Thinking about graphic bodies and the body as meaning: Interesting documentary last night called Sex in the 90s that traced a whole ‘revolution’ on the demise of feminism and its usurping by ‘girl power’ and laddettes back to the Wonderbra campaign. These traffick-stopping breasts, belonging to an unknown Czech model, apparently coincided with and influenced a chain of events, including the Spice Girls advocacy of the Wonderbra as liberating tool for women(!) Add Loaded, Ibiza and the spread of lapdancing and you get, apparently, women ‘in charge of their sexuality’ (hmmm) . Amazing that a piece of underwear can have such political influence…
But then, there was a direct line from corsets to the vote for women………
Question remains, what part of the body and its adornment/support might repoliticise the culture away from individualistic and narcissistic consumer greed? Suggestions? ( please no earth shoes), Anna
Ki
Our centre:
chi
chakra
belly
womb
stomach
bone bowl full of water
centre of gravity in the human body
Why use it to train reflexes?
Because if you need as a performer to strengthen flight (as opposed to flight) adrenalin, your mind will ignite the impulse but the body needs to work as fast - and given the weight/bulk of the pelvic bowl centre, learning to move from here means you can fly fast when necessary……….
I am here a little this week and next, July 10th ,11th and 12th. I will be spending 3 days in studio working on the training methodology for the individual - as opposed to ensemble and inter-active work for another time - with a performer Barbara Kukovec from Ljublajana (graduating on my MA in Performance Making at Goldsmiths this year) and another ex-MA, video maker/performer Lynette Moran. Barbara is an example of a total theatre artist. Trained in the classical academy ( a conservatoire training that all Slovene actors must go through) she has subsequently broken free, studied Butoh and physical theatre and is a very courageous and in-extremis physical performer. On Wednesday evening we will have the Post Pavis seminar, using the Questionnaire I have developed for students as a point of discussion for how we might use Performance Analysis models in our own articulation. I also look forward to speaking with Jane tonight on our respective analysis/responding models and to observe some of Gill’s work here.
Anna
Welcome to the table, and to our companionship. As we eat, we shall talk. This event is designed to bring us to closer of each other as practitioners. Below you will see a menu of topics. Please select your choice for each course before we start. We shall ensure that everyone speaks as much as they need without interruption by playing the ‘conch’ game with a shoe you will se in the centre of the table. When you wish to speak, please take the shoe and when you have finished, please put it back. You may wish to follow up/respond to the previous speaker or contribute your own course choice. Anyone can choose to move the conversation to the course at any time. The whole event is to be accompanied by spontaneous interruptions i.e. non-verbal communication. These are gestures or actions that you would like the assembled company to share in. to introduce one of these, simply pick up the ‘conch’ and demonstrate without speaking. We will all take this as a sign to respond likewise. This can then be broken by anyone at any time by picking up the ‘conch’ again and continuing the dialogue.
Amuse Bouche (to waken our taste for the occasion):
A little light hypochondria (a maximum of two physical complaints with/without current remedy/treatment)
Anecdote (something that has happened to you connected to your work since we last met)
Joke (as you desire, physical comedy especially welcome)
Inspirations (name a maximum of 3 artists who have inspired you in your career)
Hors D’Oeuvre
Cold starters (your own movement background/influences/mentors/teachers)
Warms ups (your current training practice)
Entrées (a chance to chew on some of your own ways of making work/thinking the body aesthetically)
The lab is a very particular opportunity – to have junctions of connection with a group of artists over time; to develop an accumulating knowledge of their projects and questions – what will mutate, what remain, what fall away. It is always easier to imagine a clarity in other people’s work than one’s own – so a few first slices:
Guy
Finding a language between movement and voice
How to set material through video – create ‘music’ through video editing process
Robert
Scores
Wanting left-overs
Kerryn
Video projection and live mixing
Haptic visuality
Sara
The spaces in between
How do the choreographer/lecturer/facilitator roles fit together?
‘the splinter in the eye is the best magnifying glass’
Anna
Try to step back, ‘absorbed so much I don’t know where it comes from anymore’
Body as a meaning-maker
Vida
Carry physical history as well as intellectual history with you
how is theory embedded in the work?
Relation to audience
Jane
Movement/voice/video with and against each other
I am the field site for the ethnography
‘felt sense’
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