L A Y E R S . P E R F O R M A N C E . R E A D Y .

This past MIL was a meeting of a duet. The other MIL member and myself have been practicing together for some time and have worked together a couple of times in our own duet. This MIL we would try out the Sestina parts for the first time. After discussing the feedback we'd received for selecting the 6 parts we narrowed it down to 6 main ideas and crafted their wording so as to support a more "poetic" "phrase." I've listed the Sestina parts in the left margin of the blog, but for celebratory purposes, this is what we landed on:

A | THE VOICE OF THE BONES
B | VOICE OF HERE
C | LAY WITH THE LAND
D | AWARENESS OF THIS WORLD
E | SLOW MOTION OR NOT
F | EYE PRACTICES

We also came up with a more clearly timed structure for the MIL as we move through the next 6 lines of the Sestina Poetic Structure.

1. (10 minutes) Warm Up / Opening Ritual
2. (15-30 minutes) Open Improvisation
3. (60 minutes) Sestina: exploring each part for 10 min [6 parts at 10 min/each = 60 min]
4. (5 minutes) Closing Reflection / Sharing

We've also identified some foundational elements that we would like to be conscious part of every MIL Sestina Line.

• Witnessing. Take the time to step out as an audience member or Director. Observe the composition. Feel free to make vocal or physical directions. "Reverse that, move here, pause, replay, etc..."
• Leave your mark. Inherently the space will have changed after we've been in it. From subtle energetic and vibrational levels to more obvious physical ones. In the desire to make more contact with physical objects, be open to the possibility for leaving your mark by way of interacting with the environments and the things in it.
• Use Sound. Continue to link the body and the voice. Using the full range of the human capacity for expression.
• Be aware of your Audience. Love the watchers. I'm going to talk about this at the beginning of the next MIL, inspired by Mary Overlie's concept of "playing the piano." For now the audience space will be represented with chairs or seats. We can play with where they are from week to week.

Notes from the experience of last week....

LAYERS! unfolding, folding. Conscious, sub conscious. A rich format for performance. We need to do a show! we must. After the 7 Sestina lines have been MILLED. We perform the Sestina in it's entirety.

Ballet. Poor GOP states. Montana. Kentucky. Tennessee. Lower the middle wage to create more jobs. Yeah, Right. Feels good against the wall. Being in unison without attaching to being exacting. Performing the essence in unison. Voice. Animal. Troll. Primal. Ape. Japanese. Communicating without words but a lot of sound! A lot of voice. breath. body. what is it that your are creating? Contemplative Movement meets the swamps and zip lines of freedom. Look! Left eye. Right eye. Soft hard focus.

We had a nutty music mix. Everything from ordinary pop songs, to classic music, to ambient abstract.

The MIL...

A new Season. A new Cycle. A new Idea. An old Body. A new Body.

Spoons, Valerie Fisher

I want to thank BeBe Miller for all her brilliance and for sharing the Sestina with me. It has changed my performance making incredibly! This season of MIL is inspired by the poetic structure of the SESTINA. Here is a little bit of history about it:

The sestina is a complex form that achieves its often spectacular effects through
intricate repetition. The thirty-nine-line form is attributed to Arnaut Daniel, the
Provencal troubadour of the twelfth century. The name "troubadour" likely comes
from trobar, which means "to invent or compose verse." The troubadours sang their
verses accompanied by music and were quite competitive, each trying to top the
next in wit, as well as complexity and difficulty of style.

Courtly love often was the theme of the troubadours, and this emphasis continued as
the sestina migrated to Italy, where Dante and Petrarch practiced the form with
great reverence for Daniel, who, as Petrarch said, was "the first among all others,
great master of love."

The sestina follows a strict pattern of the repetition of the initial six end-words of the
first stanza through the remaining five six-line stanzas, culminating in a three-line
envoi. The lines may be of any length, though in its initial incarnation, the sestina
followed a syllabic restriction. The form is as follows, where each numeral indicates
the stanza position and the letters represent end-words:

1. ABCDEF 2. FAEBDC 3. CFDABE 4. ECBFAD 5. DEACFB 6. BDFECA 7. (envoi) ECA or
ACE

Spoons, Valerie Fisher

Here is an example of a Sestina by Elizabeth Bishop.

September rain falls on the house.
In the failing light, the old grandmother
sits in the kitchen with the child
beside the Little Marvel Stove,
reading the jokes from the almanac,
laughing and talking to hide her tears.

She thinks that her equinoctial tears
and the rain that beats on the roof of the house
were both foretold by the almanac,
but only known to a grandmother.
The iron kettle sings on the stove.

She cuts some bread and says to the child,
It's time for tea now; but the child
is watching the teakettle's small hard tears
dance like mad on the hot black stove,
the way the rain must dance on the house.
Tidying up, the old grandmother
hangs up the clever almanac

on its string. Birdlike, the almanac
hovers half open above the child,
hovers above the old grandmother
and her teacup full of dark brown tears.
She shivers and says she thinks the house
feels chilly, and puts more wood in the stove.

It was to be, says the Marvel Stove.
I know what I know, says the almanac.
With crayons the child draws a rigid house
and a winding pathway. Then the child
puts in a man with buttons like tears
and shows it proudly to the grandmother.

But secretly, while the grandmother
busies herself about the stove,
the little moons fall down like tears
from between the pages of the almanac
into the flower bed the child
has carefully placed in the front of the house.

Time to plant tears, says the almanac.
The grandmother sings to the marvelous stove
and the child draws another inscrutable house.

Spoons, Valerie Fisher

How to develop a WITNESS in Improvisational performance

I was running late. A torrentious down pour was hitting the front range and flash flood warnings were happening in Denver- something that is very rare. With a couple a major traffic lights out of commission and an accident on the highway, I was running behind. When I got there though, the door to the studio from the outside was open and two company members were seated near the doorway. Already deep in there seated meditation with the steady rhythm of rain just beyond the doorstep. I set my things down and took a seat near them to drop in. I have to remark that we generally always have some kind of semi-formal if not casual conversation at the beginning. It was a really freeing experience to just come in, be seated, and slide in, without talking.
(the photo is from the recent opening at the DAM... don't know the artist. sorry)

Rain.
Meditation.
Moving in.
I saw the Columns for a moment here and there.
Landscape.

O B J E C T S. I drug in a couple large white acting boxes. A light blue acting box was pulled out. I'd been perched on it for a little. I also pulled out 6, I think, blue tumbling mats. I arranged them in the space so they drew a kind of curved path/wall/boundary along the middle of the space and then kind of played open at each end. The spatial relationships and shapes of the objects shifted throughout the improvisation. It was a lot of fun to play with material like that in the group. I have a regular practice of working with sculptural material at home and in my own personal art work but had never really brought it to the MIL. It was mentioned that it really provided a kind of landscape and defined qualities of space (inner, outer, exterior, interior, along, ontop, etc...) IN THE FUTURE: I would like to bring in some sculptural material that we can play with. The white paper? Fabric? Furniture? Grass?\

Dictionary.
Truck Load of Meaning.
Talking into the Boxes.
Her Skin Was ____ with Glass.
Instruments.
Sliding boxes.
Trio.

SCULPTING THE PRACTICE WITH THE VIEWPOINTS. I'd kind of wanted to do a similar thing this MIL that we'd been able to do this last time: Discover and articulate specific qualities within the viewpoints to focus on. I felt it had kind of happened naturally. That we'd been able to settle into the groove of that MIL with the rain, the mood, the temperature, the day... more naturally. The following is a summary of what I could remember a company member saying in response to me sharing this observation, and I felt it was really powerful:

I have internalized the viewpoints more. Like it's a part of me. Like when you notice your thoughts in meditation, I notice the viewpoints when we are performing. We are our own individuals, and we can really each have our own experience here, but it is such a group. I feel like whatever it is that is moving through me isn't mine- it's the whole groups cause we're all here. We're so in it. Together.

Perhaps the bridging of Contemplative Movement and The Six Viewpoints develops a witness for the improvisational performer that can recognize the ephemeral material as a more readily accessible and welcoming unknown.


During the improvisational score I'd recognized that we each had our individual style of working within the performance. And as much time as we spent watching one another, feeding off one another, repeating, and flocking we still managed to hold on to this... personality... that set us apart. The training we'd collaboratively moved through and digested develops this common consciousness though that allows all our unique perspectives and styles to kind of cooperate and communicate more fluidly. We'd never really instilled a specific kind of dance or performance technique. I feel like what we've mainly been working with is concepts, theories, personal practice, and group awareness. Listening. Responding. Trusting. Letting. Waiting.

If we wanted to codify all this a bit we could say:

0. Regularly practice Improvisation with an "Open Score"
1. Begin with the Columns.
2. Eventually allow the Columns to become a Grid.
3. Simultaneously continue building ensemble skills with various supplemental exercises.
4. Introduce the Six Viewpoints Theory and Practice.
5. Isolate, identify, observe, and participate with ONE viewpoint at a time. (One viewpoint per meeting first).
6. Get to a place where the group can more fluidly practice shifting from one viewpoint or lens to another.
7. About the same time start a regular Contemplative Movement practice: Integrating the vastness into personal practice into open score.
8. Continue to overlap seated meditation, personal practice, isolating the viewpoints, and transitioning into "open score."

Sculpting the Practice

Two members for the MIL said they were willing and planning to possibly participate in my July 1st Friday show and that I could sculpt this MIL in spirit of the work. However, no one was actually able to come to the show, but it was incredible to see what a little sculpting within The Viewpoints practice can do to the open score.

About working with specific qualities of vocabulary within the viewpoints in improvisation:

1. Recognize which viewpoint you are isolating.
2. Begin with observing what is already there.
3. Notice the subtleties of the quality you are working with as it already exists. For example, if you are isolating SHAPE and would like to play with lumpy shape qualities, notice the areas that may already be lumpy.
4. From there you can accentuate, exaggerate, concentrate and focus on that specific quality. drawing it out. Building upon the idea.

Here is the vocabulary I brought:

SPACE | Centripetal : a force that makes a body follow a curved path. Centrifugal: outward force away from the center of roation

SHAPE | Knots. Lumpy. Contorted body seeking a sustainable posture.

TIME | Repetitive. Concurrent. Obsessional Return.

EMOTION | Desperate. Determined to be Distracted. Dependency.

MOVEMENT | Light. Sudden. Bound.

STORY | The other two members are black, sticky, globby residues that I am completely unaware of and determined to remain so.

I felt like it provided a bit of glue that held more moments together. Providing a kind of foundation to rely on and bounce off of. An interesting experience. I also felt like we really navigated the spatial possibilities when working with 3 individuals rather well.

Here is a photo from the work I based the sculpted viewpoints from:

more photos can be seen from this work on my other blog: http://ameliacharter.blogspot.com

let's Story the stuff out of it.

These photos are from a performance art piece I helped Keli with a while back and I found them recently and really felt like they encapsulated how I felt during this MIL. We'd talked about bringing in a sound-scape that deliberately went back and forth from a more nuetral and environmental space to a more perscriptive song. The songs chosen did not have lyrics however. That may be something we could play with.


We started with seated meditation and moved into a personal practice and then rather quickly transitioned into the open score.

Tricky. Not quite it for me. We'd really pushed Story as hard as we could for one of the songs. It was a little bit like just stating our obvious frustration with the viewpoint. Bordering on mockery even. A member picked up a book we found in the space and was reading from pages. It was this very prescriptive book on how you should perform without expectations or opinions and all these kind of very impersonal rules. The more neutral sound-scape chosen was crickets... By the end there two of us were laying on our sides and violining our legs while making an O shape with our heads slightly above the head. It got to a point there where I felt the more I let go of Story, the more it clearly presented itself. A lesson there.

Y O U m e U S t h e m

We continue to begin every meeting with a contemplative beginning:
Seated meditation. 10 - 12 - 15 minutes depending.
Personal Practice. 10 - 12 - 15 minutes depending.

And also, introducing the Six Viewpoints. I expressed my insecurities about working with STORY. It has always been this complicated webbing thing that is sometimes to plain and linear it bores me and other times so completely radical it becomes a trap. I've also always felt that I received the least amount of teaching on the viewpoint of Story from Mary and was always hesitant to trust my own understanding of it. I am grateful for company members that encouraged me to let that go and trust my self.

Integrating the Viewpoints into Contemplative Performance. 10 - 12 - 15 - 20 minutes depending. Space, Shape, Time, Emotion, Movement and Story
With Story, I brought up a point that may have revealed some insight into the nature of its' material:

"In the same way that we recognize space and non-space, try to develop your awareness of story and non-story"

The more contemplative, vessel, neutral-like qualities of performance held the non-story and when we were more attuned to narrative or a logic structure, story was there.

Hierarchies, Preferences and Personal Likeness has been brought up several times by members in regards to the Viewpoints. That they are especially inclined to feel more comfortable with some than others like, Movement and Shape. I think this awareness is crucial to understanding where you have room to grow and where the work can fall flat. The awareness needs to remain observational and participatory rather than judgmental, critical, or something you feel the need to take complete ownership of. So for future practice I would encourage the MIL to spend more time focusing on Space, Time, Emotion, and Story. So that we can really empower THE HORIZONTAL.

Bridging Dilley and Overlie

Contemplative Dance ------- The Six Viewpoint Practice
Barbara Dilley -------- Mary Overlie

15 min. seated meditation -
Settling into the seat of the self. Becoming a witness to your thoughts. Emptiness. Breath.

5 ish min. personal awareness that slid into The Six Viewpoint Review -
Carrying the "holiness" and awareness cultivated in seated meditation through movement and free body exploration. Then deconstructing, isolating and identifying one viewpoint at a time with an understanding that we are approaching it within the layer of embodied awareness. It is almost like having two simultaneous meditational practices. Concentrate on this viewpoint only and remain focused on integrating the qualities within seated meditation into your performance.

in hale......S P A C E..........exhale.....

exhale......S P A C E...........inhale..........S H A P E..........

exhale........S H A P E.......inhale..........T I M E.........and so on with
E M O T I O N and MO V E M E N T

I'd never instructed to transition through the viewpoints using the breathe before. I'd talked about switching lenses and still mention the shifting of your attention towards a "separate" perceptual ability. Noted.

5 min. seated meditation -
Coming back to a still internal place of vastness.

OPEN SCORE -
So Contemplative Dance had been revealing a kind of style in the practice. It might have been different if we'd had Dilley to guide us, but with the resources we had, it seemed to fall naturally into a very precious, slow, gentle space with sporadic unique moments but with a very transendental kind of overriding tone. So how do we evolve from that? Bring in the abstract and pedestrian? Allow a more dynamic journey to occur? How do we continue pushing to find the unknown? With what tool can we push against these conventions?.... Viewpoints.

interacting with others was no longer with imposing act or taking away from my own awareness. Lounging on the Piano. Coalescing. Gelling. We are really just extensions of one another.

"I'm going to do something and it will take us somewhere else. You may not like it, but that's okay" ...Milt Jackson, Sunflower...

suuunset. DUNe. ShRrUuBb. stooone.suuunset. DUNe. ShRrUuBb. stooone.suuunset. DUNe. ShRrUuBb. stooone.suuunset. DUNe. ShRrUuBb. stooone.suuunset. DUNe. ShRrUuBb. stooone.suuunset. DUNe. ShRrUuBb. stooone.suuunset. DUNe. ShRrUuBb. stooone.

Rock. Rock. Rock.


Bush.

Then you were moving around the space and I came in and scooped you out of it. Reached my arms around and gave you a hug. to one side and then the other. An interruption. A hold. You were in wastewater, some serious sludge and then this release from it. So much more underneath.

Exciting to combine Contemplative movement with the Viewpoints. Really Meshes. a good marriage for a sweeter container.

It's like I remember why I'm moving...

Remembering why I don't want to move...

Stillness. Turning inward. Holding. now, Letting Go.

S T O R Y .....

Contemplative MIL

Calm. Simple. Clear. Only Two.

• 15 minutes of silent seated meditation around the perimeter of the room. Holding the space.

letting go, quieting the mind, noticing what it feels like to consciously shift the attention to the right brain from the left brain. Listening to the breath.

• 15 minutes of personal awareness practice.

checking in. Returning to an empty mind. Releasing expectations. Heightened awareness for every part of the body. Waiting. Allowing. Waiting. Moving. Waiting. Noticing.

• 45-60 minutes of group improvisation. This can be either personal awareness or group interaction. Bring the 'emptiness' cultivated in seated meditation into movement.

Waiting. An entirely new sense of 'flocking' for me. Just letting it be whatever it needs to be. Moving in and out of interaction and personal space. Softly brushing aside. holding the moment in between. Coming together. New pathways for moving and shifting in space. A sense of total control by relinquishing all control. Achieving a large sense of accomplishment and satisfaction without any agenda.

Tibetan singing bowl meditation sound score...


ding...




ding...





ding...


An idea for Performance:

Photo by LeAnn Brubaker of 2010 Pathways I Sculptformance by Amelia Charter in Durango, CO

We've been tossing the idea around about what a public viewing for the MIL would mean and where it would take place, maybe what would it look like. After this past MIL experience, we'd wanted to find a way to somehow share that experience with an audience. However, even though the slow, nurturing, meditative, waiting and abstract movement can be incredibly compelling for the performer from within the piece, it can be terribly boring for an audience. So how do we engage their attention with the work? I'd mentioned that parts of this contemplative practice was very familiar to elements of Sculptformance. But with Sculptformance, an audience is able to walk around, sit, stay, shift, walk, etc... and change their viewing perspective throughout the duration of the piece. It is like colliding watching theatre in the round and seeing 3-dimensional, 360 degrees of kinetic sculpture. With that in mind, we'd had the idea of each audience member having a disposable camera. Their "ticket" is the camera. And throughout the performance, audience members could move around and take photos of the work. We'd somehow organize it so that all the photos could be shared online where people could view each other's shots.




ding...





click.....




click....






click....

Photo by LeAnn Brubaker of 2010 Pathways I Sculptformance by Amelia Charter in Durango, CO

click....

M O V E M E N T - the perceptual ability to experience kinesthetic sensation. Do what the body wants. Observing sensations throughout the entire body and participating with movement. From the center of the room to the periphery and then anywhere. Exploring specific places on the body: Using a Yoga Nidra body mapping as a kind of performance score.


Noticing the building awareness and focus on isolating and listening to kinesthetic sensation. You must be grounded and present to bridge the internal experience with external expression. To be mindful. At one point in our development it became loud and fast and the awareness went away, but then came back. Then we were able to more gradually support the awareness as we arced back into louder and faster movement.

"As an improviser it hard to stay mindful of my kinesthetic when I am paying attention to composition. If everyone is present and mindful though, the composition comes naturally."

Peaks and Valleys: An organic Arc. We used local violinist Antony Salvo's Album, thank you. and the MOSS. I love the MOSS.


TRUST. Some of which is articulated with my previous post, but I further understood the capaibilities with a space where individuals allow time to expand, and patiently wait for the success and progress of the session. Rather than rushing to fill the short two hours with as much exploration as possibly, it is about learning to see and hear whatever that day that time those bodies need in the now. A bit of quality versus quantity.

Rainforests. echoes with voice. Molecules. Opening and Closing. Shifting the weight. Silk. Mud. Soft Sand. Circles. 4 women. 1 man. 3 and 2. 2 and 3. 2 and 2 and 1.

We miss the game changer.

Time Shrinks

With the school year ending, seasons changing, injuries, and people migrating, the MIL has kind of lost an arm or two but it growing new limbs on the opposite end of it's organic blobby body.

I am going to write a little bit about collective consciousness and familiarity from an observational and scientific point of view. I want it to be clear that it is no way my intention to ostracize or make anyone feel that they are any less than a wonderful contributor to the MIL experience.

First, Let's recap from the beginning of this group's meeting starting back on Thursday, January 27th:

Completely OPEN improvisation. It was simply, "see you on the other side" and we worked the whole evening with the lights off.
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We'd found some kind of vocal Chord together at the end of the last session. We decided to begin at the periphery of the room and I led us through a brief group ritual called THE CHORD; finding our breath and vocalized exhales together.
from the open score: Rich and Famous
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Lights on. We brought in a sound-scape of a rainstorm with bells and also just rain. We began the evening working in "corridors," which eventually opened into more corridors and then "the grid."
from the open score:
We ate goldfish and all the students died in the corridor. They wanted us to crush their bones into parchment paper.
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Developing a vocabulary to identify and play with during open improv: "Ding" "End" Notice" "Direction." We continued to work with the corridors and the grid.
from the open score:
Christopher was introduced. A dead fish in the middle of the floor. And swimming in sticky buns, but pollution.
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I introduced The Six Viewpoint Theory and Practice and gave a taste of all Six - then focused on SPACE.
from the open score:
A lot of people came that day. Including that one older women who ended up breaking her ankle maybe? There was a lot going on but we were more comfortable I think.
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Starting with a warm up on the floor working our way into sitting. Then I transitioned into teaching about SHAPE. Working with the boundaries of the body and the architecture. Also, Entrances and Exits: 1 2 3 4 ...etc...
from the open score:
I'd talked about about the shape of the larynx and the anatomical shape of the body. A much more unified open score. Some ending sequence with a couple in the corner that slowly made there way to the ending reflection circle. We all wished we'd called 1 more often.
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We had a musician come and accompany the MIL that day. We began with a warm up on our backs watching our hands drift from side to side and then just the hands then other peoples hands and eventually laban and other image phrasing.
from the open score:
THE BIG MIS STEAK. and I died, for a long time...but eventually came to, maybe as something else. The lines between being in and out of the open improv were blurred. Was I talking to the group as an instructor or as a performer? Someone helped me find my father in a cave in the cornfield and I was a vegan in the end, who felt very sorry for all the cheese I'd eaten. A bit of a solo there at the end.
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Reviewing SHAPE and SPACE. Massaging the Jaw and very gradually noticing the shift between the lens of SHAPE and the lens of SPACE.
from the open score:
Iodine, the president, something else. Still working with calling out numbers for entrances and exits.
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TIME. we started with rolling across the width of the room and back and then we all decided to focus on whatever we thought TIME was without the definition.
from the open score:
Lots of exploration of rhythm and different qualities of time. I ended up writing and drawing and scribbling in my journal for most of the score.
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No expectations. A small group. We'd just stretch a little and then go into open score.
from the open score:
Thunderstorm sound scape. It was warm in the studio that day- we'd started to get more daylight and could leave the florescents off. We were using entrances and exits more loosely. St Patricks Day and one of us sang this kind of lullaby. Id told everyone to treat me as if I was a sculpture and they'd all congregated with me around me around each other in this incredible moment of slow thoughtless soft air beauty.
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EMOTION. Just learning to see and let yourself be seen. Feeling the state of being and questioning perception vs experience
from the open score:
Floorboards and changing shirts. I only want to wear this dress. leeches. grandmothers. cobwebs. Really slow. Feeling like we could keep going- just getting started there at the end.
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I wasn't there the last couple weeks with the regular group, sadly. But I hear it was slower and easy going for the most part. If you have something to contribute here, please do in the comments.
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So here we are NOW, approaching another MIL today on May 12th. Two people came back who were there at the very beginning few sessions, and then were absent until now. We've also lost a couple people due to several shifts in life.

Last week when we met, the familiarity and unfamiliarity with one another was palpable. There was this need to fill in awkward moments with action. Or for some, it felt like filling expectations. For me, it was like time had shrunk and it crunchingly ticked off as I stressed to know what was going on. Little moments that worked happened more toward the end of the open score for brief blips and then quickly shifted down another path.

Through February, March and April- the core group had been developing a kind of collective consciousness and awareness with one another. We'd been able to kind of predict and know our unique and common characteristics and tendencies, and also click into a group mentality that had it's outside eye on composition throughout an open score. I believe that it was not only the ensemble building techniques and the time we'd spent together in the same room, but the learning of some of the viewpoints that allowed us to have this undercurrent of knowledge that supported the performance. It was this common foundation that lifted our play into more cohesive and commanding moments of theatre. The surprising moments where things work, started happening not only more frequently, but for longer periods of time. Transitions were happening more seamlessly; A through-line from beginning to end was drawn and we could all kind of gather around some volunteered awareness of one another throughout the duration of the open score. We'd made a significant amount of progress.

That is not to say that things are totally depressed or regressing now. Without this opportunity to kind of restart, I may not have seen these developments with the same gratitude or clarity. But that nurturing should be honored and noticed, so we can build that nest again.

So here are my questions:
How do we do it differently?
What stays the same? What do we bring back?
Do we review what 6 of the Viewpoints we've learned?
Should we move on to learning the last two and then come back to the other four (space, shape, time, and emotion) that we've already reviewed?
What is most needed?
Is there a way to expedite without rushing?
Is it possible to let the layers fall away more effortlessly?
Now that we are aware of our previous developments, will we slow down sooner?
Or does it need to go in whatever direction it does more subconsciously like before?

I ONLY WANT TO WEAR THIS DRESS!!!!

Every time is a completely different experience. It feels like the air is literally made up of different molecules. Each Thursday has it's completely unique texture, mood, quality, and taste.

_____

E M O T I O N: There is always some hesitancy about entering emotion. It is like we immediately see ourselves yelling or crying. However, with the Six Viewpoint Theory and Practice, we deconstruct our perceptions to look at and isolate our ability to perceive emotion: to experience states of being. We are always "emotional." We might be performing, living, or acting from a hierarchy with emotion at the top when the sense is stirred inside us with more intensity, but we are always experience some kind of state of being.



t h e p r a c t i c e....

Split the group in two
One half sits in the designated "performance" space, or somewhere that the other half can watch or observe them.
Individuals should be mostly in their own space, inhabiting their own pocket.
For at least 8-10 minutes, the observers simply watch and look at the others just being there.
Those being watched are encouraged to relax,
let thoughts occur normally,
allow any natural fidgeting,
let yourself be seen,
open the skin,
soften the face,
see with your eyes,
just be.

I talked about the DOG SNIFF DOG WORLD.

Floor boards. SMoKeD LinK SausAgEs. Dress. Knot. Knot. knot. knot. knot. knot. floor boards. I'm going to take my shirt off!! Not. not. not. not. not. Butterflies. Braintickles. still. internal. mediated. today. grain. queer Flutter Flutter. flutter. Love. Warmth. Slow. Brain tickles. Memory. Row Sham. Bo. Miss. Moss. Moisture. I only want to wear this dress! Grandmother's hands, soft cotton cobwebs, Shadow, Light. Slow. Slow. Slow. Quiet. Shhhhhh. !!!!.....Leeches. This is how leeches talk, protect, peace, dance....








* What is perception? What do we mean by perceptual ability? Is deconstruction violent? Is minimalism violent?

I just want you to know that you are doing a really good job

Photo by Ivan Mayes

just 4 of us. A really relaxing open MIL. We all came with absolutely no expectations. Kind of milling about chatting about this, and that, sliding around, stretching. And then we decided to just simply begin with corridors. I put on a thunderstorm, and off we went. The experience felt free, un-trapped. We'd all felt that without some contained warm up or didactic exercise to start off with, the improvisational exploration was left to develop more on it's own. Although we'd reminded our self that we'd had encounters with s p a c e, s h a p e, and t i m e. And it isn't that it needs to be like this every time necessarily. It was just the mood of the afternoon. A warm, long sunset in the east valley of Boulder, Colorado.

...and then there was 3.

The diagonal journey. Seated. Rocking. A complete evolution from OM to the other end of it. 3 of us had been slightly bizerk around the traveler. Once he'd reached his "destination" though we'd all fallen still and he rolled and lifted and fell all around us sporadically.

...and then there was 1.

LOUD------------------------------------------------ENERGETIC
ECHO. VOLUME. TRAIN. OOOO OOOOOoooo

This beautiful little moment. Where he danced so openly, so honest in front of us. I'd just recently had a solo show and had watched the video documentation and was extremely quick to be my own worst critic. Harsh. But in this moment of improvisation and being present with the self, I saw the simplicity and vulnerability. This kind of precious awkward uniqueness that is just as awesome of a gift as any technique might be.

....and then there was 2.

The jester and the hedgehog talking away, ramdoozling about. Laughing, playing, teasing, rolling.

i m a g i n a t i o n

The 2 men were just so B R I G H T .

HEDGE HOOOOoog. Heeeedge hooooog. Hogging the hedge. Hedge HOG. And then he threw me over his shoulder and ran around the room as I bounced over his back. hedge.hog.hedge.hog.hedge.hog.hedge.hog.hedge.hog.hedge.hog.

I am a pancake with butter and I smother you both because you are getting out of control. Ooooh no!

I AM GOING TO EAT THE PANCAKE!

Nooo! Not the pancake?

Why not?

Because she's special....

I just want you to know that you are doing a really terrible job.

...2 and 2

How to make 2 duets more interesting?

....and then there was 4.

QUIET ---------------------------------------------------------------STILL




It all kind of began with this gentle rolling gestures close to one another near the hall door. We'd made a slow procession down the length of the floor and gently migrated our way around and drifted apart briefly. I was left in the high corner of the room next to cracked open door where the late afternoon sunlight poured through. I said, "I want you to see me like you would view a sculpture. From all three sides. 360." I was moving extremely slowly. One by one they slowly surrounded me and very softly, with such extreme care, began to lightly tap and make contact with my body. I'd listen, and respond. They had guided me down to the ground and my eyes were covered by my shirt. But I had this warm, hovering sensation of them all around me still. Protecting. Holding. Breathing. Waiting, without waiting. The quiet and the stillness and slowness was so full. We'd suspended time for what could have been a year in that corner.

Photos by Amelia Charter

Thunderstorms rumbling away.


1 . 2 . 3 . 4 .

1....2....3...... 3..... 4......

Still by Kiki Smith

We decided to review S H A P E and S P A C E :

massage
the face
the jaw
the cheek bones
the skull
the ears
the neck
the shoulders
the chest
the upper arms
the elbows - the pickle
the fore arms
the wrists
the hands
the fingers
the rib cage- front side back
the whole thorax
the belly
the lower back
the hips
the upper thighs
the knees
especially the back of the knees
the calves
the ankles
the top of the foot
now the feet

massage
the feet

then...

We begin to attune the awareness and deconstruct our perception so that we may realize space more fully. So instruct the group through the following practices while guiding them through the principle qualities of the viewpoints and encourage disciplined isolation. :

• choose a space in the room to go to
• precisely visualize yourself going there
• be specific about the pathway you take to get there
• once you've completed the visualization, do it. Execute.
• You arrive.
• And again, choose another space in the room
• visualize your pathway very specifically and the way you travel along the pathway
• (notice the dynamics shifting and changing within the viewpoints: relationships)

We begin to integrate shape with stillness. I stop the group in the middle or at the end of a journey and ask them to close their eyes. I guide them through at least 5 or so minutes of internal exploration of shape with their eyes closed.

notice the boundaries of the body, where the skin and the air meet, where it stops and starts. Sensing the geometry and architecture with pure sense, without the eyes. Developing a different kind of seeing and vision. Is it contained or not contained? Does this work or does this work?


O P E N I M P R O V I S A T I O N A L S C O R E

Is the beginning the most important? Wait. Be patience. Go slow. Trust. GO. A small group, only 4 of us. Very intimate and simple. Because there were less of us there was more space in the room. We had the ocean going the whole time. It was kind of washing over and under the whole scene. And in the duller moments, the slower moments, the open moments, the quiet moments...

KSSSHhhhhhhhhhhhh shhhhhhhhhhshhhcccccccc KKKKkuuusshhhhhhhh

Weaving the dialogue of the four performers together. We could keep track of each other better I think. And it didn't need to really make perfect sense in order for it to work. It was very cohesive. Some marriage of simplicity and complexity. Characters... personalities... qualities of the individuals. My politics seeped out. Some winding genteel swooping leaked all over. The wild game changer got the wiggles out. St patty's day people soaked through.

KSSSHhhhhhhhhhhhh shhhhhhhhhhshhhcccccccc KKKKkuuusshhhhhhhh

IODINE IN THE SALT
BABIES IN THE BOTTLES
PRESIDENT IN THE NATION
DESCRIMINATION


....cawing ....screeching

KSSSHhhhhhhhhhhhh shhhhhhhhhhshhhcccccccc KKKKkuuusshhhhhhhh

Rene Magritte

A BIG MIS STEAK

H A N D S
beginning with a ritual lying on our backs. The arms are lifted out away from the body, wrists stacked above elbows, elbows above shoulders. The eyes softly gaze at the hands - not just one hand - both hands. The hands arc over to the right, the arms softly bent but extended. the gaze, the head, follows the hands all the way over. Then the hands arc back up to the sky, then over to the left. And again. Repeatedly. D U R A T I O N : 1 hour. We did it for 5 minutes, at the most. After that, the arms were allowed to go other places, keeping the focus - the gaze - on the hands. Allowing that to influence the body, taking you to a different space. Then noticing other people's hands. And coming back to your own. Switching focus. Where is the focus? Where are your hands? Where are their hands?

Somehow I felt like I'd gone from an extreme awareness of my periphery vision to having blinders on. It completely through my through a long loop - which would take me the rest of the evening to wind my way out of.


L A B A N

S P A C E direct ------------------------ indirect

T I M E sudden ------------------------- sustained

W E I G H T heavy --------------------------- light

F L O W bound ------------------------------ free

layered 3 elements, 2 elements. i.e. direct, sudden and free, light, indirect, and bound, heavy and sudden, so on.

Also playing with imagery. Onomatopoeiac words.


T H E M U S I C I A N
We've been blessed to have a musician from Naropa grace the MIL with his presence. Bringing wind and percussion instruments, his body and his voice, he made an invaluable contribution to the evening. It was wonderful to have a sonic landscape that was in dialogue with the group and could be reciprocal, alive, and ephemeral with us. The variety of the shifting instruments and the play of it all was uplifting, a little challenging - but in this very, very good way. Working with:

• synchronization and un-synchronization
• silence and sound
• voice and instrument
• repetition
• sound echoed by a performer
• narration
• what else?

O P E N S C O R E

so many things that stand out to me. We'd really done a doosey with the warm up and things felt pretty disjointed for some of us at the beginning. I felt really unconnected and concerned with things that really didn't matter.

I made a big mistake. You made a big steak? MEDIUM RARE. juicccy. I big mistake. misteak. stake. Jingle Bells on the wrist. Two women on the far wall. Sustained. Direct. Intentional.

I will continue this expose soon.....I promise. And photos.

How do we know when it's time to leave and when to stay?

starting on the F L O O R.
spread out like an X
Bending the body, staying in contact with the floor, hands and feet arc towards one another
then rolling over and curling the elbows and knees towards one another
stretching along the diagonal
pulling in then expanding back out
reverse
both sides
allowing the movement to take you up into sitting
reaching the leg out and bringing the body up

S H A P E
the perceptual ability to see and feel physical form

Working from the warm up into the awareness and isolation of the viewpoint. Landing in place of stillness when seated, continuing to unfold and fold the body, noticing the S H A P E of the body. architecture. geometry. where something starts and stops. the boundaries of the skin, of the body. Slowly at first, really settling in the place of the shape. Developing an acute awareness within the moment of stillness. Shifting in and out of it. Really getting it. Listening. Heard.

Rachel Denny, Green Doe, 2008

W O R D S
While moving from the floor to seated and the in betweens, pausing for moments to notice the shape, we began to articulate words or sounds that impulsively, intuitively came up with each shape. I've been trying to find ways to integrate the voice into the viewpoints practice. Open the doorway to the voice. ... muffins, frog, clothesline, lawn chair ...
In the future- somewhere I'd like to go with it: Looking at it anatomically. Playing with the shape - the space - the time - the...... of the larynx. the voice box. the mouth. the throat. the chest. the belly. the......

Kate MccGuire Sculpture

SHAPES MOVING STILLNESS
words to describe that, to hold it, to fall into it. The language of it.

then - running rapidly through all six - a mistake - too much. keep it simple. keep the focus.

E N T R A N C E S A N D E X I T S
For this we stand around the perimeter of the room. A number is called out, no larger than the number of people in the room. Whatever number is called out is the number of people that need to be in the performance - mostly in the center of the room this time. New numbers can be called out as quickly or as far apart as needed.
Noticing numbers were evolving 3, 2, 4. Accumulation and Disintegration. We also saw how the shifting number of people in performances can frame a moment, a narrative. However, it moved along so rapidly that it was hard to allow anything to develop. We all wanted to call out 1 - to see 1. I think a different kind of intimacy happens with a solo person.

Finding an entrance into the open improvisation with corridors, the viewpoints, group awareness.

SPACE...

Warming up with some of Anna Halprin's Movement Ritual. Opening the spine and releasing the breath. Then, engaging the diaphragm. Working with partners. "Punching" the gut, locating the sound from down low. Use the core, not the throat.


A N I N T R O D U C T I O N
I briefly went over The Six Viewpoint Theory. Most of what was gone over is published in the previous post. We decided to briefly experience each of the six viewpoints. Shifting through each lens. space....shape....time....emotion.....movement.....story.... Isolating and Identifying Individuals.

S P A C E F O R T H E O P E N S C O R E
Some of the feedback heard during reflection:

A lot of good moments in improvisation.
Folding layers of the membrane.
Feeling more connected to the group, to the room.
The joy of naming things. Maybe, the joy of learning someone or something's name.
Returning. Returning to the columns. Returning to the awareness of space.
The business of space.
becoming aware of how you use it as a material.
Performance as painting. Space on the paper. Space in the room.
Noticing the other viewpoints. Time, Duration, Story.

Photo by Ivan Mayes, "Vessel" workshop in Hesperus, CO

M E D I T A T I O N
Noticing the phenomenon of becoming an observer and a participant within performance. Versus the pressure to be a creator, and originator, to tango with the ego. It was brought up by someone that their experience of working with the vocabulary was in a parallel with Buddhist philosophy. I've often equated the discipline to isolating the materials to meditation. We are used to constantly operating with all six, perhaps in a hierarchy. It is like training the mind to be still and silent. It is like training the mind to observe the chatter. It is like training the body to see and feel only one material, rather than all six.

Photo by Amelia Charter

L I G H T S

ON


OFF



ON


OFF....
ON OFF!.....

on....

Photo by Amelia Charter, Six Viewpoints Installation Sculptural Artifact

The Six Viewpoints Theory & Practice

With further investigation of composition and group dynamic, The Six Viewpoint Theory and Practice came up. I've begun teaching the practice in the Laboratory, introducing each of the six viewpoints. This post is a basic introduction to the originator, Mary Overlie, and the theory and practice. One of the many beautiful qualities of this work is it's highly complex yet stupendous simplicity. It takes a significant amount of time to understand all aspects of the work Overlie has articulated. After studying the practice for years, writing a dissertation, teaching the practice repeatedly, and studying with Overlie herself, I am still constantly discovering new pathways and arriving at an place for infinite discovery in the unknown.

A B O U T M A R Y O V E R L I E
Born in Bozeman, Montana. Hopped a train to San Francisco. Followed Grand Union, Yvonne Rainer to New York City. Helped to found: NYU Tisch Experimental Theatre Wing, Danspace at St. Mark's Church, and Movement Research in NYC. Also- the Pro Series Program in Vienna.
An intensely intelligent woman. A theorist. A pioneer for postmodern thought.



T H E T H E O R Y (I E S) - this is what we have gone over so very briefly thus far -

M I N I M A L I S M . a process of reduction . eliminating or minimizing . "found" movement .

"1) The artifice of performance has been reevaluated in that action, or what one does, is more interesting and important that the exhibition of character and attitude, and that action can best be focused on through the submerging of the personality; so ideally one is not even oneself, one is a neutral 'doer.' 2) The display of techincal virtuosity and the display of the dancer's specialized body no longer make any sense." Yvonne Rainer, A Quasi Survey Of Some 'Minimalist' Tendencies

D E C O N S T R U C T I O N . taking apart . disassemble . to see the parts . inventing the wheel backwards .


T H E C U P S. drawing here...soon...
of: hierarchy>deconstruction>individuality>SSTEMS



T H E H O R I Z O N T A L . seeing the individuals as having equal and unique worth . honoring each viewpoint as having their own vocabulary and language . spending a significant amount of time with each viewpoint in isolation .

looking at the metaphor for this phenomenon... seeing the potential for a horizontal structure within the government, politics, academia, social services, domestic life, family relationships . posing the possibility that if we took apart the hierarchy within these scenarios and began to individuals for their unique talents and differentiation strengths and weaknesses, that we could then choose different individuals to lead or advice projects/programs/pieces based a flexible structure where the "people at the top" were always changing. It is even more beautiful than leveling the playing field. It's allowing the playing field to having rolling hills, a natural landscape, unpredictable but supportive, flexible, and wonderfully dynamic. So then...

T E M P O R A R Y C R E A T I V E S T R U C T U R E S . allowing one of the viewpoints to rise while the other fall accordingly . Looks like an undulating sea . The shifting awareness can happen in any duration . in half a blink . a lifetime . a cross from stage left to right . a moment between i love yous.


O B S E R V E R / P A R T I C I P A N T . further understanding of this concept is aided by a knowledge about postmodernism . the artist shifts from creator/originator to observer/participant. cutting through the ego of making work. learning to see what already exists and learning how to participate with it. requires discipline, focus, meditation, and humility.

T H E S I X V I E W P O I N T S

S P A C E . the perceptual ability to see and feel physical relationship .


S H A P E . the perceptual ability to see and feel physical form .


T I M E . the perceptual ability to experience duration and systems created to regulate duration .


E M O T I O N . the perceptual ability to experience a sens of being .


M O V E M E N T . the perceptual ability to experience kinesthetic sensation .


S T O R Y . the perceptual ability to understand logic systems as an arrangement of collected information .

an entry on my own process... I am sustainably humbled by the practice and greatly respect the theory . Mary is an incredibly important mentor to me and feel blessed to have met her . I feel I am at my best when I am able to teach this practice and talk about the theory . It is something that has always been there, and that everyone lives with . The development of the awareness that the Six Viewpoints supports is rooted in the witness . My own journey of seeing, feeling and experiencing has continued to shift, evolve, grow, open, and venture . More recent discoveries, when things are more slow and more honest, have been about the internal place within me . It used to be much more about connecting with the external environment . landscape . I believe that Anna Halprin and my cousin, Chris, were and are teachers for me, that allow me to see how these viewpoints and there qualities exist more privately. intimately . internally . Thank you .

DING

Warming up with Sarah Shelton Mann techniques.
The yin and yang of movement and breath.

Deciding we'd set some vocabulary:

"D I N G" - spoken from anyone during anytime during improvisational score at moments of compositional interest. Noticing if it's said from within or from outside the composition. Furthermore, during our discussion after wards, it was discussed that for some it was difficult to see what was even making the composition from within the work. I brought up The Six Viewpoint Theory and the group decided they'd like to learn about it.

"E N D" - we didn't use it this time, but the E N D is to be spoken when a natural ending is felt. The open improvisational score then starts anew.

"N O T I C E" - wasn't used either. This was the option to bring the awareness to the columns, and the mapping of the floor work to the score.

"D I R E C T I O N" - not really saying direction but we gave one another the permission to sculpt moments if we saw the potential for a more powerful dynamic. Such as, go here. keep doing that. be still. Any structural modification really.

anything else?

Hesperus. Photo by Amelia Charter.

I brought in a sound scape composed of field recordings from our recent warm weekend of melting snow. I also layered in tracks from an earlier project of mine, Sound Vestige, 6 works composed collaboratively with musician/builder/artist Tom Murray. Feedback about the sound was positive and expressed that the sound had been supportive for the environment. Also something you could sink into and also leave behind in the background. A flexible presence. We'd like to find more material like this.

O B J E C T S A R E H A R D - Bringing in the red cushions was extremely challenging. Mind bending. For me it was like adding three new players to the room. Stubborn, small but stand-out ish players who would just look at me like... "yes, and...hmmm...what are you doing to do about it..." More layers to look at. Perhaps we will see how different objects could influence the group. Maybe doing an entire score focusing on objects. What torture! What fun!

T A L K I N G - finding more rhythms with talking and moving. Other vocal sounds working their way in. Repetition, variation and theme with logic systems. Not just with the body, but with narrative, with the voice. Working it, stretching it, pulling it, expanding it, and reversing it. Parallel to how you might do with a movement phrase.

W I T N E S S I N G - Taking the time to step out. Looking at the bigger picture. Seeing. Sensing. Sculpting. Noticing. This has brought an awareness to the group of a sense for being watched. It has for me brought in this layer of "performing" that I mostly don't experience during pure exploration. I feel it is good to integrate it into my exploration, so that I can develop that honest muscle. The honest muscle is the ability to be conscious of an audience with every breathe, but to surrender and resist putting on a show. To let yourself be seen.

Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig. Photo credit to Gerald Herbert

Glaciers. SSSSSScCCCCccinnamonnnn. Ssshhhhhugar. NUTMEG. My stargazing turned to mud. My stargazing turned to mud. ((((SINGING BOWL))))
Christopher? Christopher...Christopher! Christopher... He's not here. He took the bus. Went to the pool. To swim in cinnamon bun. I used to like cinnamon buns. So sticky. Because of all the pollution. Oh yeah, global warming. global warming isn't real. democratic plot. That's the pollution. sticky cinnamon buns. swimming. Sticky. Christopher? Hey! heyyyyy. Hey. He was like a dead fish. Out there in the middle. And we all ran to the perimeter. Sacred. Grossed. But you had my back and we went in. to check him out. You couldn't find his pulse. You checked his knee...his leg...maybe his elbow even...it wasn't anywhere. Just roll him out of here. He's bringing it all down. Yeah. Just like that. Umph. My stargazing turned to mud. Christopher is that you? Oh my gosh, Christopher! IIII'm Christopher. Your?..... Christopher....?.....Christopher. Can't trust any of you.