Moving towards an instant composition performance...

After my practice in phrasing, I enter into a 10- or 15-minute instant composition session, letting the phrases reveal to me in the ‘now’. Within the process, I move along with the flow of movement, focusing on narrative issues in terms of noticing what kind of abstract ‘stories’ are emerging through phrasing:

My intention is to focus, explore and develop the time qualities and movement material (see inventory) that have emerged through my practice in the upcoming period, as they will play a vital role concerning narrative issues: revisiting these elements while composing in the moment, I could develop an abstract narration - a story with a continuity as these elements will fuction as connective points between the phrases.

Also, re-exploring elements that have appeared in previous moments within the same instant composition session could create a sensation of the past. They could be encountered as memories that are 'brought' to the 'now' when that accords to the present data.

My aim is not to 'do the moves or the time qualities', but let them reveal to me in the present. If I purposely enrich my dance with degrees of speed, variations of rhythms and pauses or 'bring back' elements within the process of instant composition, I am not in the moment.

Insights

I consider this video quite close to what I want to achieve concerning my final project. A time dance piece where a richness of time qualities in terms of speed and rhythms emerge while composing in the moment.

Paying attention to the duration of the phrases, I sustain the movement, letting it unfold and in this way develop and reveal diverse shapes and qualities of time.

In this sense, I could  embody  my perception of time as an endless passage and flow of energy full of changes and variations and thus link my practice with Zen master Dōgen' s studi Uji on time. Dōgen (1240) said: ''Do not think flowing is like wind and rain moving from east to west. The entire world is not unchangeable, is not immovable. It flows’’ (Dōgen, Zen sourcebook, p. 159).

Also, I could understand the meaning of instant composition which lays on a constant creation. People who practice instant composition are continuously in the process of making in the present moment. They are constantly creating and recreating movement motifs, moving along with the eternal flow of time, revealing its endless changes and variations while creating dance in the present.

Phrasing

Tapping into flow

-Having investing a lot of time on enhancing my presentness and spatiousness through the aforementioned process, I continue my practice with developing phrases. I create one-, three-, five- and seven-minute short solos with phrases that have a beginning, a duration and an end. I consider this tool coherent with the notion of time which stands at the core of my research, since I practice in fulfilling a movement within a particular time frame. While I used to put an alarm clock in the beginning, I was gradually trained in understanding when a specific amount of time has passed.

Within my practice in phrasing, I notice the ways a movement is developed while improvising and reaches an end: My main research question is:

… can the end of a phrase find me versus me finding an end?

Insights

I understood that this connectivity between the body parts and between the body and space stands at the foreground of my research as it embodies my perception of time and space as parts of our being which is linked to my theoretical investigation of the French philosopher Maurice Merleau- Ponty’s philosophy.  According to Ponty’s view (1962) ‘’our body is not primarily in space and time. It is of space and time’’ (p. 171). I understand that we don’t just exist in space and time, but we constitute space and time. Time and space are part of this world and we, as part of the world, are undividedly connected with time and space.

Nothing determines me from the outside, not because nothing acts upon me, but on the contrary, because I am from the start outside myself and open to the world.

- Maurice Merleau-Ponty, The Phenomenology of perception

Additionaly, this watery movement quality that is developed through Sensorial Movement addresses a flow and a succession in movement which I could link to the eternal passage and continuous flow of time.

Following, I practiced a lot in Sensorial Movement throughout the following period in order to develop this movement quality of connectivity and flow and thus let it immense and emerge within instant composition sessions afterwards.

Going further, I developed other simple practical tools in order to sharpen the described above sensation of connection with space:

Moving my eyes in space: I constantly move looking at space. Then I stop moving, focusing on one point in space.

Playing with the proximity of different areas in space: I ‘negotiate’ with the distance between my body or surfaces and points of my body and surfaces, areas or points in space (e.g., the walls, the ceiling, the doors, objects in space), going close and far from them or maintaining the same distance.

 Finally, I started to articulate a particular process as a methodolody in order to practice in this specific movement quality which consists of the following steps:

·Wide-now- enhancing perception in the present-

-I start with the associative schemes in order to ‘grasp’ this subtle inner movement.

-When I sense that other body parts, apart from the spine, start to activate through the Sensorial Movement in the sense that this subtle internal movement starts to flow within the whole inner body, I slowly move towards free movement.

·Connectivity

-Following, I start observing my position in space and where are my body parts in terms of areas of space, ‘opening’ in this way to the outer world.

-I continue with touching the ground, sensing in this way the space with my body.

-As time is passing by, I experience an exchange of energy between my body and the environment. I sense a ‘porous’ body, as if my body evaporates movement in space, simultaneously receiving ‘information’ from it.

-…and I open my eyes

           and I move looking at the place

                      and I connect with it.

-Then, I start to look deliberately specific points in space which in turn leads me to a pause: I let the movement ‘fade out’ and lead me in this way to a look a point in space.

-Following, I shift my attention to the other practical tool in which I play with the proximity between the body and space.

 Overall outcome:

The aforementioned process is helpful in order to experience a connection between my whole body. Also, it enables me to place my body in space and sense the relation between my body and the architecture of the place. In this sense, I experience my body moving as a whole and connected with the space.

From tacit to explicit 

The two basic research elements of my area of inquiry are connectivity and flow and they communicate my perception and experience of time while moving and composing dance in the present moment. They have been distilled through my regular attentive bodily practice as part of my research during the second research cycle.

Sensorial movement

Tapping into connectivity- key observations

Connectivity communicates a quality of totality in movement. The body is moving as a whole, experiencing a connection between all body parts as well as between the body and space.

In the beginning of my practice, I intensively explored Sensorial Movement. I was starting my practice with two of the perceptual tools of Danis Bois Method- associative schemes and free improvisational movement- moving in slowness with shut eyes in order to 'tune' to Sensorial Movement and start to observe my body and movement, gradually becoming aware and conscious of them. I was bringing myself in this way in the ‘now’ and feel my body part of the experience in the present. In this sense, I enhance my presentness and expand my perception in the moment which are important within the process of instant composition:

Associative schemes:

 I was starting my practice sitting on a cross position on the floor, exploring spinal shapes like curves, arches, side bends and spirals. I didn’t follow a particular order regarding the shapes. I let the Sensorial Movement lead me from one shape to the other.

Free improvisation:

I was continuing my practice with free improvisation. I was moving freely and slowly in space with shut eyes.

Connectivity

Our own body is in the world as the heart is in the organism:

 it keeps the visible spectacle constantly alive;

 it breathes life into it and sustains it inwardly,

 and with it forms a system.

-Maurice Merleau-Ponty, The Phenomenology of Perception1

Introduction

My area of inquiry is based on the method and process of instant composition in the frame of researching the ways I perceive and embody time within the process of creating dance in the present moment. Throughout the second research cycle, my purpose is to develop simple perceptual and compositional tools that could respectively enable me to sense and experience qualities of time while moving, enhance my awareness in the moment as well as cultivate my compositional mind as I move towards an instant composition performance.

I have articulated two basic tools that I profoundly explore throughout my regular practice as part of my research. One of the tools is based on sharpening my bodily awareness and movement perception in the present and is named Sensorial Movement. It stems from the tools of the Somatic-Psychoeducation Method of Danis Bois. The other tool is phrasing through which I practice in short-minute solos with phrases that have a beginning, a duration and an end. It is a strong practical tool to cultivate my compositional skills and train my mind in creating forms. Furthermore, I practically explore diverse time qualities like degrees of speed, rhythms, contra tempo, impulse that emerge throughout my practice in phrasing, making in this way tangible my philosophical approach of time as an endless flow of energy with which we move along, as integral parts of it, revealing through our body a richness of qualities, variations and changes.

I invest a lot of time on exploring these tools during my practice before entering into instant composition sessions. In this sense, I am in the process of developing a methodology that will function as a preparatory practice in the method and process of composing dance in the present moment. Additionally, as this research will lead to an instant composition performance, my challenge is to observe and let all tools reveal to me during the time of the performance instead of 'doing' the tools because in that case, I would lose the 'now'.

Observations

-Very good practice! All investigative tools naturally emerge while creating dance in the moment.

-A flow of energy with a variety of time qualities that keep on developing and changing! Very close to my imagination concerning the final project.

-Good sustainment through time.

-Following the flow of movement in space.

-Being connected with space: touching and looking at space, travelling in space, sensing the distance between the body and space.

-Taking images from space.

- Being connected with the now!

-Theatrical moves and gestures that appear and reappear are intriguing.

-Fulfilling the trajectory of the movement, the movement is developed and there comes the narrative, because the end comes naturally. The movement tells its own story in this way- with a beginning, a duration and an end.  The next phrase is a development of the previous one, as it continues the story, developing, enhancing, underlining, changing movement elements and time qualities. One could see the cohesion between the elements of the phrases that appear, reappear, develop and transform within the process and thus, following the threads, he/she could ‘read’ his/her narrative concerning the overall dance.

Observations

Focusing on reaching an end, putting full stops or semicolons in my dance, I intentionally arrive at a pause. In this sense, I ‘lose’ the now, as I occupy myself with doing phrases instead of letting them reveal to me in the present.

What is more, reflecting on my videos and also discussing with my coach, I acknowledged that practicing in this way led me to develop a sort of a habitual pattern- a specific time quality- that I keep on following while moving. I ‘take’ an impulse and then I let it fade out- GO AND STOP-. It is a repetitive cycle that I would draw it like this:

Given this, I don’t let the movement develop on its own and arrive at a pause when is fulfilled. Thus, I can’t be found at an end and the phrases don’t reveal to me naturally.

Moving forward, I started to pay more attention throughout my practice in Sensorial Movement in the beginning and in phrasing afterwards to the duration of the phrases that were developed. I practiced in sustaining the duration of the movement until it naturally reaches an end. Following and fulfilling the main trajectory of the movement, the phrases are naturally developed and through this I am found at an end instead of me creating a pause.

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