The beginning of a journey

 1st Day, Claire, Claire Cunningham  No Responses »
Feb 222016
 

Glasgow-based performer and choreographer Claire Cunningham is Artist in Residence at PIAF 2016.

Questions to self

What do I want the participants to get from the time?
Connection – to each other. Friendships. Trust. Possible collaborations and allies for the future. Realization they are not alone. New ideas to try, ways of thinking about performing, noticing and language.

What do I bring?
Time. Taking time. Permission to take time. Permission to look and be looked at.
Permission to be listened to. Giving them permission to speak, to give voice, to say ‘that’s enough’, to communicate.
Permission to do less.
Permission to ask.
Permission to try things

What is my offering to the group?
A space to share knowledge and experience, to learn about each other and each others work.
To share the things I love, the tasks that have made me think, made me squirm, made me know that I needed to do them again because they made me uncomfortable. The exercises that made me notice – my habits, the way I move, the way I think about moving, the way I think about my body, the language I use, the importance of language.
Connections to others who have shaped me
Bill Shannon/ Jess Curtis/Sara Shelton Mann/ Gail Sneddon/Richard Layzell, Meg Stuart/Luke Pell
Tools they have given me

What are they looking for? (based on their cover letters)
New methods/tools/concepts for creating and devising
Different ways to work. To work with difference
Connection to other artists/time with each other
Conversations and questioning of what it is to perform
Ways to investigate own and others individuality

Identity Game

 1st Day, Claire, Claire Cunningham  No Responses »
Feb 232016
 

CCTues-am - 2  CCTues-am - 6 CCTues-am - 4 CCTues-am - 13 CCTues-am - 14 CCTues-am - 3

Identity Game
Take a space in the room and make a statement. If you can relate to that statement then go stand with the person. Take a moment to look at the group you are in/not in. the constellations….the differences…the similarities. The unexpected allies….

Examples today:

  • I am not from Perth
  • I have one brother
  • I don’t know what else to do
  • I feel lost
  • Somedays I feel more like a boy than a girl
  • I’m hungry
  • I have a twin
  • I am disabled
  • I am single
  • I worry about my sister
  • I overthink things

Peripheral fluctuation

 1st Day, Claire, Claire Cunningham  No Responses »
Feb 232016
 

CCTues-pm - 123 CCTues-pm - 135 CCTues-pm - 133CCTues-pm - 144 CCTues-pm - 137

Peripheral Fluctuation. To notice how we see/ what we notice – hierarchy of sight, range of periphery and of movement. Pick a person in the room and try to keep them only in your peripheral vision and not in your fauvial vision (central).

(Score explored by Claire and Jess Curtis, from term created by Bill Shannon relating to the fluctuation of attention/staring from people on his visual periphery)

Day Two: Language and Awareness

 2nd Day, Claire, Claire Cunningham  No Responses »
Feb 242016
 

Say What You Do/Do What you Say
(exercises learned from Jess Curtis)

  • Describe the movement your body does. (Out loud if speech is your means of communicating. Use your mother tongue)
  • Travel across the space. No movement is without description. Minimize your movement as necessary.
  • Explore range/scale of language – from micro to macro. Detail to immense

I stand/I stand on my feet/ I stand on the floor/ I stand on a wooden floor/ I stand in the Town Hall/ I stand in Freemantle/ I stand in Western Australia/ I stand in Australia/ I stand on the Earth…..all are valid interpretations of the same act.

I lift my foot/I step forward/ I walk…

Say what you sense/Sense what you say

  • I feel air on the palm of my hands
  • I feel my t-shirt against my back
  • I hear a police car passing
  • I feel the light on my eyelids…
  • I smell the wooden floor…
  • I feel my ankle bone grind against the floor
  • I feel Amy’s skin against my arm…etc

Breathe what you do/Do what you breathe
Every movement has the sound of breath, every breath has movement
Play with rhythm, expanding movement right to ends of breath

Sound What you Do/Do What You Sound
Remember all the sounds you can make with your voice and mouth (eg consonants, lips, etc). Creating a strange soundtrack to your movment, but with more freedom and play than Say what you do.

Day Two: That’s Enough

 2nd Day, Claire, Claire Cunningham, Photos  Comments Off on Day Two: That’s Enough
Feb 242016
 

That’s Enough (from Jess Curtis)

2ndDay - 1 (1) 2ndDay - 1 (2)

One partner lies on floor, the second partner applies weight to a single point of contact.. dropping weight vertically into the other body not pushing into it. Apply weight incredibly slowly, until the person on floor says “that’s enough” – when they can tolerate that weight but don’t want more. Learn to say it before it is too late. Avoid using hard language like “stop” that creates tension or fear of having done something wrong.

2ndDay - 1 (4) 2ndDay - 1 (3)

Intentions: to learn about another body, how it works, what weight it can take. What your projections are of that body (based on your assumptions or your associations in your own body). This is particularly important when working with non-normative bodies. To learn to take responsibility for your own body. To communicate with other dancers. To trust. To learn that we can talk to the people we work with, especially in dance.

Contact Improvisation intentions: To learn how to control giving weight. To learn how to give weight at a speed that the other person has time to read it, to stop it or adjust to it. To learn how to use your and the other persons skeleton to transfer weight through the bodies into the floor. To learn how your body is affected by weight being applied. Where it can/can’t take weight.

Day Three: Witnessing

 3rd Day, Claire, Claire Cunningham  Comments Off on Day Three: Witnessing
Feb 252016
 

“Presence Exercise” (from Jess Curtis)

One partner is “performer” , other is “observer”. Performer can stand or sit but must remain ‘active’, only moving their eyes. Observer sits in front of performer. The score for the performer is to be ‘present’, or ‘not present’.

Add to be present with the space/with your audience/with detail/with another performer. Physical score: sit, stand or walk.

Intention: Comfort with being watched. Consideration of being watched/being ‘present’.


Witnessing

One person is “performer”, other is “witness”.

Score is for the observer to watch the performer for a long period (30mins. 1 hour…hours…) Performer can do anything they want (leave the studio etc).

The witness can choose if they want to respond to/interact with the performer. They can also choose not to.

The witness is encouraged to observe through different ‘frames’, from different distances, heights, positions.

Intention: to consider what it is to give permission to be observed.

Final day reflections

 5th Day, Amy, Anna, Annette, Cinzia, Claire, Claire Cunningham, Daisy, Joshua C, Joshua P, Katy, Kellee, Laura, Lorcan, Philip, Photos, Rachael, Serena, Tina, William, Zoe  Comments Off on Final day reflections
Feb 282016
 

Following the Saturday one minute check-in, the group discussed themes and questions that had emerged out of the five day workshop. Here are some of them…

Being here is like falling in love, spiritually and emotionally

Disabled people have a right to BE disabled

Being ‘given permission’ by the mainstream to perform

People say, ‘that’s so great…for a deaf person’

Sharing the space with someone else helps me stay working

I need to look after myself a little more

Who has the power?

Greedy for more time

Who is doing the work? Who makes the performance?

Sometimes how you feel is reflected in the people around you

Am I genuine in answering questions?