Challenging the idea of community and shared authorship within the group of performers even further, I would like to present a toolbox as a prototype that could be shown and shared so that other choreographers or dance practitioners interested in the idea can access it and work with it. So far it is in development to be published on my website with a feedback loop, offering choreographers to comment on their experience of working with the toolbox and allowing these comments to feed into my on going research.
Similar to Lehmen’s toolbox (2004) and his aim to illustrate the communication between all performers, this toolbox demonstrates the social interactions between all performers and the form of collectivity, or referring to Laermans’ term ‘Choreography in general’ that arises in these inter-relational interplays (Learmans, 2008, p.13). The toolbox can be easily performed by others, using the principles of the ‘visible choreographer’ to initiate causal chains within the social system, the group of performers (Segal, 2001).
The instructions by the ‘visible choreographer’, or ‘choreoformer’, start these processes, the wild cards can be used to shift power structures and the automatic speaking mediates ideas, thoughts and observations. Following, is a list of the key features of the toolbox. They are brief and not explained further as I would like to give enough space for individual interpretations and not influence the reader too much with how I work with it. The toolbox is a starting point and can be developed further within each group of performers or adjusted to each specific setting.
Toolbox for an Incorporate Practice:
Duration: 4 hours to allow processes to unfold
Task cards, prepared or written in the moment (choreoformer)
Verbal instructions with the microphone or whispered in the performers’ ears (choreoformer)
Wild cards (dancers)
Automatic speaking as a form of mediation and visibility (choreoformer)
Chosen narrative as an overarching theme, interviews as possible soundtracks
Working with the toolbox could allow a collectivity without, as Cvejić claims, central leadership (Cvejić, 2005). The first rehearsal could start with everyone reading the instructions so that an artistic framework could unfold within the group of performers. This process of unfolding would allow the possibility of viewing choreography as a ‘performative network’ (Laermans, 2008), presenting the group of performers as a social system that fluctuates between change and stability (Bateson, 2000). The process of unfolding would start from the first rehearsal day and the group of performers would experiment with different ideas, each within their designated role of dancer or ‘choreoformer’, focussing on the social interrelations within the social system.
Furthermore, the ‘Toolbox for an Incorporate Practice’ could support the idea of Before I decide, exhibiting features of an open work following the explorations of Margolis and Rubidge (Margolis/1981, Barthes/1977a/1977b, Rubidge/2002). It would allow its identity of flux to unfold and to be experienced differently in its multiplicity with each new group of performers.
As part of my teaching at the Contemporary Dance School Hamburg, I will now work with this toolbox, experimenting how the students will embody it and how the group as a social system will unfold. Apart from my teaching in Hamburg, I am planning to offer workshops for dancers, musicians and actors where this toolbox gets introduced and experimented with, allowing other artists to play with these ideas and offering/chairing discussions about questions of authorship, control and collectivity.
My observations and experiences can then feed back into my on-going research.
To be continued.
References:
Bateson, G. 2000. Steps to an ecology of mind. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press
Barthes, R. 1977a. The Death of the Author. In: Heath, S. (ed.) Image – Music – text. London: Fontana/Collins, pp.142 - 148
Barthes, R. 1977b. From Work to Text. In: Heath, S. (ed.) Image - Music – Text. London: Fontana/Collins: pp.155 -164
Cvejić, B. 2005. Collectivity? You mean collaboration. [online]. [Accessed 18.05.2014]. Available from: http://www.mobileacademyberlin.com/englisch/2006/texte/cvejic02.html
Laermans, R. 2008. Dance in General or Choreographing the Public, Making Assemblages. Performance Research: A Journal of the Performing Arts. 13 (1), pp. 7-14
Lehmen, T. 2004. toolbox, published by Thomas Lehmen, ISBN: 3 - 00 - 014990 – 2
Segal, L. 2001. The Dream of Reality: Heinz Von Foerster's Constructivism. New York: Springer
Margolis, J. 1981. The autographic Nature of Dance. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. 39 (4), pp. 36
Rubidge, S. 2002. Identity in flux: a practice-based interrogation of the ontology of the open dance work. In: Preston Dunlop, V. and Sanchez-Colberg, A. eds. Dance and the Performative. London: Verve Publishing, pp. 135-163
Photos: Philippa Thomas, Brian Slater
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