They often come from what I have encountered during the week, particularly in dancing. Perhaps in improvising dance, choosing what aspect of an idea or a score to exemplify is not as clear as thinking and deciding and then acting. A: Each person goes on an individual walk outside for 15 minutes, thinking about the concept of border and how this idea intersects with daily life and their immediate environment. What are the lines of division that exists around us? Action words: flop, bounce, wiggle, flick, swing, fall, dip, slide, surge, tap, fling, crawl, tip. Once I start dancing, however, I invariably allow that thinking to either fall away or into the background and instead see how dancing with that score might bring up its ‘meaning’ on that day. This insight existed because I was a participant in the project. One dancer asked me whether, since I always decide upon the scores and how I group them together before the practice session, I had certain expectations as to how the dancers would understand and use those scores and also whether I was open to more information arising as I participated in the practice, both from within my own dancing and also as it was suggested by members of the group. The site at which the ‘creation’ is taking place, rather than in the instance of the single author conceiving the score, occurs as the dancers dance with the score. This was something that helped identify what I wanted to focus on and what spanned each element (many are interchangeable). have they noticed you standing here yet? Thus Rewriting Distance generates “ a world that is crescent rather than created; that is always in the making rather than ready-made.” (Creativity and Cultural Improvisation, Hallam & Ingold 2007, pp. Some practitioners refer to ‘open’ or ‘closed’ scores. Soon after working with Warby, I travelled to New York and Europe. Authentic Movement teaches one how to tolerate not knowing, to trust and to remain present in the potential chaos of the creative process and not prematurely impose resolution before the excavation of ideas and imagery find their own completion. Techniques. Often these instructions are nonsensical and apparently impossible to execute, such as ‘take six steps into the light without taking a step’ (in Dempster 2007/08, p. 77). 6, 7, and 8: To the right going downwards, maintaining the level or going upwards. I share the scores with the group at the beginning of a session, before our solo warm-up. Where does public and private space begin and end? By labelling them as scores, I aim to have a consistency in the way that I perceive what they might be and in doing so begin to understand how they might be significant to the way we practise. In our practising, we have talked about scores being generative of movement and also ways of noticing. ), the noticing, List B: How or Where? As I offer a new set of scores to the group I do also try to convey why I grouped certain words together, such as the ‘framing’ words. © Copyright 2021 Australian Dance Council-Ausdance Inc. Some have left the project, others have joined, but the core of the group has been consistent. Exemplification of the scores is, in some instances a good way to describe what takes place, even if that is not necessarily our intention in dancing with scores. I could be attentive to my mass and gravity while dancing on numerous occasions and perceive it differently, slightly or significantly, every time. A painting is often described as representing its subject, regardless of how much it actually resembles it. What they all have in common is that they are related to physical, kinesthetic or movement ideas. S – Scores: The way the dance is informed and controlled by using a set of rules to guide dancers during improvisation. In the classroom we have experimented with adapting improvisation games from theater and dance … In Holmes’ workshop, I was first introduced to Steve Paxton’s small dance (c 1972). The witness can join the performer at any point they choose, and the performer can leave the space at any point they choose. This article discusses participation in a group dance improvisation practice over time. The audience person moves into the witness chair, when the witness enters the performance space and the event unravels in this manner; as each participant moves through the various roles/time frames of performer, witness and audience. A score is not a map for what to do, nor can it authoritatively define a dance or a work from one instance of it to the next, in the way Goodman describes. For the past 25 years, Olivia has worked as a performer, maker and lecturer of dance. Yvonne Meier’s suggestion of letting the score work the dance describes the constant possibility for the score to be part of our dancing without the obligation for it to inform it, or for the dancing to represent it. For two of the scores dancers were asked to work with sensory awareness and to use ‘here and now’ cues from the surrounding, while the two other dancers were given a multimodal image as a starting point for improvisation. A score is a map, a topography, a terrain. The moment of negotiating the impossibility of the task is witnessed by the audience. In improvising, parts of that history will arise whether it is searched for or hoped for, whether they are noticed when they arise. These principles arose from dancing and were used both to describe what might have been taking place while dancing, and to suggest possibilities relating to how one might be attentive while dancing. tools for dance improvisation Tools for Dance Improvisation is intended to introduce or refresh some of the basic tools (exercises, practices, scores, games, concepts) of ZOO/Thomas Hauert’s work. Dancers make choices within the score that they are given by using their bodies and imaginations. Each group is labeled “everything.” These groups may include several people. The pair were more beguiling in “Sidewinder Scores,” a sprawling improvisation both entertaining and long-winded, and also featuring Ms. Monson, Ray … The choice may be blurred, not consciously decided, or may be a bodily response to the perceived meaning of a score. We warm up by dancing by ourselves, usually starting on the floor and coming to standing over time with the option to go back to the floor. There are many more non-conscious actions which may take place as a result of patterning or bodily habits, still in relation to the score. My introduction to the use of scores in dance improvisation was in the studio, in the workshops and the choreographic processes of improvisation practitioners. you can stand on the bed -or walk across it, without breaking stride. everything with nothing6. It may be that there are only one or many properties of a complex idea or object that are being exemplified. The small dance as a verbal score is at once a physical instruction and an invitation to be attentive to the (dancing) body. Described by Sally Banes in Terpsichore in Sneakers as ‘a warm up done while standing […]sensing gravity and becoming aware of one’s breathing, peripheral vision and balance…‘(1987, p. 66). Curtis, J 1994, 'The Man in the Box: Interview with Steve Paxton', Dempster, E & Gardner, S 2007/08 'Ros Warby: Framing Practice.'. Watch "Back Dancing Improv… How do we use them? The fluid, controlled motion is mesmerizing to me and takes strength as well as focus. The scores, conveyed verbally, enable the sharing of a dancing practice in which ‘meaning’ can be found in the present and is ever-changing. Many artists in dance and theatre use scores in a variety of ways. (Ex: Trio, 2:00). I have experienced dance makers using their scores generate movement to suggest or define an approach to the act of performing. A Practice for Performers and Creators of All Disciplines. The form can take on many participants (one to 20) and in larger group settings there are more participants in the audience position who pass through into the performance through the threshold of the witness chair. A few weeks ago a group of long time Body Shifters had the pleasure of participating, teaching, and performing at the 10th annual Texas Dance Improvisation Festival (TDIF) hosted by Texas Women’s University. My most recent and long-standing relationship with an improvisation practitioner was with Rosalind Crisp. Development of movement material is facilitated through a variety of creative explorations including body mapping through levels, shape and dynamics schema. A dance that exemplifies ‘fast’ is both fast and refers to the nature of being fast. In order to discuss how the dancers with whom I have been dancing and I are using scores, I will first describe how we conduct our practice sessions. There is always the option to not use a score or set of scores. Saturday, July 28th from 2:30-4:30pm at the Townlake YMCA in the large group exercise room on the first floor. Representation could be described as something which stands for something else. Initially, I had assumed that scores had an easily perceivable effect on dancing, for those dancing and those observing. We call this warm-up period the solo warm-up. These examples are all of conscious perceptions or deliberate actions which may take place while dancing with a score. Noticing the Small Dance gives the mind a way to tune to the speed of reflex’ (in Curtis 1994, p. 68). The small dance is a way of perceiving and being attentive to the body: ‘feel the play of rush and pause of the small dance […] its always there‘ (Paxton 1986, p. 50). Danielle Goldman, claims that ‘systems of notation can never adequately capture the complexity of an improvised performance‘ (2010, p. 10). Fourth Round 10 minutes- change facings of 1 spot within the dance (this could mean front to … This allographic work is may be produced in two stages but seeing as it is created in its second stage, rather than being interpreted, the authors of it are not one but many. and Clear the space, Roles:    Players, Light, Video, Sound, Visual Design. If I use the example of falling, holding, reaching, riding, it is likely that falling, holding, reaching and riding will have taken place at least at some point in our dancing with that score. Scores support me. If I am able to allow myself to be comfortable with not knowing what comes next, I am able to be open to possibilities which arise. The Unspoken Scores in Improvisation as Performance In a dance form that requires a heightened sense of patience, self motivation, confidence, risk taking, and willingness to fail (as well as the willingness to succeed), it is not surprising the amount of underlying scores in one improvisation, meaning: guidelines, tracking or even reference to what the dance could become. There may be a group of dancers who have worked/performed/improvised together many times and so they deliberately leave the work open to let their familiarity with each other be the score. As Paxton suggested to the participants in his class, that perception is ‘always new but so ancient‘ (1986, p. 49). In other words, a score that is devised by the author stands for a work and allows that work to be repeatable. In the years since that project, I have been working a core group of dancers once a week. Second Round 10 minutes- vary the speed of 3 spots within the dance Third Round 10 minutes- add repetition to 2 spots within the dance (they can repeat as much or little as the choreographer chooses.) This kind of work of art can always be attributed to an originating artist. Scores, in Goodman’s terms, can’t stand for an improvised dance. Rather than guaranteeing or stabilising a work as Goodman suggests, each user of scores in dance improvisation finds her own use and meaning for them. We quite often talk about what a score might ‘mean’ in our bodies or in/with our dancing at a particular time. A painting that exemplifies ‘red’ is both red and refers to the colour red. We discuss, before going on, how the scores might be of use in the next part of the session. It's fun to make up your own- but here are a few ideas: Melody, Rhythm, Spatial Relationship, Movement Language, Contrast (time, space, dynamic), Story, Flow- continuous action/relationships, One focus, Sound Drives, Gesture, Obstacle, Object, Conversation, Kinesthetic Response, Image, One Arm, No arms, Attraction/ Repulsion, No Content, Collaboration, Chaos/Control, One Solo, Face up stage When Still, Speak When Still, Only Straight Lines, Only Curves, Secret, Family, Animal... Rewriting Distance is a long durational arts practice and exchange between Belgian dramaturg Guy Cools and choreographer/dancer Lin Snellng. Recently, I have been using lists of words that I have gathered because I see them as being part of a certain category. During the solo warm-up, we dance with the scores and begin to see how we might understand the possibilities that they offer for that day. Scores can generate movement material, or it could support us as ‘a prop, a ruse, a pretense’. Very often improvisation in dance is structured around a movement task or an idea. You can walk, in any direction, or you can stand. do they miss being younger? We notice how patterns of perception and judgment remove us from more fully being present and we come to understand that by opening our awareness beyond our interpretation and analysis, we are able to include and to experience, much more. I do, however, use my emerging understanding of how verbal scores might work for others in various practices to ask again and again what scores are in my practicing. How do they support the communication in relation to our dancing? In a very open score, giving it a number closer to one could signify: ‘Please don’t expect to be told what to do’ for Halprin (Kaplan 1995, p. 201). , and 8: to the work dance improvisation scores the performer can leave the space needs- while an! 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