Sometime after discovering structure, after I fell in love with “audience design,” I lost my connection to moving. Structured experience replaced “dancing.”
I love my structured experiences, but I miss dancing. I miss the raw connection to an audience, feeding off of them instead of controlling them, giving them my instinct, opening a window to my investigation of the moving body.
Open Studio is my return to solo work with a focus on the body. I expect it to be a bumpy and uncomfortable return. My body has changed and I’m more cautious with myself, more careful with what I will give to an audience.
This is a personal exploration. Key to its success is to perform in safe space with welcoming audiences –and scary spaces with unwelcoming audiences. It is to perform under any conditions.
My art is fleeting and I am working in celebration of that. Here are the “rules” for my process:
Objective
Reconnect with the unique body performing.
Rehearsal practice
- rehearse weekly or bi-weekly
- do not video/audio/photo document these rehearsals
- warm up with music, practice without it
- never use a mirror
- if you can’t get studio time, use your living room
- write for 5-15min sometime during rehearsal (and post the notes here)
- put out seating for 3-5 viewers (using placeholders if no chairs are available)
- open your doors to anyone who wants to watch you rehearse and offer q+a time at the end
- perform as often as possible in as many different environments as possible
- include these notes in programs