Technique trains instinct
Another definition for Contact
Con –
1. a prefix meaning “with,” “together,” “in association”
2. a verb meaning “to commit to memory” or “to study or examine closely”
3. an adverb meaning “on the negative side” or “in opposition”
4. a verb meaning “swindle”, “manipulate”, “persuade”, or “cajole”
Tact –
1.a keen sense of what to say or do to avoid giving offense; skill in dealing with difficult or delicate situations.
2.a keen sense of what is appropriate, tasteful, or aesthetically pleasing; taste; discrimination.
3.touch or the sense of touch.
2.a keen sense of what is appropriate, tasteful, or aesthetically pleasing; taste; discrimination.
3.touch or the sense of touch.
CI is like Champagne
Only bubbly white wine
that comes from the region of
Champagne, France
is given the name
champagne.
Contact Improvisation, some people maintain, is more than just a physical practice. It is a political movement, a way of life, a way to interact with our fellow humans and the world. Some might even go as far as to say CI is a social modality that can change the world.
Contact Improvisation was not created in a vacuum. It arose in the United States during a time of great flux and change. It was a time of great social and political upheaval. Therefore, the environment in which CI arose is inherent in the form.
If CI is a political/social/gender/economic etc. movement then to truly understand CI one has to come from the same soil that birthed CI.
Are, then, only denizens of the United States of America fully capable of understanding CI and manifesting true corporeal self-determination in the moment?
(it could also be that all the concomitant -isms that people attribute to the physical form of CI have nothing to with it, that it is purely the physical practice and form. Yes, CI can be a tool for creating those -isms, but it is not those -isms. A hammer can be used to build a house, but it is not a house.)
A defintion
Improvisation: bodies manifesting and dissolving dynamic temporal-spatial structures according to aesthetic and physical potentialities and proclivities in a planar arena.
Theater vs. Gallery or What vs. Where
If a dance piece is different in a theater than in a gallery, white box vs. black box, how would it change in a movie theater?
in an elementary school theater?
a high school theater?
a college theater?
the art gallery next to the black box theater at the college?
at a theater at a university, a university without a dance major?
in the theater of a university?
in the theater of a PAC 10 university?
in the foyer of that theater?
in the bathroom off the foyer of the theater of the PAC 10 university that doesn’t have a dance major?
in a bus stop near that university?
the bathroom at that bus stop?
the bus that just left the bus stop?
the bathroom on that bus?
the Wendy’s that bus stops at 3 hours later?
in the parking lot of the gas station?
next to pump number 3?
next to pump number 7 that Henry in a red and green plaid shirt is using to fill his Toyota Tundra’s tank?
OK, forget all that. Let’s go back to a traditional performance space.
A sprung bamboo floor on a 15×10 meter rectangle of concrete with radiant heating. The concrete is 20 cm thick. Surrounding the dance floor is gravel. This floor is in a room that has 5 other such floors and each one is surrounded similarly by gravel. This room has windows on the north and south sides and has an arched roof. The walls are white; the gravel grey; the ceiling silver. The east and west sides have brown sliding door 4 meters long and 2 meters tall. Each door has a cement landing and benches.
Maybe this isn’t a traditional performance space, but my dream studio.
OK, back to this piece…hmm…how about this – We, in the performance world, shall never make a new piece ever again, but agree upon 1 piece that we will all repeat in different contexts. Never again will we have to worry about what we will do. The only question is where we will do it.
P.S.
There are an infinite number of contexts (as there are pieces).
I’d rather make the pieces than the contexts.
More definitions
Dance is the theater of the object.
Theater is the dance of the subject.
The Essay That Describes Itself
This is the first sentence. This is the second sentence. This is the third sentence. This is the fourth sentence. This is the fifth sentence. This is the sixth sentence. This is the seventh sentence. This is the eighth sentence.
This is the ninth sentence. This is the tenth sentence. This is the eleventh sentence. This is the twelfth sentence. This is the thirteenth sentence. This is the fourteenth sentence. This is the fifteenth sentence. This is the sixteenth sentence.
This is the seventeenth sentence. This is the eighteenth sentence. This is the nineteenth sentence. This is the twentieth sentence. This is the twenty-first sentence. This is the twenty-second sentence. This is the twenty-third sentence. This is the twenty-fourth sentence.
This is the twenty-fifth sentence and the first one of this paragraph. This is the twenty-sixth sentence. This is the twenty-seventh sentence. This is the twenty-eighth sentence. This is the twenty-ninth sentence. This is the thirtieth sentence. This is the thirty-first sentence. This is the thirty-second sentence.
This is the thirty-third sentence and the first one of this, the fifth paragraph. This is the thirty-fourth sentence. This is the thirty-fifth sentence. This is the thirty-sixth sentence. This is the thirty-seventh sentence. This is the thirty-eighth sentence. This is the thirty-ninth sentence. This is the fortieth sentence.
This is the forty-first sentence. This is the forty-second sentence. This is the forty-third sentence and contains the largest prime number yet in this essay. This is the forty-fourth sentence. This is the forty-fifth sentence. This is the forty-sixth sentence. This is the forty-seventh sentence. This is the forty-eighth sentence.
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This is the first sentence of the eleventh paragraph. This is the second sentence of the eleventh paragraph. This is the third sentence of the eleventh paragraph. This is the fourth sentence of the eleventh paragraph. This is the fifth sentence of the eleventh paragraph. This is the sixth sentence of the eleventh paragraph. This is the seventh sentence of the eleventh paragraph. This is the eighth sentence of the eleventh paragraph and therefore the eighty eighth sentence.
This is the eighty-ninth sentence. This is the ninetieth sentence. This is the ninety first sentence. This is the ninety-second sentence. This is the ninety-third sentence. This is the ninety-fourth sentence. This is the ninety-fifth sentence. This is the ninety-sixth sentence and if the author were to use the classic two thirds one third ratio point to have the climax, it would be here.
This is the ninety-seventh sentence. This is the ninety-eighth sentence. This is the ninety-ninth sentence. This is the one-hundredth sentence. This is the first sentence when proper grammar dictates that numerals can be used according to the Chicago Manual of Style and therefore the 101th sentence. This is the 102th sentence. This is the 103rd sentence. This is the 104th sentence.
This is the 105thsentence. This is the 106thsentence. This is the 107th sentence. This is the 108thsentence. This is the 109th sentence. This is the 110thsentence. This is the 111th sentence. This is the eighth sentence of this paragraph, the 112th sentence, and if you have been paying attention you would know that each paragraph so far has had eight sentences and therefore this paragraph is the 14th paragraph.
This is the 15thparagraph. This is the 15thparagraph. This is the 15thparagraph.
This is the 15thparagraph. This is the 15thparagraph. This is the 15thparagraph.
This is the 15thparagraph. This is still the 15thparagraph.
This, however, is the 16th paragraph. This is the second sentence of the 16th paragraph. This is still the 16thparagraph. This sentence, too, is part of the 16th paragraph. As is this one. And this one, too. This sentence, also, has the pleasure of being part of the 16th paragraph. This sentence is also part of the 16th paragraph. As is this one, the final sentence of the 16thparagraph.
This is the first sentence of this paragraph. This is the 130th sentence of this essay. This is the third sentence of the 17th paragraph of this essay. Numerically, this sentence marks the halfway point of this paragraph. This is the fifth sentence of this paragraph. This sentence marks three quarters of the way through this paragraph. This is the seventh sentence of this, the 17th paragraph. This is the last sentence of this paragraph.
This is the antepreantepenultimate sentence of this paragraph. This is the preantepenultimate sentence of this paragraph. This is the antepenultimate sentence of this paragraph. This is the penultimate sentence of this paragraph. This is the ultimate sentence of this paragraph which is the final paragraph of this essay, the Essay on Nothing.
Logic determined beforehand
A piece is choreographed if the logic is determined before the piece begins.
Personnel vs. Content
I was just at the Texas Dance Improvisation Festival this past weekend. Thoroughly enjoyed myself.
Sitting in on a class taught by a friend and fellow Lower Lefter, Leslie Scates, I listened to the discussion at the end of class. One of the participants brought up the question of personnel vs. idea during the exercise of Number Score.
Usually, during Number Score, the content happening in the work/performance space changes when the personnel/dancers change.
This need not be.
How to train Number Score to focus on shifting personnel but maintaining the content?
Does Number Score inadvertently simultaneously train Jump Cuts?
How to train Number Score and not drop material?
Maybe beforehand determine what the material/content will be…
must investigate (though, I have always had trouble with Number Score. Not that I think it is a pointless exercise. I see its value, but I have (almost) never enjoyed it)
Another definition
Art is that which provides no comfort, gain, or reward to its creator.