Chamber : dance improvisation, masculine embodiment and subjectivity

[No Abstract]

Building movements: directed improvisation performances : conversing with buildings; assisted falling

For these performances, the new Design Hub building will play the role of architectural surrounds used as spatial research devices, architectural agent and collaborator – by giving the building our attention we aim to bring it and its affordances explicitly into the collective body. In exploring the set of interlinked spaces in the Hub (with an emphasis, we propose, on the stairs) as “elaborately structured pretexts for action” , we anticipate that the beginnings of an approach may emerge and allow us to understand that when a person “flexes her muscles, a person [also] flexes her surroundings”. Arakawa and Gins offer ways to assist us in approaching architecture as a tentative constructing toward a holding in place – in which all modes of sensing and scales of action are exercised – through their notions of ‘architectural surround’ and ‘architectural body’ garnered from chapters ‘Notes for an Architectural Body’ and ‘Architectural Surround’ (Gins and Arakawa, 2002).

Sensing the story: structure and improvisation in writing for performance.

This article discusses the process of writing through devising in performance. It takes as a case study Apart of and A Part From in which muscle and sense memory – touch, smell, taste, sound and sight – were the points of departure for a contemporary performance piece on migration and identity. This was a practice-as-research project aimed to better understand the artist’s body (myself) in improvisation with memory fragments. Working from a non-verbal frame the writing experience began as actions in space, then new memories in my body, to maps on paper, to key word and some staging patterns, to systematic capturing of the textual, rhythmic and spatial structures in the emerging 30-minute performance. Various objects were incorporated to give aesthetic coherence of the piece. The article reports on the processes of writing in action, the writing and performing as lived experience and how the writing emerged from the spaces in between – self and other, self and object, self and space, present self and past self.

Open House : Improvisation evening. Improvised reading

Within the Improvisation practices Symposium over ten day from Nov 27 - Dec 7 , Critical Path and director Margie merlin held a series of workshops and performance. Within this program I was invited to perform on the last evening of the symposium within a 1 hours program of improvised performances

Seminars on improvisation

These seminars will involve exercises, guided improvisation and improved performance that bring together diverse practitioners from different communities (across 4 continents) formed/informed by different contexts and histories to provide a focused and rich platform for engagement. The aim of the seminars will focus on clarifying what Andrew, Jondi and the participants mean by improvisation, how we use it, what are its dimensions and what do we imagine its future to be. The workshops will encompass experiential, anecdotal, theoretical and philosophical pathways, in no particular order.

What’s the score? Using scores in dance improvisation

This paper explores the use of scores or verbal propositions inimprovising dance. Examining my use of scores in my own improvisationpractice it discusses what scores might be and might do and how theyrelate to the real time composition of dance in the present of its making.To help explore these ideas I refer to the theory of Nelson Goodman anddiscuss the use of scores by other dance practitioners including StevePaxton, Yvonne Meier and Anna Halprin.

Trajectories of intensity. Looking at structured improvisation in 'the weight of the thing left its mark'

This article examines the intentions and implications of ‘structured improvisation’ in relation to my work 'The weight of the thing left its mark' performed in Melbourne in April 2009. The performance piece is premised on the dancers maintaining a performance improvisation practice but to frame these and add predetermined context as a choreographic overlay. In so doing the aim was to create spaces within the work where improvisation could authentically exist while striving for a definable and repeatable ‘work’. The presentation will examine some of the complexities and difficulties inherent in this aim and grapples with the different expectations and conflicts that exist between performance improvisation and choreography.

Improvisation in visual art practice using a photographic process

In this article I discuss how I have come to understand embodied processes in my visual art practice using photography. I danced professionally for 25 years and performed in various contexts including classical ballet repertoire, contemporary dance, and commercial dance. I choreographed for various productions working with a group of dancers for seven years before studying visual art. I experienced a particular sense of embodiment as a live performer in which prescribed movements were learnt, performed and repeated as if second nature. Transitioning into a conceptually based visual art practice the creative process was flipped around. Using painting, sculpture, performance (in a different context) and photographic methods I explored ideas from which forms such as video/audio installations, photography, performance art and painting emerged mostly in a gallery context. Although I still think of forms of movement as content, in a visual art practise the idea or concept invokes form.

The Movement between: Dance improvisation, witnessing and participatory performance.

This was a practice-based project which extended the possibilities for dance improvisation in performance. The project engaged questions about how live performance is constituted, about what the roles of the dancer and audience might entail, and about how a community of common experience can develop through a responsive exchange between its participants.

Cross cultural engagement: teaching African music to Australian students

This paper reports on research that examined the effectiveness of introducing rhythmic concepts through an unfamiliar musical genre to Australian generalist prim my teacher education students. The genre selected was African music, in particular action songs, dance and instrumental improvisation. The methodologies of Orff, Kodaly and Dalcroze were taught through the repertoire of African music in order to foster a closer relationship between pedagogical theory and practice and to teach rhythm through cross-cultural engagement. Through analyses of questionnaire and interview data, it was demonstrated that African music had a positive effect on students' conjidence as non-specialists music teachers and enhanced their skills in staff, sol-fa, hand notation and performance. Also students were not only highly motivated to engage with this new musical genre, but also gained an increased understanding of African culture. It is argued that African music was perceived by students not so much as a "novelty", but as a source of genuine motivation, interest and enjoyment. Its potential for extending student understanding of rhythm as well as taking a significant step towards internationalizing the curriculum for a cohort of predominantly Anglo-Celtic, pre-service teachers is also explored.