Alexandra Grigoriou

Alexandra


 just a hint of her
alexandra
loves chocolate
pities whoever believes in shopping-therapy
bites her nails
plans to be surprised
believes that the best advice ever given is:
..and this is all she considers important for you to know about her.


Words /thoughts /expectations /dreams /wishes/ whatever of alexandra  before   t h e   l a b :
The basic question that summarizes the idea of my research is: 
How do I create movement of the body by focusing on the movement of attention through the body?
I shouldn't force the body to move, I should wait for the movement to come, by focusing on my 'internal witness'.  Only if I keep consistent to that idea and have faith that something will come,
I find answers to questions like:  Why do I move? What initiates my movement?.
Another aspect of my research would be to work on notions such as:
small dance :  the dance that breath initiates,as a source of movement and 
momemtum : the right time for two or more bodies (or souls) to be together not just in the movement but in space.
Another main concern through this research will be how to search for ways to move and apply them in order to serve a specific concept. I have been deepening in techniques and ideas like  authentic movement/  kinetic awareness/ contact improvisation for years and at the moment I do feel the need to merge these ideas in order to develop my personal way of moving, expressing, composing and (why not) living..."
 
 
 Likewise, after   t h e   l a b  :
When I think of dance , "Journey" is the first word that comes in mind. "Exploration" the one that follows. I trust intuitive movement to be an endless source of information about oneself. It is exactly that "journey of exploration" through movement that I am interested in.
When I think of choreography, "frame" is the first word that comes in mind. To choreograph is to create the conditions (=the frame) for things to happen. Things/miracles/dance/art/communication.

To combine these notions and "explore" the possible "frames" for things to happen I use tasks. This is my working process. Tasks and not instructions.  An instruction is restrictive. A task is " liberatory through limitation" , in the way "no" is a "yes" to another direction. To detect the first ground , the trigger point, that will begin to generate tasks ,which will evolve to the frame I have in mind, I use dance improvisation. When walking into a studio to improvise I need:
  • Not to be afraid
  • Not to come with a concept of "who I am"
  • To stick with the task each time
  • To have faith that unconscious choices are the interesting ones as they reveal oneself and everyone is interesting , as everyone is unique.

The most challenging task I am currently working on is:  overcoming the idea of the split between mind and body. I used to believe that thinking one has to be absent when improvising, in order to avoid judging my moves before they are born. Turns out (a discovery through the Lab), that is a mythEvery cell of mine is a vehicle for thoughts.  Every cell has memory, wishes, limits, fears, feelings. All I need is keep moving -in- my thoughts and make the necessary changes according to how I feel. In other words, calm my own noise.

If I had to choose the most memorable and important experience , that would be the first time I was accepted in the International Contact Festival in Freiburg, Germany. It was a really overwhelming experience. Made me think that I would like my everyday life to be like that. To wake up, in a community of dance and movement practitioners and spend the day in exploring ,in any possible way, movement and human relations through it. "What do human relations have to do with it?", you will ask. It is amazing ,when observing your movement choices ,in a contact duet for example, how similar, you realize, your dancing behavior to your social one is. Are you aggressive? Do you surrender? Do you have the will to dominate? Do you tend to be passive? Above all, are you listening??  It is all there. Revealing itself.

The question is are you willing to accept the findings , surrender what you are to what you could become and keep this journey going ? "
 
 
T h e     l a b 
[ and its reflection on my writing ;-) ]

Ana 
When I first met Ana , I felt I met me. Friends always tell me how quickly I speak , how even more quickly I think and how complicate it is for someone to "follow" me. Well, that was exactly what Ana was all about. "What am I gonna do? I will get nothing out of this lab..  :(  " , I thought. Time went by and Ana said the magic phrase that got me, tuned me up: "  'life is not a rehearsal' , my father told me".[or was it was her grandpa?( I cannot recall )]. The point is life is indeed only one and you need to get the most out of it. 
 
 
Day 1
 "I am here  - the senses' map ". I need to define my "being here" by using space references. I have an image in my head : invisible twine connects me to specific points in space. And therefore my existence is defined. " I am here "   because the points I chose are where they are.  How did I choose the points?  Based on my senses (the feeling when touching the ground at that point , the color or the fire-extinguisher etc-whatever gets my senses' attention). After remapping me in space for several times , my body ends up standing in the exact spot where it was in the beginning of the task, having the exact same relations to space , even though my eyes where closed while I moved the last time.. Odd isn't it???

Day 2:
The task is the same. "I am here". Oh wait......... It cannot be exactly the same. I may be here,  but it is  in a different now.......The challenge is to use the previous relations to establish new ones. Allow whatever it is I am experiencing to become a physical event-an experience of itself without what caused it. Embodiment is present.

How do I make complicity grounded?

John-Paul 
John-Paul 's  session is all about rhythm. Whatever the task / exercise , we need to keep the rhythm alive.
Ideas brought from 
circus ("the clown") 
theater ("pushing and pulling")
butoh (butoh based exercises) 
are merged and very interesting thoughts and conclusions arise.
  • "Pushing and pulling" , a game of yes and no. I am thinking this is a basic contact improvisation exercise. Maybe would be an interesting answer. I finally realize that "no" might not even exist. As it is a "yes" to another direction (whatever that means).

  • "A clown is theater in rhythm. It is a physical and rhythmical thing , where representation gets in the way". We need to keep it outside. We are not mimes. Our point is not to "show" at our face, but through the body. Stay away from the representative part.

  • A clown is about failure. Technique is needed to be good at failure in a fake way. As dancers we are taught to succeed , to be perfect. The challenge ,now, is to be taught to fail !!! The best way is by sticking to each movement's truth ( and therefore to a failure's truth ) and make no effort to prettify it.

  •  A literally simple everyday movement can be the beginning of a choreography. It doesn't always have to be about a deep, strong feeling giving birth to a movement. The repetition of that initial simple movement will propose ways to turn "the rule" upside down (=evolution).

  • How do I set up a project? How do I set up some rules? It is all about  t a s k s. I should judge in the moment and not jump at the result. When it gets boring, the game is gone, there is no development. That is when I need to change"the rule". By judging in the moment and changing "the rule", I let the task evolve and the project breathe.

AnaIssues of  " making"    
  • How do I make improvisation capturable?   A non capturable  improvisation is just moving. The 1st level of judgement is not an aesthetic judgement. It is a matter of seeking the clarity and concentration even when improvising.  It is about being precise on the moving so that I can then repeat it. In other words, a matter of  kinesthetic memory. I should be aware of  1) what I am setting up and 2) the specificity of it (why is it this and not the other).  I should be able to see thought in motion.

  • How do I manage the experience of motion, its impact on the body? Keywords: observe , choose.      I experience the moving and consciously choose the way to recreate the feeling of it.  It is a matter of looking at the making without loosing the embedded embodiment. 

  • How do I move from "experiential" to "forming" ?

  • How do I move from  "idea" to "task" ?

  • How does a piece opens itself (giving out but also taking in..) ? 

  • "Tasks" vs "Instructions". Instruction is restrictive by nature. Task is an open score that allows imagination to make choices. 

Note  
The body is not a material to realize an external idea (= representation).   It is the source and the idea itself , out of which choreography emerges (Ana Sanchez-Colberg, upcoming writing).  

 
Michael  
 
Choreography  and  Politics. Governing subjects, setting people in artificial relations to each other. "Choreography in dance is really the rehearsing of new social structures". In choreography, we explore new social relations. We find new ways to tune oneself to the environment.   That is new politics. Every work is political. You can read out politics out of every work. (ex. How you understand the idea of freedom, how you position yourself , are you faithful to the system? etc.) What society does your work want to built?  What society does your work actually built?
  • Evolution, society, economy. Movement is already there. You are part of this "first order" choreography and so are your ideas. Your whole cultural identity (everything that comes out of religion, education, belief systems etc) is already in whatever way you use to approach your own process. You are what you are/eat/consume/your social circle. Your whole life is your practice.Your frame.

  • Choreographer is the creator of conditions for things to happen. The frame-maker.

  • State of dance: 'a "real dance" is a thought that reaches its proper heights', whatever that means, when talking about a thought-body. The point is to 1) find portals, strategies to enter the state of dance, 2) recognize it and  3) share it.

  • The myth of body and mind split .(metaphors and physical brain George Lakoff ). How do I break that social pattern? Keep moving in my thoughts , make only the necessary changes, calm my own noise.

  • Breaking a pattern: " Be aware that your patterns will always limit you. Open up that safety and be brave to show society to have other options. It is safe to be different." ( I might be anti-authoritarian because this is when I think : I do not believe in norms, therefore how do I know what is different?? If I do not recognize the notion of norms , I do not see the matter of being different. Different from what??)

Types of choreography(1):
 As a dance practitioner , how does dance come to me and how do I transfer it?
  1.  Choreography of salvation. The notion of the genius that shows the way. 
  2. Choreography of revelation. A constant work of revealing. This type pledges the idea of what is revealed more than just shown.
    Types of choreography(2):
    1. Linear Choreography. Initially it was just the writing down of dance(dance notation). Then it was the making  of pieces. Nowadays, everything , a creative art.
    2. Non-linear choreographic approach. Just like society is structured in rule based contracts, choreography can be a step based contract. Game structures. IF [ ] , THEN [ ].
    3. Including improvisation (ex. contact improvisation)

    Kiriakos  
    How do we open up the audience? Process can lead to unexpected results and those bring out questions of safety.  Randomness requires a certain openess from the audience.  By sticking to the conditions that you have created you bring the audience to you instead of striving to reach it. Even experiments are discipline-based
    • Treat sound as an extra presence, a  performer. 


     L a b   t i m e
     
    During the lab time that followed the sessions I tried to digest the issues and the tools that were brought to my attention and apply them to my initial idea for a performance so that the concept I had in mind would become sharable. 

    I first worked with Eleni P  the idea of  focusing on the moving of my attention inside and outside my body waiting for the movement to come and not forcing it. In other words, I asked her to turn on every antenna her senses allow her to and react intuitively to anything perceived by these antennas. It was interesting how Eleni's idea was similar to mine.
    At first , vision was excluded (a pretty dominate sense). 
    Eleni felt her attention  moving and followed with eyes closed.



    This initial idea developed into the final presentation as a group of people following their hearing and their vision as far as  to which direction and in what way to move is concerned. This group behavior was used to indicate society as we know it. Where the idea of norms and copy-paste behavior rules. The performers of this group were wearing ties as a symbol of such society.
    On the contrary,  a duet emerged out of the group , moving differently , following the sense of touch this time. A contact improvisation duet.  The duet served the idea of proposing another way of living, another relation. Another society. One where people really listen to each other, get in touch and feel one another. So that they really move/act  together in space and time (momentum).



    For the duet, I worked with Eleni M, a friend of mine. Slowly building up step by step the conditions needed. Using exercises from my backround  in contact improvisation. Mostly the idea of touch and the game of pushing and pulling. The already known as a yes and no game! Maybe turns out the most interesting answer. Every time someone pushes , she proposes a direction. If the other one says yes , with a little no in it - a maybe-  the support needed is found for miracles to happen.

    The flyer for my project's presentation
     "Mind your step, step out of your mind": "Norms. Automatic behaviors. Is there another way?"
     Every part of the final presentation of my project was a matter of structured improvisation. Open scores used to guide the performers. As a result ,music/sound/voice (one more performer ) had to be live so that it could be a product of interaction. Whatever happened was created in the moment and each presentation was unique and different each day. 
    George, Pela , Eleni M., Panagiotis , Tina, Georgia, Eleni P. , Nefeli , Zoi, Carolina, Myrto, Pauline. : 

    THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
    For all your help, for your time, and your wonderful personalities...

    Final presentation:    Final presentation of Alexandra's project