Lab Time 1
EΙΜΑΙ ΕΔΩ
ASC begins with talking a bit about herself creating an image that we could count on. ’’Trust me’’, she says ‘’I know how to do it’’. ’’Well that is a comfort’’, I tell myself. Then it is our turn; each participant talks about herself and about what brought her here. Afterwards, ASC introduces her first task: ‘’EIMAI EΔΩ’’ and invites us to move: ‘’Space is yours’’. An opportunity occurs to bring the past along with the present and the future; the previous as it becomes now. So, the next task is: ‘’ΕΙΜΑΙ ΕΔΩ ΤΩΡΑ’’.
Every one of us brought herself as she was before today, carrying, of course, all past experiences, to meet her present self at this moment, in this space with everyone else. Well, my experience let a question arise: ΕΙΜΑΙ ΕΔΩ?? The answer was: EIMAI KAI ΔΕΝ ΕΙΜΑΙ… I needed some time to reconsider. Maybe I needed a key word/phrase that would make me feel that ΕΙΜΑΙ ΕΔΩ and believe that ‘’space is mine’’. It didn’t take long before I heard these valuable words: ‘’we need to help each other dare’’. I tried to focus on some particular movements from today’s experience that meant something to me in order to form my experience. And by ‘’meant ‘’ I mean that help me be faithful to my intension, not just trying to stabilize choreography.
Lab Time 2
ΕΙΜΑΙ ΕΔΩ ΤΩΡΑ
Me as I am now with yesterday’s experience in me. We start directly with: ΕΙΜΑΙ ΕΔΩ. Yesterday’s experience comes to affect what I am today and I am going to affect today’s experience. The first double arrow appears.
Today óyesterday
After today’s ΕΙΜΑΙ ΕΔΩ I realized that memory plays with me and my intension. I really don’t know if I simply don’t remember my intension or intend to forget about it on purpose. Lots of double arrows…
Ana’s world
To have a world, you need to be conscious of it and then, move upon it. The body is the point of departure and destination. A world begins because I accept my limits. You can lose language and still have a world (ex. aphasia). That is why ASC insists: Dance is not a language. Ana introduces her ideas about dance, her limits and in this way she creates her world. So, Ana gives recommendations (how to do it), how to give ourselves tasks, how to make it work, to indulge in our experience, to create our world. And in the end she says that we are allowed to ignore her. The first lab sessions were too weird. We were so free that we did not do anything at all. Most of us were sitting down and thinking or writing and resist moving. I felt that limits create a protected area that you can make choices. In addition, limits create my own world.
Lab Time 3
Possible Failure
John Paul starts out in the circle where everybody is equal. A simple clapping warm up introduces us to JPJ’s theme: possible failure. What do we do when things go wrong or not as planned? Walking in unknown landscapes might be frightening in the beginning but it can lead us to unexpected results and fun. Soon, we realize that we can’t tell when the tasks are no longer warm ups and start being useful experiences that can turn into choreographic material. The key is to focus on the experience in order to be able to reproduce it, if necessary.
Task: ‘’Who is the object and who is the subject?’’
Working in pairs: Forget about being human and become material instead. Dehumanize can be catharsis every now and then. One is lying on the floor (subject) and the other one lying on top of the first one (object). The subject tries to get out of this dehumanized person who is like piece of furniture. What kind of material gives a struggle like that? Is this struggle between one person and another or just within oneself? John Paul created an antagonism: me acting as my own other. Isn’t it always like that in the end? Finally, the selfishness of each one of us is not a crime but gives an opportunity to strive for what we are up to.
Lab Time 4
Risking being a failure might open possibilities.
Are we really capable of recognizing the treasure within simple movements? We need someone, like a third eye, to justify our movements so that we give them a try.
Lab Time 5
Non Relation Impossible
The experience of starting can give you the idea of how to deal with the process. We explore our task after articulating it.
We exchange tasks with each other and lead. We become aware of the language, the physical conditions and the effects, then we discuss. Then, we exchange tasks again and discuss. We think about the next task…today’s experience along with yesterday’s experience, my task along with yours. Even if we try not to combine our works, it is impossible.
Lab Time 6
What is a task? Task is something that you are going to do. A task has probability and creates questions.
What is the theme? The theme is the limited space. What is the origin? The origin is that I have been told that I use little space. I will try to make a piece based on a bad review.
Questioning and investigating my task: Maybe my idea of performance is a task…My idea is to give just a task and then the audience will come up with the idea. I don’t tend to do everything on my own. Maybe I’m lazy or maybe I haven’t distinguished myself as a dancer/choreographer or part of the audience. I feel completely lost for the time being.
MY TASK: You are asked to dance a personal solo of which you already know the review (moving in limited space). It is neither a good nor a bad review. It is just a review and you have to not dance against it. It is something like tomorrow’s news.
I first asked Marilou to do the above task. I was surprised by the results. It made me think of how a person would feel in a limited space. What are her choices? What does she do first? Why? Marilou started out by checking her space first visually and then using some gestures, then she continued her exploration by checking her audience, the floor, her own body in this space. And again, why is that the treasure begins after the tasks end or when we take a break? That assumption made me realize that I should search for the right instructions in order to apply the same discipline as I did on the first place but allow the dancer to really be true to the task and her own. I somehow, begin to identify the process of the task (as ASC suggested) and hopefully let it surprise me.
Afterwards, I had to do Marilou’s task. She asked me to move as my legs and arms had different colors each and try to create a painting. The good thing was that she allowed me to use my “limited space” and that made me feel comfortable and glad, realizing that our ideas were already combined. Then ASC asked us to bring our tasks back to us but using what we saw. Luckily my task has a safety net (a personal solo) so that allows me to give it to anybody without worrying that it might lose its root. An evolution is setting the restrictions or shuts doors. Some restrictions may direct to certain choices.
Lab time 7
Shaping the Experience of Motion
You manage moving and see what movement it creates. Then, you make the decisions, putting yourself in movement. You start moving in order to create the movement. My task after receiving other’s ideas as well as mine is evolving. The body is not a material to realize. The body is the source and the idea itself out of which choreography emerges. We’re looking at the ability to manipulate the experience of moving out of which moving material is the outcome.
After Marilou did my solo for the 2nd time, I keep 3 gestures from hers (for now) and look for a way to move from corner to corner in this ‘’limited space’.’
First conclusion: It is easier when you see the task on another person. I guess I desperately need the ‘’third eye’’ again. As JPJ said, ‘’find ways to make it interesting’’. I need to escape the fear of performing the task and thinking the reviews already. I should stop being judge mental in order to move on. I start thinking about the judgment as an issue of process or just as an issue of aesthetics.
Second conclusion: I realize how much helpful was the ‘’exchange of tasks’’ task. That is because I had the chance to distance myself from my task and therefore make easier decisions. Unfortunately, I am alone again.
Lab time 8
What is choreography? Who is the choreographer?
Choreography is to set people into artificial relationships. Maybe, the choreographer is the one that poses artificial relationships. The present has to invest in the present. Nothing is a rehearsal. Everything is an evolution. Michael’s ideas agree with Ana’s as far as rehearsal is concerned. Ana suggested to avoid representation of past experiences and let today emerge.
If you change your presence, the work will come. Present and presence: I can sense those two words to be strongly related. I think that there isn’t a better way to invest in the present than changing your presence.
Lab time 9
Michael Klien’s 3 Strategies
If you’re a dance artist you don’t need a choreographer to tell you what to do but you need to find your own strategies and practice. Let your own thought body do the next step:
1. Moving while thinking; for example 5 hours a day. Get use to engage your body, moving with all your body while doing something else; or dance while thinking
2. Necessary changes. Stillness requires a huge amount of energy. Listen to your body, a minute is not enough. Transition: calm your own noise.
3. Cradling the unknown. How you change family patterns. You identify quickly certain space, movements etc.
Lab time 10
Find new tasks
After giving Eleni my task, I noticed that she used simple isolations that turned into more vivid movements; then she slowed down again. She moved like a little cat not taking her body for granted. I think I got myself a new task: Not taking your body for granted. Conclusion: Everything is in the body. All the answers are there. Return to the body when you’re stuck. Try to dance differently by rewriting. Stealing is useful so long as you know you’re stealing (Jonathan Burrows, A Choreographer’s Handbook).
Lab time 11
Meeting the Audience
Meeting the audience is like a blind date. How do we make a blind date work? We can’t assume that it will be love at first sight. We try to scale our work and notice that we don’t lose the ‘in between things’. Maybe, give other options: give beauty but not superficial. We try to create a net to support our work. Maybe, combine everybody’s work as a ‘’performance project’’
Lab time 12
Meeting Nefeli’s world
Nefeli invites me to her world, her space. Her own limited space actually. Our work seems to connect already. She decides to put me there alone. What is like to be alone? At first, I got excited of how many possibilities and options I had, but soon I got bored.
Clarity of task: I AM ALONE. We insist on that in order to exhaust things. In that way we gave ourselves the next task: I am alone until I don’t want to be alone anymore. So, after realizing that I am alone and taking advantage of my free of choice space, I ended up feeling bored and then desperate and sad. I avoid thinking that I am alone because it makes me sad. I refuse the fact that I am alone. Eleni enters, it is just about time. Eleni has been working with Nefeli before me and that creates a calm and joyful atmosphere. I slow down because I feel that I should respect the fact that she’s been in that space before me. I watch Eleni and how she uses Nefeli’s space. She fits perfectly in Nefeli’s ‘’installation’’ and Nefeli’s installation fits perfectly in Kinitiras. A painter once told me that a good piece of art always fits in the environment.
Lab time 13
Don’t Suffer
Yolanda made me realize how we manipulate our bodies. She says: ‘’don’t suffer; be true, be simple. Yes is no first and the other way around. So, we say no to move at first to immerse ourselves in movement later on.
Lab time 14
Yes means No
Yolanda says: ’’Lie on the floor and resist moving’’, ‘’Try not to move at all, not even a scratch’’, ‘’Keep eyes open and look at something”, ‘’Relax and then start by lifting one hip and consider what made that happen (what part of the body) and then the other hip’’, ‘’Lift the legs once more and the head and the arms’’. We started warming up and listening to our bodies. Warming up or creating pictures? Once again I can’t tell the difference.
Soon the body is warm, flexed, stretched out, ready to explore, tell stories.
No means yes first and the other way round. Given that, if you want to go down you go up first. ’’Change focus’’, ‘’ change directions’’, ‘’Try to create a piece of choreography’’, ‘’Tell a story, ‘’Use the feet to stabilize you and the arms to narrate’’, ’’Use words, it helps with the rhythm’’. Our shopping bag of ways to do it is full again and waits to unfold.
Working in pairs: Look at someone. Really look at him/her to find out about that person immediately in order to trust him/her. I look at Zoe T and she looks at me back. We both agree, without saying anything to give it a try. We begin with talking to each other while moving. I go first and she answers me at the same pace. Soon we created a bizarre talking piece of choreography.
Lab time 15
Almost There
Nefeli, Eleni and I decided to work together, from now on and see what would happen
Share: I am here with somebody else. I am not alone.
Coexist: I listen to the other person, I feel her, I enter her space and she enters mine. We share experiences and thoughts. We become one, each other’s mirror. We are alone again.
Lab time 16
A score in layers
Kyriakos arrives at the lab and brings his ideas: A score in layers
Letting the random happen: His music score is like 5 radios playing at the same time. It didn’t take me by surprise that Kyriakos agreed on the idea of an event that is sharable- individual.
Process can lead us to unexpected results and these results can lead us to limits or how to break limits. Once again we have to create conditions. Sticking to the conditions would help us commit to our tasks. In that way, we can reach the audience rather than hunting it.
So every one of us should set her rules and stick to them in order to create her condition.
Limited space: What does it mean? Does it limit you or sets you free? Invites you or pushes you away? Limited space creates certain conditions. Well, I set this rule/restriction: Never step on my limited space when somebody else is in there.
Lab time 17
Again, who is the choreographer? The choreographer is the one that sets the ideas, allows things to happen and knows that things will make a circle and return to where they started; the one that sets the rules and the atmosphere. But also, the one that picks up the people who would make ‘’artificial relationships’’ (as Michael Klien said) work. I now feel confident about my choices. I do believe that Eleni, Nefeli and I, all three will make it work.
Lab time 18
Performance idea along with my idea
Light creates time; we create space, except for my space that is created by a specific light (light 9). My limited space no longer needs sticky tape on the floor to be visible. It is the light area ‘’9’’. I am glad that it has a name now.
Last thoughts before the event
My piece ended up consisting of 3 solos. The first solo is me in area 9. I am supposed to warm this place up for others to follow…
My second solo is performed by Nefeli. She enters my limited protected space (area 9) while I am going away. She does that (makes that choice) while I don’t see her and waits in despair. She wants to be looked at as she did for me before. And suddenly all my ideas of this limited space: despair, isolation, clarity, exposure, freedom appear with strong movements and gestures. I’ve never seen such strength in such small body. She is my perfect idea for limited space within a body. Thank you Nefeli
My third solo is sort of Eleni’s piece. Eleni invites all participants in area 9. She knows how to do it. At first, she puts everybody, one by one, in space 9 and makes them feel everything in it. She told me to stand on the light area while watching others dance contrary to my rule: never step in that area while somebody else is in it. I let only Eleni to break my rule because, again, she knows how to do it. And then everybody comes in, having completely understood what it is all about, respecting each other, be sensitive to everything , respecting my space, my idea. Thank you Eleni
Final presentation:
