I’m in Wellington currently working on a solo for Claire Lissaman from Footnote Dance Company. The solo is a response to the work of Phil Dadson – composer, musician, instrument maker, multi-media artist and general all round good guy. I originally intended with reworking some of Phil’s sound pieces (with his blessing) but my computer has died completely. So now the work is being constructed without sound…music TBC.

The solo itself is a structured composition that makes use of choreographed phrases (mostly made by me but some of the material has been made by Claire) and improvisational operations. With Claire I’m working on crafting the place where the phrases meet the improvisational sections. To do this I’m favouring a fluid consistency of dynamics and durational tendencies through both the phrases and the stuff that Claire will author in real time.

I’m working this way for two main reasons. One being that Phil’s work in performance occupies a spectrum of compositional mores from the live open format improvisation to digitally recorded materials. Secondly I’m thumbing my nose at my past tendencies to hold choreography and improvisation apart, problematizing the relationship and sometimes even holding the ‘improv’ banner up as a kind of semi political thing for my work to come from.

In making the solo with and for Claire I’m aware of the obvious..it’s something WE are doing. Duet/solo solo.

Absolutely nothing to do with improvisation….

If you can’t see this, then you can download an mp4 version (quicktime) at:
http://slightly.net/improv/images/Jackie.mp4

This is some writing from Michael Schumaker (direct from an email – with his permission):

I found your blog entry about Stillness and Absence interesting. I have also encountered a ‘default state’ in my my presence when processing new information. This is actually what lead me to a more rigorous study and understanding of our senses and sensory perception. In general, I’ve found that we dancers acquire what I call a ‘thinking face’ when moving and rationalizing our sensory input. You probably know that face. I’m not sure, but I think it is akin to the state which you describe as the ‘default movements’ that we fall back on when ‘new listening’ occurs. I sometimes refer to that movement as ‘the vamp’. As in music, we sometimes revert to a somewhat simple, repetitive sequence of movements while our brain is processing other information, new and old. The only place where I might differ from you is when you mention that this state occurs when you are involved with ‘new listening’. I actually think it occurs, not when we are listening with all of our senses, but rather when we are processing information in a rational way. In my workshops, I’ve been playing with exercises that focus on separating the left and right brain activities while moving and I’ve found that the ‘thinking face’ appears most often when we are analyzing and rationalizing our sensory input, rather than allowing ourselves to simply experience that information. I believe this is what you are describing in the following passage.

‘To treat the ’settling’ as an opportunity to be fully still. To fill the stillness with purpose, and not conflate it with what was about to happen (or what the possibilties were). It was a chance to pull back from the future, to dance in stillness with my internal gaze, whilst not ‘loading’ it with importance or meaningfulness.”

Or?

Of course, the real challenge comes when we want to create something more complex than a through composed composition. In other words, when we chose to analyze the information that we are experiencing to bring out its deeper meanings, associations, and patterns, we need to balance the right/left brain activity. Like everything demanding, this take a lot of practice. But I’ve found that it is a possible and quite enjoyable journey when it begins to flow. I have less fear of dancing in stillness.

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about contemplative traditions as a means of articulating various understandings of presence. This morning I was chatting to Gabrielle Eastwood about this. She said:

The importance of listening is so critical to many things. “Listen” is the opening word of the Rule of St Benedict.  It is about listening with the ear of the heart.

Clearly the context is quite different, but the language seems so appropriate …

I was working on a very simple thing whilst dancing this morning.

For some time I’ve been noticing when improvisers are ‘thinking’, or ‘listening’ to new threads in their attention. It is as if they (I) have a tendency to occupy a certain posture (or range of postures), or actions that feel like they are movements to fall back on (or default to) when ‘new listening’ is occurring.

In these stillnesses (even though for the most part there were no stillnesses occurring), I wondered how I might increase my consciousness of the improvisation. To treat the ‘settling’ as an opportunity to be fully still. To fill the stillness with purpose, and not conflate it with what was about to happen (or what the possibilties were). It was a chance to pull back from the future, to dance in stillness with my internal gaze, whilst not ‘loading’ it with importance or meaningfulness.

It seemed to soften my desire for newness whilst propelling me there.

Ugh.

This is not simple.

Nor is it easy to write about.

Need help.

Must not publish …

Every now and again I come across a little piece of writing that adds clarity to navigating the endlessness of the improvisation spectrum.

The challenge for each event is to find the enabling constraints and techniques of relation that tailor the event to whats singular about that piece coming together.

Brian Massumi

What I like about this text is that it seems to match with my experience. The beginning of an improvisational performance is always the hardest for me, I’m better at endings.  At the outset I am self conscious in part because of feeling a responsibility to the challenge stated by Massumi. I don’t agree with the idea of a singularity however. But finding the actions commensurate with the event, clearly attending to the limitations or constraints at hand tends to bring up the ‘right’ responses at the right times.

Simon say something learned and interesting please