April 16, 2008

Hold With the Open Hand

Something I like to think about while improvising and well, making work in general - hold with the open hand.

Put out your hand palm up. Put something on it. That item is fully supported against gravity. You can move that item where you want to. If you want to drop is, just tilt your hand. If you had been grasping said item, you would have to open your hand and then tilt it the proper direction to let the item drop.

While improvising, support your idea fully but don't let your support get in the way.

As .38 Special sings :

Just hold on loosely, but don't let go
If you cling too tightly,
you're gonna lose control

April 14, 2008

M 2 M '08 and something I want to try

We came, we saw, we danced a lot. Last night Kelly and I watched some of the afternoon working sessions. Clean spatially...could see the duets, trios, clumps how we were all working spatially.

Couple things I noticed - events kept unfolding almost always at the slightly faster than a glacier impro pace. This is not to say that people were not dancing quickly, but the chapters (for lack of a better word) came and went at a similar pace. Scenarios were presented but not investigated for long. Vocabulary was brought back but a scene is more than just its movement vocabulary.

A score I would like to try is have a group of people working, let's say 7. One person is designated the observer (Though all are observer/participants...) When the observer sees a situation/scene - example: standing slow quarter spread throughout the stage with wild CI duet up stage and solo downstage - s/he tells everyone to pause and identifies the situation.

How much can the identified scenario be investigated? How much can its boundaries be stretched before it morphs? How much material is there in that one scene? Does the ensemble need to move on so quickly

April 1, 2008

Opening the blog to all March to Marfa crews

March to Marfa 08 is now over. It was again a great experience. It has been suggested to open this group to all different crews: 2006, 2007 and 2008 as a communication link and continue the discussion. 

I suggest using the label options to sort different discussion and use the comment options when a subject is interesting to you.

Labels suggestions:
unapologetic self-promotion
communication link
opportunities
tools
science
links
...