Image taken from aesthetikitten.tumblr.com
The dancers went to Istanbul Modern last week and brought with them to rehearsal images from the gallery that resonate with what they had experienced so far in the improvisation journeys. Their responses are so rich and profound. An installation of a structure layered with different elements. A body of white frames suspended in a red room. An installation of feathers and spirals creating an atmosphere like the room of one of the dancers. The installation -like her room- was hard to enter into, and she could imagine herself living in there but it is not the place she normally live in. A red globe, hanging full of colour, with mirrors, You could see the potential of the work only by moving around it. It looked still but a lot was happening. The word homogenous. The idea of an atmosphere. The work 'Beruit' came up, a series of windows in a run down building in Beruit, each window had a curtain hanging in it which was being blown up by the breeze. Each curtain moving in a different way. It all looks the same but when you look closer you notice the differences. This reminded the dancer of the house they all live in together, each occupeying one room within that house. There was one work of art that was chosen by 2 dancers. The image of a bare tree growing in a room which was covered in snow. The explanation of what resonated was for one dancer that from within the coldness there was the growth of an organism. For the other dancer the growing tree was the representation of something that could be felt but not seen, new life growing from within. Some words from the gallery that the dancer's collected ''cause I am caught between yes and no'' and
"Can we live together like a melody?"
These are all thoughts and words spoken by the dancers themselves. I am impressed to see the world I am creating take form within each of them.
The guided improvisation was centered around the idea of finding the room within their room. Discovering the dark and the light parts of their rooms. Searching within their room for what is not immediately visible. Exploring the untold stories.
Indeed, this guidance led to something deeper and more complex then what had come up before. It was like new bodies where coming out of these dancers. New movement material which had not come before. A fist being formed. The slow shift from kneeling to sitting on one's side. The voluptuous movement from lying on one side to rolling over to the other-the limbs and head being lifted and floating through the air to get there- like the whole energy of the world was moving this body. Movement with certainty and persistence like an elephant walking along. Wrists exposed, arms extended out long, the torso in a deep contraction, the clavicle and chest open, the face open and the head free, the heals on the floor, feet flexed, balancing on the sitz bones, movement being created as the deep spinal contraction is slightly released and tightened. Beautiful. There is a sense of the feminine coming into life. The waiting woman, the lying woman, the sacrificial woman.
I introduced the idea of the grid (a structure) on which 3 or 4 images are draped. This is an idea bring in from Rosemary Butcher. It helps the dancers chose important moments from the richness and complexity of the worlds they are exploring and to have those moments form their work. I asked them that the images they chose to drap be ideas which they draw from their explorations and not somatic experiences. This way I hope to help them find come clarity and structure. Also ideas allow the possibility of constant change and of bringing in new things whereas memories of somatic experiences are slippery and we can get stuck in trying to recreated the somatic experience which may close down the image and fix it into something which already exists (existed as a memory). The dancers will be working on creating their own grid over the next 2 weeks.
"Can we live together like a melody?"
These are all thoughts and words spoken by the dancers themselves. I am impressed to see the world I am creating take form within each of them.
The guided improvisation was centered around the idea of finding the room within their room. Discovering the dark and the light parts of their rooms. Searching within their room for what is not immediately visible. Exploring the untold stories.
Indeed, this guidance led to something deeper and more complex then what had come up before. It was like new bodies where coming out of these dancers. New movement material which had not come before. A fist being formed. The slow shift from kneeling to sitting on one's side. The voluptuous movement from lying on one side to rolling over to the other-the limbs and head being lifted and floating through the air to get there- like the whole energy of the world was moving this body. Movement with certainty and persistence like an elephant walking along. Wrists exposed, arms extended out long, the torso in a deep contraction, the clavicle and chest open, the face open and the head free, the heals on the floor, feet flexed, balancing on the sitz bones, movement being created as the deep spinal contraction is slightly released and tightened. Beautiful. There is a sense of the feminine coming into life. The waiting woman, the lying woman, the sacrificial woman.
I introduced the idea of the grid (a structure) on which 3 or 4 images are draped. This is an idea bring in from Rosemary Butcher. It helps the dancers chose important moments from the richness and complexity of the worlds they are exploring and to have those moments form their work. I asked them that the images they chose to drap be ideas which they draw from their explorations and not somatic experiences. This way I hope to help them find come clarity and structure. Also ideas allow the possibility of constant change and of bringing in new things whereas memories of somatic experiences are slippery and we can get stuck in trying to recreated the somatic experience which may close down the image and fix it into something which already exists (existed as a memory). The dancers will be working on creating their own grid over the next 2 weeks.