Alex Day 11

Spe-ci-fi-ci-ty
Spe-ci-ci-fi-ty
Sphe-ci-phi-ci-tea
Spe-si-fee-sea-ti
Speah-see-fee-see-tee
Spare-see-feel-say-tea……………By, golly, I things we’ve nailed it! Today’s structure in a word.

Day 11 - by Charlotte

Scott led the warm up
Working with imagined and felt internal landscapes
Deep voice and Alex's accompaniment of the warm up
A series of indications rather than exercises
Finding equilibrium in yourself in relation to the environment
Reorganising yourself in space
An organisational / compositional task to fix yourself somehow
Layers of sensation
Following and Leading
Fixing sonic artefacts
Electronic looping - is not real time - its actually fixing a moment that happened two minutes ago - a way of stretching time?
Scott talks about set shapes and durations of a choreography - is that enough? I sense not, for him, any longer.
He carries so much within his body and mind.
What is the context and circumstance of choicemaking?
We want to be practical in our approach
Whatis the analogue to dancing / looping ?

How to be in the moment musically if the moment has already passed?
Glen Gould decided to just record.

Looping
START AGAIN
DISTORTED TIME
RHYTHMIC VALUE
INFLEXION
REPETITION -humans make patterns to construe meaning - patterns give us some kind of foundation to work from

Open approach / live music - caught in our own moment
Loop - fixes time and infers a different process of decision making

Circulatory Loop
Respiratory Loop
What are the MEASURES of that Loop?
What are the measures of Time ?
RE-ENACTMENT - TRYING TO FEEL REAL THROUGH RE-ENACTMENT
What changes? What stays the same?
Are we looking for constancy or whats different?

Fixing something offers a framework against which to really see new things...
Looping as an act against vanishing?
The value of performance is that it vanishes - why try to fix it ?
Cultural pressure to fix things - to make a production.
Dont fetishise the time frame in which you make things.
Discomfort with the word IMPROVISATION - Scott prefers the word COMPOSITION
In music terms it is respected - in dance it has connotations he is not happy with
Looking for somthing that means something to him.

PM SESSION
CV Leading in response to morning discussion and thinking about SS warm up - is it possible to construct a task where music follows/stimulates dance and dance leads/ stimulates the music (A) and vice versa (B) and then the two have an exchange (C)? Reference to TestRun

A- Intention to use the environment (music) to bring stimulation to your form (body)
B- Intention to use your form (body) to determine the nature of what you are stimulating (musician)

A solo
A solo
A solo
A trio
A trio
Discussion -
When the 'music' is vocal based it quickly becomes closer to the rhythm of language
A kind of animation
There is an assumption of rythmic continuity in both parties
These are conversations (C) already
The watcher completes the frame
There has to be aresponse via the Central Nervous System
Whats the difference between PERCEPTION and SENSATION
Response to Bach fragment in middle of PK's playing - lyrical response - swept away - respond to the melodic nature of it and the connotations of the recognisable form
Dualism of the I in this excercise
B solo
B solo
B solo
B trio
B quartet - musician eyes closed

Discussion -
In being stiimulated by the dancer - the idea of the musician NOT GETTING ATTACHED TO THE 'STATEMENT' MADE BY THE MUSIC or to the PHRASE ATTACHED TO THE GESTURE - A PROCESS OF LETTING GO.

How to ARREST YOUR OWN MUSICAL INCLINATION - how this related to habits and shoulds and the PAUSE at the bottom of the Yoga breath

WHAT IS THE SOUND OF INACTIVITY ?

In a pause, the You is present bodily ( as a dancer because you are made of matter) but the You can perhaps be removed if you play an instrument - its external to You.

The instrument DISPLACES and FUNNELS and EXTERNALISES sound
The Body cant displace or externalise itself?
An instrument abstracts then
The voice narrates the 'scene' - more like animation
Breathing patterns expressed as vocal noise may be different
Some of these exercises had the feeling and rhythm of a conversation that couldnt take off - stuttering
Mickey Mousing to the music - illustrates the melody - needs more thought

There is always a slight delay in PROCESSING the PAUSE

In this exchange are the musicians
INTERPRETING
PROMPTING
STIMULATING
INFLUENCING
REACTING
ANIMATING
ILLUSTRATING
CONDUCTING
VOCALISING
the dance?

Counter Point - what part does this play in the exchange?
Can we achieve divergence through repetition?

When Alex played with his eyes closed, he translated the noise he heard from the dancers into a VISUAL IMAGE in space and Dimension

If something is leading, it doesnt lead for very long before it becomes a dialogue.

Darrens Thoughts on PK's Task Friday PM

Day 10 PK’s Music Task


Loud its getting louder, there is a noise a loud noise and it getting louder and louder. Its all most makes me cringe. The speakers are making sound too. There’s sound coming out of the instruments, there’s sound coming out of Rach, stomping and clapping. It’s a lot quieter now. Rach is still stomping. Think I might join her but no I don’t want to disturb her. She’s having a good time. Ruth is watching PK. Quite again. Want to do something, what should I do. I could put my ipod on. I could lost track just talked to Leah. Val is playing music from her laptop. It’s quieter now. It sounds like jazz. I like jazz. I wish Rach wouldn’t clap her hands. Feed back

Ouch!

I think I should stop this now and do something

Or is this something?

Music could be sounds that are made for the intent of being heard

Patrycja Reflections on her Friday Task

PK Post Task Talk

Its , I was listening over here and um I concentrated on different things, cause it was closer I was closer to the instruments and uh I thought at the beginning the task, some times the music was really loud and sometimes when you hear music there is like a rhythm. I wasn’t nervous because it was sort of like more free.

I tried to stay with my pen, I moved my pen when the sound moved. I can make sense of the marks on this paper, this is Rachel’s feet and this is the drum here.

This was the second music task, Ellie’s being the first. I very much approached it with the polemic aspect of the task. I did not allow myself to let the music become an accompaniment to anything in the space. There was a moment when I asked myself why the musicians were looking at Rachel dancing.
Isn’t she part of us, who is the music, what’s the separation between who is dancing and who is making music.

What’s the difference.

I tried to create different spaces, I went into the corridor, I would of liked to of done this with my eyes closed. I thought the visual would restrict.

I need to learn the mic channels so I can turn it on if its not on, so I need to know about the tech kit.

Learn from the tasks. Do talk do. Impression, then process it, then do it again.

Theory practice theory, or practice theory practice? Apply what I've learned. Talk talk talk. I think we should practice more.

Am I a musician? When I was a musician, I wasn’t happy with that. I want to make a machine that would produce unpredictable noises and sounds.

Starting on Monday how? I'm stopping now…..

Friday After Lunch

Who’s who?

Val, chair
Rach, Documenter
Patrycja, Leader
Ruth, Dramaturg

Some more What If’s’

Nom
What if we made a dance as a group
-Made a routine
-Danced on the street
-Drew a dance
-Played children games

Task: from what if we drew a dance
Into 2’s one person dancing one person drawing. Together decide style of dance. Ie: ballet or happy/sad. Both have to do it in your pair.
Drawing is about the feeling of what you are seeing. Not stick people or words. Any space. About 3 mins each. All group doing at same time. Discuss in pair and discuss in group.


Janusz
Task: from ‘standing still’ and ‘well known violin player’.
To test the watchers patience

Alex
Discussion of digression and conclusion for 1 min each.

Valentina
Spoke about spinning and delivering a text

Leah
Task. All walking around really slowly. Leah would run around everyone calling mum or dad and seeing what their response would be. 2 pictures, slow and fast. Who fits together. Slow motion movie; who disturbs or fits in.

Ellie
Task all had a chair. Split time into 6 minutes portions. Played the chair working as a group. In a circle. Spread out, four corners, on the stairs.
Ruth
What if each Monday is the first day of rehearsal.

Charlotte
SUPERGROUP.
I wonder what the supergroup of the dance world would look like.

Multitasking. Focus, pleasure, holding the frame, 10 minutes of multitasking.

We all read out our what if’s which will be logged by Charlotte at another time.

Practical dancing not embellishing
What do we do now.
Negotiation.
Tasks or PK’s task
You shouldn’t have to compromise
You can agree or disagree.
Let’s try Leah’s
I get help setting the video. I like the idea of writing the log of action.

All walk Butoh like in the space. Leah runs very fast from one person to the next shouting mummy daddy. Smiling. They begin to pick her up swing her around.Leah finds her real mum. Giggles. Talks with Alex. Go away. What do you want. Holds her ankles. Can I have a biscuit

Over there and over there and over there
Daddy x 4
Daddy?
Do you know what you want? No
Keep looking for what/
Clapping. Laughter
Felt different, did you believe that we were your mums and dads. In a way yes and no. Acting felt like it. Ruth felt like she was acting like leahs mum

VF- What would happen if we carried on walking?
PK- for me it was very spooky
AC- Leah who felt most like your Dad?
LBTY- I don’t know.
What would it be like without Ruth?
Nom would like to try it.
SS- Ruth’s presence makes me feel safe.

It didn’t feel like a nightmare for Leah. It felt weird. It was quite unusual. It was Yeh really different. Nom : are we going to do it again. It’s up to you Leah. Mum and Nom are put in the office.
CV agrees with Leah and group that Leah is going to decide when to stop the exercise

How many times did I tell you not to talk to strangers.
I don’t
Vale carries her for a long time. Can I play?
I wan to run around. Pleese I wanna run around. I won’t talk to strangers. I have to go

Leah. Different cause Nom and mum weren’t here.
Did you feel like an only child. Yes
CV - Is it possible to have children and their parents in performance.
SS - Can you remove the parental authority. Who’s responsible?
Ruth did a project co directing 6 boys and six adults.
Questions of Consent/authority/coercion

RBT- Every day I hand over the kids to school. Do I agree with it?

Scott – How can we Integrate this experience with forming a question.

Authority/ power is coming up a lot this week.

Educating . Evaluating. What point does it happen in a social artistic realm.

Question of authority. How it relates to Charlotte.
How to get something you want. (Scott sense of Charlotte)

SS- I clock something about the questions. How does the I function in the group.

VF- When to stop or when to carry on. How does the I act in that situation. I keep looking around to see what we do in the task. In every task I look around for a sort of…. Uncertainty. We are not even working towards being uncertain.

RBT- You are leading yourself within a frame that someone else has set up. Borrow, steal, try.

VF- How do you fit in a group???

CV- Inhibition or action? We are so much more aware because of this week??

SS- Meaning reveals itself in the doing of it.
Retrospect. Reflection.

What is actually happening in a group of people.

RBT- Self direction within a thing. How much do you dive into a task. Direction/self direction.

There’s so many questions

PK proposition for a final task of the week -

What if the sounds/music not the background or the accompany for something else? You might choose how you participate for 45 minutes. In any way you want to.

You can choose where to play.
Task takes a while to settle, to get going or to begin

Friday Before Lunch

Friday 27th?

Darren chairing

What are we doing today – options…. Jem’s task/ Alex’s task/ information for the group… Leah would like more action

Alex suggested Carrying on with Jem’s task because we began to evolve a way of processing the tasks.. either by talking before the task or talking after the task.. those two approaches were useful learning to continue…

PK- I’m aware that there hasn’t been very much sound in the space… I’d like to fill the space with sound..... to allow for contemplation..

Val – why doesn’t PK do a task connected to music..

PK - would like to see what is the impact after nine days of not having music in the space..

CV - I’d like us to speed up the process of ‘What If’s’

Group agreed that AM
CV - going to lead the overall task ..
Documenter - .Ruth
Dramaturgy - Scott
Chair Daren till lunch

PM
Documenter Rachel
Chair Valentina


Task

Still some to be heard……

Alex’s Question and task – “What if we were not to digress every time and shy away from reaching a conclusion’

Suggestion that this task is put into a discussion…. One minute each

CV- I don’t think we are digressing, I think we are exploring I think we are moving in and out of things.. I share your impatience.. I think its good to become more aware of how we are as people in a space….. I think this task is to have a conversation……

Ellie - I think sometimes we do reach conclusions and sometimes we don’t.. I don’t think its always necessary to reach a conclusion… cos other things are big.. and they throw up other questions.. From this questions it sounds like there is a conclusion.. cos if I knew that there was a conclusion then I would run to it.. sometimes I think its about not having a good brain.. I don’t think its anything to do with shying away I think its to do with my stupidity.

CV - Interesting when we set a time limit we run out of things to say…

RBT - I think there is a huge amount of judgement in that sentence. A negative implication and assumption around the word digress and conclusion.
I don’t appreciate you making a judgement on my behalf. Conclusion is not a full stop.

Rachel –Don’t really understand your ‘what if’ cos I find it hard to get my brain around it cos again I quite enjoy digressing and not reaching a conclusion I think that something this kind of environment of r and d engenders to foster… often I’ve done r and d cos it turns into extra rehearsal time, and not r and d

Scott - Yeah.I guess the way it cold be a less rhetorical question.. is it a rhetorical oh ok so tell me something specific an incidence that you could say … like this was digressive or this got discursive .. I felt like we got to this point then this would help me to participate in this question to objectify.

Darren - The question I feel very much there are emotional happening and I think that that is fine. For me its shifting into a different mind frame and that you don’t always have to come to a conclusion … and things might be better unsaid. I get frustrated if we reiterate and say it again in a different way ..those things where it keeps shifting back and forth .. its something very different to me…

Janusz – I think we are doing something different and I’m happy we are doing it.. we need thte time to do things and we have the right to make mistakes and I think we have things are difficult to do. And express and I like that.. I don’t think we are shying away and that things can be done differently. I am here to make mistakes and to work with them… rather than do them perfect straight away..

Val - I think for me the major question is what is a conclusion .. as a group or as a single person as individual going away and having a conclusion.. maybe by listening to other people there is digression and shying away .. but I think there might be a task here..


Nom - Smiling, biting pen.. laughter..

Leah - I don’t know …. …

Alex - I think that if the question if not come from me, it wouldn’t be seen as negative….. so digress and shy would not be seen as negative from someone else……. .. shy away and digress is not necessarily bad… from me they are literary descriptions of things… ‘every time’ is a general assumption… .. it was a

PK - What’s the definition of ‘digress’… moving away ..
RBT - Digress implies that there is something that there is to move away from …
CV - I feel like we are working in a web system rather than a linear system
Like a starting point then there are hundreds of different ways it evolves and spins to
Issues of judgement…. Opinion… conclusion….
I’d like to know if you think its crap/
Questions about judgement.
AC - I really think if you are a collective group of people who are making something together then maybe its ok to make a judgement
CV - There maybe something in there
RBT - It doesn’t feel useful in this context to say I like or I don’t like… it might be if we were making piece of work together…
CV - I don’t think its useful in this situation….. to have judgement. But I do know what he means, and we shouldn’t get too up our own arses

Time is away that it is possible to conclude and not digress…

SS- If we only do everything once then all we can do is feedback on that one event…
If we never do anything twice then I cant do anything and apply the learning ….

CV – So lets start again.. if we did 11 minutes then – with one minute each taking into account what has already been discussed and said…We seem to be in a process of choice making I’m interested in specificity and in the I don’t know.. I interested in Janusz calling it ‘mistakes’, I think it’s a question of language on so many levels… I don’t think people are responding to your personality Alex. I don’t think we need to ask if we are liked or not because of the questions we are asking. For me its about moving away from or leaning in to the question, the form…

Ellie- I think its difficult in general to talk about conclusions… in these four weeks I don’t think there is going to be a conclusion… so we are moving in and out of tasks and ideas cos we don’t really … its ok to stay on one task … there is no direction that we are doing but maybe we are finding smaller ones on the way…

PK-This practice what we are doing now its interesting the most from a language point of view… about how words can be effective or not effective… by words said by different person in a different circumstance… I;’ve got the super awareness about how many things this triggered in my head…. Im even further away..

RBT-Umm… I think that I did project onto your q that digress and shy away was negative but I also think that I picked up on the dissatisfaction you were expressing and responded to that– an energy of dissatisfaction that translated through the chosen words.. so its about language… hidden and direct….and questions about how we as a group how do we talk to each other – how do we share who we are and how we think

RK- I am trying to think of very visible very real times that I digress – if I am at home and I have to do a tax return and I do the laundry instead – I leave the subject because its a chore and not so pleasurable to do – I don’t feel like there’s been digression here for two weeks – everything is interrelated

SS- There is a something really interesting about language and the interpretation of language – is it about specificity or authority – that there will be some kind of digression – power responsibility or control


Darren
Silence…

Nom
Silence….

Leah
Silence…

Janusz- I think many times we go out to see a dance piece and we go out and say its rubbish its crap… do we really want to give ourselves… why we can just say that’s crap if we are doing it… why do we have to discuss the things… why is there a need to contemplate and to … and I think we should just move on from one things to another and try not to be stuck


Val - Why I chose this questions from Alex question… but I thought musically an American composer…. Where feel there is never and end… a conclusion I thought of as a collective end…. Its fantastic cos you feel like you are on the edge of something… and I guess you can spiral away or forwards… the conclusion …is..

Alex- I want to address a bit… what is for process… its not genesis. We are talking about a process… its about Charlotte’s process and this point in her career. To find a new language of devising work… I certainly don’t devise this way … so I’m here and I want to bring something to her process of looking for a language and I’m grateful that she takes my opinion into account. I’m here because I’m Alex and cos I talk shit and I’m impatient and she knows why I’m here…

RBT- But you are moving the energy with your impatience…
CV - Val … did you choose his questions… Alex said no you choose the question…
Do we want to have 2 mins. of reflecting what’s shifted.. or should we move on…
I would like to share tht I feel there is a new game which has evolved which is the silent coach game… seeing thinking and the presentation of the act of thinking,….

RK?- I find it interesting that what we all say is very personal as well… and that we’re very feeling… by that I mean that…. I don’t know when you are in discussions with people and people get upset … if somebody says something to me and people say don’t take it so personally how can you not take anything.. how can you not connect it to how you feel and who you are … as much personally that we take things the better… … we think by feeling what is there to know I hear my being dance from here to hear I wake from sleep and take my waking slow… I’m interested in who

AC - Bad/good/ shit… we end up talking about same things for 10 / 15 mins… everybody has a different take on what is going on in the room… we are not sharing a language at the moment… its about finding a language that is not so judgemental but that my personality is still there… I’m not wanting to revolutionise me but about how I am in a room and how that affects the process that we are engaged in….. we know our short hand but what we are engaged in here is a dissection of language… if you could say the same thing without saying crap … dancers often look to the person on the outside

RBT- What you think is not the same as an opinion…...

CV - With an outside eye .. it’s about trust… we’ve learnt to discuss things for hours… we are not trying to make anything….we are doing something… we are engaged in an action

RBT - Feels like we are going back…

Whether we have rules about time keeping………..and whether we keep them or not……

RK - hat if we spent day without stop clock…
We are introducing time or rules… that theme is inherent…
Its about how forms works for you…
I feel…

Ruth’s task. After discussion.

What if we have a similar set of instructions and just see different combinations of people doing it (i.e. different ages). Could the emotion be outside of it – in the audience? Could the emotional response of the seeing be more than the emotion happening in the task.
AC – we might need a much more specific set of instructions?
Ruth wanted to leave the instructions open so that there is more choice and options. Choices could be interesting with the diff combinations of people.
CV – most interesting was watching the choice making. Who chose to go first, whether they chose to comply.
PK – The setting perhaps influenced the task – the positioning of the papers on either side of the room.
CV –I enjoyed the intimacy of sustaining a hug for longer than feels natural with Nom.
DA – felt a slight disadvantage at not going with a child. More of a narrative by having the children involved. Do we simply project more on watching a child because it’s a child.

CV - Maybe when we watch children in space we are more empathetic as viewers. Is there less generosity when viewing adults. Can we approach watching adults with the same level of empathy, without judgement.

Ellie - I enjoyed watching the person getting the question and seeing if they wanted to do the question and how seeing the thought cross the persons face and how they react to instructions and how soon you stop. Action/inhibition questions.
Leah – I liked it because you can ask grown ups to do something (for a change).
Nom – wondered whether the adults acted differently when with children or with adults. Was it harder for the adults with children and do you act differently? .J – feels as though he treated Nom as an equal. S – might have been the same response for that particular question he was given by Leah. Its to do with what questions are chosen out of the options. A - hug and looking became reciprocal. Is it egotistical to have continues for really as long as he might have wanted? Felt conscious to move on. With adult he complied and then changed his mind.
RK – loved the first moment before the questions is asked? Something about the aliveness of it.
VF – Am I interested in the adult and child?
N- felt more relaxed because it was her sister. Another child might be diff to Leah.
PK – quite focused about the emotion theme. Some of the words were more broad and gave more choice as to the emotion in my head. Blurs adult and children together. More about choice of emotion and action.

Nom's Thoughts on Discussions

Day 9

In the space we talked about why there were children in the group and what we could do with children here. I wondered about what the adults do differently when children are in the pair or group, and do they find it harder when the children are in the group or pair.

In the group I feel that the adults don’t differ when talking to Leah and me and talk the same to us, and I feel that I want to be treated differently from Leah.

When we talk in a group sometimes its very difficult because the language they use I don’t really understand and I don’t know the meaning to some words, I wonder what it would be like for all the adults to talk in a way children can understand?

I enjoyed the first improvising bit when we stepped in the middle, I think I enjoyed it because it felt I could do anything and just express whatever I felt and it was good fun. The only worry was I didn’t know how far I could go with it- if the person was comfortable with me leaning all over them climbing on them and I felt uncomfortable with doing that.

Valentina - Notes on Book Task

Valentina


Page 1

Works of Todeusz Kantor.
His personality is changeable, prone to be affected by fascinations, of someone who does not fear to take the risk of experimenting.

One day I saw a woman beating a carpet. There I perceived a new relation of this figure to this object, so far unknown to me. And it was not the genre scene that attracted my attention, but the character of the relation. Tha carpet was ascribed to this woman and one did not make sense without the other.
( looked at the pictured related to the writing and realizing my misunderstanding of “beating the carpet”)

From “ Performance art”
According to the London-based Scottish artist Bruce McLean, the key to entertainment was style and the key to style was the perfect pose.


Page 2
What drew you to the book?

I decided to look at all the books before choosing one. I was last to get one. I wanted to look at Calvino but it was taken. I wanted some narrative. I then went for Kantor a painter that I did not know.
The second book was “Performance art” because I recognized the cover and Calvino was still taken.

How did you approached the book?

Opened it and read the first sentence that I saw…liked and wrote it down. Searched for more writing. Found another one that I liked and that gave me the possibility to imagine it. I mean I had an image from what I read. Looked at the picture related to it. Looked through the picture while waiting for Calvino.
Second book. Recognized the cover. Flicked through it and looked at the photos. Wrote down something that make me smiled.

Did the way you approached the book different from the way you approach dancing?

Not sure about the question but no, but there many different way I could of approached the book and that I approach dancing.

How did you document your interest in the book?
Copied the parts I chosen without comments. I guess knowing I was going to share it after

Ruth - Notes on Book Task

Research and Development VDT

Book Task 24th July 2007

Task 1

Book 1 Lust Elfriede Jelinek

‘the Woman goes for a walk with her child she goes out walking with the child for a good hour’

Q setting of durational tasks.. time/action
thinking about form and content- adult/child – whats the performative questions in relationship to children … how little/small/simple does a task need to be if the ‘performers’ aren’t professional ‘dancers’ – what happens to us the viewer if we start with adult/child working together/doing a task together… how does that change the starting oints about tasks


‘the Direktor does not know his workers as individuals.But he knows their total value as a work-force.. A works choir has been established. So the Direktor has something to keep him occupied.

Q whats the total value of a work that has more than one performer- what does having more than one person bring

‘
‘I’d like to meet the person who could make a new woman of me out of the things I say’

‘Youth is its own performance. Everything belongs to it and nothing belongs to us, not even the place where we sit in motorway restaurants…… all things present are fine by youth’

‘These people barely feel theneed for rules. After all their feelings regulate their lives’

Q I was interested in the notion that has been discussed in the last few days that there is a desire to get away from emotion.. is this really the case? Or is it about a different relationship with emotion.. a different way to present it, create space for it…’








Book 2 what are children for

‘one of the great pleasures of having children lay in the confident expectation that they would be inheritors of ones moral code or ideology….
..apostles for the cause in which they believed…
..people who would finish off the job’

Q – choreographer/directors to performers – how do we pass on ideology/ideas…..

‘there’s nothing for my son to inherit. I have no craft to teach him. I haven’t a clue what he might do when he’s older. By the time he grows up the rules I lived by will be meaningless. The world will be completely different. If a man accepts the fact that the world must change then his life is reduced to nothing more than the sum of his own experience- past and future generations mean nothing to him. That how we live now. For a man to bring a child into the world is meaningless. ‘ pg 96 from Atomised…

Book 3 – William Forsythe.. improvised technologies

‘The purpose of improvisation is to defeat choreography, to get back to what is primarily dancing. I consider choreography to be a secondary result of dancing- there is a truce between choreography and dancing. IN the kind of complexity that I use, I want to make things that are irreproducible due to their temporal complexity. That’s part of the goal. So in my solo’s is an attempt to defeat choreography… I think it would be impossible to get that much co – ordination properly timed together.’

Task 2

Q1 what drew you to the book

Book 1 – title – lust.. and the quote ‘extraordinary violent’.. and the fact it was fiction and the fact it said nobel prize… drawn by idea of its critical recognition..
Book 2 – In morning I was thinking a lot about the what/if of having leah and Nom in the process… and in first book happened to pick bit about child/adult so went to the book about child in the title…
Book 3 – deliberate attemp to Zone in on ‘performcne’ after 2 books of non performance.. I was drawn to forsythe.. know of him… title improvisation… the synchronicities with this process

Q 2 how did you approach the book

Book 1 – curiously, quite open.. then Patrycja in passing said something about the book bein hard and tough.. so then I approached it cautiously with a bit of exitement/trepidation…being influenced…
Book 2 – closed eyes flicked and stopped randomly.. then immediately started making connections out of it.. followed a task I had set ie random and expected to see the synchronicity somewhere in the text
Book 3 – closed eyes flicked choose from random… then read that page

Q3 Did the way you approach the book differ from the way you approach dancing.

I substituted the word dancing in my mind for the way I approach making work….
Yes in many ways it did echoed that process.. ,
I set myself a task ie eyes closed random… and followed it.. I often set tasks/frames/for investigation..
I tried to opening my thinking but not think too much about what I was doing…... allowing in the connections between my personal inner interests, the words on the page,,, the collective topic under investigation…. Often this method of making connections, links, ,,, following own flow but also absorbing, filtering,…is how I approach work
Finally I took for granted that there was ‘perfection’ in the random choice… that in every choice random or intended there is something of value……

Q4 How did you document
Copied down quotes that interested me then wrote Questions underneath that came to mind.

Darren Notes on Book Task

Darren Book Task

What are Children for?

-3x more time is spent with children compared to 40 years ago

-Biological clock is ticking – women are not predetermined to breed, fear of being left behind, not fitting in with friends, growing old, growing lonely

Thinking back to ‘motherland’

I don’t understand being a man

Les Ballet C de B

‘Tempus Fugit’ Sidi Larbi Cherkani

Remember seeing this work in 2004. It was performed at the Avigion festival. The work looked highly contrasted process. Every part of it was meticulously thought out. RAW energy, danger, extreme and hard to do.

This stayed with me because I felt really engaged with how I could see myself performing like this.

The photos in the book are loaded images. Small details filter into the snap shots.

There’s a vibrancy and passion

Looks as if they are caught out, caught in the moment.

Catching a glimpse of the dance

















Page 2


Question 1

(What are Children for?)
The cover made me laugh and look twice at it, I hadn’t really looked at the other books and the ‘Motherland’

(Les Ballet)
It was thicker and more colourful, looked like it would contain pictures and I scanned more books before choosing this one

Question 2

(What are Children for?)
Started at the beginning and skimmed the pages. Than noticed some of the pages had been folded so I thought the interesting parts of the books had all ready been found.

(Les Ballets)
Flicked thought the pages and tried to take in the pictures than I saw the piece that I had seen before. Went to the begging and tried to read it but it was in French. Tried to find out more about the piece I had seen

Question 3

No real idea of the ending, starting at the beginning, all so taking snippets from the image etc to start the dance/reading

Question 4
(What are Children for?)
Very formal, taking out interesting facts

(Les Ballets)
Was more a feeling about what I had seen approach. Wrote about the photos and my response to that

After all that

The notion of randomly picking a page to open a book at
Revealing the I
Retrograding back to understand the question
Question about restricting yourself
What the body of the performer is going though can that be felt by the audience?

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Naomi- Notes on Book Task

Naomi Ben-Tovim Yeger
Book task-24th July 2007


Task 1
From the book directing post modern theatre

What I am most interested in is not the study of theory, for theories sake but, rather, how theories can be applied to solve problems or improve the actual practise or a profession.
I chose this because I wanted something that I would have to read again and a again to understand, as I wanted to start with something that didn’t make much sense to me and see where I could get with it.

From the emotional toolkit
The prizes in our society are reserved for outer, not inner achievements.
I chose this because it sounded interesting I felt it was true.




Task 2
Q1: What drew you to the book?
I didn’t really go to this book because it drew me but simply because it was the nearest one to me, the reason why I didn’t put it down though was because I started reading something I found interesting.

Q2: how did you approach the book?
I actually approached the whole space thinking about something my brother had told me, he said I should read more adult books, so I was looking for something that I didn’t particularly understand.
Flicking through, looking at the contents, looking at random pages.

Q3: did your approach to the book differ from your approach to dance?
It depends on the dance and the book, if it was a dance I rehearsed and rehearsed, then yes because I didn’t know anything about the book but all dance is always new to everyone so in that sense it didn’t differ, I approach them both with and open mind.

Q4: How did you document your interest in the book?
I copied bits that intrigued me and made small comments at the end of each section I copied.

Darren Day 9

Day 9
DARREN

So many contradictions. Not sure when to say something when to be quiet.

The chair

After a turning point discussion with Ruth lead we came to the agreement that we need to set 4 roles for the smooth running of the day and our sanity.

Chair- keeps track of time/checking the group dynamic/the aim of the day
Documenter- document via, sound/video/image/word
Dramaturg- to refer to the leader, mirror the creative task
Leader/Director- the one who leads a task,

Janusz Thoughts on CV Book Task

Janusz’s blog (24.07.2007)

Books were scattered on the floor. Charlotte asked everyone to find any book (or books) and find something that could be interesting for each of us – a quote, a dialogue, a thought, a picture, anything. The task was open, we did not know where it is going to take us. We had 45 minutes to complete it…

I have tried to approach that exercise with an open mind, not wanting to be ready for anything, without planning what I would like to read about and not knowing what could come out of it.
Just simply pick up any book and find some words which could relate to anything. However… a second after that I have picked a book and realised that I will read about dance and it’s role at the studio, in working process, at the theatre. I have chosen three books:

- “A widening field, journeys in body and imagination” by Miranda Tufnell and Chris Crickmay
- “The Empty Space” by Peter Brook
- “Difficult loves” by Italo Calvino

What interested me in choosing the first book was its sub-heading “journeys in body and imagination”. What my journey would be over the next 45 minutes. Will I find something similar in other books I have chosen. I have opened it on a random page thinking about giving myself enough time for the whole exercise. The title of the chapter was: “Taking your own time”. Have found few interesting though maybe already well known thoughts:
- it is sometimes hard not to rush,
- remember to take enough time to feel our way forward,
- allow stillness.
After that I wanted to see the contents and found a chapter about getting stuck. It called: “Failing at work (what to do to recover)”:
- let go of your aspirations and judgements and pay more attention to what is actually emerging,
- when we feel we have achieved little, it usually turns out there is more to it than we thought,
- spend more time with a partner together, discuss, explore, do not judge.

The second book (“The Empty Space” by Peter Brook) was about rehearsal process and director’s role in it: “The director who comes to the first rehearsal with his script prepared with the moves and business, etc. noted down, is a real deadly theatre man”.

By the third book I did not want to read about theatre. Ended up reading a story about an nearsighted man. And yet that one somehow related to theatre as well: “(…)The fact was that he was nearsighted. The oculist prescribed eyeglasses for him. After that moment his life changed, became a hundred times richer in interest than before.(…) there was no doubt that he was one thing and the glasses another, completely separate; it was clear he was wearing glasses only incidentally and, without glasses, he was an entirely different man.(…)”. After reading the whole story I began to ask myself questions: What or who makes you look at things, people, objects? How an object or a person change our perception of looking at it?

There were couple of interesting comments about everyone’s choices of books and quotes. Alex had pointed out at a rhythmical way of me speaking, the fact that I was processing everything in my head and was thinking about how and what to say next, searching for words which clearly translate my way of thinking. The whole exercise raised a lot of interesting questions. Many of them left without answers:
How many valuable information a person have?
Is it possible to look at a group of dancers as one individual?
Is it possible to flick through a dance performance the same way we are easily able to open a book on any page we like?

Last week (before I came to London) the whole group was asked an interesting question: How your last dance will look like?... I think I will stay still, look in people’s eyes wanting to say “I did it as best I could and I think I’ve done well”.
How long this performance will last?

Ellies Task Day 9

Day 9

Ellie’s task

-everyone has to take a chair, seat in the circle, close eyes and create a group rhythm for 6 min
-repeat the action, but change the position, everyone faces to the wall and create the group rhythm for 6 min.
-form 4 small groups of people and create the rhythm for 6 min. (instruction added- you don’t have to play the chair all the time.)
- create a chain of people standing on the stairs and create a rhythm for 6 min.

The immediate response after the task;
-It was great to make choices. I found out I was doing my own thing while trying to listen all chain of people.
-The task was about sound, us in different spaces. Each changing of the space was bringing the idea to put upon each repetition another task.
-The gradation from 1st to 4th repetition was from quiet to more and more loud.

Ellie- the task wasn’t actually about the rhythm.

-Individual voice can be lost in big rythms.
-I found natural need to be in rhythmical connection with other people.
-Creation of sense of notion in group of people
-How predictable can I be,do I want to contribute or not?
-Who is a leader?
I couldn’t find sounds.
-I wasn’t interested to leaning to the rhythm of other people
-There wasn’t a lot of listening going on.
There was a point for me in last repetition wich was like manifestation…lie an animal….There no valuation of volume.
-People down below rebelled it and that was genuinely funny.


What do we think was Ellie’s Q “what if” ?
Let’s have 5 min to think about it and write down our versions of Ellie What if?.
….
(people reading one by one their versions;)
“ What if we can get intimate within a group, without a leader, doing an orchestra which plays the chairs?”

DAY 9 - Charlotte/ Ellie

Day 9

Morning Session Self warm up
CV / Ruth continue a conversation that began after yesterdays session ended about process / structures within the room / RBT’s role

Ruth’s talked through her current thoughts…

Ideas on the process of the work. How feelings are a reflection of the groups feeling, rather than our own. Ruth has been feeling excited and also confused about the process that we are currently operating with over the last few days i.e. when is a good time to come in? What is the premise that we are working on this week?
Possibly two sorts of investigation going on
The process of what is going on – the roles responsibilities.
The process of the way a whole group is functioning…i.e. how do we start the day, the timekeeping, the tasks of the day, who should take the lead? Has the structure of sharing the responsibility been clarified? Maybe there is a role which is a chairing of the work? (i.e. not necessarily Charlotte?) Could we make this responsibility clearer by chairing? i.e. making sure all contributions are heard. Make roles clearer i.e. who is documenting? Who is chairing? Who is overlooking the group to make sure all are involved?

Confusion has arisen over the subject of tasks. Perhaps if the structure of leading/group dynamic/task giving was broader/less blurred there would be more clarity. Issue of the chairing practical role – sometimes is blurred with the director / leading creative role. Is Charlotte hoping to separate these roles? Is the blurriness of these roles useful?
RK – it remains that it is Charlotte that brought us together. This is a creative journey and it doesn’t mean that individuals cannot have their own creative journey too.
The issue is whether it is more about the creative process or about the structure of the group. Different people coming and going has made newer people feel more uncertain. Not to make any assumptions about how the group is going to work.
Practical aspects of how to bring past experience into the new week, with new people. Perhaps it is about the language that is used. Is time wasted deflecting rather than experiencing the current group now.
V – is the energy spent on delegating not so useful?
CV – What are the rules of this new game? We are following new undefined rules but structured roles within the group will help us.
RK – the blurring is important for CV to work out intellectually and emotionally to experience the unknown, to explore what is possible. Huge discoveries are being made, even if they remain unresolved.
The issue of chairing has arisen today as the blurring is perhaps not serving the ‘lab’ process.
Perhaps if these roles are delegated as an experiment – just to see if it assists the group running and dynamic.
Is everybody censoring their ideas, because they are not sure of the outcome? Even if the devising is to be organic there is still to be a structure. How can you be clear with not knowing?
Observations from the task – how can we have been more rigorous with our questioning? Should we have re-entered the original task in order to refine it? Or should we have moved on? This could be the role of the chair person.
How do you get from the question to the task?? A big question from the first week is being explored here.
CV – feels this mornings discussion has highlighted her impatience with tasks/chairing because she has so many other roles. Perhaps roles can be decided in advance so that there is absolute clarity for the forthcoming work.
The chairing will also allow new people to understand the group structure/dynamic more quickly.
VF - The past two weeks have been essential to understand what the group needs.
CV/RK - The confusion has actually highlighted what we are trying to achieve in this project. How do you provide an entry point to introduce new company members into the group? (without the shadow of the previous work).
Should each new week begin a ’starting again’?
We need to define the rules to the structure of the game that we are playing – which is totally separate from the content of the work being explored. It is also about the language that we use and recognising what is helpful.
The creative process and the group process – these are the two main aspects of discussion.
The chairs role is to keep things moving and also to allow space for things to happen.
The chair is in charge of keeping the conceptual frame moving along:
Role includes:
Looking out for the energy in the group.
Keeping awareness of the conversation.
Timekeeping.
Ensuring that everybody is heard.
The chair person can remove the self-censoring by individuals.
Task from yesterday is discussed and what worked/didn’t work about it? Perhaps an overall chair would’ve helped for the task to function better. There is confusion over the ‘leader’ role.
Is the group dynamic hindering the exploration of ideas? Part of the lab is about being able to fail.
Is there a place where we can log ideas that we want to continue so that we can come back to it at later times?
Do we stay in this mode – or do we investigate further? Will the theatre space change how we work?
The roles of the day are then decided.
The chair (the points listed above), the documenter, the dramaturg (moving the conceptual frame onwards), the leader (the task giver/ suggester of ideas).

Chair – Darren, until the rest of the day.
Dramaturg – Ruth
Leader – Jem , continuing from yesterday.
Documenter – Ellie

Roles are delegated and useful decisions about the day are made.


After Lunch

Ellie’s task blogged on paper by PK.

Rachel’s Task

What if we all went to sleep and took it in turns to watch each other?

Yoga often ends with rest/sleep. Something a bit special about telling everyone to sleep and they do. Something about trust, weight, time, suspension. The situation at night – everyone is asleep. Exercise not about product but what can we gain from the experience of doing this.

Task is to go into the space in a certain order and everyone falls asleep. Here is list with an order of names. In order the people wake each other up after 4 minutes.
About physically, fully being in the space with people being asleep.

After the task:

Whilst asleep, sometimes sleeping, sometimes aware of the weather/surroundings. Altogether in a room writing/sleeping. Idea of presence and absence. We ere all present and absent in the room at the same time.

JO – wrote nothing. Felt very strange place to be in. Didn’t want to walk around – felt as though was being watched. Everyone was facing away or backwards. Sense of awareness of how people looked had changed. People had moved. J felt a lack of communication. J was interested in exploring the idea of stillness beforehand.

Leah – wrote on paper. Felt relaxed and sleepy.

CV – nothing to say at this point.

VF – security on having people around. Sleeping in the afternoon – different feel to at night. Noticed one presence in the room – Alex.
CV – I Sleep in a different way in a house with children in it.
VF - Responsibility of waking up a child..

AC – the wind reminds me that it’s the first time this week that I can hear myself think/ that we all agree.

DA – intrigued by who was before him. Being left alone, nice when people were moving at the same time. Awareness of the silence and the rain. Always feels like he is the last to go to sleep but not this time.

PK – didn’t sleep at all. Strange moments where she drifted and her attitude to the time passing changed. Felt uncomfortable with time. Knew she was last to get up – angry and impatient that she couldn’t sleep, because also she had the longest to wait. Was aware that she would be woken up and wanted to be awake for when she was woken up. Awareness of time frame to sleep meant that it was difficult to sleep. Thinking about who was asleep and who wasn’t. (RK – finding a state of physical rest/or unrest??). VF – interested/curious as to why Alex was awake and moving before the task had finished.

Ellie – never sleep in the day – really enjoyed the aspect of just being still and resting. Image of driftwood on a beach. Took some pictures. People all astrewn. Didn’t feel alone as Alex was there.

Ruth – aware of the rain. Aware of being a mother, aware of her children sleeping. When awake – infectious twitching moving. Reminded of being in hospital. Where people stir and settle, stir and settle. Like that we swapped positions as if by magic. Not alone in witnessing.

Nom – Time passed quickly. Wasn’t aware of people changing around. Watching people all in different positions. Seemed people had moved positions also. Waking J up was funny because he didn’t want to wake up. Wasn’t aware of rain etc proper sleeping!
No question to answer with this exercise but what questions it brings up. Being still really brings natural tendencies to the front. Spatial arrangement affected sleep/resting. Beauty in seeing people asleep. Reference to 39 Micro Lectures – book b

definitions

1. an act of changing location or position
2. the way in which somebody or something moves
3. a collective effort by a large number of people to try to achieve something, especially a political or social reform
4. the people who organize themselves in order to achieve some political or social reform
5. the parts of a clock or watch mechanism that drive and regulate it
6. a change in the prices of traded securities
7. developments in the plot of a literary work
8. the illusion or suggestion of motion in a work of art, for example, a sculpture or painting
9. one of several self-contained sections that make up a large-scale musical work, often differentiated from one another by different tempos and characters
10. a tactical change in the position or location of a military unit
11. the cadence or rhythm of a piece of poetry
12. an act of emptying of the bowels, or the matter emptied.
U.K. term motion n. 7
U.K. term motion n. 8

npl move·ments
what somebody does and where he or she goes, noted over a period of time

dance v
1. vi to move the feet and body rhythmically, usually in time to music
2. vt to perform or participate in a specified dance
3. vi to leap or skip, especially in an emotional manner
4. vi to bob up and down or move quickly about
5. vt to make somebody dance or lead somebody in a dance
6. vi to talk misleadingly so as to avoid facing an issue squarely (informal)
7. vt to get to a particular state by dancing
8. vi to fail to roll a number that reenters a backgammon piece from the bar

n
1. a series of rhythmical steps and body movements, usually performed in time to music
2. a session of dancing
3. a party or social gathering for dancing
4. dancing as a performance art
5. a piece of music in the rhythm of a particular type of dance
6. evasive talk (informal)
7. a pattern of animal movements used, for example, in courtship by birds or by bees to give information about food

adj
relating to, involving, or created for dancing


still adj
1. motionless and undisturbed
2. not sparkling or bubbly
3. subdued, gentle, or quiet
4. designed for, or relating to the process of, taking photographs as opposed to making movies

still adv
without sound or movement

still noun
1. silence or peace (literary)
2. a photographic print, either made from a single frame of a motion-picture film or shot independently with a still camera during production

still verb
1. vti to make somebody or cause somebody to become quiet, calm, soundless, or immobile
2. vt to allay or relieve


act n
1. something that somebody does
2. the action of carrying something out
3. one of the main sections of a play or other dramatic performance
4. a short performance, especially one that is part of a varied program or show
5. the performer or performers who take part in an act
6. somebody’s actions or behavior considered as entertainment or used as an assessment of that person’s worth (informal)
7. behavior that is intended to impress or deceive other people
8. a record or statement of the decision made by a law-making or judicial body such as Congress
9. a formal written record of the proceedings of a society, committee, or elected group
10. something brought about by human will

v
1. vi to do something to change a situation, for example, to solve a problem or prevent one arising
2. vti to adopt a particular way of behaving
3. vi to behave in a way intended to impress or deceive other people
4. vi to serve a particular purpose or perform a particular function
5. vi to be a substitute for somebody or something else
6. vi to create, produce, or bring about an effect or result
7. vti to play the part of a character in a dramatic performance
8. vi to pursue a career in films or drama
9. vti to stage a dramatic performance, or be capable of being staged

Ruths Thoughts Day 9

Ruth Ben-Tovim
THOUGHTS AFTER 3 DAYS

I’ve decided to think about my own sensations as a measure of perhaps what I imagine might be going on in the group this week. Recent work I’ve been exploring – process work by Arnold Mindell talks about the fact that when we are in a group and feeling or sensing things we are often doing that for the group, that the I and the we is really not as separate as we imagine… so the idea that within me are all the same disparate voices/components as there are in a group of 10, or even 10,000.

So I’ve been feeling quite a lot of conflicting sensations this week… some of which I’ve been initially pushing under the carpet thinking they were just my ego playing up….feelings of where do I fit in this week, whats my contribution, what can I offer, which of my skills should I bring here, how much should I intervene, should I lead, how much should I lead, is that useful…

I’ve been in a bit of a fog for the first three days, a pleasurable fog, exciting, stimulating but at end of day three a fog that I feel the need to try and see my way through cos Im not sure that being in the fog is where I want to be for the last two days and I think that some simple framing of group process might allow me and the group to go further in its investigation…

To help me think through my sensations last night I decided to use the frame of the task that Jem set… the What if frame…

Yesterday in the What IF task that Jem set I spent my time exploring a what if around children/adult relationships in a durational task… so the What ifs were focusing on a creative exploration… I was struck by hearing about Leah’s what ifs on the way home that she had asked questions like what if I had 100 mums and dads or what If I was a monster… and my own what ifs had stayed within the frame of a creative task that could be explored this week…

So inspired by Leahs broader what ifs.. Last night my what ifs were focused around the overall wider group process..

What if we divided up the roles of being and making work together

What if those roles were a) Chair person… keeping time, keeping on task, being aware of the overall aims – day/week/task , making sure all contributions are heard/all voices, looking out for group dyhnamics .. reading the group, feeling/observing where the groups energy is and naming that b) Creative leading/directing… could be one person leading a task, could be that the group decides to let leadership evolve organically with individuals having permission to follow their own instincts. c) Documenting – being responsible for making decisions about how each session is going to be documented and doing some of it d) Dramaturgy – moving the conceptual frame along./working with the leader/ mirroring and framing the creative explorations


Perhaps this what if articulates for me some of what I’ve observed and been reacting to … that there was a stated intention at the beginning of the week to ‘share leading’ but the frame for this wasn’t articulated so its been a bit sink or swim in terms of people doing that or not… there has been a hesitancy around who’s leading all decisions from how do we make a group decision to start after lunch to making decisions about when to stop something like the book exercise a bluring of the making decisions about how to work/lead creatively and how to work/lead/function as a group of people in a space..

It seems that Charlotte is used to doing all of the above roles and that part of this research and development process is about which and how she might let go of some of them to allow others to experience leading…. I have observed that without a clearer articulation of roles then Charlotte has been diving in and out of doing most of the above but then self censoring and feeling that she’d been doing something wrong.. and I’ve been hovering around should I come in or not and maybe others have as well….

So after day three I feel that a laying bare of whats the process of leadership that needs to be explored here on the floor and also on the sofa..

As I write this Charlotte comes over.. and seems to share something of these sensations im trying to articulate… something about being caught between inhibition and action……..between inhibition/action and coersion……

My other What if refers to beginning each week afresh.. I’ve felt a bit under the shadow of last week… trying to get inside the experience, to be able to add to it I’ve felt the presence of Wendy or what people have been quoting Wendy as saying so I’ve also been trying to get inside wendys experience or ideas even though she’s not been here.. I’ve been aware of sometimes feeling that I missed out or missed something…..that its taken a while for this week to be present and last week to fade so…. mdirection….the existence of a collective experience that I’ve wanted to try and understand/ build on / contribute to

Alex Day 8

Alex What Ifs
What if we were all to say what we really think?
What if we were to try and guess what the others thought?
What if we just try to stick to the task?
What if we were not to digress everytime and shy away from conclusive statements?
What if I would be angry and alone all the time?
What if being lost is the task?
What if the dancefloor was a different colour and the windows tinted and I would play the harp?
What if I didn’t care?
What if I wouldn’t be here?
What if Janusz wouldn’t be here?


My task is being here. My process is finding out where here is. My questions are infinite.

Alex Day 10

“Feel the rain on your skin,
No one else can feel it for you…”


“To truly understand the universe, one must strive to explore even the most remote corners of the imagination and not to rely on the security of reason.” A. Artaud


On having the kids (bless them): how does one recreate spring water?

Been there. Done that. Forgot. Got distracted and manipulated; throw in a few choices in the mix and now, I am here: St, Matthias Church Hall in Stoke Newington.

‘Still don’t know who these people are. It is becoming clear what they would wish to investigate, if this would be a creative process about the process of creating something of a structure inside the investigation of an exploration process of the process itself of exploring things….(no, I must rephrase…the words “things” is too concrete; am I looking for a conclusion?)…

On another note: ‘still don’t know who these people are.

Sincerely yours…
me

DAY EIGHT

By Ellie McDonald

My written description of Jem’s dance:

Rocking, continuous, circling a hula hoop, circling a centrepoint, lindy hop suzie-Q feet.
Uneven steps, rhythm – chugging, like train. Irish tap dance – speed/excitement as gets faster. Childlike.
Carefree. Abandon. Heavier breathing. Arms are uncontrolled. Loose, waving, surrendering. Like clothes on a washing line.
Internal rhythm. Prayer. Sore knees. Feeling the sun, finding God. Statue. Wing.
Exposed torso. Emerging. Finding strength, twisting, a smile. Finding it.
At ease. Eeeeewwwwwww (x2).
Rhythm of hands – irish dance rhythm on the belly, rubber hands.

My written description of Patrycja:

Forward gaze, eyes locked on a point somewhere not too far away. Heavy eyelashes. Lashes that lift with the breath. Slow blinking, calm, serene, or perhaps bored. Shadowed face – but sunlight moves across the top. Mouth tightly closed. Straight line. Shift of focus downwards. An interlude. Hand brushes face obscuring the right eye. An animal waiting to do the next thing. Blank. A swallow. Slow blink. Eye shift to the right. Face lights up. A lighter expression. More thoughtful. What is the thought behind the eyes? Watery. Glassy. Seeing a thought in the mind, the squint of the skin as a thought passes through. Eyes closed. Swallow. Resting. Tired. Alert. Open. Small breathing. Definitely bored. Face looks stuck – skin looks solid. Eye lids droop. Quickening, twitching. Cough. Remains still. When is the change? Staring upwards. Hair moves in the breeze. Contemplation. Dreaming. Waiting to finish. Blink. A smile. Open. Change of focus.

DAY EIGHT

By Charlotte Vincent

Valentina/Alex
Question – discussion over favourite question…
What if I had to spin for ten minutes and then try to deliver a text?
What if we got possessed by Charles Manson?
Discussed and found a relationship between the two. Does the first disassociate the body and the mind through getting dizzy – and does this in fact relate to becoming possessed by Charles Manson idea. You have to keep the body busy to distract it, which can then allow the spirits to leave out the back door.
Is spinning that interesting its self? – but more about becoming out of control. Not in control of your gaze – this is internal disorientation – then are the words really yours?
How do you create physical vulnerability?
What if PK was to be a monkey for the rest of the day!!!
PK-is it about separating yourself from your everyday self?
V – interested in the personal sensation of how it would feel to do the spinning task. Interested in seeing the unclear disorientation and the effort to complete the task. Is the task to separate the elements if it for the sake of the viewer? i.e. 20 mins spin somewhere else and then the text with viewer.
CV – How does disorientation affect the delivery of a text? Keep the questions simple to really understand the underlying task. Keep going back to the basics of what you are trying to discover.
RBT – what is the text? Does the text have significance? What are the approaches to the text – i.e. is it already known? Read for the first time? Charles Manson? What are all the variations of the task? Is the idea of possession part of the underlying task?
SS – disorientation – is it a visual concept? (Charlotte’s interpretation was anatomical). Space centre task – in a gyroscope you had to draw a line and then are graded at how well you would cope in space. Spinning chair and then made to stand up. Vision is anatomical. Inner ear/jar of water – there are little stones, which keep spinning after the jar stops (as does the brain/ear). Specific tasks based around disorientation. The task is the antithesis of the thesis. The synthesis if the performance – i.e. how well you stayed on the line (and by not dropping your pencil!). Main interest is in the somatic experience.
We are the DIY end – what are the boundaries that we are working with? Simple spinning as opposed to astronaut training? What boundaries do we have in the studio in order to achieve the task – are we limited in what we can do in our space?
V - Not a replication of being out of control but to really see the act of being out of control.
CV - Part of skill of directing is to incorporate the things that people are interested in. Be open enough to trust the intuition that motivates your ideas – this intuition has its own validity and logic. Go ahead with the experience that you have it is likely that your UNDEFINED urge is worth pursuing.

Questions arose as to why the children are in the space and what can we learn form them being here. What tasks will include them. Do we want older people in the space?

Leah/Janusz
What if I were a well-known violin player?
Leah felt most attached to this question of hers.
What if we stand still? – One of Janusz’s ideas – chosen by Leah.
One idea – to play the violin, but without sound. Janusz will stand still. Leah not as musician, J not as dancer. Idea is to try and to wait for something to happen – to do for as long as possible, and see where is the end? The task is for the audience to see the response. How long can the audience sustain watching the “non-action”? And how long can the performers sustain their “non-performance”?
CV – how would we mark the end-point? Are the performers waiting for a signal? Who decides the end – and with what language? I.e. PK might play. Can we choose the language of interference?
RBT – how does this task relate back to the original question? How do the performers set up the notion of what ‘they are’ – i.e. a dancer and a violin player.
Leah – just didn’t feel like playing the violin, so preferred to mime it. To mime – is to be the well-known violin player.
JO – how different would it be if we perform to people who know us, or to an unknown audience.
More about people’s expectations, rather than the actual ability. Perceptions of people. How might Leah kid us into thinking she were a ‘well-known’ violin player – and what does that look like? What if I was/what if I looked like?
Is it about the outside perception – or the ability?
SS – suggests to try the task and the audience can still measure their own attention to it.
After discussion – will the task still work?
We try the task.

3.39 Leah mimes playing, J stands still and watches her audience members move around the space. Some laugh. 3.41 continues 3.43 continues performers smile at audience, audience laugh, 3.44 J is still other than eyes, performers continue audience giggles, some move around, 3.45 performers continue, 3.45 Rachel says STOP.

Leah found it not exactly fun, but interesting. As she had the feeling of playing, but was not playing. She was smiling because that’s what she does when playing the violin. She was glad of the STOP because arm was aching and got boring, but was not glad because she wanted to see how far it could go. She thinks she would have continued in much the same way. She likes that J was in the space and looking at her – she noticed his attention, differently to that of the audience looking at her.
J found that he concentrated on the face, and lost track of the violin playing. Continued focus, he just saw the motion but not the action that she was miming. Found it pleasurable to stand still, and to know that he would not move whilst Leah did.
JT interested in his own response. Why are they doing that? Who are they? Someone forcing her to play? Playing for simpleton? Started constructing narratives from the continued picture. Liked watching the effort in continuing.
Discussion as to whether L was exploited in doing this task – and how long should it have been allowed to continue. Were the performers allowed to stop themselves – task was perhaps unclear at this point. Responsibility as an audience to allow the performers to stop at an appropriate time.
Interested in responsibility of a child taking responsibility for themselves – or of adults taking responsibility for them. The issue of duration. At what point do we intervene? Is it a question of endurance?
Leah devised the task – therefore would it have been ok to go on for longer? Was she testing our thresholds?
Was the tasking testing us as an audience? What are our different thresholds?
SS – the questions that we had about children in the space have become important. Complex morality issue has arisen. Who is benefiting from this task? What if we watched two other people – there would be different reasons to end it? There are always measures of watching and of tolerance. What if we saw the same exercise with diff combinations of ages.
There is something about perversity as a theatrical value. We project our own values on what we see.
Leah’s movement became more abstract – the bow moved away from the violin.
RK – what do we want to do over the next couple of day with the children in the space? Is there a fine line, with experimenting on the children and to see what happens.

Darren/Jem/Nom
Darren the master, with the microphone, gives instructions and rules constantly to a solo dancer.

What if I was the master? What if I set up the rules? What if we documented on the microphone?

The task is tried. Darren is the master – Jem is dancing. 2 minutes.

After the task – questions are whether Darren was the master arose. How different would it look if different dancers adult/child were in the space? Jem had expectations before he went in the circle – he wasn’t sure what his limits were in the circle, had he been asked.

Task is tried again but with both Nom and Leah in the space. 5 minutes. Darren again is the master.

Darren was conscious not to be too mean. To be master he shouldn’t say “can you do…..” or to say “brilliant”. Children thought that he could be meaner. Task was not about them being younger.

Task is repeated with Leah as master and Nom as performer. 3 minutes.

RK asks why Darren was originally interested in his question. Darren was interested in both having rules imposed upon himself and of being the master. What do rules give us? Are they a hindrance? Were they instructions or rules? Difficult to read the master/servant idea whilst the performer seemed to be enjoying the task.
Issue of whether is fiction or not. Was the interest in the fiction of being the ‘master’?
What is the question of this task?
DA – just about being in control, not necessary in a vicious way. Just about having a vision of something set. What does it feel like to have someone telling you constantly instruction.
SS – what if the instructions didn’t allow so much choice? Was this a response to exercises that have been more open in the previous weeks?
AC – could the task be to set up a huge amount of rules at the beginning and see what happens rather than to continually instruct throughout.
Conclusion that perhaps the continuous instruction, was not the best approach.
A desire for specifity rather than power.
Perhaps the task needed to be more specific beforehand.

Jem actually planned that these tasks be refined in smaller groups first, before presenting the task itself, in order to make the task clearer. What are we investigating – and why are we not able to break into smaller groups?

DAY SEVEN

By Ellie McDonald

“Circus Bodies” Peta Tait.

1.Acts of aerialism/human cannonball.
They are designed to provoke a reaction through pure movement. Spectators often experience the same reactions i.e. holding of breath, gasps, feeling of anxiety.
Why do audiences attend knowing the likelihood of experiencing anxiety?
These acts create a heightened impression of danger or death. Creates a similar reaction to plots in melodrama/action in thrillers.
Spectator does not turn away from anxiety – do they become bodily, viscerally desensitised. “Visceral sensations become bodily reminders of the continuity of his aliveness”.
Sensationalism through effortless delivery.
Illusions/transformations of aerialism – stretched reality like the portrait.

2. I was attracted to the picture on the front of the book. It was of air-born dancers (doing trapeze work) which reminded me of my initial reaction to “what would be your last dance?” – which was a twisting, air-born spiritual step after death. The title “circus bodies” drew my attention to it being about the body rather than thought etc..

I flicked through the book at random looking at chapter titles – and was drawn to those relating to female gender. I just read at random and wrote anything that captured my attention for a few seconds.

My approach to dance often has an end product or goal in mind, or an image of how it might look. My approach to the book was completely indifferent, with no expectations or worries of finding/producing anything.

I wrote any sentences that I wanted to remember. In any order. Also I wrote any thoughts that came to mind. The order of the sentences – complete or incomplete was not important. The overall sense of the page was not important. I wrote down some quotes.

DAY SEVEN

By Scott Smith

Peggy Phelan- Un-marked

A performance cannot be saved. Documents are, Representations of representations of " " " " etc.

Fleeting. Performance becomes itself through its own disappearance.
I will disappear then. If only the economics would disappear as well. I would be free to fuck off then. Embrace my solipsism, my existential dread.
Why disturb the universe?

Things that begin to fatigue me.
Questions regarding the value of art, generally or specifically. Is it better art or worse art etc.
How to make the work last. A sense of permanence, desire for meaning, objects to attach to, cultural capital. Money...

Scuffle with the crowd to get my share, hoping for a notice, or some contact, or a check. Or love. Here comes my appetite, fuel in the shape of desire. Here I go again, my very own insatiability, my hungry ghosts.

What constitutes presence? Realness? How do I convince you of my own realness. Life in the bush of opinion and tastes. Why is it important to convince others of anything?
If a tree danced in the forest, and no one was there to to see /hear/taste/touch/smell it?

Another list. More fatigue.
Objects, dances, songs, choreography's (steps), intervals (harmonies).
Tired of qualifying things. Artifacts.

List of hopes
The per-formative Quality of seeing-the act of witnessing. Seeing/looking as creative act. The subjectivity of seeing. An activity less loaded with the need for personal gain or results.
Less artistic activity as capitalist model. Commodity, product, market value.

'Performance, the runt of the litter of contemporary art'.

Re valuing emptiness.

'To acknowledge the others (always partial) presence is to acknowledge ones own (always partial) absence.'

'An experience of value which leaves no visible race afterwards.'
'How to become per-formative utterances, rather than constative utterances.' ?

There was this academic discourse, and my Grandmother could not understand the words. So sometimes, she just gardened.

DAY SEVEN

By Ruth Ben-Tovim

Book Task 24th July 2007

Task 1

Book 1 Lust Elfriede Jelinek

‘the Woman goes for a walk with her child she goes out walking with the child for a good hour’

Q setting of durational tasks.. time/action
thinking about form and content- adult/child – what’s the performative questions in relationship to children … how little/small/simple does a task need to be if the ‘performers’ aren’t professional ‘dancers’ – what happens to us the viewer if we start with adult/child working together/doing a task together… how does that change the starting oints about tasks

‘the Direktor does not know his workers as individuals. But he knows their total value as a work-force.. A works choir has been established. So the Direktor has something to keep him occupied.

Q what’s the total value of a work that has more than one performer- what does having more than one person bring

‘I’d like to meet the person who could make a new woman of me out of the things I say’

‘Youth is its own performance. Everything belongs to it and nothing belongs to us, not even the place where we sit in motorway restaurants…… all things present are fine by youth’

‘These people barely feel the need for rules. After all, their feelings regulate their lives’

Q I was interested in the notion that has been discussed in the last few days that there is a desire to get away from emotion.. is this really the case? Or is it about a different relationship with emotion.. a different way to present it, create space for it…’

Book 2 what are children for

‘one of the great pleasures of having children lay in the confident expectation that they would be inheritors of ones moral code or ideology….
..apostles for the cause in which they believed…
..people who would finish off the job’

Q – choreographer/directors to performers – how do we pass on ideology/ideas…..

‘there’s nothing for my son to inherit. I have no craft to teach him. I haven’t a clue what he might do when he’s older. By the time he grows up the rules I lived by will be meaningless. The world will be completely different. If a man accepts the fact that the world must change then his life is reduced to nothing more than the sum of his own experience- past and future generations mean nothing to him. That how we live now. For a man to bring a child into the world is meaningless. ‘ pg 96 from Atomised…

Book 3 – William Forsythe. improvised technologies

‘The purpose of improvisation is to defeat choreography, to get back to what is primarily dancing. I consider choreography to be a secondary result of dancing- there is a truce between choreography and dancing. IN the kind of complexity that I use, I want to make things that are irreproducible due to their temporal complexity. That’s part of the goal. So in my solo’s is an attempt to defeat choreography… I think it would be impossible to get that much co – ordination properly timed together.’

Task 2

Q1 What drew you to the book?

Book 1 – title – lust.. and the quote ‘extraordinary violent’.. and the fact it was fiction and the fact it said nobel prize… drawn by idea of its critical recognition..
Book 2 – In morning I was thinking a lot about the what/if of having Leah and Nom in the process… and in first book happened to pick bit about child/adult so went to the book about child in the title…
Book 3 – deliberate attempt to Zone in on ‘performance’ after 2 books of non performance.. I was drawn to Forsythe.. know of him… title improvisation… the synchronicities with this process

Q 2 How did you approach the book?

Book 1 – curiously, quite open.. then Patrycja in passing said something about the book being hard and tough.. so then I approached it cautiously with a bit of excitement/trepidation…being influenced…
Book 2 – closed eyes flicked and stopped randomly.. then immediately started making connections out of it.. followed a task I had set ie random and expected to see the synchronicity somewhere in the text
Book 3 – closed eyes flicked choose from random… then read that page

Q3 Did the way you approach the book differ from the way you approach dancing?

I substituted the word dancing in my mind for the way I approach making work….
Yes in many ways it did echoed that process..
I set myself a task ie eyes closed random… and followed it.. I often set tasks/frames/for investigation..
I tried to opening my thinking but not think too much about what I was doing…... allowing in the connections between my personal inner interests, the words on the page,,, the collective topic under investigation…. Often this method of making connections, links, ,,, following own flow but also absorbing, filtering,…is how I approach work
Finally I took for granted that there was ‘perfection’ in the random choice… that in every choice random or intended there is something of value……

Q4 How did you document
Copied down quotes that interested me then wrote Questions underneath that came to mind.

MORE FROM DAY SEVEN

By Patrycja Kujswska

Quotes from the book “John Cage – SILENCE”

“Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it we find it fascinating. The sound of a truck at fifty miles per hour. Rain.

“We can compose and perform a quartet for explosive motor, wind, heartbeat,…”

“If you had to put on ten fingers the music you would take with you if you were going to North Pole, what would you put?”

COMUNICATION
32 questions
What if I ask thirty two questions?
What if I stop asking now and then?
Will it make things clear?
Is communication something clear?
What is communication?
Music, what does it communicate?
It’s what’s clear to me clear to you?
Is music just sounds?
Are sounds just sounds, or are they Beethoven?
People aren’t sounds are they?
Is there such a thing as silence?
(…)
Is this the twenty eight question?
Are there any important questions?
And now, do I have none?

(P.S. I quite like the idea of asking the actual 28th question if it’s 28th question…It’s like ;is step a step, or note a note etc.:)- PK

Q.1
It was a conscious decision to choose that book, as my initial aim was to try to translate some of the questions we’ve raised past week into music/sound world. I was aware that book itself is full of questions (not only restricted to the music language). I knew as well that the book has got philosophical approach to the construction of sound structures. (Few ideas I came across I found almost annoyingly conceptual )

Q.2
1.I’ve opened the book on random page
2.Have found an intriguing sentence.
3.Realised that I don’t understand the context ,what’s so ever .
4.Found the title of the chapter in which I’ve found the “intriguing sentence”
5. Realised that knowing the name of the chapter doesn’t make the whole prosess any clearer.
6.Finally I did what I should have done on the very beginning- I’ve opened the (bloody) book on the opening page of contents to know WHAT’S MY CHOICE.

Q.3
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It depends on the idea, or rather rules; if I try to find something without any particular staring point, like going on the trip without a map or a guide where I don’t know where or what destination point is (which has a potential of very surprising and dangerous journey, where the destination point may be less interesting reward than journey to find it its self.) It’s different when I restrict myself with certain “instruction of a ride” before I start dancing/playing violin. (sometimes instructions can happen to be liberating)

Q.4
The process of choosing THE RIGHT paragraphs was quite long, each minute more and more indecisive and impatient, although I decided to force myself to STICK WITH ONE IDEA throughout the task. I don’t think I benefited for this decision particularly…neither I lost anything…but I guess that’s not the point.
I consciously made decision of not writing any personal comments for 2 reasons. First I thought that the page will be passed to other people (and there will be more instructions added to the task), second I just thought the paragraphs are what they are, and let the people read them as they want.

DAY SEVEN

By Leah Yeger

Book Task . 24th July 25, 2007

TASK 1
ROSEMRY BUTCHER
Church in new York.
Artists across the globe.
Forward there still.
Dancers assist one another.
CALVINO
But no.
Chase them away.
A WIDENING FIELD
Of working with bill.
One way.
See more of the land scape.

TASK 2
Q.1
1.the book looked colourful
2. the book looked interesting – the title
3. the book looked as if there would be lots of drawings

Q2
1. I flicked through the pages
2. I looked for pages with writing and drawings on them
3. I looked for pages with lots of writing on

Q3
It did not link me to dancing

Q4
I started writing \very big then I did it small because it helped me to read it

DAY SEVEN

By Jem Treays

‘ a lab is about inducing inspiration’

creating conditions which encourage creativity

the focus is not on outcome yet the work needs to be framed by a question.

The question could be as simple as what if…..?

What happens IF we do this?

Task. Write a list of what ifs? Take 10 mins. Use active questioning or interrogation to define the questions or the area of interest in pairs.

In a lab there are boffins. They pursue what interest them in isolation or in teams. Sometimes they are trying to answer the same question sometimes complimentary questions. Sometimes they just mix stuff up for fun. Playing testing trying, being juvenile. Creating the condition where the pressure is on to keep working but off to produce results.

What if we picked one “What if” question and all went off in pairs and arrived at 5 tasks…

Forsythe. “develop a more reactive rather than shaped body”

We have talked about making visible the mechanics of choreography or (and I would add) performing.

What do we mean by mechanics and process. What is the difference? I think on Monday there was confusion about what we were talking about. So for myself here is a brainstormed definition:

Mechanics is HOW something works. The nuts and bolts. So sometimes by naming the task or taking the task apart we can understand how it works. It helps me to think of cars. We can deconstruct them, take them apart and reconstruct, put them back together the same or differently or re-present it with a different emphasis. We can transform the task. Or experiment with it by applying the “what if “question…tinkering or tuning. In that sense it can become playful, more intuitive? What if we add more air to the carburettor mixture? Lets do it and see.

In our garage, the lab, we also allow the opportunity for monitoring and measuring, for observation. Working under controlled conditions, in a clinical way. This recording is subjective: verbal, written, and using video and Mini Disc. This is about observing. Finding ways of capturing this observation.

The subjective responses or observation is helping us to notice how we observe, the language we employ the system we employ. We are able to compare: “Is what is clear to me clear to you?” Are there other ways of observing. What do you look for?

BY looking at how something works we the cars, the performers learn to operate with clearer definition about the tasks we are undertaking. So we can firm up the steering or adjust the throttle response or see what is needed.

Sometimes racing car technology is reinterpreted for other applications. With us it’s all a bit DIY we use the tools we have. Do we know what they are? Do we even know about the skills within the team?

Process is the WAY we do something. A process. Is a process a method? A sequence of choices ? A way of doing?

To process. To filter or organise information? To take information and represent it.

We have been looking at the mechanics of the process. HOW we engage in creating. Where the responsibility lies. How we can reach a place where each is working to his or her maximum potential. Making the process visible so we can see what we are doing and adjust it to create the conditions where creativity will flourish.

How can we help each other? How can you help me? How can I help you? Can we articulate our problems. I think Charlotte did in the first week. What are other peoples?

Identifying what the obstacles are to success. Of course these are variables and are constantly shifting. What is an obstacle now might be exactly what is required tomorrow…

DAY SIX

By Charlotte Vincent

Leah - You judge the apple by the apple not the wrapping paper.
Don’t judge a book by its cover.

MORNING DISCUSSION
Responsibility different from direction.
Chairing the beginning session – share the responsibility for this?
Charlotte set up task in the morning – an example of the private ‘you’ entering the space without consent or understanding of the group – a better way might be to ask the group first if any one else has any ideas then suggest yours.

Task One – 1

CV TO DESCRIBE TASK HERE

AFTER COFFEE
Could we reflect on what your understanding of the task was?
RK- Go to a book open a page see where it takes you
PK- Connect it if its possible to what happened last week
VF- Letting things happen – choosing what interests you
RBT - About filtering you – looking for the connections – scanning
AC - Link it to what you said yesterday – gave it a name – the quality and insight of observational synopsis, objectively speaking
I didn’t really know in the beginning – I recognised the title of the

Task Two – reflecting on task one
What drew you to the first book you were drawn to?
How did you approach the book?
Did the way you approached the book differ to the way you approach dancing?
How did you document your interest in the book? What choices did you make in the documentation of the work?
Share your PAGE ONE thoughts with the group for five minutes without interruption.
Group writes responses or questions
Group opportunity to ask question
Pairs – and try to formulate a task around the question.

JANUSZ – track 4 mini disc
Taking your own time –
Sometimes hard not to rush thing
Feel your way forward
Allow stillness \Not to do much and think that this is ok
Failure at work and what to do to recover form it
Let go of aspirations and judgements and pay more attention to what is coming out of tasks
When we feel that we have achieved little – it turns out that there is more to thing than we thought
Not to judge
Peter Brook Quote from Day one

THE ADVENTIURE OF A NEAR SIGHTED MAN - Italo Calvino

What makes you look at things
How does an object or a person change your perception of looking at things.

Q1 – Title drew me in – The widening Field – Journeys into the Bodies and The imagination. Will I find similar things in the other books I have chosen?
What will this process be like Emotions in theatre?

Q2- I opened it on a random page – Taking Your own Time – found a chapter about Getting Stuck. Peter Brook – about Directors. Didn’t want to continue thinking about theatre – so ended up reading a story about a guy who is near sighted – he’s a rich business man living in a place without friends – how he sees things with the glasses and without he glasses. He describes the contours of shapes and people. He goes to the city where he went to school and sees a girl who he recognises – possibly the girl he left the city for. Seeing things and how much we wan to see things.

Q3 – With an open mind. Not knowing what could come out of it – what words can I see to relate to dance

Q4- I wanted to find thoughts visions and thoughts which I knew before and find something new from it even though I have heard it before.


RACHEAL – track 5 on mini-disk
So I just picked up a book and I opened it – I know its here somewhere because it always is. you are typing away but I’d like
STALKER by TARKOVSKI. I don’t know if `I have what it takes to make an overall comment. I am looking at a stage performance where you can what whatever you like … the function of the first movement in his composition is to make the audience impatient. The TV screen
Slow thought by nature
Slow thought by practice
Slow thought by force of will – meaning courage
If we succeed nothing is happening
The experience deserves
To look twice and again and again - page 81 – 6.3 MicroLectures Matthew Goulish

Do you really imagine you know everything about life.
How to work and not how to criticise the - an exchange of energy. No one is distracting you. Peacefulness. Page 79 micro lectures

Transformation of self to more self – Wooster Group – looking for truth in the real is fatal – the stand in is the more thing. The more self.


Number 39 A5 shape – I didn’t know the book I opened it and kept reading.

SCOTT- Notion of artefact less interest in - practice of being in someone’s presence – value not just the artefact but the translation of it. I’m very happy to have your reflections.

ALEX
Similarities in technique of staying out of the self. Spacial decision where to sit. Excerpt – can you read small bits – take the I out of the book – I read the covers and publishers of the books to see what comes out of these random.
He writes freely but with immense understanding
The second one says – written with warmth and intelligence and full of helpful tips
This book is full of
It is a book of our time.
This handbook is part of the process. This book describes sources and strategies for working between various sources of expression
An unforgettable book
This book takes us on a visual journey

CV – this dance ……?Formal task around it?

We think by feeling – what is there to know?
Its location
Its availability
Its quote from last night
With confidence
I realise I was putting a lot of I into it

DA did you write the entire quotes

Can we remove the I form advertisement / description of the dance ?
The presentation I full of I – the contradictions

The I in the process
WH commented that the way you write offer clues to your natural tendencies – what do you notice first? How do you use language?
What we may be interested in is making explicit the choice-making in the choreographic process.


I made a decision to remove the I – more neutral - but perhaps that isn’t the case – the I was in fact more present. In the setting of your own task. The choice is visible in the presentation. There are many I’s – that’s the conclusion?
What is our easy I / the more I / the original I is what ?
Individual I is a positive force- if you are watching / listening the eye in the environment can it have some space to hear someone else?

The I in relation to someone else.
Composer and choreographer as outsider.