Präsenz dance creation reflection
Well. It’s been a wonderful journey. So much has happened and I have grown so much in the idea. I started out wanting to explore what presence is and it diverted along many paths, coming around in different directions as I explored and made the piece.
It started as a theme a year ago. Added purpose. Many ideas came and went. Peter Brooks books and also Jacques Lecoqs’ takes were inspiring, as was the whole idea of spontaneous art - Happenings. - things occurring live in the moment. My trip to New York shined some light. I went to a jazz club and listened to a great concert. But it was what happened after the concert that left the biggest impression. In this basement club with room for maybe 100 people max, the musicians did a jam session. The atmosphere was electric, and so in tune, musicians coming and going, improvising, really there in the moment, in tune. It fascinated me. The way that they responded to each other and kept everything going with such quality.
So presence wasn’t just me here in the moment filling the room with my energy, but the response I give to the world around me. Step in Giles Deluxe and his philosophy “Stay in motion, despise conformity, embraces difference, create your own values and identity, make connections, experiment, seek something new.” It all fit so well together to happenings and creating in the moment.
The one thing that I hung onto in conceptualising the project was the need for a goal. A need to create something that has quality, rather than frivolity. And that is what I did. All creation needs a framework, when it is completely free it is just for play and this has a value in itself. In my art, I am creating for a goal to present and connect to others. A completely open result in my opinion would be less directed and of lower quality due to what one can do through repetition reflection and refinement.
The basis for all the choreography and the music in the piece was responding in the moment. The response exercise I posted gave much of the movement. It was even said that most the improvisation looked choreographed. My thought is that is what happens when you have a specific purpose that is not a dream away but ready, aware and receptive - present.
In retrospect this can also be confusing to the audience. I think it is something where it you are not too sure what to make of it. It is at a level where it looks set, but is it? There is a harmony in the moment, connections between the dancers and their movement, yet it is also not directed in a clear direct refined way. The advantage is it grows in the moment allowing for the suspense that live creation has. Something to think about for the next pieces if I choose to go this way.
Writing the concept for funding helped in clearing exactly what I wanted to do with the theme. Of course budgets limited some aspects of the realisation, though I wouldn’t say that much ended up different.
Once I had a clear plan of combining the body and different elements as a major aspect of the theme, the rest fell into place. It was clear what I wanted to do and then it was only working out the details. I think there was much that could have changed, but at the same time staying true to the concept was in itself a task and in the end it all worked well.
There were many firsts for me. Of course in the ideas. I set myself a challenge to work with live music and musicians. I am grateful for the collaboration with Roland and Arne. They were the right two people to have as part of the project. Improvisational wizards, yet able to keep things in enough order for the dancers to dance to. The best of both worlds. As a first experience for me in my creations it worked really well. I now have an experience from which in the future as reference to work from. It’s not that I don’t/didn’t know what to do. It’s about having the confidence, clarity and decisiveness to get quicker to results and know what I want. Also how to express it to them. This experience was very valuable. The energy their music brought to the piece was amazing, and they were so flexible and easy to work with. I’d love more rehearsals to be able to realise more depth and detail, still I was very satisfied with the results. The desire is there to take everything further and I hope to do so when the next opportunity presents itself.
In general the piece for me was about trying out new things and ways of working, connecting with different types of art whether it be musicians or using text in a crossover form. In many ways I have planted seeds that will grow as I make my next pieces. This part of the experience and personal growth has been awesome.
I think another thing I learned is that there is so many different ways to go. So much variety and so many ideas where I really only just scratched the surface of what they could be. Something interesting was that I felt quite sad after the performances finished, struggling to let go of the piece. In searching for answers as to why, it struck me that a lot of the ideas felt like they were just beginning to grow. There is a huge thirst in me to take it all further and develop each part in much more depth and detail. This is something that may happen if the chance presents itself to repeat the project. Let’s see.
Most thankful I am for all the support I received. In some ways this felt like my idea that I was directing. And it was. Though in comparison to other projects this was quite one sided in the conceptualisation. I knew what I wanted to do and implemented it, drawing in the people, the funding, the resources to be a part of it and make it happen.
Sometimes I am inspired by the people and bring their ideas onto stage. This time the artistic vision was was more or less me. Within the framework I integrated the inspiration of others. Much of the movement was created in collaboration with the dancers through improvisational tasks that brought out authentic movement. It all fit within the set framework that I gave. The overarching ideas were mine, the implementation a collaboration.
And here I am, about to embark on a new project that is kind of out of my comfort zone again. And nice so. I love it! Pushing my own edge. Gaining on the experience gained. Do the things that scare you! This next one does… I will put in a lot of effort to realise it and that is exciting. I love things where I don’t really know how they are going to work out, where there are risks involved and where I am challenged to expand and grow. It’s been that way with presence and the new project will be even more so. New areas and themes, ways of expressing ideas. I am challenged to use my knowledge and skills and to build on them. I am challenged to try, fail and reassess. I am challenged to expose myself to things that I don’t know or am not necessarily very good at yet. And this I love. Growth is such an integral part of being alive.
Katharina Bopp, Anna Menzel, Grit Schade and Janin Sameith - Photo R. Fischenick