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- FULL NAME: Jack Gallagher and Marcella Moret

- PHONE NUMBER:

jack +31 (0)6 24761345

marcella +41 76 479 83 76

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- TITLE OF THE ACTIVITY: Sustaining Creative Directions in Partnering: Beyond Genres

- DETAILED CONTENT DESCRIPTION (150 words or more):

Today in 2014, there are various deeply rooted traditions in partnering work. From gender based roles to mutual contact improvisation to a more contemporary fusion of techniques and styles. Gallagher and Moret have been focusing on the "act" of partnering since november of 2012. They’ve opened the subject, the can of worms and have been filtering and revising since then based on the simple research question question: “Is there a deadlock in dance (education included) that mirrors the actual contemporary politically deadening polarization between conservative neo-liberalial hyper capitalistic imago based empty fluidity and humanistic “touchy feely” politically correct conformistic “being based” identity politics?” (There are numerous ways to describe and/or frame this felt deadlock, it's historicity, it's essential agency producing provocations, and there is even room for dismanteling the entire premise, if one would so choose to do, but it's exactly tapping into a common sense, practice based, dance relevant knowledge/opinion bank is what we are intending to bring out and document in a safe environment)

Gallagher and Moret, in opporating from the premise that in a changing world, political representations, interpretations and tactics employed by dance, change with it. Maybe, Art even ventures boldly into future unseen combinations of behavioral repertoires before the polls and trend spotters ackowledge a substantial shift. As dance educators, how do we envision the inclusivity of various political positions in our students, in the dance world, in the future of our relevence as influential persons in the lives of our communities? One of the best definitions of politics we've come across lately is that wjhat politics comes down to is about how people treat other people. What better starting point to re-examine partnering approaches, when one is willing to allow for “other” desires to be exchanged than the “one” determined by a so called “teacher” who is securely positioned on a dance political spectrum?

In their artistic and educative practice, in workshops (open and for dance academies) and in private research sessions, Gallagher and Moret are fascinated by radical combinations on a principled level of previously incompatible behavioral modalities and all the associations, political and otherwise, that are embedded in the partnering cannons. We want a studio process that encourages and facilitates the deep interactivity that partnering demands, between the the knowledges and skills and moods and sensitivities contained in Classical, Contact Improvisation, Acrobatics, modern and Contemporary. We might be idealist, but we are not surrendering to an idealisms. Instead we want a laboratory process between willing participants and we want to build a procedural method for open to the participants a flexible repertoire of stimulations that get people exchanging physical encounters that reveal and challenge their convictions and their assumptions. We've discovered that this is an extreme challenge considering how cordoned off the different dance discoursive positions are. How some areas of the dance community never interact with others. But we are developing tools for creating spaces for mutual negotiation. (See structure below)

In considering this proposal, we have already swallowed and digested the possibility that it might be a bridge to far for most dance contexts, LEAP included. Maybe gathering enough diversity of willing participants is an unlikely prospect. But we are on a path, a 'mission' if you like, and the potentcy of the LEAP event is of course stimulating, promising and helps us dream and would certainly produce an interesting experiment.

The Nuts and Bolts of the Proposal:

In our desire for developing flexible and spontaneous “equipment” for workshops, meaning various effective elements and sequences that can be applied modularly in various time frames from 10 minutes to 2 hours. Out of this garage of equipment formats can be created for stimulating spontaneous open and honest exchange across typical established boundaries created by fixations embedded in dance discourses, practice based knowledges and aesthetic preferences, again in various time frames.

As of this date, we have submitted physical trials for the Amsterdam Teachers Group meeting March 8, 2014 and we have an open workshop in Tanzhaus Zurich scheduled for 10 and 11 May, 2014.

So as to the LEAP conference, where physical engagement sessions are along side the theoretical and practical workshops, we would propose two 3 hour LAB sessions, one on each day.

We would document with video, the instigation/task based excercises, the partnering work, and the essential feedback about what is coming up.

Obviously there exists within the work a strong necessity for a learner centered approach to the question of "To Teach or Not to Teach". The movement material or vocabulary, the tactics or methods must therefore vary and create juxtapositions for the participants to conjoin. So how to initiate participant, with both improvisation and defined material has become a major focus. All information is reflective, and all qualities are embraced as such, for their inherent content value. The mission is to decontextualize the notions and codes from the instincts and ideas, activate, expand and play.

Till now, the exploration has brought up provocative situations as to how these technical and aesthetic discourses merge and diverge, how they can feed a new, emergent approach to contact and duet experiences that shape our interests in health, well being, vitality, risk, as well as create a playing field where old ideologies and stigmas have been removed form the material.

We also see the lab as a chance for building a platform for other implementations of these particular dance knowledges for 'other' kinds of participants. We are thinking about the dance therapy realm and how we can connect to experienced professionals in that field, as well as other "special interest" groups like the elderly, actors, couples, managers, children, the physically challenged community.

Gallagher and Moret's ongoing inquiry depends entirely on activating and alternating participation with reflection (both verbal and non-verbal), improvisation with creative tasks with set ‘stunts’ and phrases and channeling desires across political associations. The Creative Sustaining of Directions in Partnering is a format in development, and it is a very enticing opportunity to explore with our elders, our peers and contemporaries and make new connections.  

SCDiP principals and their extentions: Human Tools for Spontaneous Creative Negotiation.

Self Creation> sensing> directing> axis > counter directing > volume > the 'other'

Self Management> directing > accountability > responsibility > memory > RISK > patience

 Exchanging Selves> mutuality >proposing> responding > asymetry/desire > creating in the unknown > opinion > friction > negotiation

 - SUMMARY OF CONTENT DESCRIPTION                                                                               

There are various deeply rooted traditions in partnering work: Gender based roles, mutual contact improvisation, contemporary fusions. Sustaining Creative Directions in Partnering: Beyond Genres workshop is a studio process that encourages and facilitates the deep interactivity that partnering demands across typical established boundaries created by fixations embedded in dance discourses. Key Concepts: Play and Reveal, Accept and Negotiate.

 - SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Jack Gallagher and Marcella Moret are working together since the beginning of 2012 in Bodies Anonymous, The Netherlands. They pull together a variety of physicalities from Clowning to Classical, Contact Improvisation to Contemporary Performance . Together they are exploring how their diverse back grounds can re-thing a partnering approach that feels wholistic for the 21^st century.  

- AIMED AT WHO (AND HOW MANY PEOPLE MIN /MAX?)

Educators and Dancers who want to get experiment with partnering work between dance genres (10 min 50 max)

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-  TIME REQUEST: 3 hours each day  (2 days)                                                                                                                                   

- TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS none                                                                                                                               

- SPACE NECESSITY (studio size etc): a dance studio

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