This story wants to be danced : creative writing, dance, convergence and confluence

I suggest ways the discipline of dance can enrich and challenge the discipline of creative writing. I focus particularly on improvisation in dance, relating this to creative writing pedagogy, classroom structure and activities. Much possibility exists in utilising moments when creative arts disciplines touch. How might creative writers and creative writing courses use such fusions? I draw on material theory and briefly upon transformative and collaborative education theories in my exploration of these ideas.

Chamber

Performed 25 – 28 April 2002 - Dancehouse, Melbourne

Skin hunger

Performed dusk till dawn, Friday 26 October 2007
"Skin Hunger is an improvised movement performance that invites the audience to engage directly with the performer. The performer is accompanied by a sign that invites the audience to 'touch me and see what happens'. He then uses the tactile information as a stimulus to generate movement and motivation for what he does. Small moments of relationship emerge from the initiations offered by the audience and the performer's ability to be responsive to the moment of touch.

The sign reads:

Touch me.
Touch me and see what happens.

Perhaps I will dance
Or I may do something else.

If you hit me I will bruise I do not enjoy physical pain.

Tenderness is rare.

Brush, scratch, rub, pat, prod, punch, bump, jiggle, stroke, push, nudge, tickle, hug, squeeze, caress, feel, grope, fondle, graze, tap, fiddle with, handle, slap, knead, cuff, spank, thump, shake, jerk, clout, graze, chafe, tap, poke, jab, dig, skim, shove, pet, cuddle, embrace, finger, maul, paw, manipulate, pump, support. "
cf. Melbourne International Arts Festival. Musicircus artists
(http://www.melbournefestival.com.au/musicircus_artists)

Barely real

This is not another reality television show. This is about dancing - full and rich. But it's set against the foibles and treacheries of the reality TV starlets and asks - which one truly is real?

Untitled. Conundrum, September 2004

Conundrum is about improvisation as a performance practice. Conundrum is a hybrid event with dancers, actors, and musicians participating in a format that is informal, maintains modest production values and is rooted in the performers desire to practice improvisation in performance. Conundrum is the defining event, a lighthouse to pinpoint and illuminate a range of improvisation and body practices which constellate around the space known as Cecil Street Studio located in Fitzroy, Melbourne.

Cracking it open

Cracking it Open puts the spotlight on improvisation with live performances by some of Melbourne's leading improvisation artists. Each artist presents a short performance, and then opens the floor for discussion with audience members.

The weight of the thing left its mark

The weight of the thing left its mark imagines and abstracts a domestic situation where the relationships are under constant negotiation and held by what has been left unsaid. Framed by the unexpected use of kitchen cutlery the performance has a loosely knit structure that makes the dancing immediate and the quality of attention very alive.

African heart, Eastern mind : the transcendent experience through improvised music

[No Abstract]

The little con

The little con was created as a collective in 2005 to support and promote the vibrant community of dance improvisation in Melbourne. It is a monthly curated evening of spontaneous choreography.

Quantum music

The purpose of the research was to examine the human response system to aid the development of improvised music and mulit-media artwork. It was found that there are many predictable responses to external stimuli within the human body and that music and performance would benefit if this knowledge was applied.

Jemima

The Salon Series provided an opportunity to present the work "Jemima". "Jemima" plays with multiple physicalities, performance states and expression as they jostle up against each other al at once. The jostling in the moment of performance creates a viscosity in the musculature, a tension, that also creates an intensity in performance. The discussion post performances provided an opportunity to articulate discoveries made in the studio prior to performance and also insights from performance. The questions asked by audiences have further stimulated studio practice as research. 

Cafe urgency

The idea of Cafe urgency was to create a loose and social atmosphere in which performers, audience and everyone present explored the ideas of the evening together. What Urgency do we have in our lives? Which pressing ideas, compelling needs, burning desires fill a day? Which insistent thoughts, driving wishes, forceful longings span a lifetime? Our delectable menu of musings, meditations and magnificent imaginations will provide bite-sized morsels and overlapping slabs of creative sustenance to suit all tastes: song, sound, spoken word, dance, music, live art, installation.