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 Perception

Introduction

My area of inquiry is based on the method and process of instant composition. In this study, I invite you to a journey concerning my practice as part of my artistic research through which I 'shaped' and developed a process that is consisted of particular tools and steps which I ritually follow  as a preparatory practice before entering into instant composition sessions. As this research will lead to a solo instant composition performance, my challenge is to observe and let all tools reveal to me during the time of the performance.

By using the term of ’instant’ or ’live’ composition, I refer to the ’direct’ instant the spectator witnesses the composition unfolding before his eyes (Fiadeiro, 2015, p. 104). The performers make real-time decisions and choices within the process of composing dance in the present moment.

In this sense, I've articulated a process that includes two basic tools -a perceptual and a compositional one- in order to enhance my presentness and intensify my compositional mind respectively. The perceptual  tool is based on sharpening my bodily awareness and movement perception in the present and is named Sensorial Movement. It springs from the tools of the Somatic-Psychoeducation Method of Danis Bois. The compositional tool is phrasing through which I practice in short-minute solos with phrases that have a beginning, a duration and an end.

Through a regular attentive bodily practice in these fundamental tools, I’ve respectively headed up to the key elements -connectivity and flow- that stand at the core of my artistic research. Going further, both of these elements embody my perception of time as an endless flow that is full of changes and variations, linking in this way my practical exploration to my theoretical and philosophical investigation of both Maurice Merleau- Ponty’s philosophy, according to which (1962), ''we constitute time and space'' (p.171) and Zen Master Dōgen’s study Uji on time in which he claims (1240) ''that the entire world in not unchangeable or immovable, it flows'' (p. 159).

In the same sense, I connected my understanding of time as an infinite passage and flow with the meaning of instant composition. Its essence lays on a constant creation. As each moment is preceded by another moment, people who practice in instant composition are constantly in the process of making in the moment, phrasing and rephrasing, creating and recreating movement motifs that keep on unfolding and transforming into a richness of temporal and spatial qualities while composing dance in the present moment.

TAKE A GLIMPSE

Sensorial movement

Tapping into connectivity

In the beginning of my practice, I intensively explored the Sensorial Movement that stands at the core of the Somatic-Psychoeducation Method of Danis Bois. Bois discovered during his work the Internal Movement, a global, profound and slow movement that exists within the inner body and occurs at the level of Fascia, the connective tissue that links and covers all parts of the body. His method includes, apart from manual therapy, movement therapy in which this Internal Movement is translated into a slow movement which Bois named Sensorial Movement. 

I was starting my practice with two of the perceptual movement tools of this method- the associative schemes and free improvisational movement-. I was moving in slowness with shut eyes in order to sense this internal movement. I was observing how this movement flows within the inner body, connecting all body parts.  I was gradually becoming aware and conscious of my body and movement in this way, bringing myself in the ‘now’ and feel my body part of the experience in the present. In this sense, I was enhancing my presentness and expanding my perception in the moment which are important within the process of instant composition.

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 informed by 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

Following, I practiced a lot in Sensorial Movement throughout the following period in order to develop this watery movement quality of totality and connectivity 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:

-I start with the associative schemes so as to 'grasp' this 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.

 -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 environment.

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

 -Opening my eyes, I continue with looking at the place while moving in space. 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.

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?

I mainly focused on sustaining the duration of the movement, until it naturally reaches an end. Following and fulfilling the main trajectory of the movement,  I was found at an end instead of me creating a stop.

{In the beginning of my practice in phrasing, I mostly paid attention to arriving at an end by putting full stops or semicolons in my dance. Thus, I was intentionally creating an end.  I, therefore, didn’t let the movement develop on its own and naturally 'reach' an end when it was fulfilled. Thus, the phrases didn’t naturally develop and in this sense, I was ‘losing’ the now, as I was occupying myself with doing phrases, instead of letting them reveal to me in the present.}

Take a short glimpse (click here)

Insights

Practicing in this way, I could understand and therefore embody  my perception of time as an endless passage and flow that is full of changes and variations linking in this way my practice with my theoretical investigation of Zen master Dōgen' s study 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 and connect my understanding of time with the meaning of instant composition which lays on a constant creation (see introduction for details).

Moving towards an instant composition performance...

After my practice in phrasing, I enter into a 10- or 15-minute instant composition session, letting all my practice in the movement quality of connectivity and phrasing emerge in the ‘now’. Within the process, I move along with the flow of movement, focusing on narrative issues in terms of noticing how each phrase is a development of a previous one and thus what kind of abstract narrations reveal while creating dance in the present moment:

I mainly observe the time qualities and movement material (see inventory) that have emerged through my practice in the sense of seeing how I revisit them throughout my dance, creating in this way a cohesion between the phrases that one could 'read' an abstract narration- a 'story' with a continuity.

Also, re-exploring elements that have appeared in previous moments within the same instant composition session could create a sensation of the past.

Feed forward

-I will keep on practicing in this watery movement quality and phrasing. I am not 'there' concerning both of them! Concerning phrasing especially, I am not sure about what an end of a phrase is. Is it a pause? Is it a fullfillment of something? Also, it's not clear to me yet what is this development of narration through phrasing...

-Following, I would like to explore this idea of revisiting elements that may emerge and develop within the process of creating dance in the moment. I call these moments ‘diamonds’, because metaphorically they ‘light’ the continuity of the abstract narration. It is important though not to purposely choose and pick up these elements while dancing or intentionally revisit them within the process, but let them reveal in the now. Otherwise, I am not present to the moment.

-Moving towards a performance, I don't know what exactly I want to create and present to the audience. I understand that it will be a distill of my research until now, but will it be a 'pure' instant composition performance, in which I will develop and 'narrate' an abstract story in the moment through phrasing or will it be an abstract narration of my understanding of time as an eternal flow that is full of changes and variations? Maybe the result will look the same, but depending on which of the following options I will follow, my state of mind as a choreographer and performer is  different.

-Also, I recently started working with a musician who plays the electric quitar, as I am thinking of developing a duet in which both of us will compose in the moment. But is it wise to 'open' the entire research now after several months of practicing on my own? How could I give access to the whole process to the musician? And what I want to do in terms of the project working with a musician?

Observations

- I consider this practice in phrasing good concerning the sustainment of movement through time and the development through phrasing.

-Following the trajectory of movement, a variety of moves unfold and develop within the flow.

-Each new phrase is a development of the previous as the movement keeps on unfolding and tranforming into diverse shapes and time flows in terms of speeds and rhythmic patterns within the duration of each phrase.

Moving forward, as the research will lead to an instant composition performance and my artistic intent is to create a constant flow and  development of movement motifs that continuously change in terms of shapes and time flows while composing the moment, I started to observe what kind of time qualities and moves unfold within the duration of the phrases.

Inventory:

Time qualities catalogue:

Degrees of speed: slow/ medium/ fast

Acceleration

Contra tempo: moving in contradiction with the flow of movement in terms of speed and rhythms e.g., while moving fast, I turn to slow motion or other rhythms and vice versa.

Impulse:  taking an impulse and stop. According to the ways I stop (interruption of movement/ fading out) a variety of regular and irregular rhythmic patterns are developed.

Movement catalogue:

Circles/ Spirals/ Waves/

Straight lines/ Balances on one leg/ Sudden Jumps (in rhythmic patterns because I sense a sharp and direct quality of time.)

Gestures (they give a theatrical mood)

Observations

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

-A flow of energy with a variety of moves and 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 tension between the elements of the phrases that appear, reappear, develop and transform within the process and thus and 'knitting the threads', he/she could create his/her own narrative concerning the overall dance.