Definitions

Kristina just asked me if I had a definition for dance, which I do and use in my work all the time. It is the first part of every workshop I do. And then there are other words that I feel we will be using/defining in our work. This is what I wrote to Kristina:
Actually, I do! I define dance as: movement aware of itself practiced with intent. I define choreography as movement aware of itself designed for affect.
I use the word "aware" as in the zen/meditation/spirituality sense - some colleagues argue my use of the word aware, suggesting that it means self-conscious.
I usually do an exercise with non-dancers where I use that definition and then I say - "now, just take one arm up in the air and down again." (they do) and I say "We all just moved." Now. Take a few deep breaths, be aware of all the movement in your body. Your heart beats, your organs are working, your blood is flowing. ALl that movement is going on without you "doing" anything. If it wasn't moving, you wouldn't be alive. Now we are going to take our arm up and down again, but this time, be aware of what you are doing, and make some choices. Fast? slow? Palm facing towards you, or away? Are you going directly overhead? SLightly out to the side? Breathe again, and when you are ready be aware and bring your arm overhead and down." They do. and i say "We all just danced. In my book, we all just danced."
Other words to define:
Cleave - this comes from Lisa saying that researchers take things apart, and artists put things together to create something. And I was reading a book by Alan Watts and he talked about the word cleave. Which means to break apart, and to hold together.
Words that need defining:
Teaching Artist (probably Eric Booth's definition is the one most used in the field)
Protocols (as in ways to talk about work)
Commission:
Teaspoon: this is a concept from a friend of mine, Nicole Livieratos. Little tiny phrases, ideas, etc. Just a teaspoon of an idea.
Grace: A friend of mine, Anne Bluethenthal, was talking about "moments of grace" in teaching
Catastrophe: I thought catastrophe was a nice opposite of those moments of grace.
Document: (defined on website)
Docudance (working definition on website)
Transformational learning

Our Creative Process/Environment

Lisa shared with me a selection from Ann Bogart's Viewpoints, written by one of Ann's dramaturgs. It gives detail to how he works to create his dramaturgy for Ann's work. His process involves collecting lots and lots of visual imagery and creating interactive wall displays from which she directs her actors to gather their material for their characters. I think about how each of us works on our work. The environments we create in, the ways we create an environment to work in.
My colleague and amazing choreographer Nicole Livieratos keeps her studio pristine, except for one curious piece. A red wagon. An old iron garden table. That somehow figures into the work. Not actually, but in her thinking.
My studio walls get covered with writings, drawings, images, scraps of paper with quotes on them. And books, books, books everywhere. I actually don't write in the studio. Not very much anyway. I write at the kitchen table, much to the dismay of any attempts for an orderly dinner.
Ann Kilkelly, another great artist, keeps boxes catalogued and things go in the boxes. But the boxes contain all - no spillage.
Michael (one of our lab participants and long time colleague/friend) and I spent deep retreat time together looking at this question among many others, and he articulated the outdoors as his studio.
And of course - each of these spaces becomes a document of the artist's working process.

We have an opportunity to collectively build our creative process/environment. I remember one Choreo Lab when Joanna Haigood came to the Pillow to visit. She came to the studio, where our walls were covered with papers and drawings. She said, teasingly, "Uh oh. Lotta thinking going on in there."

We have an opportunity to be witness to how the transformation of the space documents our thinking process/creative process over the course of our eight days together. How can we learn to "read" these signs? How will this influence the work we create, as well as how the work we create influences the space?

Paolo Friere

As I was packing books to send on to the Pillow for our onsite library, Friere's Pedagogy of Hope opened to this passage:

"Never does an event, a fact, a deed, a gesture of rage or love, a poem, a painting, a song, a book, have only one reason behind it. In fact, a deed, a gesture, a poem, a painting, a song, a book are always wrapped in thick wrappers. They have been touched by manifold whys. Only some of those are close enough to the event or the creation to be visible as whys. And so I have always been more interested in understanding the process in and by which things come about than in the product itself."
- Paolo Friere, Pedagogy of Hope

Math and Matter

My new docudance is an interplay on ideas of "matter" - weaving "matter" as in the scientific term, and "matter" as in things that have meaning. The resonant question is about the work we do - mattering.
My premise. Art-making makes things matter. Art-making, and using creative process as a tool for learning. In our case, using dance-making as a tool for learning. It makes things matter. Creative process helps us to get to: It matters. Which makes me think about the kids (especially in high school) who ask “Why do we have to learn this? It doesn’t matter. I’m never going to need this in my life!”
I felt like that in High School - the science and math classes. I was going to be a dancer - why would I need science and math? Now I am a science geek - why? Because it gives me a sense of joy, delight, wonder. I connect to the world through dance and science. When our students connect to the dance-making they connect to the science and suddenly say “It matters”. Matter can be neither created or destroyed. On the last day of the teacher’s workshop at HotSchools Summer Institute we made Math dances for the essence of math, for the unsolved problem. They resonated in the air. Everyone felt it. We made things that mattered. We got to the heart of Math - not a series of numerical facts and equations, but the beauty and eloquence of mathematical language through our bodes in time and space - because invested with the creative energy of their creators, they became emotionally powerful along with the "math facts" of our source material. They were also very funny. (Humor.... one of my favorite emotions)

Threads, Pathways, Doors

I'm about to leave Atlanta to head to SC to teach for Lesley U and then HOTschools Summer Institute in Connecticut. Both are opportunities to teach teachers. Classroom teachers. Last night I was having a conversation in my head with my students. I wanted to say to them that the way I teach is to figure out ways to open up doors. Then I thought, maybe its more like pathways. So here's my metaphor- there's this huge jungle and its called "Integrated teaching through the Arts" - and I know the part of the jungle that is dance pretty well. Have been trekking through it for many years. I can be a good guide through the part of the jungle that I know. And my teaching style is not to lecture (because that would mean that people wouldn't actually be in the jungle, they would be listening to a lecture somewhere other than the jungle) my style is to teach in the jungle. And as a guide, I point out paths rather than walk out in front and expect everyone to dutifully follow behind me. We start out together, and then we get to the waterfall and I say - well you could go this way and you might find.... or if you are interested in (fill in the blank) you might want to go that way...... my delight is when one of my students discovers a path, or something in the jungle, that I haven't seen before. A point of view, a piece of research.....
Which is not so unlike how I make my work. I usually say that I collect threads and then the fun is to figure out how I can weave them together. But I wonder what would happen if I stick to the pathways metaphor and think about how I construct my work with the metaphor of trekking through the vast, looking for familiar paths (my usual choreographic tools) and also looking for new pathways, and sometimes going where there is no path.
So I'll be following through on this thought. More soon.

Welcome

The journey begins. Before we all convene together in 68 days..... my show in North Georgia will open and close. I will complete a course I am teaching for Lesley University. I will head off to Connecticut as faculty for the HOT Schools Summer Institute with an all new format. I will take a ten day vacation in Panama (the country). My daughter will return from Massachusetts and begin her senior year. And all the other unknown stuff as well. What about you?