What I’m Doing Now (KL)
In doing my Masters degree at University of Auckland I’m currently harvesting written and digital data in preparation for my research. Up until now almost all of my work has been studio based ie: actually practicing improvisational dance and choreography with plenty of integrated reflective and reflexive work in the context of working in the profession. The result so far is a fairly extensive body of performance and teaching experience with little in the way of writing output. This is about to change.
Before I go on I want to note that this blog is the result of ongoing conversations between myself and Simon Ellis. In my personal experience its in conversations like these that accurate and rich reflexivity about improvisational, choreographic and performative practices actually emerges. I think I’ll qualify that statement as this blog develops.
In the meantime as I said earlier I am data harvesting. This is part of the hoop jumping exercise that is the academic process. So I’m looking into theoretical and philosophical frameworks in order to qualify what it is that I already know and understand from practice. It seems that justifying contemporary dance in contexts such as social, academic, artistic, financial etc is so deeply intrinsic in the practice of dance that it should be taught as a technique class at degree level.
Rather than list whose writings I’ve been looking into I will instead pluck out names and titles as the blog unfurls and hopefully this will be of benefit to whoever is tuning into this little nook of the net. One name I’ll throw out right now though is Peter Ralston. A martial artist and teacher of considerable ability, his practice of Cheng Hsin has had a very deep impact on my work in improvisation. Essentially an ontological enquiry, Cheng Hsin rigorously examines (amongst other things) perception and interaction at an experiential level. This work is ostensibly a practice of consciousness that is dynamic whilst simultaneously being internal and external. What does that mean? Well that’s a book or two, but what it has resulted in is an ever increasing degree of accuracy of perception and skill and a greater degree of presence in my work. It has also led to practices in improvisation that I can apply to absolutely any activity and context I am engaged with.