May 2009
2 posts
“Contemporary art is always unambiguously political as it relates to contemporary...”
– Efva Lilja Dance: For Better, For Worse
Inventory/Räumung & Umm... I... and uh......
A regathering of sorts of the GB Springdance team last Tuesday (28th) to watch Gabi Reuter perform Inventory/Räumung as part of Spring Loaded (and sharing the bill with Rachel Krische and Rohanna Eade and Bryony Perkins). Then, on Wednesday, Efrosini Protopapa presented Umm… I… and uh… [revisited] at Roehampton in SW London.
Some (biased) thoughts …
Gabi’s...
April 2009
39 posts
“to experience the time span in a direct physical way in this house that is your...”
– Anne Teresa De Keersmeaker Speaking at Workstories Springdance, Utrecht, 25 April 2009.
She also said, “2 + 2 = 4”.
“… the ‘bricoleur’ addresses himself to a collection of...”
– Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Savage Mind
some things Gabriella Maiorino said
“Is this contemporary art? – Why do I need to ask this?”
“I am tired of seeing ironic art” (Tom immediately said, “So am I”)
“I like art because it’s not efficient”
“Different degrees of inhibition” (talking about her work)
“I’m allergic to structure”
“I don’t recognise myself in this word”...
these words that reoccurred
Europe in Motion is all over. Back in London, and was remembering a couple of things I heard a lot in the last two weeks. I mention these not as any implied criticism, but rather as a smiling nod to the way in which particular ways of talking to and about dance (or any discipline I suspect!) go through cycles.
“What are you busy with?” was a question I heard a lot. I like the tone of...
Review/Description of Europe in Motion 22 April
The original text is in Dutch, and is at http://springdance.ning.com/profiles/blogs/europe-in-motion-woensdag-22 and was written by Lotte Wijers.
I dumped the text into Google Translate and this is what came out. I am very happy indeed that I have a serious bottom.
An evening of Development Europe in Motion provides a diverse program. In the triple bill on Wednesday, were performances of Liat...
“As an artist Ellis took the liberty to be lecturer, choreographer, dancer,...”
– Jochem Naaf, reviewing Down (working title) on the Springdance Stage: http://springdance.ning.com/profiles/blogs/an-artist-and-his-review
(My response is in the comment below)
PARTS aliens
What is it about training systems in dance?
I went to see second cycle PARTS students perform a quintet of their own works at Theater Kikker on Tuesday (21/04). The performances, with one exception, were frighteningly lifeless. Only when facial manoeuvres were choreographed did they disengage from the disengagement, at which point their faces would invariably take on the life of a botoxed...
Lucas Ihlein discussing Lucy Lippard →
This seems somewhat relevant to discussions we’ve had about the role of art outside of the art world, and also b/c I’ve had a few chats with people recently who have expressed disillusionment with the value of artistic practice/endeavour.
“He starts by describing an ecstatic state.
Now ecstasy in Greek meant to...”
– Creativity, fulfillment and flow - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2004), www.ted.com
Where is my privacy?
Manuel, Efrosini and I went to the film, “Where is my privacy?” on Sunday (19th) at 5.30pm. The film is a bit over an hour long, and was initiated by Mette Ingvartsen, and involved Sirah Foighel and Manon Santkin. The development of the entire project (except for one ‘live’ performance) occurred on YouTube. Mette’s introduction/invitation to the other two performers...
making sense of one's body
Gabi Reuter presented her materials/thoughts in the middle session on Saturday 18th.
We worked ‘on the floor’ with a type of mapping process. Gabi had brought in printed google maps of cities that “might be meaningful to us”. Melbourne was in there, but Tom stole it from under my nose. Well not quite. I chose Rotterdam, simply because up until this week I had thought it...
a natter about form-content
I’ve heard the word content quite a bit these last few days, particularly in relation to that other word, form. The words have tended to be used as if content is the stuff of a choreography that help us figure out what the work is about, and form is the structural method by which this content is conveyed or presented.
I strongly resist this rather simplistic distinction or binary.
In...
habit
When asked, “What is taste?” Marcel Duchamp replied ‘habit’.
“Watching is no innocent affair but a game that we play together”
– Jeroen Fabius (writing for Springdance programme)
Erik part II ... and a kind of betrayal
More of Erik Kaiel’s presentation …
Erik mentioned Bahktin’s work and of the carnaval as an “opening in time where it doesn’t exist”, or the “day out of time”. Igor mentioned Neitzche’s “eternal return” (the non-repetitive repetition). Actually, various considerations of time have reoccurred a great deal these last four days.
...
Israel Galván and Jérôme Bel
I didn’t get to see Galván’s Solo Israel Galván - tickets sold out. Humph. I did see Jérôme Bel’s Lutz Förster. I was surprised by the sense of nostalgia running through the work, but also quite moved by the simplicity of the telling of Förster’s (auto)biography. There was quite a lot of name dropping though. The sense of ‘absence’ in the space and in the...
Erik Kaiel - exhaustion and beauty
Erik spoke last today (Friday, 17 April 09). I thought I might write out my notes (and some thoughts) on this presentation simply because it is freshest for me. The notes are not nescessarily that coherent, but intended more as some kind of record of a few of the things that were said.
I think I might have noted before that the basic format for these dialogues is that each of the 12 (11 now -...
behind
I am deeply profoundly exhaustedly behind on keeping track of the information that is being flung (or gently pitched) around Theater Kikker as part of Europe in Motion (just the idea of Europe in Motion is a little odd (not in a scatological way).
I’ll start adding more tonight (post performances of Israel Galván and Jérôme Bel), but it will be pretty rough, and in various sorts of order.
...
the political 2
Not enough.
Sleep.
There were aspects of the discussion arising out of Cosmin’s presentation yesterday that seem important to note. One was the question of the context and scale of the ‘political’. I am thinking here of the ways in which the ‘micro’ politics of a performance may be viewed in ever increasing contextual waves. For example, a performance that...
the political
I don’t know where to begin.
Igor and Nicole introduced this first morning, and talked about each of us attempting to identify something that could be an issue, or method/procedure, or concern that is personal, and that is ‘bothering’ us at this time. This was in direct contrast to our biographies. In other words, by presenting such an issue the idea was to...
“Intelligence is produced by our relationship to something.”
– Igor Dobricic
“Something can’t be so chaotic that it can’t be understand”
– Efrosini Protopapa - speaking at “Europe in Motion” and talking to her work. I am not sure I agree, but can feel the weight of my aesthetic biases here.
Gabriella Maiorino →
Gabriella is one of the artists involved in Europe in Motion.
arriving
I arrived in Utrecht this afternoon. The city is very full of spring, and we were treated to a wonderful welcome by the organisers of Springdance. I am curious to see how these weeks shape up. Much of my current thinking is dominated by wondering what ‘work’ I might present next week. It is supposed to be a work in progress, although at this stage I am thinking of presenting a kind of...
Tom Dale on cycling in London
We were looking at people cycling in Utrecht and comparing it to cycling in London. Tom said (of cycling in London):
You can’t look at anything because you have to look at everything
central
I had an email today from the moderators of Europe in Motion - Igor Dobricic & Nicole Beutler. In it they asked the choreographers involved to consider just one question:
what is central to your work as a choreographer?
It’s a provocatively simple question …
beginning
I am involved in “Europe in Motion” as part of Springdance 2009 in Utrecht. It’s all uncertain to me except that the time is being moderated by Igor Dobricic & Nicole Beutler, and includes 12 artists/choreographers:
From Romania: Cosmin Manolescu Rui Catalao Vava Stefanescu Manuel Pelmus
From the Netherlands: Kenneth Flak Liat Waysbort Erik Kaiel Gabriella Maiorino
...