#37
REPORT
RAW MATERIAL
LIVING ART WORKSHOP with Circle Modern
Dance
March 12 & 13 2016 – 3-5.30pm
The Emporium – Gay Street, Knoxville TN
These workshop sessions were to serve two
purposes: Firstly as a commission for Circle Modern Dance company core members
in order to develop a performance piece for an event they are presenting on May
19th. Secondly as a “proving ground” for the performance pedagogy I
have been developing over the course of my two-year MFA program.
(Full details of this pedagogical method can
be viewed on my project website The Performance Anxiety Workshop Experiment:
As the pedagogical method is designed to
provide a structure that equips the individual with a practice that facilitates
individual exploration, discovery and invention, this is how we approached the
workshop.
As we were limited to a total of five hours,
there was not enough to time to introduce all the facets of the pedagogy, so I
went into the sessions with a basic concept for a piece and facilitated
exercises that would be suitable for that concept.
Then, based on the dancers responses to these
exercises, I could see how best to structure the performance piece and gave
them the format of that structure which they can now continue to develop for
themselves, based on the creative tools they learned in the workshop.
The structure of the piece is based on a
concept of evolution and individuation using the raw materials of nature and is
as follows:
Dancers begin in a pile on the ground –
symbolic of primordial substances – earth, clay, water, mud – they operate as
one unit as they move. We are calling this unit the “amoeba”.
As the amoeba moves, it is a mass, a
landscape of shifting forms, sculpting & melting & re-sculpting itself.
Occasionally an individual will hold a shape
in stillness – while the others (the amoeba) continue(s) – then that dancer
melts back into the amoeba again.
This continues as a process of evolution
until, instead of melting back into the amoeba immediately, the individual
finds their own voice – their own dance.
Initially these individual solo dancers get
pulled back into the amoeba – but after the first few have happened that way,
the next ones stay apart from the group unit – they become an independent
entity.
Finally each dancer has found their own
individual dance – they move freely and independently – eventually dispersing
into space.
The individual solos will each be based on a
raw organic material of the dancers choice – such as a specific leaf, flower, feather,
tree branch or environment etc. and develop in response to the qualities of
that material.
The piece will be presented in a building
that has an open plan, so there is no stage or platform to contain or confine
the potential mobility of the movement in space.
Costumes will be a neutral second-skin layer.
Musical accompaniment will be played on
instruments of natural materials – like wood, bamboo, dried beans etc.
The following is a description of the
workshop, how the exercises were used in this context and how they facilitate
development of the performance piece.
I have also included links to video excerpts
and to PDF documents of detailed information about each exercise:
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SATURDAY MARCH 12
Workshop participants:
Lauren, Callie, Kat, Darby, Mary, Sara, Julie,
Angela (with Amelie & Ayla)
1 Vibration
PDF
VIDEO
Vibration is always a good starting point. It
is primal to all matter and an effective resource to tap into as a
choreographic tool and as a functional warm-up for the body. It serves to both
release tension and to energize.
The participants had a good sense of release
in the core of the body – however, I would have liked the time to work more
into the arms with vibration – as I noticed most of the dancers carrying a more
sustained motion in the arms – such as swinging.
2 Breath
PDF
VIDEO
Breath is conducive to openness, expansion,
freedom of motion and locomotion. It is also a good rhythmic tool, if the
breath sets a rhythm the body will follow.
For the performance piece it will serve as a
good tool for each dancer’s individuation from the “amoeba”.
It was a lovely sunny day, so we expanded
this exercise all the way outside to the courtyard!
Note: There is one vital transition missing
from the documentation – Before re-entering the building, we spent several
minutes standing still in an X shape and using deep breaths to expand the
awareness of self beyond the confines of the body and into the surrounding
space.
3 Body Soundz – Activating the Voice
PDF 1
PDF 2
PDF 3
VIDEO
The video shows a very brief excerpt from
this progression of exercises.
We built up from slow exhalation on
“ssshhhh”, “sssss” and blowing through the lips to humming upside-down into the
nasal resonators – then opening up into an “aaaahhh” while shaking the body for
full resonating voice. Then a series of Plosives for articulation. (See PDF
link for details)
The performance piece will include vocal
sounds and I am encouraging the dancers to explore the voice in their creative
process. These exercises provide a set of “spring boards” for experimentation.
4 Transfer of Weight
PDF
VIDEO
As with most of these exercises, this can
either begin standing and work downwards to the floor – or vice versa. A
different relationship to the body’s weight and gravity is set up throughout
the exercise depending on which starting point is used.
We began on the floor, as I had this in mind
for the beginning of the piece – that everything would develop from there, so I
wanted to see how this would work for the dancers. Their responses lead into a
beautiful melding of bodies – which inspired the “amoeba” theme for the
performance piece.
5 Finding the Essence
PDF
VIDEO
Based on a Stanislavski theatrical
character-development exercise, I have adapted its emphasis to extreme
abstraction in gesture and voice.
This exercise can serve as a tool for
developing solos in the performance piece.
The two entities we picked for character
study were:
Donald Trump – if he
were a cocktail, what would it be? If he were a package deal vacation – where
would it be? – What adjectives describe them?
Banjo (Darby’s dog) – If he were a
pizza, what kind would it be? If he were a vehicle – what would it be?
Then we embodied the resulting adjectives and
used them to create movement, gesture, shape and sound.
Note: The thing that is effective – but also
the most difficult about this exercise is to only embody the resulting
adjectives – NOT to MIME the original entity!
SUNDAY MARCH 13
Workshop participants:
Lauren, Kat, Darby, Mary, Sara, Julie, Ashley,
Kathleen, Koura
Vibration
A brief version of the exercise was used as a
warm-up. (See Saturday)
6 Joint Spirals
PDF
VIDEO
Physically, this exercise is a great tool for
expanding the full range of motion of all the joints in the body. It also
brings an intensive awareness of each joint. Creatively, it mobilizes the body
into motion on a scale from micro to macro – from spiraling in to the smallest
rotation possible deep inside a joint – to spiraling outwards until the motion
cannot be contained inside the body and the mover has to travel in space in
order to continue.
7 Transition from Spirals to Breath
VIDEO
This was actually created spontaneously
during the workshop, as I wanted to lead the dancers seamlessly from the
Spirals exercise into the Breath exercise.
The instructions were to place a small
spiraling action into a part of the body, then expand it with the breath and
release with the exhale to somewhere else. Then place the spiral in a different
part of the body and repeat.
The dancers found this to be a helpful method
of getting into the breath – the spiraling action seemed to create a more fluid
approach to expanding.
8 Presence / Shape
PDF
PDF
These exercises work well together to build
an awareness of the body as a sculptural form in space. Beginning with the idea
of Self as a powerful presence and a living sculpture in itself – with no
action necessary but to recognize and own the fact!
This is especially conducive to individuation
of each dancer in the performance piece – as well as practicing aspects of
shape (round, straight, twisted) in their responses to organic materials.
Unfortunately there is no documentation from
the workshop of these exercises. (Demonstration and previous workshop examples
can be found on the Performance Anxiety website given in the introduction)
9 Creative Synesthesia
PDF
CUE SHEET
VIDEO
An imaginative version of the neurological
condition where the senses are cross-wired.
This game / exercise played a vital role in
preparing the dancers to develop their individual solos for the performance
piece.
I brought in natural, organic, raw materials
– in keeping with the theme of this project – that the participants could
respond to. They are asked to respond to specific aspects of the materials –
such as the shape, the texture, the colour etc.
To introduce the game, we started in a circle
going one person at a time. Then, once they were familiar with the rules, we
opened it up into a Creative Synesthesia jam!
I also brought instruments of natural
materials – bamboo chimes, wooden maracas and so on. Participants took it in
turns to play the game and to give musical accompaniment.
Lauren Philis, Callie Minnich, Kat Milligan,
Darby O’Connor, Mary Alford, Sara Whitaker, Julie Raven, Ashley Corey, Koura
Wright, Kathleen Frey, Angela Hill, Amilie & Ayla.
