ImpulsTanz Vienna / 2017
CREATING ENSEMBLES
This Field Project is based on the choreographic exchange “Moving the Mirror” in fall 2016 in Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw.
We will work with different historical methods of improvisation and ensemble-building, that in some ways refers to the history of ImPulsTanz:
Mary Overlie’s “viewpoint theory” (she has been on faculty of ImPulsTanz in the 1990s and just released her book “Standing in Space”), Nina Martin’s “ensemble thinking”, Eva Karczag’s “ideokinetic bodywork”, Barbara Dilley’s “contemplative movement practice”, Nancy Stark Smith’s “Underscore”, Lisa Nelson’s work on perception, scores of Contact Improvisation, Valentina Desideri’s and Jennifer Lacey’s “fake healing”, Antonjia Livingstone’s “male breast feeding”.
We will look especially at the democratic, feminist and queer aspects of these practices.
“What I am interested in the moment is to generate a complexity in every dancer-body and in the ensemble which is not prescribed but emerges in the moment. Therefore I do not work with a strong physical intensity, state, shock, violence or sexiness but rather ‘closer to the centre of the body’, ‘closer to the joints’. If there is strong physical intensity, state, shock, violence or sexiness appearing, even better, but it is not the goal of my work.” – Peter Pleyer
Touch is a very easy tool to meet, you can get very intimate very fast through touch, and not only in Contact Improvisation but also in the very specific body work of Eva Karczag (Anatomical Release), where we open up the possibilities of movement and articulation through touch. In the text “politics of method” Stephanie Skura expresses that we need strong independent dancers, performers who have their own life, their own inner life and their own outer life and who can express that towards each other and in relation to an audience.
Through the collaboration with the visual artist and fashion designer Michiel Keuper this Research Project will gain visibility, performability and possibilities of image-making. Michiel will share elements of his workshop-series “VISUAL IMPACT – Space Shape Colour”:
“Exploring the impact of visual elements on performance. Be it a non-descript costume or an elaborate set design, whatever you present on stage will influence your audience’s perception, even when you don’t give it any thoughts at all. The workshop proposes exercises to create awareness of space, shape, colours and objects and the impact on your work. Also we will focus on compositional and improvisational tools and how to integrate these into your creative process.”