, created a sister project to the Lab in Puerto Rico (click here to see Proyecto en Solo) and spent a week at the Circus, all these interconnected  stages of evolution of ideas and concepts that continue to gain complexity which makes 'going back' to touch, to 'other' in the same way impossible.  Yes, the Lab serves as professional development for the mentor as well by the way.

I set out the main questions of the investigation based on what are now 'critical transformations';  ten years after the 'critical journey' of Anna Annotated  (click here if you want to read more about this) which  marked the shift that leads to here today in my ways and methods of being and doing in and through dance.  Of course there  are common topics, but their exposition in practice as well as in words has evolved.



What these concerns are,  specifically,  will be continued in my page......it may take a day ot two...but they include:

• trying to articulate both in words and deeds the specificity of dance practice in order to; 
• find new undertstandings to what dance is and how it impacts by questioning the uncritically accepted idea that 'dance is a language' in order to:
• undertstand dance activity as one of subject formation (both personally as well as socially),
• committing to finding new words, new syntax, new pages to reflect and disseminate whatever conmes from this search not to offer an expert opinion but to invigorate discussion and debate (please someone ARGUE with me, but with considerate thoughtful thinking accompanied by evidence, dont just quote other experts, SHOW me what this means in and through the WORKINGS of your practice, dont offer me a READING of practice, show me what makes your 'work'- work, to paraphrase  Matthew Goulish (Director of Goat Island, 39 Microlectures in Proximity of Performance)

I remind the group the Lab is about research, dialogues, debates... not about generic toolboxes...

The main question today, what happens if we start the process with a singular physical thought:

 'I am here' -  ειμαι εδω

This leads  to three interconnected questions:  who is the subject that choreographs, what is the subject of that which the who choreographs?  but then what is/are the multiple layers of subject(s) intertwined in the act 'to choreograph'?