Hello this is Bruce blogging in.... for the first time .... ever... ok, not so bad I guess... hmm...
I just want to say how great it felt to take the opportunity given to me to 'Make Space' and how nothing really happens when it comes to dance creation until it actually happens in the studio. Yeah got some fun ideas, yes they will help to guide my use of the space, but nothing replaces having space, nothing. So there, and that's all for now.

Ok, one more thing, I was playing with the idea of Inhibition *, which has a specific meaning in Alexander Technique which I'm exploring in my Making Space residency. I was just playing with my habitual movement, and exploring new ways of moving, trying to recognize and replace (inhibit) any habits that might be causing me problems or making things harder than they need to be.
I quickly (20 minutes or so) found my hips and focused on the hip-head relationship as well as hip-heal relationship. I suppose that was a nice way to ensure I stayed well away from any pedestrian habits and spent a lot of time with my hands on the floor and my hips just above. A nice and easy start... and I can now see that I’m going to need to take smaller steps and make smaller corrections or find a different way of getting into the movement if I want to learn about and experience ‘inhibition’ in dancing.
My best moment today in the studio was thinking about movement in a really topsey-turvey way, different to any way I'd thought about it before. I was thinking the movement I was making wasn't actually happening outside of my body at all. I wasn't filling the space around me. I was focused on my own anatomy, spaces inside, being replaced by other things inside like bone, muscle, as I move. But the movement actually existed in there, not beyond, almost as if what you see from the outside is anybody's guess, including mine. But there was a real relationship that I was building with my body, a trust that I had the best guess at what my movement was and where it was coming from and going, simply because now it exists inside me, not on the outside.
I think this is a major step for me, moving me from my fascination of dance as a social act, a communicative art form, to one of being very personal, and introspective. This is now becoming more about taking the space that is in the studio and putting some of it in my body, (hips and pelvic region would be nice) and seeing where that leads me. Who knows, this might help with ‘inhibition’ of poor habits, and make it easier to have faith in the process of movement making without having the immediate acquisition of an end or goal to be gained.
*The phrase "means-whereby"will be ... to indicate the reasoned means to the gaining of an end. These means included the inhibition of the habitual use of the mechanisms of the organism, and the conscious projection of new directions necessary to the performance of the different acts involved in a new and more satisfactory use of these mechanisms.

Any advice, comments???

Bruce

I love your description of space entering into and moving through your body and am eager to see the results of the 'anybodys guess' view from the outside. For my project I'll probably want to work more with the quality of presence in the dancers rather than movement and I suppose there could be some small connections with how you are working. This is speculation of course - everything could change once I meet the dancers.

How is it going working from the conscious and mindfull state of Alexander into improvisation? Are there shifts in types of consciousness?

So 4 days in and I find the blog page.
My initial realisation this week was the depth of connections we all have and the web of work contacts we have created over the years with our passion for moving work, both in and out of education establishments. The resonance of the past 20 years get reflected again and again each time a new research process begins.
'Exemptions from Oblivion' in collaboration with Barbara Bridger (video) and Luke Johnson., Music composed by Eric Satie.

Beginning again is a natural thing. A process which is examining the use of repetition and 'open form composition' for improvisation in performance.

Memorization, commemoration, mediation, summation, recollection, explanation.

An initial tour of the building I am working in brought up 2 other spaces that could be used for research as well as the main studio I am working in. I usually work on site based work, so to be in a studio working with a projection is a very different starting point for me.
Room 101 the room with windows a carpet and a grand piano
The Dome a round room.
both good alternative spaces.

Initial response to the material to be explored from the video documentation.
movement in relation to:-
the piano
each other
exits & entrances
walls, furniture
space.

The listening score.. how many different ways can you listen?
modes of listening
Counting numbers
Timeline for activities
Witness decision making

Open Form Composition Mary O'Donnell Fulkerson

"Open Form occurs as an entity with simultaneous levels of decision- making happening, some of these being “process based” and others being “set,” repeated exactly. Strictly speaking, Improvisation is not Open Form. It is Improvisation, meaning that what occurs is not planned in advance. Guided Improvisation with direction and specific values to communicate is still guided improvisation, and does not (even hypothetically) allow for simultaneity of Set Form and Open Form. Within a solo, it is possible to set up Open Form only if there are at least two aspects of the work where something is “planned” and something is “unplanned” at the same time."

Part of the research quoted from Mary O'Donnell's new book on choreographic processes.

notes from an investigation to Saties music score Vexations.

Short theme Bass whose 4 presentations are alternatively heard unaccompanied and played with chords above.

enharmonic equivalents..

Sheer endless progression of complex chords which harmonically doesn't exactly lead anywhere..

an exercise in non-resolving tritones.. called Devils in music

Motif is subdivided in parts of 13 beats
(from Wikipedia)

my thoughts.

body still mind racing

deep listening

gestures-themes-motifs

stanza-repeated phrase- length/time

translation of gesture.

liminal space, liminal movement, textures, atmospheres.

Thursday research including new graduates from Coventry
Kerry Allsop
Hannah Litherland

Watched the video to see initial movement material to be researched in the space and to hear the music.
I decided to use the 'Common Action' score to deepen the research. The Common Action score was devised by Israeli dancer Dana Laiser, which took everyday gestures/actions and placed then in a list which was to be moved through and exactly repeated in the same order over a period of time.
This seemed a good starting point as mainly pedestrian gestures were seen and the use of repetition is one of the basic elements of this research

we constructed a list first of
Lying
Standing
Sitting
Hugging
Walking
Leaning

we used the 20 minute frame of the video to work alongside, so the music and gestures became a liminal part of the score.
We did this twice to familiarise ourselves with the material.

I set a score for a 10 minute solo shadowed by a partner. The movement vocabulary being made form gestures you had remembered from the video or qualities that related to it.
again this came under a 20 minute frame, as a change over of roles for the second 20 minutes completed the length of the video.
As we were getting very static with the nature of the material I then suggested another 10 minute solo, but this time only relating to the music with support from your partner. So this time you could physically dialogue with your partner and use their support in a slightly different way than being shadowed.
This brought up a slightly more dynamic movement material, but also identified the places of emotion.

We then went back to the Common Action score and devised a different order
Sitting
Walking
Hugging
Lying
Standing
Leaning

This created a different score with a lot of the action happening close by one another if you had found another person to hug. It identified that walking was the only action that actually got you through the space, so tried to identify if there where anymore movement actions we could include. We realized that crawling and rolling were also two other actions that could be explored.
so we constructed a new score of

Standing
Rolling
Hugging
Sitting
Walking
Lying

After initial difficulties this score became one of the easier to complete, but took us more into ourselves and the space as we did not have to stay in such close proximity to each other.
This for me also allowed more space for a personal emotional reaction as there was actually more space. At times in earlier scores there was a sense of emotion, as we where physically more in relationship to each other and could catch a fleeting narrative that could feed our imaginations from a different place. Whereas for me, the last score really took me into the material of the actual video and a sense of 'The Last Dance'.

to be continued

Reading this post is like looking through maps of an unknown land. I am getting a sense of the relationship of major landmarks to each other and am very eager to see the actual place. I imagine that whatever I imagine could be very different in reality.

Why is it called 'the last dance'?

Joined Caroline in the studio today and we worked with a new version of the film score which allows for an understanding of continuation necessary in this 20 minute piece which is reflecting on a longer durational performance. Caroline also showed me the common action score work which she had been working on. Of particular interest - the moments of deep listening and other ways of deepening the relationship between the score and the movement. Tonight we will be working on another score which may overlay the film version. For this we will be looking at the original written version of the score with a view to producing a graphic score for spatial orientation. Barbara Bridger

Luke joined us in the studio today and we worked versions of the common action score, changing the sequence of actions each time.
We also worked with timing the sequence to fit one repetition. This required close listening - difficult as we do not have amplification of the sound. A showing of work in progress to students at 4.00 by which time we were relatively exhausted, but were invigorated by their feedback which was useful. Overall some sense that the piece needs more layers, more dynamic and though we are working to the repetitions we do need to look at the structure. Barbara

This is Luke. I have been in Coventry about 24 hours and this was my first day in the studio. It was very productive. We ran various combinations of pedestrian movements with two or three people in the space. We also tried running it with me being stationary and Caroline moving which is the way we are tending at the moment to go. This is a good experience for me. I have never worked with Barbara before and it turns out I like working with her a lot, and it is great having studio space with Caroline for the first time in our long collaboration.

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