CHOREOGRAPHY

During the Spring 2012 semester I was also taking a Contemporary/Modern dance technique class with Katie Martin. Concurrent to my research of Trisha Brown, I independently studied Katie Martin’s work. This included reading her Smith College MFA Thesis Impossible Frames in its entirety, and creating an annotated bibliography of its methodology. Once again I could feel in my gut that these conceptions of dance-making would stay with me through my fourth year at Hampshire.

During the Spring 2012 semester I was also taking a Contemporary/Modern dance technique class with Katie Martin. Concurrent to my research of Trisha Brown, I independently studied Katie Martin’s work. This included reading her Smith College MFA Thesis Impossible Frames in its entirety, and creating an annotated bibliography of its methodology. Once again I could feel in my gut that these conceptions of dance-making would stay with me through my fourth year at Hampshire.

The dancers and I began working together in October 2012. My choreographic methodology was an investigation of Katie Martin’s Smith College MFA Thesis Impossible Frame

In preparing this thesis, I dived the final product into eight parts: moment one: Wall Street/Catharsis, moment two: The City/ Articulation, moment three: The Commune/Intention, moment four: Occupation/Attention, moment five: Decolonization/Magnetism, moment six: The Police/Attitude, moment seven: Imagination/Content, and moment eight: Debt/Time.

In the process of creating this choreography, these eight pairs were explored not as ‘either-or’ or dualistic constructs but instead viewed as distinct themes upon which a spectrum of movement possibilites were investigated and fleshed out. (Martin, 53-54)

The dancers and I began working together in October 2012. My choreographic methodology was an investigation of Katie Martin’s Smith College MFA Thesis Impossible Frames. 

stream-of-consciousness movement invention:

guidelines;

1| at the start of the choreographic process, aim to channel your intentionality through your body’s physicality and energy level on a day-to-day basis.

2| explore the body’s physical form- how it organizes itself according to the particular physical realities of the moment.’

3| focus your awareness on your body’s natural impulses in order to capitalize on its ‘underlying structural principles, physics, and potential in motion.’

4| rather than being immediately concerned with constructing a detailed order for specific movements, simply allow each movement that surfaces from these physical explorations to be fully expressed until the next action arises, continuing in this manner until these small sequences of movement construction can be accumulated and spliced together to create larger streams of movement phrasing.

5| follow the natural energies and impulses that arise in your body until ‘each string of movement phrasing dissolves or transitions to something new on its own accord.’

6| in this process, also allow yourself to digest what occurred by repeating the particular order of actions at hand, until it is solidified in your muscle memory before moving on to the next movement exploration. (Martin, 55-56)

During auditions I taught two pre-determined movement phrases built upon postmodernist (my muses?) dance phrasework/material to “contain a degree of both finely detailed gestures and nuanced shifts of weight and focus, and at the other end of the spectrum, large, sweeping, full-bodied motions that cut through, attack, and engulf the space around the performers.” (Martin, 58) .

BALLERINA POLICE FORCE DAY 1 - GRIND

After coming up with a base-phrase through -of-consciousness movement invention, we extrapolated upon those concepts until we had several usable dance sequences.

The dancers and I spent the first few rehearsals refining the specific dynamics of each phrase in order to perform each sequence in as perfect unison as possible. This process, which Katie Martin refers to as unison relationship, fosters a connection amongst the movers that helps them to establish a spatial relationship. In Martin’s theorization, what it means to dance in unison is taken a step further by exploring the very essence of what it means to be in a unison relationship with another individual.

BALLERINA POLICE FORCE DAY 2  - END OF TIME

Lastly, the dancing section revealed a deep regard for the sensory intelligence of the body. To quote Katie Martin, “I do not believe I would even be able to consider the kinds of working processes described above without a high level of embodied knowledge.

Within Susan Sgorbati’s improvisational practice “the notion of embodiment arises as a process of centering the body into the present moment of attention and sensory perception, attuning oneself to the body’s innate intelligence and felt experiences. Embodiment reinforces the notion that the physical body is also a thinking body, a concept” postmodern dancers of consider a crucial element to their movement experimentations.

Stream-of-consciousnes movement invention, whole body gesturing, embodiment, unison relationships, and action word variation- these are the primary choreographic strategies that built the scope of forming a movement. “I used these strategies to reinforce and reveal in various ways the ten arenas of tension that initially inspired the dance’s conceptual framework of perceptural multiplicity* (BARBA) and complexity of the moving body: (Martin, 72)

Movement 1: Solo

Abiding by Katie Martin’s choreographic philosophy (as articulated in her MFA thesis Impossible Frames) I decided early on in the process of making forming a movement to create a solo that I would perform within the overall composition. I hoped this solo will stem from a more instinctual and unplanned place; one that would relieve some of the stresses of the group rehearsals that were occurring concurrently. I imagined the solo section to allude to Martin; through a series of movement sequences that evoke multi-directional pathways of action within the landscape of the body and alternately carve a spatial matrix throughout the environment. (Martin, 54)

The primary choreographic theme that propelled this solo into being is the notion of stream-of-consciousness movement invention. This strategy emphasizes an improvisational structure based on instinct that would foster the emergence of movement phrasing and gestural dynamism.

Whole-body gesturing was another key choreographic theme for Martin’s solo in Impossible Frames.

whole-body gesturing:

guidelines;

1| question how you can subvert your own tendencies of movement initiation and sequencing.

2| look broadly at how you have choreographed over the past four years; recognize what your natural inclinations are in terms of how and where in your body you tend to initiate, support, and dissolve energy flow.

3| within the landscape of the natural movement sequencing that you are developing through your improvisations; interject unexpected shifts of dynamic and redirection of focus, in order to puncture the fluidity of your natural movement shaping.

4| utilize all possible movement pathways besides the heavily traversed options;

5| find ways to push yourself into physical situations that would be the least imagined or possible within a given context.

6| within this broad idea of carving frames within and around the body, continually ask yourself: What are you not doing?

7| embrace any and all points of the body as potential centers, axes, planes and kinespheres of physical articulation; constructing a serialist perspective against classical ballet’s long-upheld epaulment infrastruture;

8| imagine your body as having infinite centers of gravity and bases of support to launch a particular gesture – initiate movement not only from the most obvious points of origin (the limbs, for instance) but also perceive both gestures and centers of gravity originating from such unlikely locations as the tip of your ear, the side of your fifth rib, and the back of your skull in order to intersperse moments of surprise, counter-intuitive flow, and oppositional dynamic intention within the longer streams of more instinctual phrase building. (Martin, 56 - 57)

Lastly, this solo section will reveal a deep regard for the sensory intelligence of the body. To quote Katie Martin, “I do not believe I would be even able to consider the kinds of working processes described above without a high level of embodied knowledge.”

In this quote Martin refers to the development of embodiment within Susan Sgorbati’s improvisational practice. “As detailed in her Solo Practice, the notion of embodiment arises as a process of centering the body into the present moment of attention and sensory perception, attuning oneself to the body’s innate intelligence and felt experiences. Embodiment reinforces the notion that the physical body is also a thinking body a concept I perceive as integral to any kind of improvisational exploration.” (Martin, 58)

embodied knowledge:

guidelines;

1| when you are creating material in the moment, literally think through moving – experience each action from your own personal, idiosyncratic kinesthesia.

2| unearth physical material that is aligned with who you are as a dancer in the present moment;

NOTE: these actions may or may not be recognized as codified forms of movement.

3| emphasize inner physical knowledge;

4| acknowledge the power of individual investigation and experience; (Martin, 58)

Movement II: Duo

• Duo between I. Buddington & Miriam King
• Short & focused choreographic process

When I first begin rehearsing with Miriam King, I plan on teaching her two pre-determined movement phrases build around the perceptual spectrum of minutiae/scale. Thus the actions within these movement sequences will contain a degree of both finely detailed gestures and nuanced shifts of weight and focus, and at the other side of the spectrum, large, sweeping, full-bodied motions that cut through, attack, and engulf the space around the performers.” (Martin, 58)

Miriam and I will spend rehearsals refining the specific dynamics of each phrase in order to perform each sequence in as perfect unison as possible. These two phrases will then become the foundation for other choreographic strategies that Katie Martin articulated in her Smith College MFA thesis Impossible Frames. The first of which is the basic idea of unison relationship. To quote Martin, “I chose to work with unison for two reasons: One, I believe it is fairly difficult overall to achieve moements of perfect unison in any kind of movement scenario… I was drawn to the challenge of finding ways to align our diverse dynamic dispositions and ways of understanding and embodying movement information. Two, I perceive the idea of unison as a powerful indicator of connection… I wish to evoke a sense of relationship.” (Martin, 59)

In addition to refining phrase material in perfect unison, we are experimenting with the spectrum of unison form. In other words, we are exploring other modes of what it means to be in a unison relationship.