This is the fourth entry in a series of commentaries written by Bryan Saner, the Associate Artistic Director of Mordine & Co. about the rehearsal process for "I Haven't Gone There."
April 5, 2010
There are days when everything seems possible. We accept them with the same gratitude we extent to the days that are impossible.
This is the nature of work. The lesson I learned from the recently departed activist Gene Stolzfus is that when we are doing what we want to do, no matter how passionate or committed we are to the profession or how much we enjoy the work, there are days when it is simply just that. It is work and it is not necessarily enjoyable anymore. There are other days of completion, joy and accomplishment but its best not to attach a value of good or bad to any of it. Shirley described it once to me as a “witness by people who are in practice and daily ritual.” The word witness here is crucial in its gerund form; both to be present actively and to be the watcher.
Anna Normann and Natalia Negron have stepped up from their intern positions into performing positions.
David Gerber, Sean Tomerlin and Dmitri Peskov have come and gone through the company.
Meghann Wilkinson created a duet with David for I Havent Gone There. When david left she taught it to Sean. When Sean left she taught it to Dmitri. When Dmitri left she taught it to Mark Duthu. “Im going to teach a workshop on how to teach this duet.” She said. Mark learned it in 45 minutes. A combination of a good day, a good teacher, a good dancer, time spend with the material, hope that the material finally settles in someone’s body and faith in the slow moving toward and culminating in that one good day and that one body of a good dancer.
Shirley pushes hard against limits. She doesn’t accept them easily. She compounds the moments of rehearsal by demanding that the dancers perform at the same time they are learning/creating the material. The layering of expectations challenges the dancers. They are learning new material, creating new material, remembering the movement in their bodies, remembering the placement of their bodies in time and space relative to angles, physics, gravity, motion and weight, coordinating timing and transitions with the other dancers bodies, engaging three dimensional sensing (seeing and listening with the entire body), going from internal to external, and polishing the movement all at the same time.
She described her work to me as “Making something possible for someone else that they can’t do by themselves.” I see this struggle between Shirley and the dancers often. The dancers are working something out from the inside. Shirley sees their external manifestation. . . the thing their bodies do on the outside. The inside and the outside seldom mirror each other adequately. The creative place is the liminal gap between what the dancers are working on from the inside out and what Shirley is working on from the outside in.
It demands much from everyone. It demands a comfortability with the awkward positions we find our bodies and emotions in and not correcting this awkwardness but going with it to see where it goes, to maintain it, to flow with it, to allow it to become a new species, to mutually become other and more than we were.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Journal Entry #3 by Bryan Saner
This is the third entry in a series of commentaries written by Bryan Saner, the Associate Artistic Director of Mordine & Co. about the rehearsal process for "I Haven't Gone There."
March 29, 2010
Last week I wrote some thoughts about the body. . .
I mentioned the systems that body is composed of and proposed that instead of the dualistic mind/body philosophies we literally begin thinking about our body as being the infinite multiple aggregate systems of experience, , , The body as infinite chapters each reflecting infinite systems.
Today I want to write about the difference between having a body and being a body because the question proposes multiple ways of imagining our interface with our existence/culture/aggregate.
My writing and interest in this is not only related to dance and performance, but also to the whole of those interrelated systems that compose the body. In an effort to cultivate a sense of wonder and joy in the discussion, I will add that the intentions of these questions are not to be seen as proving one identification or another as being positive or negative or having more or less value. We find find ontological value in all angles of the question and indeed as performers, don't intend to propose anything but the question. The audience will answer. This is one of the purposes of live performance.
I also want to add that I hope we don't figure this out. Thought and the body it investigates is infinite. The questions and possible discussion they create within the body and the immediate neighborhood around the body are more valuable than the temporary answers we might find, The better our microscopes and telescopes become, the more we prove our infinity. The more answers we conclude, the more questions we will discover. We would retrograde if this process stopped.
In an effort to expand the dualistic nature of the question I will add the related but different questions that thousands have asked before: Is body the self? Is body an object/vessel that contains being? Is it the perceiving machinery that connects us to everything other? Does the other create us? What is us? What is other?
So as a first step to thinking about the body as systems, we return to the question at hand:
Do we have a body or are we a body?
But that's all the time and space I have for today. . .enough for the questions. You can respond. Really, just post a comment. Maybe that's what facebook can offer; our body’s inter(face) with the collected con(text) of these questions, our common experience, our creative practices, what we are eating for breakfast. . .
March 29, 2010
Last week I wrote some thoughts about the body. . .
I mentioned the systems that body is composed of and proposed that instead of the dualistic mind/body philosophies we literally begin thinking about our body as being the infinite multiple aggregate systems of experience, , , The body as infinite chapters each reflecting infinite systems.
Today I want to write about the difference between having a body and being a body because the question proposes multiple ways of imagining our interface with our existence/culture/aggregat
My writing and interest in this is not only related to dance and performance, but also to the whole of those interrelated systems that compose the body. In an effort to cultivate a sense of wonder and joy in the discussion, I will add that the intentions of these questions are not to be seen as proving one identification or another as being positive or negative or having more or less value. We find find ontological value in all angles of the question and indeed as performers, don't intend to propose anything but the question. The audience will answer. This is one of the purposes of live performance.
I also want to add that I hope we don't figure this out. Thought and the body it investigates is infinite. The questions and possible discussion they create within the body and the immediate neighborhood around the body are more valuable than the temporary answers we might find, The better our microscopes and telescopes become, the more we prove our infinity. The more answers we conclude, the more questions we will discover. We would retrograde if this process stopped.
In an effort to expand the dualistic nature of the question I will add the related but different questions that thousands have asked before: Is body the self? Is body an object/vessel that contains being? Is it the perceiving machinery that connects us to everything other? Does the other create us? What is us? What is other?
So as a first step to thinking about the body as systems, we return to the question at hand:
Do we have a body or are we a body?
But that's all the time and space I have for today. . .enough for the questions. You can respond. Really, just post a comment. Maybe that's what facebook can offer; our body’s inter(face) with the collected con(text) of these questions, our common experience, our creative practices, what we are eating for breakfast. . .
Journal Entry #2 by Bryan Saner
This is the second entry in a series of commentaries written by Bryan Saner, the Associate Artistic Director of Mordine & Co. about the rehearsal process for "I Haven't Gone There."
March 22, 2010
We talked about satire in rehearsal today.
My Oxford dictionary suggests that the etymology of the word is closely related to satura.
“This general sense appears in the phrase per saturam . . .according to the grammarians this is elliptical for lanx satura ( lit ‘full dish’: lanx dish, satura, fem of satur full, related to satis enough) which is alleged to have been used for a dish containing various kinds of fruit and for food composed of many different ingredients.”
I like the reference to enough. Satire functions as a way of stopping insanity. As if we are saying Enough! Basta! and the legitimate way to do this with our bodies is to mock the thing we are opposing. I like the layers that are developing through multiple ingredients that accumulate in satire. One action tells many stories.
In later definitions The Oxford quotes Goldwater Smith in the Feb. 19, 1880 edition of the Atlantic Monthly :
“There are different kinds of satire: the epicurean, which laughs at mankind. . . the stoical which indignantly lashes mankind, . . the cynical, which hates and despises mankind.”
The Epicureans, Stoics and Cynics in their time (4th and 3rd century BCE) were well respected philosophers, citizens and political groups who provided important structure to Greek culture. We still value these communities although we relegate them to comedians, clowns and angry activists. Maybe dancers and performance artists could be counted in the group. These groups still provide important structure to contemporary culture but the impact is so subtle compared to the power of corporate influence and drones exploding silently and invisibly in other countries.
Our rehearsals of repetition and repetition and again and again, of actions and individual routine, of words and movements that accumulate in our bodies must have some reason for being. How can we spend so many minutes, hours and days on these details that perform in a second? How empowered those seconds are. Our cells are supercharged with the memory of these movements. This is how our habits are programmed into the body until we are a full. This is how we reprogram the body out of its habits when we have had enough.
March 22, 2010
We talked about satire in rehearsal today.
My Oxford dictionary suggests that the etymology of the word is closely related to satura.
“This general sense appears in the phrase per saturam . . .according to the grammarians this is elliptical for lanx satura ( lit ‘full dish’: lanx dish, satura, fem of satur full, related to satis enough) which is alleged to have been used for a dish containing various kinds of fruit and for food composed of many different ingredients.”
I like the reference to enough. Satire functions as a way of stopping insanity. As if we are saying Enough! Basta! and the legitimate way to do this with our bodies is to mock the thing we are opposing. I like the layers that are developing through multiple ingredients that accumulate in satire. One action tells many stories.
In later definitions The Oxford quotes Goldwater Smith in the Feb. 19, 1880 edition of the Atlantic Monthly :
“There are different kinds of satire: the epicurean, which laughs at mankind. . . the stoical which indignantly lashes mankind, . . the cynical, which hates and despises mankind.”
The Epicureans, Stoics and Cynics in their time (4th and 3rd century BCE) were well respected philosophers, citizens and political groups who provided important structure to Greek culture. We still value these communities although we relegate them to comedians, clowns and angry activists. Maybe dancers and performance artists could be counted in the group. These groups still provide important structure to contemporary culture but the impact is so subtle compared to the power of corporate influence and drones exploding silently and invisibly in other countries.
Our rehearsals of repetition and repetition and again and again, of actions and individual routine, of words and movements that accumulate in our bodies must have some reason for being. How can we spend so many minutes, hours and days on these details that perform in a second? How empowered those seconds are. Our cells are supercharged with the memory of these movements. This is how our habits are programmed into the body until we are a full. This is how we reprogram the body out of its habits when we have had enough.
Journal Entry 1 by Bryan Saner
The below Journal entry is the first in a series of commentaries written by Mordine and Co.'s Associate Artistic Director, Bryan Saner during the rehearsal process of "I Haven't Gone There."
March 21, 2010
We begin and end with the body.
Shirley invited me to work with her as the associate artistic director for the creation of the performance I haven't gone there. I will be contributing weekly essays here on facebook as a journal for this process.
Shirley and I inevitably spend time at each meeting talking about the news and the culture we live in and then an equal amount of time trying to make this dance relevant to that world. Yesterday she asked me “Is it too much to ask for dance to be meaningful or care about the human experience?”
I was thinking about the Romantic and Modern aesthetic that I sometimes feel current dance and theater is frozen in.
Théophile Gautier (1811-1872), the renowned 19th C. dance critic and champion of l’art pour l’art wrote:
“. . .there is nothing of the actual, nothing of the real; one is in an enchanted world.
The word is sung, the steps are pirouettes . . . an evening at the Opera rests you from real life
and consoles you for the number of frightful bourgeois in overcoats you are obliged to see
during the day.”
The 20th C. modern dancer Harald Kreutzberg (1902-1968) said
"I dance to express myself. I dance for my heart, blood, imagination. . .I do not believe
that dancing should tell a story or have a meaning; nor do I feel that a dancer must draw upon
his experiences to express fully dances of great joy or great sorrow. .."
The words of these old men bore me and Im concerned that we still have these expectations of dance and theater. Or, Im concerned that dance and theater produces this kind of work by default without thinking of alternative forms or intentions.
What is the point of simplifying the theatrical experience by filtering away the world outside ourselves and presenting our own ego? Do we really go to the theater to escape our time and place? How is it even possible for the living human body to perform or witness dance and theater and not have a thought that is relative to our mutual lifestyle outside the theater?
Shirley and I WANT to make theater that responds to the actual real phenomenon of this time and place and our body's interface with it.
Shirley talked about these dances as practices for the future; as rehearsals for entering unforeseen, unpredictable, sometimes incomprehensible encounters and experiences that we will be living. This preparation by our bodies for our future is exciting in relationship to dance and theater.
We’ve had some discussions about the body and its experience of time and space. I will talk about this more in future posts, but today I want to propose a challenge to the the dualistic problem of reconciling mind and body. This simplistic discussion, like any discussion that only has two sides, will only produce limited knowledge and experience. Because of its exclusive nature, dualistic thinking will be ignorant of larger more complex, and richer contexts. There are multiple types of knowledge and all of it is perceived and comprehended by the body. We are capable of so much more. We have evolved into creatures that are capable of appreciating and needing much more complex specific experiences.
Body is not separate from mind of course, but it is also not separate from environment, diet, gender, culture, physics, economics, language, violence, politics, technology, love, spirit, philosophy, memory and the rest of the infinite list of events and phenomena that occur. The human body is ready and able to connect with the infinite perceived system of events in time and space.
When we begin to realize that body is one part of a system, we will be able to make appropriate responses to the systems which in turn affect our body and for the purpose of this essay, will have a bearing on the kind of theater we will be making. We want to make dances that embrace this complexity.
March 21, 2010
We begin and end with the body.
Shirley invited me to work with her as the associate artistic director for the creation of the performance I haven't gone there. I will be contributing weekly essays here on facebook as a journal for this process.
Shirley and I inevitably spend time at each meeting talking about the news and the culture we live in and then an equal amount of time trying to make this dance relevant to that world. Yesterday she asked me “Is it too much to ask for dance to be meaningful or care about the human experience?”
I was thinking about the Romantic and Modern aesthetic that I sometimes feel current dance and theater is frozen in.
Théophile Gautier (1811-1872), the renowned 19th C. dance critic and champion of l’art pour l’art wrote:
“. . .there is nothing of the actual, nothing of the real; one is in an enchanted world.
The word is sung, the steps are pirouettes . . . an evening at the Opera rests you from real life
and consoles you for the number of frightful bourgeois in overcoats you are obliged to see
during the day.”
The 20th C. modern dancer Harald Kreutzberg (1902-1968) said
"I dance to express myself. I dance for my heart, blood, imagination. . .I do not believe
that dancing should tell a story or have a meaning; nor do I feel that a dancer must draw upon
his experiences to express fully dances of great joy or great sorrow. .."
The words of these old men bore me and Im concerned that we still have these expectations of dance and theater. Or, Im concerned that dance and theater produces this kind of work by default without thinking of alternative forms or intentions.
What is the point of simplifying the theatrical experience by filtering away the world outside ourselves and presenting our own ego? Do we really go to the theater to escape our time and place? How is it even possible for the living human body to perform or witness dance and theater and not have a thought that is relative to our mutual lifestyle outside the theater?
Shirley and I WANT to make theater that responds to the actual real phenomenon of this time and place and our body's interface with it.
Shirley talked about these dances as practices for the future; as rehearsals for entering unforeseen, unpredictable, sometimes incomprehensible encounters and experiences that we will be living. This preparation by our bodies for our future is exciting in relationship to dance and theater.
We’ve had some discussions about the body and its experience of time and space. I will talk about this more in future posts, but today I want to propose a challenge to the the dualistic problem of reconciling mind and body. This simplistic discussion, like any discussion that only has two sides, will only produce limited knowledge and experience. Because of its exclusive nature, dualistic thinking will be ignorant of larger more complex, and richer contexts. There are multiple types of knowledge and all of it is perceived and comprehended by the body. We are capable of so much more. We have evolved into creatures that are capable of appreciating and needing much more complex specific experiences.
Body is not separate from mind of course, but it is also not separate from environment, diet, gender, culture, physics, economics, language, violence, politics, technology, love, spirit, philosophy, memory and the rest of the infinite list of events and phenomena that occur. The human body is ready and able to connect with the infinite perceived system of events in time and space.
When we begin to realize that body is one part of a system, we will be able to make appropriate responses to the systems which in turn affect our body and for the purpose of this essay, will have a bearing on the kind of theater we will be making. We want to make dances that embrace this complexity.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
What Now?
The other day someone asked me: “So what now? You are celebrating your 40th Anniversary. What happens from here?” I immediately answered: “The end. The past is over. I am excited about what my fellow artists and I can do from here; new investigations, directions, challenges.” I’m looking forward to beginning a new period of work.
I’d like to share my journey forward with you in this on-line diary.
I started by asking the dancers in the company "What sort of dance company do you want to make?" The dancers were surprised and excited by this question and I hope it will encourage them to think newly about making and performing dance at the start of the 21st Century.
Let me ask YOU the same question. What sort of dance company do you see engaging with, participating in and supporting. The sky's the limit.
I’d like to share my journey forward with you in this on-line diary.
I started by asking the dancers in the company "What sort of dance company do you want to make?" The dancers were surprised and excited by this question and I hope it will encourage them to think newly about making and performing dance at the start of the 21st Century.
Let me ask YOU the same question. What sort of dance company do you see engaging with, participating in and supporting. The sky's the limit.
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