MIND THE DANCE AMSTERDAM

Proposal for procedure:

Friday

Introducing the three of us (John Tayer, Anoukd Llaurens, Andrea Keiz) and ICK as the hosts for the workshop

from there I would ask for a brief introduction of everybody

• what is the field they work in
  

• are they freelance or in an institution

• are they documenting

• are they using their documents

• are they producing documentations of their work

• if yes which are the reasons

(In proceeding I did not really go into the details of the questions – although I find them very helpful)

Friday and Saturday we did the Presentation of the Website (we had some more people coming on Saturday)

• naming idocde as one of the basic starting points for MINDTHEDANCE
  

REFLEX Europe builds on and complements the two European partnerships IDOCDE and LEAP.

Mind The Dance is a publication of REFLEX Europe, which is a 3 year EU-project  co-financed by Erasmus+ and 8 European partners.

Partner organizations:

Wiener Tanzwochen, Austria

Le Pacifique | CDC Grenoble, France,

ICKAmsterdam, Netherlands,

Sìn Budapest, Hungary,

Elim Sende Istanbul, Turkey,

k3 - Zentrum für Choreographie | Tanzplan Hamburg, Germany,

North Karelia College Outokumpu, Finland,

Tanzlabor 21, Frankfurt, Germany.

Looking into the website:

• starting by showing the video as an intro

• pointing out the 6 greater chapters

  • towards documentation

  • weaving the formal and informal

  • coaching

  • on artistic practice

  • writing, moving & the body

  • further reading

• show functionalities of the site

  • pdf

  • footnotes

  • video

  • hyperlinks etc

pointing to the contribution of Bertha Bermudez: “A path for documentation of teaching practice“.

Thsi contribution is helping to clarify the thoughts on “why“ documenting.

I introduced “Documentation as part of artistic practice“ pointing out connections to other contributions.

We did

• a practical/physical warm up of the senses either "landscape and explorer" pointing out that "the poor warm up" has a similar effect in preparing sensation.

  

• introducing the various media I am talking in my contribution and leading through this to deeper insights and point out the scores of Anouk Llaurens and Sabina Holzer for example

• video will link to the manual and to Martin Stereits Video tech contribution

• Writing to Anouk, Sabina and Kerstin Kussmaul
  

• drawing to Anouk, Sabina and Eszter Gal
  

• sound

from this impact based on a sensorial experience I asked people to go in groups of four to practice creating documents on an exercise/movement loop the and to create a documentation out of this. From there people got involved and talked and explored.

Saturday

Introduction of people. Some are new we go back to presenting the website. Introducing the tools of website. John was referring to Kerstin's contribution on fascia and emphasizing on the notion of „metaphor“. How principles from practice can be a metaphor to examine the structure of your teaching.

John pointing out that he did not publish on the website but that he takes it as an inspiration

and today he uses the idea of a metaphor. Proposing a score to create a map to current questions of your practice (do I describe this with the right words John?), which was also connected to Friederikes mapping proposal, but more directed towards the inter-connectedness of practice and context.

If you repeat doing this, a series of maps will bring out preferences and principles of your current work. The preferences and principles of your personal practice can then be a lens through which you look at your teaching. In much the same way that the principles surrounding fascia become a lens through which Kerstin can examine her teaching from another perspective than the traditional educational point of view.

We did a sensorial warm up in trios based on principles from partnerwork and the interconnectedness of dancing. We moved away from the dominance of the eyes. Using partnerwork as a metaphor, feeling connection through the hands: touch, pressure, body surface. Being aware of the space between. What is between the hands in contact? Sensing the other bodies beyond the connection of the hands. Independent weight. Shared weight. Supported weight. Proprioceptive awareness. Gradually moving to other body surfaces and becoming aware of the inter-dependance and how that changes the technical way in which we work. Opening the eyes soft focus to support the other senses and share the space with the other groups. Partnering them in the space. The external space and sound as partner.

I introduced two maps which I have used to describe principles from practice which I have used as inspiration for structure and focus in creating a more democratic creation of knowledge in “technique” classes that I teach. One based on Artistic practice and one based on the practice of partnerwork. Using mindmapping or word-webbing as format we created maps showing the interconnectedness of our practices looking for a communication of principles at the heart of our personal practices. From there 'the group took over“ and we followed the explanation and talk of everyone about her map and practice. Very inspiring and fruitful.

As a summary I would say, it was a great combination to have one day an input along one contribution and the other day already a more free approach to the material. This is how we introduced Mind The Dance in general. As an offer to start off with your personal way of documenting. I think people were happy. The time was too short and the weekend was over before you knew it.