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