Archive of July 2008
Checking out slides in my bedroom (against a white wall as opposed to the black wall that they will be projected on) ... still not sure about them.
05:03 PM | 0 Comments
asking motion
I had an email from Christian Burns the other day. He'd been looking at some of the materials on this blog, and made the comment:
"...I really like the constant sense of searching. In the brief video clips this is really apparent. A sort of 'asking motion'. I have been into this idea in my own practice lately of a 'thinking motion' state."
This term 'asking motion' strongly resonated with my cognitive-physical experience of improvising. Sometimes I feel like the dancing/improvising is built on a basic sensation that I then keep asking questions of, searching for ways to add to it, interrupt it, and flesh it out. In this work I am happy to allow the 'asking' to be manifest in my expression(s), and in the broader brush strokes of the shapes my body is making in space. It is as if the asking becomes the central concern of the activity, and perhaps even acts as a method of remaining present.
04:36 AM | 0 Commentsremaining
Spent today (Friday) working on further possibilities for slide materials (in the theatre at The Place). Feel like I have plenty of options now that strengthen this particular section, but I'll hold off making final decisions (quite simply b/c I don't need to make them yet). At the technical rehearsal next wednesday (6th August) hopefully I'll get the chance to run various versions to see the section in context (and with light)... or at least, have Helen and Amy see the section in context.
10:04 AM | 0 Comments
Final day in studio.
Actually - that's not quite the truth. I now have an 8 day break, followed by a single day in the studio to check over technical aspect of the project. Helen Cain, Amy Woods and I are then having a showing for 3 or 4 people on the evening of 5th August. The following day is our scheduled tech day at The Place - a full month before Gertrud previews, and more than a month before the semi-final (10th September). The timeline is unusual (to say the least) but is about accommodating 20 new works being developed in the same studios over a two month period.
12:13 PM | 0 Comments
Bouncing to disk.
First draft mixdown of audio. The image gives a good sense of the sparseness of the recorded audio materials - which are heavily supplemented by live action mic'd and mixed into the sound design during the work.
Getting close now.
12:06 PM | 0 Comments
Slide variations.
Attempting to exhaust slide possibilities. Have about 20 variations to test in the theatre tomorrow. I expect, however, that the absence of image will be stronger (something that has been concerning me these last few days, and that I discussed with Clare and Mark Dyson this afternoon).
The thing that has been tricky, and also very stimulating about this project, has been in negotiating the presence and absence of Gertrud within the work. She is strongly present in voice ... and it seems a delicate thing to also introduce images of her (even if highly transparent, and only vaguely discernable). Will see tomorrow.
04:01 PM | 0 Comments
the dyson industry.
Had the good fortune of meeting with a significant proportion of Dyson Industries today: Mark and Clare Dyson. They took the time to watch a rather episodic run of Gertrud (I was trying to run light, sound, vision and perform), and we chatted a bit afterwards.
Although I have followed Clare's work from afar, she and I have never met (rather strangely given the smallness of the Australian dance scene). It's such a different experience showing materials to someone you don't know at all, particularly a peer. But both Mark and Clare were wonderfully generous in articulating their experience of the work, and in considering (in particular) the way in which language is present within the project.
Mind you, Clare did leave me with, "You know you are not going to win don't you?"
03:47 PM | 1 Commenthold on tightly
At the end of last week I started to feel 'uneasy' about where to from here in Gertrud's development. The various threads of the work felt strong, and I was enjoying the experience of performing them in rehearsal. But, with a full week of rehearsal left I wanted to keep questioning the work, its elements, and what possibilities for change were still available to me.
This isn't easy simply because it requires that I do not assume that the decisions I have made up to this point are the best ones (however I determine 'the best' to be).
Today, dancer-choreographer Vida Midgelow came into rehearsal to watch a run of the work. In many respects, her role was to respond to what she had seen (and not what she thought the work might be in the theatre). Sharing work in a reasonably nascent form is never easy, but over time I've definitely got better at not wanting to defend decisions, at quietly listening to responses, and not jumping over them with 'my stuff'.
Vida is wonderfully capable at considering and articulating her experiences of 'dance' materials – it is not so much that I agree with her or that we share a similar aesthetic, but rather that I trust that she is in the space to serve the project, to find ways to make it stronger, and to enter into a dialogue about the current strengths and weaknesses of the work. This provides an atmosphere in which I can let go of my vulnerability as a maker, and begin to re-look at what it is that I have done. To see, once again, with new eyes.
The upshot of Vida's watching, and our discussion afterward, is that a particular section of the work needs a dramatic rethink. Vida's response to this "slideshow" section reminded me of initial uncertainties (voiced in various ways by Helen, Amy and me) about how this section was executed. Uncertainties that had diminished with repetition, and with a gradual acceptance that this was how the section will be.
Peter Brook has this wonderful saying: Hold on tightly, let go lightly. As I understand it, it invokes the desire to wrestle with an idea as deeply as possible, to seek ways in which it/they might work - to hold on tightly. But, if the idea fails (whatever that means), to then let go lightly, and move on.
With the slideshow section, I am currently holding on tightly.
09:54 PM | 0 Comments