Senses on Site

The work has become more and more about the momentary reaction when the space becomes a place for the performers, the passersby and the spectators. “Calling spectators attention to the neglected minutiae of everyday” 
(Siegel, 2007: 2)

For the performers, we have worked with different places in London to see how their bodies change and react to the environment which normally they would ignore; these motifs they each created have been used in the choreography within the work.

These motifs gave an insight into how each individual relates to sights, listens and experiences in very differing ways. From Primrose Hill, to the Tate, to Liverpool Street, I have notice each of my dancers’ relationship to the city.

Working with the way we see:

Alice creates motifs that are inspired by the distance landscape; she sees the whole and the objects that are far away. Her motifs have been inspired by this as she is very open and vast with her movement. This is Alices motif of the bridge in the distance, she described how she wanted to feel the vast and strong nature of the construction:

Sarah looks at the layers of the sights, she picks up on shapes and how they fit together and on top of each other. Her movement leads into motifs that abstract and quite angular. Below is Sarah amidst a transitionary motif which explores the view of 3 bridges stacked up in her view: 

Michelle, who recently had to leave the process due to study commitments, was very individual with the way she worked as well. Her movement was directed towards objects and sights that were immediately in front of her, this meant that she created positions that were am personification of the object. As you can see in this picture below, Michelle was attempting to become the life ring:

Chloe, who is a new addition to the process, created motifs that were rather inquisitive; she looked for sights that were hidden or not something you would usually glance upon. This changed her whole body as a response to the motifs.

As I made motifs, I seemed to go for sights that moved, for example the birds, the trees, which influenced my movement with flowlier, circular based motifs.

This was also apparent when we moved in response to the aural sense: Sarah moved to the rhythms of the city, I found myself directing my movement towards the origin of the sound, Alice created a duet with the sounds and Chloe again heard sounds that were not as noticeable.

I have also noticed how the senses go beyond just the five we immediately think of (sight, aural, tactile, aromas-taste&smell), but rather it can relate to temperature, or pressure. As all rehearsals are on site, I have been able to see the change in movement when it is cold and dark to when it is bright and sunny. The movement is far more explorative and open from all the dancers when the weather is warm, which in turn will affect the spectators and passersbys reactions...

This immediately affected my work, because if 5 people experience differently, I began to think about the passersby and spectators, and how they are likely to see in individual ways too. My work is supposed to invite people to stop and realise or just experience how this space appears to them, in order to make it a place for them – however this would be difficult if I presented the space through MY response to it.

Therefore, I wanted to make sure that the work was accessible and experimented through different avenues of movement. I decided to incorporate the motifs that the dancers and I have created around London into the work, because not only does it respond to the senses in different ways, it also relates to the idea of the transformation of a space to a place. The motifs have seen an alteration in the way my dancers move, they have began to move through an organic response to the environment rather than through their skill set within dance. Through doing so, they have created individual relationships to that space, thus turning it into their place.

The idea an authentic movement resonates with my work, as it asks of the individual to relate to the sight through their unconscious desires, instead of socially constructed ways of seeing. So, for example, we walk to work using our bodies along the frontal plane, via routes that are directed to us, allowing our experiences to be limited. 

Now, authentic movement allows us to create an individual connection to that space; Pallaro discusses how, through experimentation with movement, one can create a dynamic relationship to an object or space in my instance, creating a “sense of congruence with self and other” (Pallaro, 155). Therefore, this authentic response to movement can create an individual relationship to the environment for the dancers.

Now, for the passersby and audience, the movement is going to be placed in different areas around the site, asking them to step out of their everyday patterns of movement to have individual choice over how they want to relate to it.

Do they want to stand close to the movement, do they want to step back and see the work within the backdrop of the city?

Through improvisation, will the spectators, relate, and in doing so, move towards the movement that connects to the way they relate to things? E.g if a dancer is improvising around something directly in front of them, will someone who sees similarly move towards this dancer?

Bibliography

Siegel, M. B (2007) Dancing on the Outside. The Hudson Review, [online] LX (1) Available at: http://www.hudsonreview.com/siegelSp07.pdf [Last Accessed: 01-05-11]
Pallaro, P (2007) Authentic Movement, Volume 2: Moving the Body, Moving the Self, Being Moved: A Collection of Essays. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Site in the Site Work...

I have been lured in by different books presenting ‘site-specific’ in the title, leading me onto ‘site-specific’ artists, such as Lucinda childs, Meredith monk, Allan Kaprow and Trisha brown. Who’s work have really inspired me to look at framing in the city and the merging between life and art...

Trisha Brown’s aptly named performances Walking on the Wall (1971) and Roof Piece (1971) inspired me to relate to everyday objects in a city space in unique ways. Through working with distance the piece really made me look at the space in a new way, and I was only able to watch this online... therefore, it got me thinking about what it must be like in person. This made me become a lot more inquisitive and explorative when I visited the space for performance – looking for areas/objects to be transformed.

However, this site-specific works I have been resonating got interrupted by Robert Irwin’s distinctions between different site based art, of which ‘site-specific’ seems to have become the fashionable term for all site based approaches.

Irwin describes Site Specific as “conceived with the site in mind”*; however work done this way isn’t necessarily focused on the context or understanding of the site.

Now, often performances are Site Adjusted – this is works which are inspired by the site, but created in the studio and then taken back to the site.

I feel my work lays more under the title of Site Conditioned/Determined, which Irwin describes as work which "draws all cues from its surrounding”*; therefore the work needs careful consideration and understanding of the site. As my piece is created and performed on the site, I will now refer to my work under this title.


*Irwin, R (1985) Being and Circumstance: Notes Toward a Confidential Art. Lapis Press

Improvisation vs Choreography

The presentation of my work became a question mark...?...

I was thinking of different parts to base the choreography on, and then I questioned why I would use choreography? My work is based on being responsive to the environment in that moment, and choreography would not only be MY representation of the environment, it would restrict a connection to the surroundings for my dancers.

As discussed previously in “Senses on Site”, I become aware of how each dancer has an individual relationship to their senses, but how could I present this through my own choreography - as it would be stuck in my own relationship to the surrounding?

On the other hand, the motifs that my dancers have created around London and on the present site, have been a trace of that space transforming into a place.

This concept of trace has been something that I keep returning back to. Derrida discusses how each present moment is a trace of the past and the future, a kind of continuing stand of changes. For us, not only have we rehearsed at different times of day we have done so in differing weathers, really pushing our motif development.

Also, during a psychogeographic workshop with Laura Oldfield Ford (http://lauraoldfieldford.blogspot.co.uk/) around London, she discussed how each area is embedded with traces of what was. Therefore, my work is a trace of what was the progression of their relationship to that space, and other spaces around London...

These motifs became essential to the work, as I was edging towards the idea of spaces into places more and more. However, I also need the piece to be very open to interpretation and adjustment by the dancers, because I can’t expect them to wake up the passersby and spectators if they are just performing movement... However, this piece of choreography will be embedded in their bodies and allow them to stop/adapt moments on the spot, allowing the spectators/passerby to see them being an individual within a collective – which is what I am inviting watchers to do!

As I played with flocking and improvisations in my workshops, I could see stunning moments of perceptual awareness, where the dancers were engaged with each other and the surroundings as they experimented with working close together and far away in fast moment to moment decisions. This is discussed by Di Benedetto in relation to contact improvisation; how proximities can push the dancers relationship to their senses: “The form depends on communication between dancers through the sense of tough and weight. Dancers use sight peripherally, not in eye contact” (Di Benedetto, 2010: 163). In turn, this really invited me as a watcher, and hopefully the spectators, to want to connect with the dancers but also what they were responding to. ..

For me, I think the idea of an improvised piece was unpredictable and unstable, which scared me, however, as I saw how organic and responsive their movement was, I started to realise that unstable was what I needed to wake people up!

The motif development has been an improvised way of devising choreography, which has been successful so far, therefore, I will be working with creating a score that allows individuality, and reconstructs a view of the city, by the tools provided by dance: levels, pause, speed, dynamic…

Di Benedetto, S (2010) The Provocation of the Senses in Contemporary Theatre. Abingdon: Routledge

Waking up my dancers on Primrose Hill

So my first process up to the festival is waking up my dancers.

I can’t expect my spectators to be engaged with the surroundings if my dancers aren't.

They have all taken part in workshops which involve connecting with the senses and creating relationships to spaces through tuning scores exercises. However, due to practicality a lot of this has been done in the studio.

However, this beautiful Friday evening was the perfect time to take them out and see the beauty of the city.

I want my dancers to create their own vocabulary to the city through their senses. So my plan is to take them to different places around the city and carry out similar exercises so I can understand how they individually connect to their senses and the sensoral offerings of the city. I think it is important for them to be part of my choreographic vocabulary because the piece should not be my representation of the city, but a group of individual relationships. Especially as my piece invites the individual to engage with their OWN London.

I took two of my dancers to Primrose Hill.

We started off with a walk; I sent them off individually as I wanted them to think about how they related to this space through their senses.

One dancer related mainly to the sights, which isn’t uncommon because, the city is controlled through the visual via advertising, directions, brands...

My other dancer connected to the smells, she explained that because the trees were blossoming it was a smell that stood out to her, as a contrast to ordinary city smells. 

We followed this with a tuning scores exercise, as I wanted them to see the little within the big, and really start to connect with the vast areas of the outdoors, rather than the confined space of a studios. I really wanted to move them out of their comfort zones and see them really connect through an improvisation task. We started with sound, and we all moved with this as our inspiration. The brief was:

Move like the dynamics of the sounds

Move as if you are embodying the sound

Move as though you are creating a duet with the sound

I wanted them to let they body control this relationship.

They then created 3 motifs which embodied this idea. This was then their relationship to the soundscape through movement. 

 

In Michelle's (above) the middle was static and the top and bottom were moving. She started off already very engaged through her performance of these senses, which was exciting, however, her movements were all quite jazz based.

With Sarah (bottom) Her first two were moving and her last was transitioning. She really tried to encapsulate the different dynamics of sound she heard through the style of her movement.

The both moved towards the sounds of laughter and quiet, and created edgy movements directed towards the loud cars driving past. However, as there was a very distinct contrast between the two sounds there was not much more within the soundscape to relate to.

We worked to link these together as a transition and as a finally development they performed these together, and this became a trio, Michelle, Sarah and Primrose Hill Soundscape:

This was a beautiful piece of installation, where they both worked together and individually with the soundscape of the city.

Essentially, that is what I am inviting the city people to do, be part of the London community, but at the same time, have an individual relationship to what it is offering.

They ended this with creating an individual motif to the sound improvisation.

We then did the same exercise for sight. This one was very interesting, as there was much more in the visual landscape on offer, so I could begin to see how individually, we see or engage with the surroundings.

Michelle chose:

A big white angled crane

A cloud which looked like it was shooting upwards

The trees in the distance

Sarah chose: 

The people sitting on the hill -->

Flat bottomed clouds 

The boxy shapes of the buildings

As we progressed I saw a change from movement that was not so much guided by their comfort zone within dance, but was movement that was their gut reaction to that sense.

I was a development in the way they were relating to senses, they were exploring different connections, whether it be becoming that sound, contrasting it, embodying it or playing with it.

This then saw a change in the execution of these moves. Their eyes became more engaged, from this I became more engaged watching them. I found myself wanting to see or experience what they were experiencing, as I wanted to feel this engagement.

This was it!

We ended with Aromas, I took out the tactile sense because it began to get really cold and I felt this would affect their movement too much.

Within this improvisation their movement, really began to play with the aromas of the trees and with each other, they were becoming more playful and enlivened through their blossomed relationship to that sense:

This was the start of my piece. My dancers were really beginning to wake up to the city, and create relationship to their surroundings through all the senses that were on off.

The movement was about their relationship to that sense, they were using the dance abilities to allow them to articulate this rather than it being their stylistic outlet. Also, their facial expressions were a natural awareness and an inquisition into their surroundings.

Primrose hill was no longer a pretty space; it became a place for each of us.

These motifs will be added to a bank of movements that I collect with my dancers from different areas around London, and I will then put these positions into my choreography. 

To end the workshop, we performed a piece of choreography that they have both done a few times. I wanted to see how they presented a sequence that they knew, so they could concentrate on their new found relationship to the city via Primrose Hill.

I could see them becoming aware of how they relate to their senses and how they could translate this through movement. Michelle's fascinated eye, transformed the choreography into a duet with the visual. 

Where as Sarah, was allowing herself to engage at different moments, to the gravel as when her head lowered, and then to a spot in the sky, making her articulation of the movement very detailed and interesting.

Now, Primrose Hill has a lot of nature to offer the senses. Now will this become more difficult in more industrial areas, where there are a lot to offer the senses but are sometimes discussed in a derogatory way.....

M.J.B