Review of Final Sharing at Dancetheater.gr

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Εκεί που διαγράφονται οι σαφείς πορείες εδράζουν οι συγκεχυμένοι δρόμοι...

 

 

Την περασμένη Τρίτη είχα την τύχη να βρεθώ στις εγκαταστάσεις του Κινητήρα για να παρακολουθήσω τη συλλογική δουλειά επτά νεαρών χορογράφων και άλλων ερμηνευτών στην καθιερωμένη παρουσίαση χορογραφικής σύνθεσης που διοργανώνεται για δεύτερη χρονιά στα πλαίσια του Kinitiras Choreography Lab. Οι χορογράφοι, οι περισσότεροι εκ των οποίων συμμετείχαν διάσπαρτα σε επτά χορογραφίες που συνομιλούσαν μεταξύ τους, ένωσαν τις δυνάμεις τους προκειμένου να συγκροτήσουν μια ενιαία χορογραφική σύλληψη, διατηρώντας ωστόσο τη συνθήκη του ξεχωριστού στίγματος του κάθε δημιουργού. Κεντρικές θεματικές αυτού του πάζλ χορογραφιών, ήταν η πολλαπλότητα των επιλογών που καλείται να αναλάβει-συλλάβει η ανθρώπινη οντότητα και τα συναισθήματα που αυτή η διαδικασία επιλογής προκαλεί, καθώς και οι διαστάσεις της θηλυκής υποκειμενικότητας που ξετυλίχθηκαν με γλαφυρότητα μέσα από το προσωπικό ύφος κίνησης των χορευτριών.

 

 

Η επαφή μας με το δρώμενο ξεκινησε στην είσοδο με ένα ιδιότυπο σκαρφάλωμα της Θάλειας Δίτσα στις πόρτες του Κινητήρα, ένα σκαρφάλωμα σε συναισθηματικη φόρτιση, που εξελίχθηκε σε μια απεγνωσμένη πάλη της performer με τα κάγκελα, αλλά και στην συμβολική ενοποίηση της με αυτά. Προχωρώντας στην κεντρική αίθουσα του Κινητήρα, οι ερμηνευτές διαμόρφωσαν ένα δυνητικό σύμπαν κατευθύνσεων, απλώνοντας ένα νήμα σε διάφορα σημεία του χώρου. Το καθοδηγητικό νήμα μετατόπισε ακόμα και εμάς, δημιουργώντας αμέσως μια διάδραση, όπως και μια φυσική και συναισθηματική εγγύτητα με τους δρώντες. Έτσι παρομοίως με αυτούς αναγκαστήκαμε να περιχαρακωθούμε και να επιλέξουμε την τοποθέτηση μας στο χώρο. Στον πλεγματικό ορίζοντα που φτιάχτηκε οι θηλυκές φιγούρες ξεδίπλωσαν τις πορείες και τις αναζητήσεις τους, μέσα από release τεχνικές, διαντίδρασαν μεταξύ τους, ανάμεσα, αλλά ακόμα και πάνω στα δίχτυα του νήματος, τοποθετώντας το σώμα στο κέντρο ενός συμπλέγματος.

Ιδιαίτερη αισθαντικότητα μας προκάλεσε ο πρωτότυπος συνδυασμός της σωματικής κίνησης με το τραγούδι, το σιγομουρμουριτό και την ομιλία. Συνιστώντας μια ολοκληρωμένη ενσώματη επιτέλεση, ο συνδυασμός αυτός κατάργησε το σύνορο ανάμεσα στην κίνηση και την φωνή, θέτοντας μας το ερώτημα: Μήπως η φωνή μπορεί να νοηθεί ως κίνηση ή αντίστροφα η κίνηση να ιδωθεί ως φωνή; Ιδιαίτερα συμβατοί με τις χορογραφίες και μεταξύ τους ήταν οι συνδυασμοί διαφορετικών ηχητικών τοπίων (ηλεκτρονικοί ήχοι, βροχή, τουμπελέκι) και οι ανακοινώσεις του δημοσίου χώρου (Mind the Gap).

 

Χορογραφικά ξεχώρισαν οι βίαιες, ρομποτικές κινήσεις εδάφους και το γυναικείο δίδυμο, λίγο αμήχανο στην αρχή, που με τις μεταφορές βάρους και την αισθητηριακή ανταλλαγή ήρθε σε αντίθεση με την τυποποιημένη ανθρώπινη μάζα. Χαμογελάσαμε με το ευχάριστο σουρεαλιστικό performance, out of time and place, της κωμικής δύτριας της στεριάς στην αυλή του Κινητήρα, θυμίζοντας μας ότι στα διάκενα και στις αντιφάσεις καραδοκεί το νόημα. Ως επίλογος επιλέχθηκε ένα αμάλγαμα από τις κινησιολογικές ιδιοσυγκρασίες των πρωταγωνιστριών και η επιστροφή στο performance της εισόδου. Περιμέναμε ίσως λίγο πιο συγκλονιστικό τέλος...Συγχαρητήρια αξίζουν όμως σε όλους γιατί ήταν μια ειλικρινής προσπάθεια ενός πειραματικού εγχειρήματος με προοπτική, ροή και συνεκτικότητα.

 

 

Τα project του 2ου Kinitiras Choreography Lab παρουσιάστηκαν στο Kinitiras Studio, στις 20 και 21 Δεκεμβρίου 2011

 

Dancetheatre.gr 26 Δεκεμβρίου 2011

Performance Snapshots December 20-21st 2011

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Sharing 20-21st December 2011

ΜΟΝΟΔΡΟΜΟΣ/ΑΦΡΟΔΊΤΗ ΒΕΡΒΕΝΙΏΤΗ

Ερμηνεύει Θάλεια Δίτσα

EΛΠΊΖΩ ΝΑ ΦΑΝΕΊ ΈΝΑΣ ΔΡΌΜΟΣ ΓΙΑ ΤΟΝ ΚΌΣΜΟ/ΘΑΛΕΙΑ ΔΙΤΣΑ

ΈΝΑ ΧΑΙΚΟΎ ΤΟΥ ΙΆΠΩΝΑ ΠΟΙΗΤΉ ΣΌΓΚΙ, ΚΑΙ ΜΙΆ ΕΡΏΤΗΣΗ ΓΙΑ ΤΗΝ ΕΠΙΛΟΓΉ ΑΝΆΜΕΣΑ ΣΕ

ΠΟΛΛΑΠΛΈΣ ΚΑΤΕΥΘΎΝΣΕΙΣ.

Ερμηνεύει Αφροδίτη Βερβενιώτη

SOLO ΓΙΑ ΠΕΡΙΟΡΙΣΜΕΝΟ ΧΏΡΟ/ ΖΩΉ ΑΡΒΑΝΙΤΆΚΗ

Ο ΧΏΡΟΣ ΠΕΡΙΟΡΊΖΕΙ?….….ΚΑΙ ΠΟΙΌΝ?

Η ΣΙΓΟΥΡΙΆ ΓΕΝΝΙΈΤΑΙ ΑΠΟ ΈΝΑΝ ΣΥΜΒΙΒΑΣΜΌ.

Ερμηνεύει Ζωή Αρβανιτάκη, Νεφέλη Οικονόμου, Ελένη Πανταζάτου

  ΕLECTRICAL SHARING/ ΝΕΦΈΛΗ ΟΙΚΟΝΌΜΟΥ

ΕΓΏ, ΕΔΏ, ΤΏΡΑ.. ΠΟΥ ΕΝΤΟΠΊΖΩ ΤΟΝ ΗΛΕΚΤΡΙΣΜΌ ΠΟΥ ΚΑΘΟΡΊΖΕΙ ΚΑΙ ΤΡΟΦΟΔΟΤΕΊ ΤΗΝ ΎΠΑΡΞΉ ΜΟΥ ΣΤΟ ΣΏΜΑ ΜΟΥ, ΣΤΟΝ ΆΛΛΟ, ΣΤΟΝ ΧΏΡΟ? ΤΊ ΑΚΟΎΩ, ΤΊ ΜΟΙΡΆΖΟΜΑΙ, ΤΊ

ΕΠΙΚΟΙΝΩΝΏ? ΕΝΑ ΠΛΈΓΜΑ ΔΙΑΣΥΝΔΕΔΕΜΈΝΩΝ ΣΥΣΤΗΜΆΤΩΝ ΣΕ ΑΝΟΙΧΤΉ ΣΥΖΉΤΗΣΗ.

Ερμηνεύουν Ζωή Αρβανιτάκη, Ελένη Πανταζάτου

 

ΤΑ ΙΧΝΗ ΠΟΥ Μ’ΑΦΉΝΟΥΝ/ΖΩΉ ΤΣΑΒΔΑΡΊΔΟΥ

ΒΡΊΣΚΟΜΑΙ ΈΞΩ ΑΠΟ ΜΕΝΑ: ΜΕ ΠΕΡΙΒΑΛΛΩ. ΕΝΑΣ ΆΓΑΡΜΠΟΣ, ΚΑΘΥΣΤΕΡΗΜΕΝΟΣ ΚΑΤΑΣΚΟΠΟΣ. Ο ΧΩΡΟΣ, ΜΑΡΤΥΡΑΣ, ΦΟΡΑΕΙ ΤΟΝ ΧΡΟΝΟ ΑΝΆΠΟΔΑ, ΌΠΩΣ ΕΓΩ ΕΚΕΙΝΟΝ- Η ΚΑΘΕ ΔΙΑΔΡΟΜΗ ΣΤΙΓΜΑΤΊΖΕΙ ΤΙΣ ΠΡΟΗΓΟΥΜΕΝΕΣ, ΤΑ ΊΧΝΗ ΤΗΣ ΑΠΛΩΝΟΝΤΑΙ ΣΕ ΔΡΌΜΟ ΜΙΑΣ ΧΡΉΣΗΣ.

Αντανάκλαση Σάντρα Λειβαδάρα

ΣΩΜΑ/ΕΛΕΝΗ ΠΑΝΤΑΖΑΤΟΥ

1. Η ΦΥΣΙΚΉ ΚΑΤΑΣΚΕΥΉ ΕΝΌΣ ΖΩΝΤΑΝΟΎ ΟΡΓΑΝΙΣΜΟΎ.

2. ΣΎΝΟΛΟ ΠΡΟΣΏΠΩΝ ΟΡΓΑΝΩΜΈΝΟ ΓΙΑ ΣΥΓΚΕΚΡΙΜΈΝΟ ΣΚΟΠΌ.

ΤΟ ΣΚΕΠΤΌΜΕΝΟ ΣΏΜΑ ΠΡΟΤΕΊΝΕΙ ΚΑΙ ΔΡΆ ΣΤΟ ΕΔΏ ΚΑΙ ΤΏΡΑ.

Χορεύουν Ζωή Αρβανιτάκη, Αλεξάνδρα Γρηγορίου, Σάντρα Λειβαδάρα, Νεφέλη Οικονόμου, Ελένη Πανταζάτου, Ζωή Τσαβδαρίδου

MIND YOUR STEP, STEP OUT OF YOUR MIND/ΑΛΕΞΆΝΔΡΑ ΓΡΗΓΟΡΊΟΥ

ΝΟΡΜΕΣ. ΑΥΤΟΜΑΤΕΣ ΣΥΜΠΕΡΙΦΟΡΕΣ. ΥΠΑΡΧΕΙ ΑΛΛΟΣ ΔΡΟΜΟΣ?

Μουσική Γιώργος Χατζής/ Φωνή Πελαγία Πλαγιανάκου

Xορεύουν Καρολίνα Απικιάν, Ζωή Αρβανιτάκη, Αλεξάνδρα Γρηγορίου, Ελένη Μιχαήλ, Νεφέλη Οικονόμου, Γεωργία Παλαβού, Ελένη Πανταζάτου, Τίνα Τσάλεγα, Παναγιώτης Τσετσώνης

Production team:

Kiriakos Spirou: All sound scores except Alexandra Grigoriou's, production assistant

Pavlos Mavridis: Lighting Design and production

Ana Sanchez-Colberg: Lab mentor, producer

Kinitiras Choreography Lab would like to thank Antigone, Flora, Vicky, Michael K, John Paul Z, Yolanda Gonzales, Roberto Olivan, Kiriakos Spirou and Pavlos Mavridis for their support and contribution to the realization of the Autumn 2011 session.

about to go to the first sharing...

The past few weeks have been very full on, and yes, sorry, the blog has fallen a bit behind.  Kiriakos Spirou joined us again last week and through considering issues of sound and music composition helped us shape the final event.

Different to last year, this year we have a single event that contains the results -if such word can be use- of the research and experimentation.  The Lab participants chose to remain focused on process-process-process until the last moment, seeing  performance not only 'as' research, but considering how the moment of performance 'is research'.  Much to be unpacked there.  Certain themes seem to have cemented, particularly the constant question of 'emai-edo', and from there establishing more complex questions:

-- what am I doing when I choreograph, who am I when I do this?  who am I doing this for?  and how?  The event seeks not to share pieces in progress, there are no 'pieces' but an integrated whole from the various, and a conscious decision to explore how such process can be shared, as an experience of a different kind....


In keeping with the manner the Lab has evolved this session the presentation in  many ways mirrors and comments on the experience of the last 10 weeks: a shared process that then diverged into individual concerns, only to find the overlapping, common ground -literally and metaphorically towards 'its end'.



The first sharing is tonight.  9.15pm at the studio.  Please join us.  If not tonight then by all means there is still tomorrow...

MASTER CLASS WITH YOLANDA GONZALEZ and UNTERWGS THEATRE

Yolanda Gonzalez and Unterweg Theater will be offering a master class (open to the public) during the Choreography Lab sessions 29 November & 1st December 12.00-3.00pm.

The session will be led by Unterwegs director Yolanda Gonzales and members of the company Stavros Apostolatos and Ini Dil.  Using material from the company's repertory the workshop will look into action/reaction, activity/passivity, weigth, impulse, distance and tempo within the specific constraints of the duet form where 'two-work-as-one'.

For more information about Yolanda and Theater Unterwegs see their page in the blog: CLICK HERE

To register for the masterclasses contact the Studio.

The visit of Yolanda Gonzales and Unterwegs Theater has been made possible with support of the Goethe Institute.

Lab time 9, 22 November 2011

I receive the best news a mentor can receive, I am not needed.  There is a book with a list of times, names, the group has decided to share processes as a group, each participant offering an aspect of their research concern.  When I come in Thalia is leading the group, one moves the other stating only either οχι η ναι  (cant put the accents in Greek typing...).  Then Alexandra takes them through a 'flocking' exercise ..and 'Sweet Child of Mine ' is playing again...

 

We speak briefly about the sharing...it seems everyone is wants to find a way to share their research process as opposed to outcomes, great, OK I say, how do we do that?  I ask.  I will not be at the lab for the next two weeks (Circus calls), we decide to give thought during this time to ideas on this so we can then consolidate - possibilities, schedules, options- on my return (and Kiriakos will join us as well).  This lab has really worked on exchanges of processes, there is less emphasis on making, good for me to see how different constituencies treat the lab, letting it be shaped by participants in relation to the input of the artists, their own concerns, yet still remaining faithful to the issue of investigation of choreographic processes, not just movement making... there is definitely a self-governing  'community' evolving here...

Eleni is next....she picks up on aspects of Alexandra but adds the possibility of breaking away so that various cycles may appear simultaneously.  Nefeli in keeping with her evolving idea squashes everyone into her 'corner space' and tests what happens if....Thalia works with Zoi A

Lab time 7, 15 November 2011

Working day...

Lab time 6, 10 November 2011

Individual work, but nonetheless people have sort of paired up with a 'buddy', great, we continue in dialogues, avoiding the 'it's just me in my corner now'... Different kinds of activites, arguably all practice:  writing, talking, taking videos, notes, drawings, figuring out how to work the blog.... 

We begin to allow ourselves the possibility of really daring to go for alternative presentations.... allow the research to take us to talking and dancing and filming...  great I say!  the choices should remain loyal to the research process, and making that 'shareable'in whatever shape or form... we should not just switch to making as if the last 5 weeks of intensive consideration to OTHER options had not taken place!

How do we find a focus that still allows for lateral thinking and discovering?  this seems to be the biggest question....  so we start precisely there next Tuesday....

Lab time 5, 8 November 2011

We are midpoint of the lab.  We go back to go forward, looking for comparisons, differences, ways forward. The focus of the sessions so far has been on nurturing, starting a process --  with ASC this was summarised by the idea of 'ειμαι εδω' a way to refer to our position as we start a process, what we bring and also what the process begins to 'give us', the feedback that evolves 'the world' of the 'work' and how that 'work works'.  For John Paul, the trigger comes from a dynamic opposition between me and an-other (even if that other is also me), the encounter defined as an exchange of energies, transformations.  Michael brought with him the idea of 'reaching a state of dance', a place that can only be dance-  and strategies to reach (and identify) this. All three in their individual way spoke of the need to consciously open a place, an awareness - for ASC it was 'putting the world on hold' and 'entering' 'here'/εδω'.  John Paul (as Michael) spoke of 'giving ourselves permission' (leaving the 'shame' behind, too much judgement), Michael defined this by borrowing from Heideggers idea of 'the clearing'. 

So today, one simple but challenging task, we must find the 'it starts here/now' of the process of concrete investigation that wil lead to an outcome(s)...and yes within this is 'making', but with a reviewed understanding of the who.what and how of that process.

Ahhh. everyone back to the notebooks and the writing.  You can actually sense the heaviness (of thinking, of the task)...as the hours progress the environment begins to get lighter, pockets of activity begin to bubble, towards the end as the end of he allocated time reaches its all go....  we spill into the next hour of the studio, luckily there is a gap of time...

So as not to lose this I ask them to keep this 'seed' with them alive, present, like a daydream (we did this last year, it worked), simmering until we are back in the studio on Thursday...a shadow next to you...watch it get larger...that way we will not feel that we have detached from the process that began to take force at the end of today...

We have three weeks intensive lab time, the emphasis switches to tackling issues as they arise from the particular individuals which are also relevant to the group as a whole.  Then we welcome Theater Unterwegs, who will share with us the process of making a particular piece. The timing is in purpose, they bring with us a 'case study' of the 'making' of one piece as we are finalising our own investigations.  On the 12th December, Kiriakos Spirou, a key contributor last year to all aspects of music/sound/collaboration returns to give us insight into issues of 'composition' as we reached the time to evolve the 'studio' to a shareable event.

Michael Klien Session 2, 3 November .2011

We are 'really dancing again', Keith Jarrettt in the background....  we discuss 'improvisation' and following the 'moment'...some interesting question arise...how do I identify the state of 'dance' (AG)...  use the state of dance to reveal 'things' (MK) and to share them....  heated discussion, although we mean to be practising, about words and terminology...Again much discussion on 'choreography' as a writable subject...(what does the word γραφω, actually 'mean', does it have a wider application which is then delimnitd by the preffix that preceeds it i.e ζο-γραφο, χορογραφω), what do we mean by ecstatic?  how is choreography a 'thought' yet 'not rational'.....  what does this have to do with standing up and doing something!  All good questions.... useful distinctions MK calls it. ... to let dance 'stand' on itself....

More strategies...examples of the how.... what would such a practice look like, 'in conversation' between the choreographer and the dancer, over a time, a series of proposals and counter proposals...

First proposal:  stay in the present, in presence, dont decide prior, follow...moving-thinking-thinking-moving...embodying thought, perhaps this is the thinking 'physically' that we keep refering to.  Engaging the whole body al the time.  An exercise to do now, and at home, for five hours, all the time in movement with your thoughts, dont stop, always keep fully engage, even when you talk about the experience...get used to engaging eveything....thought-bodied/embodied tought... keep moving.

Second proposal:  necessary changes....  if you need to stop, and listen 'in' as long as it takes, and then if something needs to change (nothing ever stays the same, stillness requires energy), dont be still wait for the change to come....(this can also apply to performance)... transitions
phases between, it is about getting lost, calm your own noise.

Third proposal:  craddling the unknown. Get over existing patterns. Don't close everything off (the instinct to).  Break the habitual aspects of your dancing.  Like Kaspar Aus (Daghdag artist)  who re-choreographed his family pattterns. The 'state' of dance is unknown  (which is why Alexandra asked earlier,  'how do we know this is a state of dance' ). Ahh I interrupt...Murakami comes to mind, Thoughts whilst running...(that may not be the totally correct title)...  again, reference is made to cognitive science (Nefeli) and primary and secondary metaphors...and the physical conditions of language.  Back to craddling, give yourself the task that everything you do is incredibly uncomfortable because it is 'known', so you find the 'unknown' (the unpainful) and then you 'craddle' it and when it becomes known  you need to get out it...and find the new unknown... letting the outside eye go (echoes to John Paul), losing 'shame' (both use that term) as you are concerned with something else.... how do you dance differently?  Open up the safety, find and show other options, things can be different...safe to be different.... he speaks of the responsibility to open up... it is about a leading role (are we speaking of salvation again?   or revelations?) ... strong social role...  'are we absolutely clear'?  he asks, 'are we going to move'? (his question to the group).

bottom line:   how to set a process, how do you sustain it?

Michael Klein Session 1, 1 November 2011

 Kalo Mina...Michael goes biblical....  we hear words like 'choreography of salvation' and 'choreography of revelation'.  The first used in a critical sense to define the industry led 'new works' that will show us the way to that great dance that keeps eluding us.   The other 'revelation' perhaps closer to the methodology of the lab, constant immersion in a state of dance that constantly brings new 'knowing' and that 'knowing' of various kinds.

He asks the group to dance, and then to really dance... and we speak of hte difference, of what it takes to enter into the immersive state in which/at which dance becomnse a very specific event, a very specific state, unique...and how it becomes 'shareable'..

It becomes a discussion session....on Thursday...how do we create strategies to enter into this 'state'?

Lab time 3, 25 October 2011

We enter into 'making' and 'judgement'.  We start with two driving premises, finding a language and an attitude that keeps process related to products or let's use a better word 'outcomes'.  I ask them to consider developing a short study that continues to refine the working tasks they have been evolving, this can also incorporate anything that they have experienced when working in someone else's task.  How the mebodied layers of the process (irrespective of authorship) inform how we enter into creating today. As a first premise I ask them to consider the manipulation of the experience of moving (forming experience not the experience of form) as an important first layer, out of which particular movements emerge.  Therefore, in keeping with the methodology of  the lab,  (we return to)  the second premise:  the body is departure and destination, the body is not a medium of an idea but body (me, εγω) is the source, the terrain, the very idea itself out which choreography emerges. 

Drop, fall, be unsafe....It becomes an obsession. Do you surender to that obsession or you try to change it to what you believe is better?Do you insist on the obsession or is it enough for you to realise that this is what you want. Obsession: slow, direct, small, soft focus, getting frustrated, only the arm is moving, only the one side of the body is touch. Keep on going ,go to dangerous paths.this is not a game. (AV)

Finding new desires to move, while doing, a new wanting to do, and following it...(TD)   Ways to take things to a higher level [of intensity] (NO)

Lab Time 2, 20 October 2011

The general strikes almost defeat us, but 7 of us are here.... Thinking back on the challenges of Athens these days I offer just one thought to them:  we cannot build a future if we destroy the present ...a direct prompt to a talk about how if we look back on the tasks of 'me yesterday impinges upon me today and bears upon my tomorrow' we are actually able to begin articulating the specificity of the contribution of dance to current society... if we approach dance/choreography as a particular discipline/knowledge  (not choreography as a generic paradigm) that through engaging with/through it helps us understand a context and variables, choices, restrictions, memory etc and the effect on this SPECIFICALLY on the body (as opposed to bees and cars and other systems that are at times used to define choreography that forget the issues of the body) and consider the diverse scales of operations it (this body - me, you, historical, here now, real) is required to enter into,  in ways, methods  and means that no other discipline can or has, then we may begin to claim a need for this art to continue to exists in theatres, in studios, in universities...but we need to grab the bull by the horns and articulate this.....   I can see the minds in the group clicking, the penny dropping, quiet nods of agreement....I am now, I think,  ready to write/record this thing that has been evading me, about dance and (not) languages and the need to articulate our specificity not our generality, the need for dance linked with the desire to dance....  We acknowledge that we enter into a different perspective, whereat the artists on stage/studio/university/communities are showing, demonstrrating through all aspects of their practice,  how to find a way to create, to operate, to generate in a world that seems ever fluid and collapsing; these artists are not saying anything as such, in the reductive way in which this is used to consider the impact of dance.  We switch from readings to witnessing.... there is so much mention of this but so little discussion of the implications of this shift in perspective...to what we are, what we do, how it works, how we grow in and through it....

We continue with a group discussion of questions and ideas that came out of the first research explorations on Tuesday, in particularly the evolution of tasks and their 'language' and the importance of what I called in the previous post 'the effect it has on a body', not just the movement produced (whereby the body is made invisible by the production of movement).  We spend time discussing choice, the need artistically and politically to differentiate between conditions and choice, one affects the other but do not predetermine the outcome (see Hannah Arendt on this in The Human Condition, and a publication that links these ideas to choreographic practice here). One choice does not merely open another, but multiple choices; a research attitude allows us to confidently pursue various options, test, evaluate, go back, discard,  as that is precisely the point.  We dig further on the difference between instruction and task;  I finally come up with a rough distinction:  an instruction knows its outcome (think of sports), a task questions its very understanding of what the rule is, for an outcome that is not yet fully disclosed and which it is searching....  maybe this is why sports are government maintained, in spite of the 'bad boys' publicity of players they are actually lambs, following...go back to my comment on Benjamin and revolutions in earlier posts...  Ahh the artist that questions the rule...ahhhh  politically complex place...no wonder Plato wanted us out of the Republic.  However, the very statement requires clarification:  .we need to distinguish then between political and aesthetic nihilism/diletantism (breaking rules for the sake of it) and breaking rules as an issue of knowledge and self formation..(personal and social) you may need to read Brian Sutton-Smith The Ambiguity of Play (1997) at this point...

We revisit the task again, in order to find a third level of evolution which we will once again stop and formulate as a task (verbal) to pass on to another....the question remains focussed on concepts and practices, in this case really taking time to elucidate how practice affects the articulation of concepts (in the shape of a task).  If they remained working on their own, they would be applying a more 'intuitive' approach to the evolution of the tasks (which perhaps would then only be reflected at the end of day).  The shift from the 'intuitive' practice to the articulate  exchange in process becomes important in order to identify the evolution of a working method (and its process)... We keep unpacking this practically, concepts to practice, practice to concepts, by walking blindfolded up and down Erechthiou St, climbing walls, wrapping the studio in a maze of string...

P.S. A happy accidental re-covery today: On the Arcades Project by Walther Benjamin:

"Benjamin set out to construct novel conceptions of historical time and historical intelligibility based on the relationship, not between the past and the present, but between the ‘then’ and the ‘now'...."  ahh  the dots are connected, concepts and practice  once again.....

Lab time I, 18 October 2011

Research into independent projects begin.   We continue to explore the nature of 'the task', how does it differ from an instruction?  how is it related to a larger theme/idea/concept 'methodologically' not just descriptively or demonstratively?   For the purpose of the group's experience, at this stage we are setting general questions about creative processes to prompt work-investigations towards a  pool of shared experiences that will then become specific and individual, some sort of creative-social-research pathogenesis...

I ask them to devise a task, from an idea that is beginning to take shape, or a further development of something from the past two weeks, or a counter proposal....  but they will give the task to another, not explore it themselves.  By asking them to pass the task to someone else I am asking them to stop and consider the language used to set the task (how the choice of words affects this), what the task imposes on the other, what choices it opens up.  Then, to witness the effect of the task as a way to become aware first hand of the relationship of concepts to an immediate practice, to also see the effect the task has on a  'body' (not just see the movement it produces), from this,  only  then elucidate what may be a second stage of development from 'within' so to speak....  Each team works half an hour on each task, before switching....

A bit of all this is allowing ourselves to be lost...so as to enter fully into this idea of the re-search... and its consequent find.... both objet -- sujet trouvee....  at the end...origin.

As a challenge, for the final stage, I ask them to bring the evolution of the task back to themselves, to be the agents of the second stage of evolution but taking the information from the previous stage to bear upon it,.  That is we are dealing with issues of methodology not of aesthetic judgement, the point is not to do the task as I would have wanted it to happen, but to allow the clarifications/modifications to take us somewhere new, perhaps....to take us to further understand how we are beginning to articulate both physically and conceptually a process...that is important, we are not dealing with 'style', but of method of practice, these are related but not the same, a distinction missed in all aspects of choreography from criticism to pedagogy...

Towards the end as 'homework' for Thursday's session, we try to connect to some of the issues of session 1.  Then we look at 'yesterday bearing upon today'.  Today we are looking at how 'today bears upon tomorrow'.  Again, may seem simplistic  but  is actually  at the heart of the intentional arch that has been the subject of so much dance phenomenology debates and an inevitable/necessary question if one wants to reflect on an emerging method of practice. 

John Paul Zaccarini's session 11.10.2011

...'It is a fight ladies....'  are the first words I hear....followed by 'using fight not to win...but to make interesting things...', interesting proposal....  returning to the issue of intention and understanding the clarity of the task, to then see how it becomes 'productive'...  tasks and rule, obediente and disobedient, ahh those themes return.... how we break the rules, when /how we return to them...

'Find something....then find a way....'  awareness, judgement, choice.... which then leads  to the next, evolution of the 'idea' from within..    Contrasts of qualities....negotiated... until rules need to be changed...

'Sense' when it is working?  The group asks:  how?  when ? do we know?  difference between sensing and knowing...'goodness'  under scrutiny...how does a simple task shows itself to be productive?   concentration?  change of conditions? investment on the task?   singular, particular, universal in relation to using experiential stimulus ...

Loving the clown...........Crazy............Physical.............Clever.......translating the experience..........(AV)

Cigarette break. After the break we move on to consider:  when are we subject, when are we objects....and how?   which makes me think of the particularities of performance (and choreography):  subjects whilst remaining subjects knowing that they are the 'objects' of someone's attention (and working towards that), but what if  we remain the 'subject' of someone's attention?  the 'thing' I am attending to but also the 'subject' (as in 'thema)' that I am equally attending to, does that not shake a bit our understanding of the  object/ subject tension which has troubled so many dance theorists?

Thoughts on the go -- 6.10.11

Following from Tuesday's Ειμαι εδω todays' question: 

If Tuesday's collected experience is a kind of knowing of myself in the world (activated in the Arendtian sense through the act of choreography) how does that experience which is now an evolved 'me' 'comes to' upon today; who is me here today with that which I bring as kinetic knowledge with me to bear upon today's acts?  That evolved Ειμαι εδω shapes a world which does not show itself until the subject acts and the acts now external act upon the subject that acted...

why is it that my sessions always seem to lead to so much writing before there is any movement? there is a pattern: one, two.. stop, thought, run to notebook, write a lot, the writing itself has a rhythmn, then stand up again,  one, two three, maybe four now...stop, think, run to notebook... (ASC)

a question popping up in my mind: if a thought process like memory is complete and fully lived as such, then need I bring something out of it in space? Today I choose to say 'no'. Keep the thought a thought and see what happens. (TD)

memory plays with me and with my intention.I really don't know if I simply don't remember my previous intentions or I intend to forget them on purpose.(ZA)

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'?

Autumn Session Launched!

The Autumn 2011 session of the Kinitiras Choreography Lab was successfully launched yesterday Tuesday 4th October.  We welcome nine new participants with diverse backgrounds but with the common interest and shared goal of invigorating their professional practice.

This years's participants are:

Zoi Avanitaki
Marilou Baleonti
Thalia Ditsa
Alexandra Giorgiou
Sandra Livadara
Nefeli Oikonomou
Eleni Pantazatou
Zoi Tsavdarides
Afroditi Verditi

Throughout the next weeks they will be documenting thoughts and reflections on their processes.  Follow the link on the sidebar Kinitiras Choreography Lab - Autumn 2011 Participants Pages to access these.

SESSION AUTUM 2011- Φθινόπωρο 2011

Eγγραφές μέχρι 26/9/2011

 20/9/2011 450 ευρώ και δωρέαν εγγραφη μέλους

εως 26/9/11 550 ευρώ και 30 ευρώ εγγραφή μέλους

Closing date for applications 26th September 2011

Εγγραφές μέχρι 26/9/2011

(για Ελληνικά μετακινηθείτε προς τα πιο κάτω)

We are happy to announce the launch of the Autumn 2011 session of the Lab, we welcome back Michael Klien (Ir/Au) and John Paul Zaccarini (UK) and welcome for the first time Unterwegs Theater from Heidelberg. 

The structure of the Lab remains the same as in previous sessions:  Tuesdays and Thursdays 12.00-3.00pm, starting 4th October.  The first 5 weeks are 'taught' sessions with the visiting artists, followed by 5 weeks of studio-research time with mentor suport, to develop a final project to  be presented in December. 

• Applications now open until the 26th September.  Contact the studio to receive the form which can be completed and sent electronically.
• OR FOR QUICK DOWNLOAD OF THE APPLICATION (word doc) CLICK HERE
• For those registering before the 15th September the cost is reduced to 450.00 (euros) and NO registration fee.  
• For applications received after the 15th September the cost is 550.00 (euros) 
• Apply early and take advantage of the reduced fee!

For more information contact: 

KINITIRAS studio - Artistic Residency Centre

info@kinitiras.com

www.kinitirastudio.com

+302109248328

(timetable subject to change)

Ελληνικά

Δεδομένης της επιτυχίας του Lab της Άνοιξης, διοργανώνεται ένα επιπλέον Lab το οποίο θα πραγματοποιηθεί το Φθινόπωρο του 2011 (Οκτώβρης-Δεκέμβρης 2011).

Το εργαστήριο πραγματοποιείται κάθε Τρίτη και Πέμπτη 12.00-15.00μμ, αρχής γενομένης από 4 Οκτωβρίου. Οι πρώτες 5 εβδομάδες οι «διδάσκεται» συνεδρίες με την επίσκεψη καλλιτέχνες, ακολουθούμενη από 5 εβδομάδες στούντιο δουλειά με την υποστήριξη του μέντορα, να αναπτύξει ένα τελικό σχέδιο που θα υποβληθεί το Δεκέμβριο. Λεπτομερείς εβδομαδιαίο πρόγραμμα θα είναι διαθέσιμο σε λίγες μέρες.

Εγγραφές  μέχρι  26/9/2011

20/9/2011 450 ευρώ και  δωρέαν εγγραφη μέλους

εως 26/9/11 550 ευρώ και 30 ευρώ εγγραφή μέλους

ΑΙΤΗΣΕΙΣ    εδώ

Για περισσότερες πληροφορίες 

KINITIRAS studio - Artistic Residency Centre

www.kinitirastudio.com

info@kinitiras.com

+302109248328