“The cypher is the core. It's about getting together and sharing the energy...”— Robert Hylton in Burrows & Hylton (2023, p. 2)
Creating imaginary connections between body parts:
1.) Connect your left hand to your left knee.
2.) Move your left knee to the right knee and let your hand slide and stick onto the right knee when they meet.
3.) Lift your right knee towards your right elbow and let your hand slide and stick onto the right elbow when they meet.
4.) Move your left elbow towards your head and let your hand slide and stick onto your head when they meet.
5.) Continue this exploration in order to find treasures.
To navigate, choose a colored dot and follow the line.
Press Command or Ctrl and then + to zoom in, - to zoom out, or 0 to reset.
“...a-dip-dip-dive, so-socialize, clean out your ears and you open your eyes...”— Robert “RZA” Diggs in Planet Rock: The Story of Hip-Hop and the Crack Generation (Lowe & Torgoff, 2011)
“In performance, accumulated excess becomes a trigger point of knowledge production.”— Rosemarie A. Roberts in Living in the Tension (2022, p. 377)
Moving one body part along the surface of your body:
1.) Put your right hand onto your left hand.
2.) Slide your right hand up your left arm, staying in contact.
3.) Slide your right hand around your neck, staying in contact.
4.) Slide your right hand down your body, all the way to one of your feet, staying in contact.
5.) Continue this exploration in order to find treasures.
Moving body parts through spaces you create with your own body:
1.) Put your left hand on your chest.
2.) Move your right hand through the emerging hole from beneath and grab your left shoulder.
3.) Release your left hand. Move it through the hole your right arm is forming from beneath and grab your chin.
4.) Release your right hand. Move it through the hole your left arm is forming from beneath and grab your knee.
5.) Continue this exploration in order to find treasures.
INFLUENCES, RESOURCES,REFERENCES
This element of Treasure Flow focuses on the resources that influenced theresearch.
As an artist and practitioner rooted in street and club styles, I have a specific approach to the acquisition, the exchange and the production of knowledge. My resources often differ from classic academic material, as my common methods of gathering and accumulating information since 2004 mostly happen through tools of doing or talking. The sensation of coming into a new environment and engaging with invested peers whom I have never met before – often within a training session or a jam – is thrilling every time and usually results in an exciting and multi-layered exchange that transcends the boundaries of written material, as individual dance practices (as unique embodied knowledge) and informal conversations – sharing information, stories, oral histories or traditions – are taking place within a mutual understanding of social and cultural values.
Therefore, my most important resource is the experience I gained as an active participant within the cultural field and community of street and club styles for a timespan of over twenty years to date. Without these experiences, I wouldn’t have the needed base and awareness that allows me to undergo this research journey.
"Oral history has no unified subject ; it is told from a multitude of points of view ..."
Portelli, as quoted in Roberts (2022, p. 133)
Another important pool of resources, is the substantial amount of video-documentation existing of the field, that gives insights even into the very beginnings of these dance forms and since then has helped to spread information around the globe. This documentation is often carefully collected, archived, published or exchanged by many invested members.
To my knowledge, no written material currently exists that directly addresses or explores any of the cross-style principles or examines their artistic potential within the contemporary stage context – at least nothing has been pointed out to me so far, although I am in contact with peers around the world on this subject. Books and articles I investigated throughout this journey primarily served to strengthen the contextual and foundational understanding of the field from which I am launching my research – a journey that I regard consequently as a venture into largely uncharted territory.
Influences
Detours: An experimental dance collaboration
Detours: An experimental dance collaboration is a pioneering video documentary that shows footage of four dancers who ventured off the beaten paths of traditional styles with their movement. Watching it on VHS in 2005, I was immediately hooked on trying to understand the rich ideas of David „Elsewhere“ Bernal, Serouj „Midus“ Aprahamian, Roberto „Rawbzilla“ Lambaren, Jacob „Kujo“ Lyons and other featured dancers. My excitement had me rewatching the tape more than 50 times. Analyzing Detours from today’s perspective, I can see how much the principles I am investigating in Treasure Flow are already present in their dance and how deeply theunderlying ideas were imprinted in my subconscious, shaping my aesthetic taste and approach to dance. Tracing back cross-style principles to the very beginning of my dance practice, with Detours as an early and strong influence, I can draw a clear trajectory of the development of these ideas into my stage work and choreographic practice.
Hip Hop Scholars
The Oxford Handbook of Hip Hop Studies is an extensive and well-curated collection of articles from scholars from the global hip hop scene, covering topics of legacies and traditions, dance methodologies, identity questions, relations to the body, politics, aesthetics and also occasionally zooming in on microcosm of different local scenes. The book served as a tool to relate and measure my personal experiences against, while also hugely extending my understanding and knowledge of various aspects and elements of the field and dance styles I identify with. Therefore, it relates to my research in terms of shaping an awareness of how I built my methodology, locating my ideas and findings, but also in gaining a perspective on how the world of street and club styles and the academic field relate to each other how peers investigate, write, observe or carry out artistic research.
Two important scholarly works have deepened my contextual understanding of the social, cultural and aesthetic foundations of street and club dances. Serouj “Midus” Aprahamian's The Birth of Breaking offers a comprehensive historical account of breaking's origins in the African American communities of the Bronx during the early 1970s. It challenges and debunks prevailing myths and emphasizes the dance’s roots in African American culture.Imani Kai Johnson's Dark Matter in Breaking Cyphers provides insights into Africanist aesthetics embedded within breaking cyphers, such as call-and-response, the aural kinaesthetic, and the imperative to be original, framing these elements as vital to understanding the dance's global presence.While these works directly inform the methodologies of Treasure Flow, they also enrich my understanding of the cultural contexts from which these dance forms emerge particularly from a sociological perspective, as they point out the importance of Africanist aesthetics in the practices I engage with.
Sarah Rubidge – Choreographic Topologies
Sarah Rubidge’s article Nomadic Diagrams: Choreographic Topologies offered a framework for understanding my own exposition as a performative paper. Her integration of nonrepresentational theory (Thrift, 2009), diagrammatic thinking (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987), and choreographic practice helped clarify how theoretical and embodied elements in Treasure Flow are not just coexisting but actively generating each other. The taped geometric floor patterns in my work can be read as spatial diagrams—material anchors for a processual topology that unfolds between dancers, audience, and conceptual inquiry. Rubidge’s articulation of choreography as a dynamic, non-linear topology resonates strongly with my interest in cross-style principles and relational forms of knowledge. In particular, her notion of space as emergent and affective, rather than pre-given, aligns closely with how Treasure Flow attempts to diagram research as an embodied and spatially activated process.
Methodologies from Forsythe and Laban
My research also draws on methodologies from classical and contemporary fields that explore movement analysis and documentation. William Forsythe’s "Improvisation Technologies," provides insights, tools and methods of visualizing and articulating movement. The Motion Bank project extends this exploration by analyzing choreographic processes and in the course provides a platform for understanding movement through digital visualization. Similarly, Laban’s movement analysis presents a comprehensive framework for observing and describing movement in a general way, focusing on aspects like body, effort, shape, and space.Particularly their approaches to movement through a lens of geometry and topology helped methodizing the cross-style principles. Although I haven't engaged with these systems as deeply as I aimed for, they inspired me to acknowledge the importance of developing concepts and languages to describe, transmit, and evolve movement practices. Nevertheless, I feel that Treasure Flow emphasizes the facilitation of movement emergence more through community-based exploration and lived experiences of exchange and co-creation.
Resources
1. Aprahamian, S. (2023). The birth of breaking: Hip-hop history from the floor up. The Ohio State University Press.
2. Bernal, D., Aprahamian, S., Lambaren, R., & Lyons, J. (2001). Detours: An experimental dance collaboration [Video]. [Self-published].
3. Fogarty, M., & Johnson, I. K. (Eds.). (2022). The Oxford handbook of hip hop dance studies. Oxford University Press.
4. Forsythe, W. (1994). Improvisation technologies: A tool for the analytical dance eye [CD-ROM]. Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM).
5. Johnson, I. K. (2023). Dark matter in breaking cyphers: The life of Africanist aesthetics in global hip hop. Oxford University Press.
6. Motion Bank. (n.d.). Digital scores for dance. https://motionbank.org/
References
1. Burrows, J., & Hylton, R.
Burrows, J., & Hylton, R. (2023). Creativity, skill, integrity, intelligence and community: A conversation on the nature of practice in hip hop. Dance Research, 41(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.3366/drs.2023.0420
2. Cocker, E.
Cocker, E. (2023). Not knowing: Preparing for the unexpected. In J. Arlander, A. Barton, M. Gemeinboeck, B. Greuter, & E. Salazar Sutil (Eds.), Artistic research: Being there, exploring the in-between (pp. 8–27). Leuven University Press.
3. DeFrantz, T.F.
DeFrantz, T. F. (2014). Hip hop habitus v.2.0. In D. Fischlin, M. Heble, & G. van der Leer (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of hip hop studies (pp. 226–239). Oxford University Press.
4. Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F.
Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia (B. Massumi, Trans.). University of Minnesota Press. (Original work published 1980)
5. Lee, B. (Director)
Lee, B. (Director). (2005). Planet B-Boy [Film]. Moxie Firecracker Films.
6. Lowe, R., & Torgoff, M. (Directors)
Lowe, R., & Torgoff, M. (Directors). (2011). Planet Rock: The story of hip-hop and the crack generation [Film]. VH1 Rock Docs
7. Roberts, R. A.
Roberts, R. A. (2022). Living in the tension: The aesthetics and logics of popping. In M. Fogarty & I. K. Johnson (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of hip hop dance studies (pp. 373–388). Oxford University Press.
8. Sakalauskas, M.
Sakalauskas, M. (2022). The vault: Collecting and archiving streetdance footage. In M. Fogarty & I. K. Johnson (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of hip hopdance studies (pp. 211–222). Oxford University Press.
9. Thrift, N.
Thrift, N. (2009). Non-representational theory: Space, politics, affect. Routledge.
Treasure Flow
by Valentin Alfery
This interactive dance exposition about my ongoing practice-led research and evolving practice called Treasure Flow aims to open up the process, expose my findings and show insights about the choreographic potential of cross-style principles from the world of street and club styles.
I mainly chose the format of an exposition in order to give weight to the experiential journey of discovering something hidden as well as to witnessing the physical development and manifestation of cross-style principles in the dancing body.
What are cross-style principles?
Under the umbrella term “street and club styles”, many defined and well-developed dance styles are grouped together into one field. Their communities meet within regular, worldwide events during which the dance styles manifest, mingle, overlap and inspire each other. The dancers are sharing several cultural features and aesthetic aspects.
Within this world of street and club styles, certain ways of moving have developed simultaneously throughout various dance styles. Common ideas, concepts or methods of creating, organizing or experimenting with movement have evolved across styles, throughout shared fields and between the socio-cultural formats of breaking, popping, locking, hip hop freestyle, house dance, etc. Therefore, they are transcending existing style-specific borders. Within Treasure Flow I call these “cross-style principles”.
• THREADING | moving body parts through spaces you create with your own body
• FIX POINT | creating imaginary connections between body parts
• TRACING | moving one body part along the surface of your body
• CAUSE AND EFFECT | passing kinetic energy from one part of the body to another
• REPLAYING | playing with movement along a time axis
• REPOSITIONING | one body part moves another to a new place
Cross-style principles represent simple and tangible ideas and are infused by meta-aesthetics, such as illusion, isolation, manipulation or animation. They exist mainly as embodied knowledge and, as such, are widespread throughout the worldwide community. Having been involved in the world of street and club styles since 2004 (mainly through the styles of breaking and popping), I gained awareness of their presence and embodiment over time. It has been a slow but exciting journey since –their discovery this still ongoing and finds a first academic outcome through this exposition in May 2025.
My relation to cross-style principles
My deep fascination and artistic interest in cross-style principles, comes from my observation that they hold the quality of creating a durable and explicit engagement with the performer from an audience perspective. Their underlying ideas are simple to follow and generate fine but complex illusions, that can be interpreted as abstract extensions to the performers body. The subtle virtuosity within the created dance seems to have a strong and direct ability to draw in viewers to the performer’s world.
Additionally, I am curious because of their remaining “hiddenness”. Although these principles are ever-present around the world, so far relatively few dancers have become actively aware of cross-style principles or engage in in-depth explorations. For the bigger part, the principles still dwell in the collective unconscious of the entirety of the street and club style community, are not accessible to non-invested people and can hardly be picked up in a conventional dance class.
Some of the cross-style principles like threading, cause and effect or fix point emerged (partly unconsciously) within my past choreographic practice and until today I am strongly convinced by the untapped artistic potential these principles bear for the contemporary stage context and their impact on performing artists at the jams, battles, sessions, or cyphers these principles originate from. Due to a certain pioneering feel and character, I am fascinated by what I learned or developed so far and for the treasures to be discovered.
Why Treasure Flow
The name Treasure Flow relates on one hand to the personal movement treasures that emerge under the conditions fostered by engaging with cross-styles principles.
Additionally, through my research, I believe to have discovered a treasure containing untapped artistic potential. Individual dance practices within the depths of the field of street and club styles are rich in embodied knowledge - often passed down through generations.
Research question and methodology
My interest in investigating cross-style principles and the means I am using to carry out my research and inquiries are guided by the following research question:
- - What is the choreographic potential of cross-style principles of street and club styles?
It is accompanied by two sub-questions that gained significant importance and distinct two interconnected parts throughout my research journey:
- - What are cross-style principles?
- How to explore their choreographic potential?
As I started this undertaking with a huge focus on embodied development of cross-style principles, I have been cultivating a practice focused on developing a physical repertory together with a growing community of peers. The co-creation of a pattern library as a living archive, alongside the practice-led research in motion (in the live exposition represented by dancers; in the online version through movement vignette son video) illustrate this repertory, nurturing the understanding and further development of each of the cross-style principles.
For the most part, the methodology of this research is designed to reflect the concepts and processes inherent to street and club styles – the creation of new knowledge often happens within the call and response modes of style-specific formats (sessions, cyphers, battles and jams). These formats and their in-built tools and rituals served as a blueprint for shaping the methods of physical knowledge production throughout Treasure Flow:
- - the formulation of basic ideas through physical solo explorations (improvisation or observation)
- - creation and refinement through a call and response model within explorative cyphers of involving two or more participants
- verbal or written exchange of thoughts, experiences and ideas- - laboratory formats to create and name patterns, phrases and other repertory-additional exercises to integrate the repertory into the individual spectrum of movement and to take the created material further
- - drills, small showings or co-created phrases.
The creation of individual material that is aligned with one or more principles –specifically short patterns – starts a process of dual integration in a dancer’s body. The fixed material propels the improvisation as it creates anchor points to hold onto, measure against, or deviate from. Freestyling (improvising) builds the feeling for the principles and expands the range to create new material.
Concerning the inquiry of the choreographic potentiality of this material, there are two major approaches. Firstly, the reflection of carried out one-on-one sessions (one dancer improvising, one spectator observing) and its documentation on notation sheets. This aims to create a spectrum of insights about what an audience perceives or makes of the movement when seeing cross-style principles in a more or less raw form of motion or performance. As an extension to this line of inquiry, the creation of a solo piece named good for you provides experience on how to apply or use these findings within an artistic process – and additionally through the upcoming live performance.
Personal framing
It is important for me to address that I see both the practice-based development and the theoretical framework created through my research as a personal approach shaped by my findings and experiences. Despite being convinced of the simplicity, the logic and the potential of Treasure Flow, I remain aware that my endeavour brings to life and systemizes aspects of a mostly embodied movement language.
As not only a researcher, but also as an active member of the street and club style community, my findings will – mainly by physically representing my dance in the scene – inevitably flow back to the pool from which their foundation comes from. By publishing my research and carrying it into a community to openly further develop it with others, I am making a statement: not to claim or colonize movement that, at its foundation, originates from dances of the African diaspora, but to contribute to creating, fostering, and facilitating conditions that hopefully enable everyone to explore, refine and elevate their individual style. By making something accessible that already exists in a more hidden, raw or embodied way, I am hoping to meaningfully help the production of fresh ways to move within the fields I feel passionate about.
Other peers, who are invested in the world of street and club styles and attempt similar pathways, might be creating different but yet comparable frames or theories oft he same or similar movement principles. I see Treasure Flow as an ongoing and evolving practice that is open to critical reflection, interchange, debate, scrutiny, improvements or additions arising from the physical or theoretical exchange with these like-minded peers, and by no means imposes to hold a general truth. It is meant to contribute and enrich the very field from which it originates through my personal approach and perspective.
To my knowledge, the names for the principles of “threading”, “fix point”, “tracing” as well as “cause and effect” are understood as common terminology.
The terms of “replaying” and “repositioning” are coined by myself over the course of this research – as the movement is omnipresent, but without a common terminology that I know of yet. Additionally, the name of “cross-style principles” is my own descriptive term, that helps to facilitate a mutual understanding in conversations.Together – the already existing as well as the self-created terminology forms the theoretical framework of Treasure Flow.
Playing with movement along a time axis:
1.) Move your body however you want.
2.) STOP: Suddenly stop the movement and freeze. With the same sudden motion start the movement again, continuing what you did before.
3.) REVERSION: Suddenly move all body parts backwards from where they came, tracing back your movement for a very short time.
4.) GLITCH: The movement you are doing encounters an edge, causing a brief reversal; it hits another edge, reverses again, then continues along its original path.
5.) Continue this exploration in order to find treasures.
CO-CREATED EMBODIED LIBRARY
- The co-created embodied library is a living archive of movement patterns developed during the research process.
- Each entry is individually authored, named, and organized according to one of the six cross-style principles.
- The library is hosted on a Google Sheet, with each pattern linked to a short YouTube video.
- It serves to document and share embodied knowledge and making a wide range of creations accessible to others.
- Contributors explored the principles through solo tasks, cyphers, and labs before filming and uploading short, often repetitive patterns.
- The creation of the library reflects the core research aim: to investigate cross-style principles through collective exploration.
- The community around the library includes dancers from street, club, contemporary, and classical backgrounds.
- The library is regularly growing and open to future contributions, refinements, and structural improvements.
- Requests to access the co-created library of Treasure Flow or to be uploaded with a creation can be sent to valentin.alfery@gmail.com
-Alongside the library, six posters were created – each one mapping insights and methods for engaging with one specific principle.
-The posters and the library function together: one maps the unfolding logic of the principles, the other archives their embodied articulation.
Here is the link to the Library:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MdQHtN04ezRQtZw-wIf1msYY4xdseQ6xg5l7hpmDBAE/edit?usp=sharing
“...there was a thrill in seeing new moves and trying to learn them [...] it was like finding hidden treasure.”— Marc “Scramblelock” Sakalauskas in The Vault (2022, p. 215)
Passing kinetic energy from one part of the body to another:
1.) Lift your right arm up sideways until it touches your ear.
2.) Bring your arm to a sudden stop.
3.) Seamlessly move your head into the direction of the momentum that the arm created.
4.) As you swing the head back to its original position, the arm takes over the momentum and swings down again.
5.) Continue this exploration in order to find treasures.
“In one analysis, the dances themselves are constructed against a ground thatconsiders their presence to be derisive, impossible, unprecedented, radical.”— DeFrantz, Hip Hop Habitus 2.0 (2014, p. 235)
The artistic inquiry of Treasure Flow emphasizes the centrality of perception in both creating and experiencing dance through cross-style principles. It is an expression oft he need to inquire cross-style principles on an artistic and somatic level from a dancers and a spectators perception. As this is an ongoing process, this element functions as a foundational step in collecting individual experiences, emotions, ideas and sensations aimed at building and underpinning a general understanding of the principles that can be used and reinterpreted in future artistic and educational processes. Within the format of a one-on-one session, feedback is collected from both dancers and spectators. The following provides an outline of the session:
One-on-one sessions
One dancer performing; one spectator observing.
Three minutes time for an improvisation following one of the principles.
Three minutes for both to reflect, write or draw their impressions on a notation sheet.
Three minutes to discuss similarities and highlight them in colours.
Questions to dancers
What did you experience?
What references, images, thoughts, memories appeared?
What physical sensations occurred?
What felt right?
What felt wrong?
What obstacles occurred
Questions to spectators
What did you experience?
What references, images, thoughts, memories appeared?
How did you relate?
Outcome
So far, the collection counts 25 different one-on-one session. While all the participating dancers are connected to the research and the community it is building and therefore are invested in cross-style principles to a certain extent, the spectators cover a broad spectrum, ranging from non-dancers to complete strangers to well informed peer artists. To access the original notation sheets, see the slideshow online or the folder with the originals in the live exposition. The word cloud highlights the terms mostly used in the feedback.
My interpretation
A significant number of the notations or drawings emphasize connection, both internal (within the body) and external (to the environment or the audience). Words like “connecting”, “flow”, “ties”, “weaving”, “floating” and “threads” appear frequently, suggesting that the dancers are often exploring how to link parts of their body, their movements, or even relations to spaces and energies. At times, these connections are referred to in a more complex or abstract way, such as “reaching” and“unravelling” indicating a more tentative approach to movement.Words such as “exploring”, “searching” and “discovery” recur across several of the notation sheets. This speaks to the phenomenon that dancers and spectators alike are taken on a journey of constant investigation. Cross-style principles applied in dance seems to be felt as an unfolding process, revealing sensations of newness or fresh perspectives at different moments.At times the qualities develop to a point, where the creating aspect and the doing aspect blend and dancers, as well as spectators, noted words like “being guided”“roadmap” or “following”. Many dancers noted flow, fluidity, smoothness, and circles(e.g., “fluid stops”, “spirals circulate”, “mountain landscape”). To my interpretation, it is a significant aspect on how experienced you are in engaging with cross-style principles in order to reach this flow, hence the name Treasure Flow. Mentioned objects like “knots,” “puzzles,” “threads,” and “maps” evoke a sense of structure and problem-solving within the engagement and improvisation, indicating that even within the flow, moments of meaning, purposeful construction or strategy can arrive.Some of the sensations of being “blocked”, “restricted”, or “disconnected” that emerged during the improvisation may arise from the demands of the task of following cross-style principles. For many dancers, these moments appear when their experience is still forming, or when they are navigating new methods of moving itself– trying to incorporate a newly created pattern into their improvisation for example.
Conclusion
Overall, the one-on-one sessions reveal a complex relationship between internal and external realities or perceptions, where dancers mostly navigate flow, creation, also tension at times as well as discovery. While every dancer experiences the engagement with cross-style principles in their own way, the consistent themes of exploration and bodily connection point to a shared experience of searching and a longing for meaning, both within and in relation to the surroundings. It seems that cross-style principles create a visibly strong connection between an inside world and an imaginary outside extension of it. Spectators often interpret the movement through metaphors of flow, a search, or a complex physicality, sometimes mirroring or correlating with the dancers’ sensations or their own internal processes. For the time being and within this research phase, these notations underpin the highly creative potential to me, where dancers and audience are engaged on a journey of discovery and somehow of transformation together.I see this inquiry as a starting point for a deeper investigation that can be undertaken with additional thoughts and a refinement concerning the method. Nevertheless, through this research I feel I have created an understanding that fuels my explorations of cross-style principles within a first solo dance piece.
Recurring Ideas:
- 1. Connection and Disconnection
- A significant number of the notations emphasize connection, both internal (within the body) and external (to the environment or the audience). Words like “connecting,” “flow,” “ties,” “weaving,” and “threads” appear frequently, suggesting that the dancers are often exploring how to link parts of their body, their movements, or even different spaces and energies. At times, these connections are more complex or abstract, such as “reaching,” “searching,” and “unraveling,” indicating a more exploratory approach to movement.
- 2. Exploration and Discovery
- Words such as “exploring,” “searching,” and “discovery” recur across different notations. This speaks to the improvisational nature of the work, where dancers and spectators alike are taken on a journey of constant investigation. The act of dancing seems to be an unfolding process, revealing new sensations or perspectives at each moment.
- 3. Fluidity vs. Tension
- Many dancers noted fluidity, smoothness, and circles (e.g., “fluid stops,” “spirals circulate,” “mountain landscape”), suggesting that a continuous, flowing quality is a significant aspect of the performance. At the same time, there is a constant tension between movement qualities, with words like “restriction,” “blocking,” and “hard” contrasting the smoother moments. The duality between flow and tension seems central to the dancers’ experience, and it is mirrored in the spectators’ responses, such as “tension” and “restriction” versus “softness” and “ease.”
- 4. Body and Space
- The body as an entity that is both contained and expansive is another recurring theme. Dancers speak of “trying out” movements in “limited” or “small” spaces, which can sometimes contrast with descriptions of “open body” or “spreading.” Spatial dynamics seem to play a major role in how the body interacts with the environment. In some instances, the body is described as moving “through space,” while in others, it’s noted as “contained” or “static.”
- 5. Inspiration from Nature and Objects
- Many responses to the dance include references to natural phenomena or objects: “river,” “mountain,” “elephant trunks,” “animal,” “insect,” and “octopus sucker.” These metaphors suggest that dancers might be channeling or embodying the qualities of the natural world, translating them into movement. Similarly, objects like “knots,” “puzzles,” “threads,” and “maps” evoke a sense of structure and problem-solving within the dance, indicating that even within the fluidity, there are moments of purposeful construction or strategy.
Contrasting or Standout Connotations:
- • Conflicting Interpretations of the Body’s Experience:
- Several notations contain oppositional or contrasting imagery. For example, some dancers feel fluid and smooth, while others describe themselves as crunched, restricted, or blocked. There is also the tension between internal connection and external presentation, as seen in how some dancers describe the feeling of their body (e.g., “blocked,” “tight”) compared to how the spectator perceives it (e.g., “smooth,” “flowing”). This tension between internal experience and external interpretation may indicate moments of frustration or misalignment during the improvisation, where dancers struggle to reconcile their body’s feeling with the message they wish to communicate.
- • The Metaphor of Control vs. Surrender:
- Some descriptions highlight a sense of control over the body, such as “the body controls you,” or “finding logic,” while others speak of a lack of control—“not in control,” “trying to lead attention,” or “falling.” These opposing metaphors suggest that, at times, the dancers struggle with balancing their desires to control the movement with a sense of letting go and following the flow.
Spectator Interpretation of Movement Quality:
- • Fluidity and Control:
- Overall, spectators tend to describe the movements as fluid, dynamic, and natural. Phrases like “smooth,” “fluid,” and “soft” are common. There is a sense that, despite the occasional tension or struggle, the dance flows seamlessly, moving between smooth transitions and sharp, dynamic moments.
- • Exploration and Searching:
- Spectators also emphasize the exploratory nature of the dance. Terms like “searching,” “discovering,” and “experimenting” are frequently used, indicating that the movement appears open-ended and driven by curiosity. This suggests that the dancers are not merely performing pre-conceived movements but are instead engaging in a process of discovery, both for themselves and for the audience.
- • Physicality and Sensory Engagement:
- Many responses highlight the bodily experience of the dance, with phrases such as “animal,” “muscles,” and “shapes” indicating a focus on the physicality of movement. This suggests that the spectators are attuned to the visceral, embodied quality of the performance rather than solely interpreting it intellectually or emotionally. The metaphor of the “animal” body also points to a primal, instinctive quality to the dance.
Other Aspects:
- 1. The Role of Time and Space:
- The recurring theme of “timing” and “space” is also worth noting. The dynamic shifts from “speed” to “slowness” in the dancers’ experiences suggest a keen awareness of tempo and rhythm as crucial elements in their improvisations. Similarly, the use of space - physical and metaphorical - plays a large role in how the movement is perceived. From small, contained actions to expansive gestures that fill the space, the relationship between body and environment is constantly shifting.
- 2. Embodied Metaphors and Language:
- Many of the responses include metaphors or descriptions that evoke complex, layered experiences of the body. Words like “labyrinth,” “threads,” and “spirals” illustrate the dancer’s constant navigation between different movement pathways. This speaks to the multidimensional aspect of movement in the improvisation process, where the body’s journey is as much about discovery as it is about expression.
- 3. Tension Between Conscious and Subconscious Movement:
- The notations suggest a tension between conscious decision-making (“solving a puzzle,” “finding logic”) and the subconscious flow of the body (“letting go,” “falling,” “surprise”). This highlights the balance dancers may strike between being in control of their movement and surrendering to instinct or impulse.
Conclusion:
The improvisations reveal a complex interplay between internal and external realities, where dancers constantly navigate tension, fluidity, and discovery. While each dancer experiences the performance uniquely, the consistent themes of connection, exploration, and bodily engagement point to a shared experience of searching for meaning, both within the self and in relation to the audience. Spectators, in turn, interpret the movement through metaphors of flow, searching, and physicality, often mirroring the dancers’ own internal processes. Ultimately, these notations underscore the improvisational nature of the performance, where both dancers and audience are on a journey of discovery and transformation.
A first choreographic work is emerging from the engagement with cross-style principles: my solo piece good for you will premiere in May 2025. In doing so, I can contribute to the research also through the lens of the artistic process and the lived experience of undergoing a stage creation. The performance therefore acts as a continuation of the investigation, offering a field in which the principles can unfold through practice, experimentation, choreographic decision-making and audience reception.The score of good for you follows an improvisational structure, with each section of the piece more or less having one of the cross-style principles as a main ingredient.The movement is explored through a metaphorical angle and translated into a narrative of transformation. Fix point becomes an act of holding on, tracing, a mode of discovery, repositioning marks change and illusion manipulates perception – each principle pointing towards patterns of human social behaviour. These choices and the movement material, while emerging from physical inquiry, are informed and charged by insights from the one-on-one sessions. The thematic weight and the dramaturgical proposals of the inquiry of the audience perception are feeding directly into the fabric of the performance. The choreographic process of the solo, in connection to the research of TreasureFlow follows a similar logic and methodology to Meg Stuarts Disfigure Study from1991. In the Belgian TV program Ziggurat (1996) she describes it as follows:
"Often artists, before they would make a big piece, they would really make sketches or studies. And so it really suited me just to isolate one body part and really see, like, what this body part can do. And it really took a lot of patience and really, well, here is my arm. It can move in so many ways. And I’m only going to isolate the movement of my arm. And then I’m going to contrast that with movement of my arm and my head. And then my head will rest on my arm. And slowly, like building blocks, we went further and further and deeper into this research. And from the isolating of the body parts, it’s a natural connection that comes up about how we are isolated. You know, it was like isolation physically and in subject matter." Stuart, 1996
While Treasure Flow over the course of the master’s program COMMA laid out the foundation for my choreographic practice, the research is intentionally open-ended. It is imagined as a living and ongoing field in motion, hopefully capable of generating further artistic work, expanded reflections, and new forms of embodied understanding of the world of streets and club styles.A loose community has begun to form around the project. Together with dancers from diverse backgrounds, we are currently applying for residencies and research contexts under the name Treasure Collective – an interested and invested group committed to taking this inquiry further. The collective aims to foster shared authorship, generate choreographic material, and cultivate a space where embodied research on cross-style principles can evolve collaboratively across disciplines and communities of dance.
One body part moves another to a new place:
1.) Take your left forearm with your right hand, as if it were an object.
2.) Drag and place it somewhere else in space.
3.) Let go with your right hand, leaving the left forearm suspended in that position.
4.) The forearm should remain in place to manifest its position.
5.) Continue this exploration in order to find treasures.
