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Performed by Mark Adams & Polly Frame

I’m going to spend two days with a group of dance artists and a cameraman exploring voice-movement synthesis and capturing it on video. I will edit footage from this is into a series of physical music films and ask the dancers to interact with the films live. This will also be filmed. I will be doing this in the light of having explored the same process with some musicians/singers at the Burst festival at BAC during May. I will also be spending a day exploring the same process with musician/live artist Ansuman Biswas, but in addition to this also having him show me the principals of working with “Isadora” software. During and in between the above activity i will be learning how to use Final Cut Pro software, so that I can work beyond the limitations of iMovie and writing down and posting my findings both from the summer and may on the website. I also hope to give a short seminar on my research.

I’ll be spending my days in the studio going through them one by one (practising, performing, filming and editing).

On my ‘public day’ ill simply open the door and spend the time playing with combinations of scores and various possibilities for ’staging’ the work.

I’ll be uploading each days ‘product’ on the web, plus doing various other stuff such as continuing and developing my writing and documentation). Each person who has contributed to the project so far will have their scores sent back to them as presents.

Anyone who wants to come in will be welcome to watch or contribute in various ways - and ill put any ‘perametres’ or instructions on the door so its clear about what I’m doing and not so intrusive on either of our presence in the space.

see you there?

At the Nott Dance event I gave three tasks; the first two, to help us try and find poetic ways of articulating our practice. They were inspired by the salon questions themselves; the first in response to the opening subject “slice it” (“what are your ingredients?”) which I extended to make more playful; the second was in response to a request by Efrosini Protopapa to devise a similar task that engaged with the “Taste it” subject (“why do it?”). Efrosini’s suggestion to (simply) list the ‘why’s’ then pass around for others to provide the opposite meaning (and then the ‘in-between’) seemed to be the most effective, and straightforward process, however; we didn’t get round to actually doing it as the discussions continued to change and move on. I devised the following headings for us to play with whilst we talked, which aimed to at least get some sort of material out of a good idea, whilst at the same time; keeping it playful and light so not to stop the flow of the discussions. The third task was to ask the participants to write me a score; which I had already prepared a flyer for, and simply continued my Lab investigations in the ways I had already been doing over the last year.

The first task was devised in the first instance to lead to a later ‘task’ (I wanted to ask people to write a list of their ‘ingredients’…

“imagine that you are a cake (or dish of your choice); write a list of ingredients which make up the recipe”

This would perhaps lead to a discussion about ‘method’ and ‘methodology’ (how would one put together the ingredients?).

Mine was:

• take a level teaspoon of Grotowski (Richards will do), Nunez, and Slowiak, and crush together in a pestle and mortar.
• Add some doubt and cynicism about the messianic and devotional aspects of their practices to form a smooth paratheatrical paste.
• Take the theatrical aesthetic of Beckett, Wilson, Lepage and Brooks
• Coat with the crushed paratheatrical paste and leave to soak in the flavours.
• Finely chop 3 whole DV8 pieces (pref’ My Sex Our Dance, Strange Fish, and Cost of Living), and sweat in a wok alongside 2 generous cups of Bausch, or Vandekeybus
• Add 2 cans of experimental choreography (Bel, Le Roy and Lehman are ideal) and simmer until reduced into a rich sauce
• Now add the marinated theatrical aesthetic and cover for 2 years.
• Whilst the mixture simmers, blend together 6 years of practice, teaching and research in the field of Performance Studies, 13 years of (poor) state education, 4 years of interdisciplinary practice as research in Drama and Performance Studies, and 7 years of professional practice (mask-work, physical theatre, and street art works best)
• Add a serious need for more training in dance, to taste.
• Pour mixture into a large translucent bowl and add the simmering mixture.

The second task consisted of sheets of paper with headings written on for people to respond to:

This one tries to address the ‘why do it’ question – but I also wanted to reveal or at least encourage us to think about our work beyond ourselves…

WHY THE WORLD NEEDS ME

· Because I don’t get excited too easily

· Because I don’t enjoy performing

· Because I’m different

· Because I scare you

· Because you might see yourself in me

The next two concern ones work as a job; and its lineararity and our lists of ‘things’ that occupy our time and space (‘work’ or ‘not work’)

OUT TRAY (things ‘done’ and ready to ‘file’)

· Too much worrying to do it perfect

o (and me!)

· Nothing yet…the product/presentation hinders the creative journey

IN TRAY (things ‘to do’ and needing doing)

· Need

· Life

· Hunger

· Apprehension

· Ideas

· Connections

· Inspirations

· Desire

· Ideas…ideas…ideas – scattered – incoherent

· Find space + time

· Time

This one is about our aims and ambitions, but also about how we (or whether we) abide to the rules and codes we set ourselves; a signal of ones needs and desires…

NOTES TO SELF

· Remember why you want to do work

· Remember where passion and curiosity lies in work

· Trust what arises – refine the observation – dull the wilful doing

· Believe in the work

· Keep going slowly to open up time

· Trust the gaps

· Stillness

· Let it go sometimes

· Challenge

· Love

· Don’t leave me

· See studio more often

· Get up

· Try and stop – and not do

· Love my fetish…its OK

· Don’t waste any time

· Stay in love

· Pull your finger out of your arse and get some work done!

· Don’t get up

· Take time

· Rem: you need to keep learning…?

The following two consider the artist and his/her work in a relationship…and return to the ‘why do it’ question by providing us with reasons ‘for’ and ‘against’ making work, or even articulating our work…

THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU

· Self-judgement, censorship

· I’ve been here before

· Overly critical

· Not being good enough

· Getting in the way – persistence

· You burn me up

· I can’t seem to define you… (but maybe that’s a love/hate thing…)

· I’m not allowed to have fun anymore

· Messiness

· Too much meaning

· Too much of different stuff

· Noone likes you because you don’t fit in the boxes

· Uncertainty, lack of confidence in ability

· Procrastination

· Fear

· Lack of confidence

THINGS I LOVE ABOUT YOU

· Difficult…writing may be small…!

· Simplicity

· Connections

· Doing it…being in it…losing self

· Being, being self

· Fluidity

· Going deeper

· Sparks, excitement

· Passion, drive

· Too messy

· Lots of different stuff

· Emotional quality

· ‘the old woman’

· Seemingly orderly

· Suspicious

· You burn me up at times, so that you are, like sex, intense, spiritual, contact with fellow human beings

· The strange situations you put me in. the risks you make me take. The demands; the cooperation

· The fun we have together at everyone else’s expense

· You make my belly flop

· The way you push me

The final task – at the end of the event was to ask people to share a little more of their artistic practice by offering me a score…

“a score for one performer…

You are warmly invited as respected peers, artists, critics, and scholars, to offer your recipes, tasks, instructions and ‘scores’ for action and movement.

They will contribute to a performance made from a collection of scores/instructions by national and international dance and theatre practitioners

Perhaps you’d like to share a fragment or task from your own creative practice, or explore the task of describing a way of doing what you do that instigates and instructs creative response AND ACTION in the body.

You can also contribute to the event in the following ways

• Text messages/phone instructions: 07944355661
• Emails/webcam: physicaltheatre@hotmail.com
• By post: C/O Robert Jude Daniels, Performance Studies, University College Northampton, NN2 6JD

• Or you can write your task, recipe, instruction or score below”

(I also asked that everyone supply their names and affiliation/institution in order to appropriately credit each contribution)

A couple of people said they would send a score via post/email, but I’m beginning to accept that (because other people has promised the same in the past and not followed through) they will not. I’m not entirely sure why there’s a reluctance to contribute; perhaps it’s in my asking, or where – in the discussion – it is asked for (?) nevertheless; there needs to be a better strategy of introducing, working on and collecting the scores in future. The lists above and the other stuff on the tablecloth itself provide the lab, and my research within it, with some interesting stuff to muse upon (even on a playful, superficial level), but the end result; where I introduce a couple of tasks in order to encourage their engagement with my final request clearly reflects a need for more guidance and specificity/purpose.

Eventually – a score was dropped through my letterbox. Just the one mind – but it beats a smack in the face…

POSTED SCORES:

From: Linzi Gibbs, Student at DeMontfort University

1) Have to move across the space on a mattress, you are not allowed to touch the floor or surrounding (walls) but you are allowed to use the audience/instruct them to help you.

Mattress can be folded, rolled, slid, shunted, toppled etc. be inventive.

2) RECITE JOHN Keats ‘Ode to Psyche’ whilst slowly walking backwards in a figure of eight in the space…pausing with the natural pauses in the text (and varying these pauses).

Musical accompaniment = (for ambience) drum and bass of your choice (preferably heavy drum and bass…)

My intention is to produce 3 short pieces of video with sound. We will be working with both raw film footage and documentation of a performance event.

I am interested in focussing in and down on very short pieces of movement based material in order to explore the very essence, the qualities of the materials. This connects very strongly with the desire we have been focussing on in the lab to ‘find a slice of material’ that penetrates and reflects the whole, that finds the depth rather than skirts over the top layer.

To continue our gastronomic line: something that includes the fruit and
marzipan and not just the icing.

I will also continue to try to articulate through words what kind of
movement I make, to find ways of describing what it is that fascinates me
about these movements and images and to set up situations that allow us
to explore and dwell upon our responses to these movements.

It seems inevitable and vital that part of this exploration is located
within that very real tension between what it is we want to articulate and
to whom we need to articulate this to.

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establishing.