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.