Motion Being July to November 2015 Observations and comments on Life on the Road

Motion Being Tour 2015

July 3rd 2015 to November 16th 2015

A crash course in learning to survive, navigate, thrive, engage, co-ordinate, communicate, manage, co-operate, budget, organise, plan, teach, perform, learn, receive, share, grieve, eat, celebrate, move, dance, touch. 

The transport systems of flying in aeroplanes, driving cars, going in trains: high speed, underground, metro, Bart, Great Western; the cars of friends, of family members, shuttle buses, rental agencies. Airlines: Air New Zealand, Virgin Atlantic, Singapore Airlines, Ryan Air, British Airways, EasyJet, KLM. 

Eat, pray, love. Meditation and prayer were a major part of my journey. 

From God to my cells. 

Communication systems: Skype credit, Skype, Tesco pre-paid top ups, free Wifi passwords anywhere I could get them, Viber; Facebook; on trains, in cities, in towns. 

The support of friends in need, in tough times; the language of the heart, learning to reach out and ask for help; learning to spill the beans, show my cards, communicate; dare to open up to new and unknown horizons.

What did I notice?

That what you do with your body really matters; what you eat really matters; where you live really matters and who and what you are in contact with on a daily basis really matters; dancing contact – who you dance with, what you do, the energy of the interaction really matters; it all really matters, it changes your mind. 

Touch, love, contact, caresses; it all really matters; what you think really matters; what you say really matters; 

What did I notice?

That humanity lives in ways that seem and feel barbaric in terms of life-giving human contact to people who are not in your family or in your close circle of friends. We are still in the stone-age with regard to the awareness of that. That animals are warranted more touch, receive more contact, more physical contact, more nurturing, than humans.

Humans are relegated to receiving touch and nurturing vicariously through physical contact with fabric in the form of clothes, soft furnishings in relation to chairs and seats, touching concrete through their shoes, touching car doors, train doors and other inanimate objects and virtual contact with life through screens of every possible kind. 

They receive contact through man made currencies; and they receive contact through ingesting and digesting food. That materialism has come to replace authentic connection to life and to life-giving energy. 

That birds, pigs, horses, cows, and other living animals and life forms are able to exist in a way that means contact between them and actual, real life is a more direct, immediate experience. But humans are not. They touch and receive and give love vicariously through contact with inanimate, dead things. 

Through having sheets and pillow cases and cushions, mattresses, beds, shoes on their feet and clothes on their bodies, food in their bellies, cars to drive, objects to handle, screens to look at, keyboards and pens to touch, windows to look through. Things to see in the market place full of objects to buy, but not to touch; as if life can be bought and sold through the market place of material objects and through the ownership of those objects.   

I ran out of being nurtured, of contact with living, real, natural, life: with nature with people who cared about me and loved me. I ran out of forms of life; with living life forms; too many dead forms; no living life forms.

I needed human nurturing, human comfort, human succor, shelter, connection, intimacy. 

This is what I noticed.

The need for human sharing, comfort, community, communion, heart, touch, engagement; genuine, authentic, real, sharing, intimacy of a genuine kind, meaningful, communication and nurturing, love and vitality; this is what I saw is sorely needed on this planet. Everywhere I went. 

And the ways that society has construed to make these freely given things something that has to be paid for, to be earned, to be bought with money and currency. 

That the currency of real vitality and of life which is freely given by this living planet has been turned into a commodity to be bought and sold at a price on the market place; this is what I noticed. 

And I noticed the estrangement of human beings from their natural, living place, their land, their earth, their environment, the source of their vitality. 

I noticed that the earth, society, the environment has been turned from something of which humans are a part and receiving, giving to each other and being nurtured and supported by, to one where humans have no part, where the relationship between humans and their living environment is non-existent and is one of hostility, adrenalin, estrangement, toxicity, machines, screens, virtual reality and population overwhelm.

Where money, coins and debt is the currency that exists between humans and their environment and very little else. 

That the market place has replaced all life forms, and its dead plastic and virtual currency which sells and buys the dead re-presentations of life have come to replace the authentic, living, relationship of humans and the living planet earth of which they are inseparable. 

And that everywhere I went these things were the currency and touted as being desirable. 

This is what I observed: a dislocation between humans, their environment, their bodies and the planet. 

To the point where I became very sick; exhausted by the lack of nurturing; the lack of touch; the lack of human contact; the lack of connection to living nature and to a life force that is real, sustaining, nourishing and loving. I became crippled, ill, exhausted, and soul starved.  

And I realise that one of the reasons I dance is to be connected to human beings, to life, the earth, to a living currency of living exchange between human beings and the planet. 

To a source of primal connection and of energy exchange that is not objectified, removed from its source, packaged, objectified and put up for sale to be bought and sold on the market place, but which is accessed, shared and transmitted for a wholly different purpose. 

I know that this has to do with another, different value system. And I know that I cannot live when I am separated from that energy source. I cannot thrive when I am separated indefinitely from that energy source. And it is not something that can be experienced virtually or vicariously. It can only be experienced through contact with something that is living. 

This is what I know to be true.  

Dancing with People: Playing the Present

Setting up situations in the

•        Present
•        That are open to change – ‘exit’ ‘pause’ ‘flow’

These are both specific and open to change/variable

To be able to focus and apply a human body and mind in ways which are both specific and able to engage in:

•  The interpretation of the present moment
• Act as a lens into the present moment as something which has a form

• and which is constantly changing.

This means the dancer needs to be present and engaged in a form that has an external focus and application and specificity and which is in constant motion.

To have eyes that see and move and change with the body that moves and changes means to have eyes that see without a story, with no history and projecting no future, to be in the present with what is, exactly what is, and that what is, changes every moment; to have ears that hear with no story or history, to have a body that moves and dances full out, with full access to vocabulary and a skill base with freedom, without a need to hold on to or preserve anything for posterity.

Dancing full out with no drama, no story, no fairy tale, no meaning, no psychology. A body and movement which is available for any and every tone change in relation to the choreography of the present moment.

A dancer who is physically present, emotionally present, mentally present with no drama, no story, no history or future investment;

The physicality of the body needs to have underlying neutrality and it needs to return to that neutrality. It needs to draw from a range of choices, to be available for the choreography of the present moment, which will change constantly. Without that underlying tone of neutrality if cannot be available for change. It means there is an investment in a story, an investment in an outcome, an expectation of some kind.  Inherent in a story is an expectation or an investment in a specific outcome: and that means she is not available for a different story, in a different moment. It’s like the dancer or person isn’t invested and has a different outcome or different relationship to their body and to movement which is essentially one of freedom.

The physical situation has a very high degree of versatility, flexibility, fearlessness, non-attachment, awareness, neutrality, range and skill base, whilst being potentially responsive to any given situation which can change at any moment; the story is being written in the moment; the choreography is being made in the present moment, so there has to be a lightness, a non-attachment, which is not the same as non-investment, in the physical situation or the conditions that are present.

The person’s relationship to themselves, to their body, their mind, their dancing body; this relationship of the person and dancer to their body and mind determines their Use: the use of themselves as people; it is what runs through every moment of their waking day, of their lives, as well as their dancing. ‘USE’ - a person’s use of themselves, is difficult to address and teach in relation to improvisation and dancing.

The dancer’s and person’s application, how they apply, relate, to the conditions which are set up in the studio in the course of a structured improvisation (for example), says everything about the way they relate to their mind and body in any other given moment.
So the physical conditions, the physical set up and framework, the ‘score’,  the choreography of the present moment as practised and engaged in a studio by a dancer in the course of improvising, becomes a physical, external situation, a mirror, a playground, a reflection of the dancer’s relationship to themselves and the world, and  other people in the world.

The practice studio becomes a laboratory for playing out the relationship of the dancer to themselves and other people. The dancer’s USE of themselves, their body and their mind, is all they have in this situation: it becomes transparent, it is made visible, it is WHAT the external conditions are drawing from, are asking to be made visible, are drawing from.

The physical conditions and set up of the compositional framework, the external conditions that are being proposed, mirror, reflect, magnify certain aspects of the dancer’s relationship to themselves, their own body and their lives, because the way the operate and organise themselves in relation to their mind and body is the way they operate in the studio and in the rest of their lives: the use of themselves is what is being made visible, and seen in the simple devices of using ‘pause’, ‘flow’, ‘exit’ – (Katie Duck)

The use of the eyes and the body in relation to the space and other people, the use of the ears and the body in relation to the space and other people.

This ability to be both completely present and relational and physically present and yet completely unattached; to be physically and technically available and relational and expressive and yet completely open and unattached and free of any story: we can see this being practiced in the score of ‘pause’, ‘flow’, ‘exit.’

•        People
•        Dancing
•        People
•        Playing music

People are in the present: no story, no history or future.

So with that situation happening, the demand for physical virtuosity/high level skills and non-attached skills and dexterity, means non-attached emotional and psychological dexterity; which means blocks and neurosis and defences and habits - all of that is exposed in the studio. It's like an artistic social dancing ground, an artistic playground, a dancing playground, and Katie Duck is this specific character who is completely comfortable in that world; she is totally relaxed and yet totally present and physically and mentally available and at home in that environment of performative normality – her whole life is performative normality.

So a person’s USE in this sense IS the choreography. A person’s relationship to their physical world IS the choreography because the person and the dancer is writing the present moment along with the other dancers and people and musicians and people.

A person IS the choreography and if all the audience gets to see of the form, if this IS the choreography, if the form is that, then the USE, the WAY a person relates to their physicality and their mind, to their WORLD, is what the audience is going to receive.  If that is the choreography, then that is what the dancer and everyone else, has to work with. 
It is the conscious relationship of the dancer’s SELF to and with their mind and body, with their BEING in any given moment.

It is the conscious awareness of the interface between the person and the USE of themselves and their bodies and their dancing.

I propose to find ways to set up and create conditions which support consciousness of that relationship and to offer ways to give tools to the dancer to develop ease, responsiveness, safety, trust, in a non-judgemental, non-critical, positive environment;

I propose to offer experiences of learning and development and confidence within an ensemble composition and writing of the moment for dancers and musicians.
The art studio, the studio filled with dancers and people and musicians and people, is like a laboratory of USE; the dancing is the language, the form that is used, the music, is the language and the form that is used.

Holding in eyes, holding in breath, holding in body: this is USE of the self.
This is not about dancing. But it is USE in relation to the Self and this is a flow on into DANCING.

Dancing is an extension of the person’s USE of themselves in everyday life. This is what became crystal clear for me. Everyday life, the moment, doesn’t choose between everyday life and the life in the studio as a dancer. There is no distinction. A person’s Use of themselves on all levels, their eyes, their breath, their body, their mind, runs through everything.

Composing the Moment

What is involved in meeting every moment with a creative response?
What is involved in being creative in the moment, in every moment?
What is involved in meeting every moment with a creative response?
Creativity= open mindedness
Its the opposite of habit and narrow, closed mindedness.

Nothing about my physical or external environment is going to necessarily help or support me to decide to be creative and open minded about my response; my ability to choose my response is mine alone.

Self-observation/awareness is the first thing, the first tool to notice and not necessarily act on my trigger/habitual response, to watch it, to choose.

Creativity =
Choice, choosing

Composition =
What actually exists in the present moment in actual fact?

What can I see?
What can I hear?
What can I touch?
What can I feel?
What can I sense?

What is the present moment actually composed of?

What movement patterns are already laid down in my body that I can draw from and on in the present moment, to respond to the present moment?

What can I change about my patterns?

What neuro-muscular patterns are laid down, available to me in the present to draw on and choose from?

What is my movement repertoire?
What is my musical repertoire?
What is my vocal repertoire?

Workshop Notes by Juliet Shelley 

Improvisation Summer Course Amsterdam 2015

Directed by Katie Duck

'The aim of the improvisation summer course is to provide a platform for musicians, vocalist, actors, dancers and performance artists to engage in intensive study alongside weekend performance events so that they can re-consider and re-present live performance to contemporary public’s in the ever evolving communication network we live in.' 

Venue: Studio Singel, Eerste Nassaustraat 7 Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The ‘way’ - the way of dancing of being open, present in the body in a way that allows for clear receptivity, clear communication with the space, with the earth, with the ground, the ears, the eyes, with other people, with the feet, the ankles, the anatomy, the physicality and the awareness; the ‘use’ of the self is free to move and to relate, to choose within the conditions available and present.

Opening up conditions, creating conditions in which dancing can happen; dancing in ensemble, in duets, trios, quartets, solos, in many different configurations as they arise; to let the changes happen, change as movement; it is not a static, held, fearful, isolated, precious, lonely experience. It is to be integrated as a whole human being in and with the dancing, to be able to modulate, adjust, change, choose, perceive, physically, emotionally; to join, to leave, to pause, to exit, to flow; the dance – the composition – it’s about moving without closing in or closing down into the sensation or the experience of moving whilst moving; it is about moving and composing from within a stream, in a flow that exists already and will exist with or without you.

In that sense it is about remembering to choose, about choosing, flow, pause and exit. It presupposes an energetic flow that is already there, an energetic presence that exists in the space, exists geographically in the space already; the force coming from the floor, the earth is already there. 
Gravity is already there; the space is already there; sound is already there; everything is already there; the body is already there; it does not begin and end with me or you or us. Its existence is not dependent on me. The way I choose, compose, is a reflection of the way that I choose to collaborate with what is already there, comment on what is already there, participate with what is already there. I move and join with it, with others. It is more like a martial art in this sense;

Katie doesn’t refer to the breath very much; yet this is part of the issue of watching – breath-holding, body holding, mind holding, flow holding. 

What is the technical approach to this kind of compositional performance?

Anatomical release based, Alexander technique; 
receiving the upward thrust from the floor, not falling asleep into the floor; BMC; 
every movement is a surprise; all movement comes from walking; 
release the ankles, knees, hips; 
bring the torso to the limbs; 
torso towards the limbs; 
spine towards the limbs; 
rib cage mobility; 
space between ribs; mobile breathing moveable ribs; 
moving the torso through space; 
it's not about arms and legs in space disconnected to the body, as  in ballet; 
it’s about bringing the torso and centre to the limbs and moving from the centre through the space; 
torso to hands, torso to feet; 
spine to hands, spine to feet; 
spine to knees; spine to arms; ribs and shoulder joints and ankle bones and tail bones initiating; 
initiate with the shoulder joints; not the shoulder blades; 
initiate with the ankle joints; 
tailbone is dropping; 
seat bones are dropping; 
allowing lower back to curve; 
tailbone initiates; 
let tail bone and seat bones curve under as legs are flexed, folding to the floor; underside creasing and folding like origami (Manuela technique class); 
ankle joints leading forward in space from standing on two feet, on to rise; 
and from lying on side, initiating with ankle joints in space onto soles of feet to sitting; 
from four point, walk hands back towards knees and allow tailbone and lower back to curve as I put my weight on to the balls of the my feet, leave the tucking under of toes until last minute, to allow my tailbone to drop and curve under.

Eyes – coning with the eyes – following detail

Letting eyes be carried in and by the head – heavy eyelids – move weight of head and let eyes follow movement of head, lowered lids – feel head moving in space, side to side, allow eyes to be carried – don’t hold the eyes in space; don’t reach for what it is you are seeing with your eyes. 

Allow eyes to be carried in head. Rolling on backs and letting eyes come for the ride; lying on belly opposite someone and rolling, as you roll your body, see your partner always; rolling and coming to feet whilst seeing partner; moving away from partner and back towards, let partner come in and out of eye range;

Tracking a dance and music composition with the ears and eyes and body; hearing, experiencing in the body, ‘feeling’ – and seeing at the same time; not one or the other;

The physiological changes that are required in the use of a person as a whole and behaviourally, in the brain and the musculature of a person, that are required to participate in the dance improvisation composition performance – are enormous – and are not articulated as such. They are addressed within the context and language of the dance workshop and within the professional context and setting of a dance workshop, compositionally, per formatively. 

These changes are in my view, behavioural changes, with all the physical, emotional, mental and changes that accompany these changes. This needs to be made clear. They are not dance technique changes or compositional changes. They are physiological, behavioural changes.

The technique of dancing this kind of performance improvisation requires very specific behavioural abilities by the dancer. They are not technical abilities. They are behavioural abilities. Cognitive abilities, emotional abilities, interpersonal and social abilities and behaviours; geeks need not apply; there is no time to think about it.

For me. there is a blind spot around the fact of the integration of the changes that are asked to be made to the brain, the thinking, the neuromuscular, the behaviour, and that these changes, modifications to the dancer’s beings, their whole selves, may have emotional impacts on them, as people, in their lives: that in order to ‘play’, ‘dance’ ‘perform’ practise’ ‘be’ in the specific ways that are being asked here in this workshop, they, as people, their behaviours, need to change; their dance behaviours need to change; their behaviours socially, personally, emotionally, interactively, individually, physically, mentally, it all needs to change: this is not addressed in the workshop. 

There is a huge global connection through internet now; the professional opportunities outside of teaching and working in companies as a dance professional are very little;

Improvisation: lifestyle, theatre, dancing;

Cunningham; ego is the biggest issue in all artists. Ego is getting in the way; of performer; gets in the way of the audience; the minute it has the space, the ego takes over; it becomes ‘showing off’.

Be self-taught

Have your eyes wide open

Be an enemy of capitalism

Get better at scoring

Look at the value systems of scoring.

Control is a fear of letting things go, it turns into an aesthetic

Live action – enjoy seeing what happens

The audience: ‘You couldn’t even tell that was improvised’ - yuck – they see some kind of difference or distinction – you are either improvising or you are composition; it is not either/or.

You are studying it at the same time as you are performing it

When the ego is involved with performing – that is painful, a painful experience for the performer and for the audience;

Bone alignment

Neuro science

Perception

Behaviour, social behaviour in moving, engagement with others whilst moving in and within a very broad range of dynamics, vocabulary, spatial composition, physical composition; embodying a physical technique that is in relationship with the sound, space and other people whilst learning it, whilst dancing it.

Lisa Nelson: what is really going on in the mind?

Chemistry between people

Geography of the space

Score – pause, flow, exit – compositional score

Scores are made into pieces

Scores and assignments

Notice the difference between a score, an impulse, a cue and a trigger – ie. a knee jerk response.

Performance and judgement, expectation of an audience:

Age, gender, appearance, racial, skin, muscle tone, technique, style, etc. etc.

Technique is employed, used and taught as a defence, as body armour against judgement from the audience.

Technique gives a capability of something. Anything.

Research and study- how are we engaging? New science: how are we engaging with that? Pause, flow, exit;

The compositional potentiality of the space; It’s about potentiality.

Walk in to the space, switch the mind on to research; trust the body will obey you as a performer; the performative situation – the score – what is interesting is seeing the spontaneity of choices – it is an approach, a STATE a Compositional State, A Compositional, Dancing STATE.

If we are ‘Observing’ a dance looking on, standing observing, it is very different from the work of Tracking the dance – as a tracker, we are choosing exit – we are choosing, choosing, choosing exit as we track the piece – seeing, hearing, present and ready to enter the piece at any time. Our seeing is in relation to our entering it at any moment with our body.

It is not about observing with a view to making judgements or finding the perfect moment for doing anything. There is so much JUDGEMENT going on. Judging of each other, judging of ourselves, happening that this paralyses the freedom to make choices; it paralyses the freedom to act.

Fear, judgement and mind games.

You cannot learn how to score something in performance unless you do something really tight first in rehearsal.

You walk out in front of people and you instantly hear that score and you know what position you are taking in that score.

The practise of improvisation

The practise of composition

Tight – water tight

Specificity and variables

Integration between:

What am I doing in the workshop that I can bring to the studio?

What can I do in the technique classes that I can bring to the studio?

What can I bring to the studio?

What am I actually doing? (?)

My notes:

The mind and body of the room – personalise it.

The space, the room, it is a container. It is like the larger container for the little person, the performer; a transpersonal container that holds the personal body of the dancer within it and the audience’s bodies.

Notes from Kenzo Kasuda Workshop

Smoke - hair is smoke, leaving a trail

Smoke coming out of my head

Hair is five metres long

Legs to sternum Arms to sternum

Whole torso is actually the legs

Space between ribs, open the spaces between the ribs

Whole room is my brain, brain outside my skull

Brain of room is second brain

Everyone outside of me in the audience is a baby. I play with the baby – I throw a ball to the baby and the baby throws the ball back to me;

I throw a ball, and I receive a ball; I receive from everything; everything is about receiving from the audience; I am receiving from everything, living in receiving from everything all the time. I am in communion with everything all the time; everything I see comes alive, says thank you because I am noticing it with my eyes; I am seeing it for the first time; every moment is the for the first time and there is no other moment; every moment is the first and last moment of its kind; always new, always new; I am always new; every moment I am always new; the world becomes the way I see it, the way I perceive it; the way I see it, is what it becomes; it becomes the way and perceive and interact with it and experience it;

The sternum, seat bones, hamstrings – all connected. Breathe in,, see, hear, everything – breathe out and the body becomes water – from the ocean – you are from the ocean – the whole body dissolves on the out breath – you become the ocean – breath in and as you breathe, you leave trails of smoke, trail of breath as smoke, visible breath in the space, out of our pores, it comes out of our pores, our skin, we see the breath as something we leave in the space behind us.

Manuela 
People that she recommends:

Laborgrass

Renate Graziadei

Maya Carroll – The Instrument

Marcella Giesche

Lake Studios – paid residency – I pay the rent

Katie Duck:

Tracking the progression, the structure of a work, tracking with our eyes, our ears, tracking it as an integrated whole with ourselves, our whole selves present and tracking. 

No time to think, no time to question, judge. Eyes with the space first, the body follows; what it does is secondary; receive from the audience; let them in; let the eyes move as the head moves as the body moves; let the eyes receive the movie of the body and the space; notice the whole space; the whole space and the construction and composition of the space; choose a pathway; see the space, open the ear; open the body to receive the information of the eye and the ear in the space and move; flow, pause, exit.

Composition is not about the choreography;

It is about the choosing, the tracking, the placement, the timing, in relation to what is happening; that is composition; seeing the selection process happening in real time, receiving, complete vulnerability and choosing, selecting, deciding, a decision making process in public, with others, exposed, transparent decision making in public, with an audience, choosing, choosing, choosing.

My work

A – place the material out there to see

B – variation, play, compose with the material

C – transformation/development of material

The audience are included and are part of the process.

Katie - ‘I see people’  – not an audience – I see people.

They are part of the score, not separate from it. The performer is a mediator, a transmitter, in the space. They ‘entertain’ in the sense of ‘hostess’ the audience. The audience are their guests. They are hosting the audience.

It is all visible, all public, all interactive, all exposed, transformational, so creative with the public, with the audience, in relation to them.

Intuition: we do go with it. Staying concentrated/focussed allows intuition

Score: Unison score

In a group, follow the movement of the group, be aware of the peripheral vision as you move; see if you can just notice the peripheral vision and your body and the group and don’t try to make anything up. Then slowly begin to give a movement to the group from within this framework of moving and listening and sensing and hearing peripherally to the group, from within the unison ‘state’. A unison score and giving permission/context to do ‘individual’ movement, in a unison context; experiencing that and the energy of that; no one is a star here; no one has centre stage; you are in a group: ‘calm down’.

Triggers, cues, score.

What is a cue?

What is a trigger?

Exit

Pause

Flow

Five minutes – playing with these;

A cue is not a trigger;

Impulses are not reasons for making decisions;

Compositional Movement

A piece full of exits;

Geography;

Change your geography: relate to space

Space is the choreography

Duration

Tracking the piece

Music: lucky chance: coming in with the music; being ‘with’ the music: lucky chance

Class:

Manuela: Class notes

Partners A and B

B standing

A mobilising the joints of A

Clear directions in space

How does this joint move?

Be functional, soft and clear;

See the body you are moving: look at it

Joints, muscles, shapes, lines, forms; like sculpture

Into B moving their body more themselves, A moving their body, B continuing on with the movement; b moving their body and seeing the space as they move their limbs as if someone else is moving them for them; responding to the experience of having their limbs being moved by someone.

Noticing space; the body in space and the body in relation to the space;

A leaves their partner in the space as they carry on moving themselves. A and other partners are moving around the space observing people moving now. They are moving as if they are in a duet with someone – beautiful to watch.

Change roles.

Then Under-surfaces folding like folding paper, like origami paper that is folding. Moving close to the floor and the Under-surfaces of the body folding and creasing like origami paper. As the folding happens the dancers see the space, the eyes receiving the space, observing the space.

Adding weight and speed into this so we have weight speed space sensation relationship; modifying, modulating, moving

Moving in space with your body in relationship

Receiving support through connection and relationship

Expansion through relationship

Ear, Eye, weight, sensation

Getting out of your head and into the world;

Use of your Self

Flow, Pause, Exit

Re-membering; mental, physical

See the space

See the people

Move in space, per-form the movement in relationship to and with the space and others around you, not either or. Both.

Eyes; A blind person moves their head around and lets the eyes see the space. 
Don’t grab for the space with your eyes, don’t hold the space with your eyes. Don’t hold the image or the space with your eyes. Move the head and move the body. Let the eyes, allow the eyes to receive the image.

On the floor, lying on the floor on your tummy; head faces partner: lie opposite a partner on the ground, heads towards each other. See your partner, make eye contact, and see them as your roll on to your back and onto your front; keep rolling and see your partner as your roll.

Levels: moving up and down from the floor with a partner; seeing them, moving towards and away with the partner; moving, doing your own thing, moving back with your partner; eyes and moving; Then the unison material;

Three people moving in unison; then include offer have space for other movement within the ‘state’ of unison movement.

Berlin

Laborgrasse

Renata Graziadei

Arthur Smith

Maya Carroll: The instrument

Marcella Giesche: Lake Studios, Berlin

Katie: Sound: ‘let the sound be transformed’ – not from the meaning but from the way the sound is transformed.

Habit

Habitat

Dancers can propose to the musicians – the music is a journey moving in time, it travels – dancers need to track what is happening.

Bring your world. What is the world you are trying to create?

The world of music

The world of the dancer

Collaboration is not a collective situation – we bring – integration of ears, eyes, body, senses, everything is in integration, everything is present and responsive and moving within a WAY bigger context. 

It’s not just ‘things that are happening’ – it is ‘This is my world’ and this is what I do in my world, in responsive to you in your world.’

The creation of a world – the whole human being in a group situation; Katie sees people drawing their world back; we are working with the worlds of the musicians.

Flow, pause, exit, canon, counterpoint, contrast;

‘How people are inhabiting their world;’

A fear that you are cheating if you set things; This is not so.

‘The use of the self within an externally changing set of conditions.

How we organise ourselves in response to changing conditions

Change = movement

Katie and Kirstie Improvisation - some reflections by Juliet

Story/mind/thought - interferes with direct experience;

Opening, eyes are oscillating focus, attention, presence.

Soft eyes, diffuse focus, moving focus, eye moves with body, body is moving, eye is moving in the head and in the space or with the body, deep in the sockets. 

Opening, hearing sound and music, oscillating, oscillating, hearing, moving changing sound;

Opening, seeing shifting, changing focus, lens of eye, moving, never holding or fixing the frame, never capturing the frame;

Shifting between long range, mid range, close range;

Long range means we are undefended.

Moving, moving, shifting changing between close and far;

No story. No script.

Script means the energy in the body has closed and there is a story happening in your head. A story, a storyline is happening to accompany/replace/substitute for what is actually taking place. And then we believe our story.

En-minding – touching someone with our attention, with our presence, presence is constantly changing.

Big toe to pubic bone, little toe to sacrum, heel to sitz bones; Little finger to little toe, thumb to big toe;

Transformational, relationally transformational;

Strategies for dealing with the vulnerability of not knowing, in performance;

Chemistry – interaction, world.