KATIE MARTIN CONTINUED

refracted unison:

guidelines;

1| choose sections of the base material to be performed with one of the dancers spatially pivoting the movement sequence consistently on a 90-degree angle away from the original phrase.

Another strategy we are inserting into the base phrasing is the concept of imperfect unison, in which there are moments of perfect unison and a subtle divergence from unison. At this point in the process with Miriam, I am drawing on Katie Martin’s practice of Sgorbati’s Complex Unison form. Instead of working improvisationally with Miriam in the moment of live performance, we are transferring the Complex Unison performance form into a mode of choreographic invention.

complex unison:

guidelines;

[cont’d from Part I];

1| articulate an improvisational score in which performers create spontaneous variations against known thematic material in gradual degrees of differentiation and complexity.

2| within a set phrase of movements, Miriam and I shape personal moments of subtle difference, playing with variation in speed, directionality, and energetic qualities to create a sequence with points of both individual and shared vocabularies.

3| investigate another main thematic arena of Impossible Frames, that of synchrony/divergence. (Martin, 60)

In the last two rehearsals with Miriam, we will stretch the idea of imperfect unison one step further, working with the theme of action word variation.

action word variation:

quidelines;

1| distill one of the base phrases into a series of actions that can be represented by a list of verbs. for instance, a leg extension to the side might be termed by the verb, ‘extend’, ‘brush’, or ‘reach’, depending on its particular movement quality.

2| after assigning each movement within the phrase a specific action word, ask Miriam to create a new sequence from this list, linking the order of the action word toegether while trying to maintain the original timing nuances of the first phrase.

3| produce a new sequence of movements that possess both a degree of integration and differentiation from the base phrase.

4| when performed in tandem, this strategy should allow the two of us to emphasize specific rhythmic