At the end of the the second work shop Brooke talked about time and temporality.We were shown the last few minutes of the film 'Stalker' directed by Andrei Tarkovsky to provoke our thoughts about how we work with action in and through time. Brooke also questioned the common framing of contemporary dance performance as an hour approx. show where audiences view only the end product of an often lengthy creative development period. She questioned how could the audience receive more insight into choreographic process? Such provocations have lead me to start thinking about time, in particular non-western and non-human centric perspectives of time. For instance, what is a plant's perspective on time and how can this inform choreography and performance?
Workshop three was held on the 10th May 2012:
"Shake Shake Shake"
Brooke asked us to shake for 15 minutes. By shake I mean shake our entire bodies in different ways, on different levels, in different parts of the room, while standing still or while moving. Brooke also gave us permission to use our voice while shaking. I allowed a little of my voice to come out, although I felt myself feeling rather self-concious. I don't want to be bothered by what the rest of group is doing but I did find it difficult to let my voice out when a large portion of the group remained non-verbal. Voice and movement is something I would like to explore more. Sometimes I feel like my throat constricts similar to when I'm intimate (too much information?), feeling anxious or sharing something deeply personal.
After shaking for 15 minutes the entire group came together in an embrace.
For a more detailed description of the following exercises please refer to my post titled Stamp!
"This is an Action"
We began this exercise differently than previous workshops - we started in a circle. Brooke stated we could enter in duets (although could be more or less). She called out provocations through words and instructions and invited participants to do the same. Provocations could be anything from the colour 'blue' to the instruction of 'compliment'. Occasionally when only one person was in circle in action Brooke would say, "This is your dance, this is your gift to us" and they would explore their dance in solo for a few minutes.
Near the end of this exercise Brooke was pushing us to "break" the space. I felt like she was challenging us to move away from safe modes of moving I perceived we had fallen into.
At the end Brooke asked as to take notice whether we tended to participate or observe. She emphasised that there is no right or wrong but rather an observation. I observed that I tended to observe more but still participate often. I never once called out a word or instruction.
I felt shy today. Observing all of the young, freshly trained and confident dancers. I felt like I had passed my expiry date and I'm only 33 years old! Later talking to Grace, a writer and performer (maybe in her 40s) who continues to explore ideas and formulate projects, I was reminded about my own philosophy and love moving with people of all demographics. Especially those who have not gone down the 'traditional' dance training path.
"Directing"
In groups of 4/5 we discussed "what it is to make". Brooke gave us one guideline, "This is not a therapy session". We then wrote a list of words that we felt came out of our discussion. Each group gave their list of words to another group (the directors) to call out as they moved and responded to the words. The directors could call a word out to the whole group or some of the group or an individual. They could also combine words that were on the list. The groups that were not 'performing' or 'directing' at the time sat and watched.
The participates appeared very relaxed; everyone seemed to open up, have fun and play with this exercise. Participates allowed themselves to be 'human' (as opposed to 'dancers'), including me!
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