matthew

Little Captain and His Envelope

Lab Recap:

Before warming up with the developmental score (see below), we opened the lab with an exploration of initiating from the pinky finger. a.k.a. the little captain. We began by a micro envelopment that began with initiating from our pinky. We layered on the motion of pulling our pinky into or sending our pinky away from our center. We abandoned our pinkies for a time during our work on envelopment. We recalled Margaret's observation that envelopment is a reach and a pull. We used language to talk about our observations of enveloping pathways. We danced and witnessed duets that grew out of our work on enveloping.

Observations:

We observed that enveloping can make use of the processes of yielding into and yield away from, which was put into high relief by the very athletic double envelopments we witnessed in Margaret and JulieAnn's duet. It feels like Juice has more work to do in defining our terms: envelopment does not seem to be a new "developmental" possibility, but rather a pathway into discovering new opportunities to yield into or away from and so on in the developmental score.

The pinky work seemed to open up spiral pathways.

Thoughts on this week:

I'd like to learn more about the developmental score. I also really like focusing on technique toward the end that I learn more about the developmental score, like I could really go for some crescent rolls--putting the little captain in charge. Your thoughts?

little captain exploration

thank you to matthew for sharing with us material from a recent workshop with the Cloud Gate Dance Theater of Taiwan, the little finger or pinkie as the leader of spiraling motion

-and enveloping

I just remembered-and forgot to add-that i was surprised about how much i was enjoying exploring envelopments. It reminded me of doing butoh-I somehow felt transformed into something else-almost unhuman. I didnt know that you could connect with a partner with such bound and internal energy...i look forward to this wed :)

trust, habits, how we say it, and pathways

There was a lot to explore this week. The yielding brought about such a wonderful connection for me with my original partner, Margaret. I really wanted to stay there to allow for smooth and seamless transitions of weight-sharing and pouring. It felt secure and allowed for me to find that trust in building a jumping off point and really sensing Margaret through her skin and through her micro-movements, rhythms, and breath.

When we began to add in all the other ideas yielding, pushing, reaching, pulling, following through, I found it interesting which elements seemed more naturalwith certain partners. It brought to mind about our habits and where we are comfortable being in the dance. Angie had said she really think she is a "yielder"-meaning she primarily enjoys yielding in the dance and going with the flow and action.

How do we, or do we , include all of these in a dance and how do we follow -through? How are we clear of our intentions and split-decision made choices in our dancing?

what do we say yes to and when do we say it-how loud do we say it
what do we say no to -even maybe-and how do we say it in our bodies-when are we hesitant or when or how are we certain of our response-?

I also brought up the idea of trajectories. I think it is important to know how our bodies can feed into movement though space and through an exchange in each other. i guess im interested in pathways too duh ( i think i might be doing a workshop in that-ha)I think this can allow a follow-through to be more effective and allow for juicier and more mindful dancing.

Enveloping and the Developmental Score

Lab recap:

We began by revisiting our idea of “hook, pull, follow-through” and by placing it into Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen’s movement development framework: Yield, Push, Reach, Pull. We warmed up with a score the moved along that developmental framework by exploring each stage and progressively giving us more choices out of which we might “build a duet”: Yield, Yield + Push, Yield + Push + Reach, Yield + Push + Reach + Pull.

After reaching the “pulling” stage, we introduced “enveloping,” a new variable, into our movement mix. The image of enveloping is that of swallowing. In partners we explored the tandem sensations of envelopment: enveloping and being enveloped. A dancer placed a hand somewhere on the body of her partner, who would then move her body to swallow the body part. Getting a little more figurative, we used the image of swallowing to expand the scope of what we were enveloping to include limbs, body halves, and the entire body.

Results:

Out of our work came a discussion about habitual movement choices and a curiosity how a variable like enveloping can create an opportunity to engage in several activities: to further explore images that we enjoy (for example, a top being wound up and released); to ask questions about the limits of movement (for example, what physically happens around the limit of enveloping); to provide a point of focus that clarifies other variables like habitual choices.

Next steps:

Next week’s lab may continue to explore enveloping. On my mind are some of Melissa’s comments about tension—especially as it related to energy/focus pulling inward or exploding outward. Also on my mind is Margaret’s idea about transformation at the limit. I welcome any suggestions for scores that might get at some of these ideas.

1/20/2010