proximity and time

From: Shelley Marshall <shelley.d.marshall@gmail.com>
Date: 20 November 2008 11:19:13 AM
Subject: ‘time’ . . . . something to muse about over summer

Dear <proximity> community

The March edition of <proximity> will be a special edition on the topic of ‘Time, the Present and History in Contact Improvisation’.  I (Shelley = boring old <proximity> editor) will be joined by Norbert Pape (= exciting wring in) to pull together the edition, with the help of the usual (fabulous) team. Norbert is a dancer and movement facilitator based in Frankfurt who was one of the creators of contactencyclopedia (http://contactencyclopedia.net/develop/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page – check it out if you haven’t already).

We’d love to include your writing, drawing, pictures, poetry, class plans, labbing ideas, MSN chats, interviews, . . . anything . . . on the topic in this special edition.

We have listed some questions we’re interested in as a point of departure – to get the lateral thinking juices flowing – but you can come at the topic from your own angle.

Shoot me an email if you’re interested in contributing and please send this email on to others who you think have an interest in the topic.  Contributions are due by January 20th (but we’d like to know something is on its way before then).

all the best

Shelley

PS My apologies if it isn’t summer where you are. Perhaps this is an interesting topic to muse over whilst in winter hibernation, also?

Time, the Present and History in Contact Improvisation

Some questions:

1.    What does it mean to ‘stay in the present’ in improvisation? (How does this enhance our practice? What are the philosophical and political consequences of being committed to ‘the present’?)

2.    What tense is the present in?  How expansive can the present be? (What does the present exclude? Can the present expand and bleed out to encompass the past and the future? Is it possible to experience a present which does not embody the past, and conversely, is it possible to experience the past except through the present? Is it possible to experience a present which is not in some way anticipating the next moment?)

3.    How do our personal narratives and history find their way into our bodies, our contact, our practice and performance?

4.    What happens when our sense of time, temporality, tense or of timing differs from that of our partner’s? (Can we utilise disruptions as much as we employ ‘effortless partnering’ and ‘flow’?)

5.    How does the collective history of contact improvisation find its way into our bodies, patterns and quality of movement and the contact between us? (How often do things have to be repeated in order not to be forgotten?)

6.    What place does the structured use of time have in improvisation? Do conscious repetitions, variations and time constraints have a place in CI or do they belong to instant composition?

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