DAY FIVE

By Charlotte Vincent
MORNING SESSION

Ellie and Darren are currently taking Ballroom Dancing classed together in London. Ellie led a Tango session with the group.

CV TASK – Could we try Jem ‘live writing’ the dance as we did yesterday on paper with a microphone and someone tango improvising? We did this. Then WH chose to sit in space with the mic at the back wall and approached same exercise from different angle. Watching the clock she logged RK’s action set against a spoken time code/frame/grid – something like

11 O clock and 30 seconds Rachel’s toes are spreading on the floor
11 O clock and 35 seconds her toes raised from the floor
11 O clock and 40 seconds she’s still dancing
11 O clock and 50 seconds she’s questioning what the purpose of the dance is
11.01 She’s still swivelling
11.01 and 30 seconds panic is setting in
11.02 She’s continuing the dance. Her breath is rising and she’s feeling under pressure
11.02 and 40 seconds Disorientation is starting to happen
11.03 Her blood is rising and a sense of disgarding movement is setting in
11.03 and 20 seconds her synapses are sparking, her blood is pulsing and her cartilage has softened
11.04 Her brain is out of control of her actions
11.04 and 30 seconds Questions of space
Questions of Location
Questions of speed
Questions of order
Questions of intensity
Questions of doubt
11.05 A certain amount of comfort has been achieved
11.06 Rehearsal


The ‘accurate’ timekeeping of WH as RK dances stretched the time of the dance – drew attention to the passing of time.

WH - This LOGGING process launches the dance into fiction. It maintains an interest in the thing you are watching. In performance the sense of time is determined by the interest of the dancers in what they are doing.

CV - In what you just did the dance was set against a verbal time grid and gave us a different sense of the time and timing of RK’s dance – when the two time frames and two languages physical and verbal) sit in the same space, it alters completely how and what you read in the space. Nothing is taken for granted. The different insights WH gave – shifting from bodily function, to internal bodily goings on, to anatomical observations, to special observations is what made me work harder watching the dance.
RK – Yes and I stuck with the slow slow quick quick slow of the tango.

WH TASK–Try same again with Val and DA with PK looping DA voice as he ‘writes the dance’. CV nearly offered an instruction but the task was left a little more open. This improv was less clear as DA’s logging was less formal and Val seemed unsure how to take the space. ‘I was waiting for something organic to happen but it didn’t’. PK found it hard to catch the right ‘moments’ with the loop station as she is used to operating the station whist speaking/playing not for someone else.

WH - If the logging is too casual there isn’t the formality for the dance to sit against and so the dance becomes fuzzy and less practical somehow.


AFTERNOON SESSION

VF TASK – Val introduced Meisner Technique which is used in actor training and is based on neutral observation, repetition, mirroring and echoing processes. It is designed to take the you out of what you see and find a way to ‘be’ wholly with the person you share the space with.
Eg – two people in a space opposite each other
A - Your eyes are beady
B – My eyes are beady – repeated until a new observation is brought into the exchange.
The same person cannot say two things in a row- eg: My eyes are beady. My head is drooping. The same person cannot add a second observation into the same sentence as the initial observation – eg My eyes are beady. Your chin is falling.

One could however say something like –
A- My eyes are beady
B- Your eyes are beady
A -Your chin is falling
B - My chin is falling

We watched pairs playing this exchange out over 5 minutes each pair

Development of TASK 1- Move around in space with the conversation
Development of TASK 2 - Get the tone of how you are feeling into the exchange
Development of TASK 3- Force the emotion of the exchange

Try to stay with the other person at all times. TRY TO STAY DETACHED. REACT TO WHAT IS IN THE SPACE NOT WHAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO HAPPEN IN THE SPACE.

Question – how do you apply yourself to a task? How can you stay with a task? Is the task clear enough?

THOUGHT SUMMARY OF WEEK ONE
I SEEM INTERESTED IN MAKING WORK IN THE FUTURE THAT LAYS BARE THE PROCESS BEHIND THE DANCE THAT WE ARE ENGAGED WITH

EMOTION AS CATHARSIS SEEMS OLD FASHIONED AND HAS A DIFFERENT PLACE NOW IN MY PRACTICE.

FORM AND THE INVESTIGATION OF / LEANING INTO FORM IS KEY

THIS RESEARCH PROCESS AIMS TO MOVE TOWARDS THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF TASKS TO FIND OUT ABOUT CHOREOGRAPHIC PROCESS

OUR WORK IN THIS RESEARCH PERIOD IS TO KEEP ASKING – WHAT IS THE QUESTION WE ARE ASKING AND WHAT IS THE TASK WE COULD CONSTRUCT AROUND THE QUESTION TO HELP TO ANSWER IT?

DIFFICULT FOR CV TO STOP LEADING BUT OUR AIM IS TO SHARE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THIS INVESTIGATION OF PROCESS

TRY NOT TO JUDGE THE RESULT OF THESE EXPERIMENTS IN PRODUCT TERMS – SOME MAY MOVE US CLOSER TO ASKING INTERESTING QUESTIONS, SOME TASKS MAY NOT.

TRY TO RESIST ACCUMULATION
AS A WITNESS / DIRECTOR, TRY NOT TO IMPOSE WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE INTO WHAT IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING IN A SPACE

TRY TO REMAIN PATIENT WITH A PROCESS, NOT IMPATIENT AND BULLISH.