Something New

Outokumpu, 2018 end of January. Cold white winter night. I arrive at Joensuu -- a small Airport in the middle south region of Finland. For me it is really up North. There is only one airplane at the Airport, the one I took. It is quiet, people are calm. While waiting for my host, colleague, dear friend Ulla, I notice, it is a different world.

The landscape is covered by the vast snow blanket. The nature rests. Time slows down as the snowflakes are drifting slowly, gently towards the ground. A sense of stillness. Can I also be with this sense of stillness? A stillness that has potential, dynamism, and is spacious.

I come here for the MIND THE DANCE Lab, organized by the School Riveria - North Karelia College Outokumpu.Most participants are having their dance studies at the school. The lab filled up as there were many young artists who were also interested in joining the lab, where Ulla and me are introducing the digital publication MINDTHEDANCE.com developed by 12 partners in the last two years. We had the call and the workshop is full.

In the first year of the project REFLEX Europe, Ulla and me were work buddies. We started the process of finding the thread for our contributions to the “Reflex Tool and Guide” which became MINDTHEDANCE.com. Over many months we were discussing our relationship, beliefs, excitements, frustrations, doubts, trust and engagements with and about documentation. Now, two years later, we share our findings with the students and some professional artists and have the burning desire to transmit the essence and importance of the reflective documentation.

Ulla’s wooden ”wonderhome” is in the middle of a forest, close to a small lake, 15 minutes drive away from the center of Outokumpu. A peaceful home, where I almost could hear the snow falling. During the 10 days of my stay, there are a few days with either no or very little scheduled program. There is time and space to enjoy the winter breath of Finland, to document and reflect on the teaching and guiding we are offering during the Lab, to prepare the teaching for the Karelia Contact Festival which I was also invited, to teach an intensive, by the organizers i.e. the students and coordinator Ulla. There is time to eat slowly, to go to a sauna and dip into the icy water. I have never been in a place like Ulla’s home in the winter when it is as cold as -15 or even -18. One morning I clear a pathway to the lake to enjoy warm tea on an icy bench with Ulla. The horizon is dazzling and we are talking about documenting the moment with and in our bodies.

The lake calls for cross country skiing. It is something new for me. I get some help from Ulla’s friend, who prepared a long pathway, with a surprise, for me to follow. I put the skis onto my feet - looking very professional in Ulla’s ski boots - and begin… Fresh, bright sunny day. I begin to ease into the opposite movements of my arms and legs. I constantly fall off rhythm, have pain in my feet, it is so cold, my hands are freezing and it is such a long way ahead of me. Am I gonna give up? Go back to the warm house and have a tea? I look far towards the other side of the lake, seeing the prepared path and stay with skiing… I feel I am learning something new. I am here! I wanna go through, I wanna know how this feels, I wanna learn. I just have to give time to feel the rhythm of my movement, to breath deep and easy and release the parts of the body that is not needed for the movements. I stop many times, still doubting that I can do it… but in the middle of the lake, as I am alone, nobody is near me, I can not stay, no one can come and take me. So I move on. The surprise part of the path is leading me through a small island with trees and bushes and I have to slide up and then suddenly down. I fall. My hands instantly freeze, painful. Lying in the snow, again the thought comes, what if I can not do it, and just stay. But it is obvious, I have to stand up and continue. I do continue and fall again and go again… I forgive myself to make wrong movements and fall, I learn how to keep my torso, and ease into the movements and begin to trust, knowing that when I am back in the house there will be my hosts to share my story with. Sharing many reflections:

Learning by doing

Trusting and practicing

Being in the process

Learning in the process

Pathway and discovery

Ease and let the movement take lead

Knowing that the process and the experience will be, can be shared with others, who care, who are interested, who are ready for listening

Then and there the skiing experience became the metaphor for the process of documenting for me. It has been a challenge for me since the establishment of IDOCDE. And more when researching, reflecting and writing about my collaborative documentation i.e the Art from Art contribution in MINDTHEDANCE.com. Even more so when writing an editorial last year or when creating an idoc on IDOCDE and getting ready to share MINDTHEDANCE.com for a Dance Conference in Budapest. Practicing, doing, going through by myself, yet not alone. Always with others or at least for others, always in relationship. I immediately reflect on the call for this years Symposium. Wonder why I was so excited that “The 2018 IDOCDE symposium concerns itself with process, relationship, the collective and the individual. It offers the embodied knowledge of the participating co-lecturers - you?! - as a real-time response to the needs of the here and now.”

In the “here and now” of Outokumpu, sharing the depths of the publication during the two days with people who wish to receive more hands on information and “ready mades” for documentation, I became more aware of the fact that laying out the ground, discussing the essence of the issue, guiding the focus towards self search, giving space to discover an already “cleared out” pathway and have new ones is actually a very useful way of turning people attention to documentation. And it is possible! We had an exciting, inspirational and creative lab time. One can read the notes of the lab here.

There are 4 more MTD labs coming up throughout Europe, where you can participate and get to know our journey and findings and continue with yours... The next one will be in Grenoble, France, on the weekend of 9-10 March, hosted by Le Pacifique and lead by Nicolas Hubert and Defne Erdur. March 24-25 SÍN Culture Center in Budapest, Hungary can welcome you with me and Martin Streit. In Hamburg on the 22nd and 23rd of June at K3 Kampnagel with Friederike Lampert and Kerstin Kussmaul, the last one will be in Vienna at ImPulsTanz on the weekend of the 21st and 22nd of July, hosted by Anouk Llaurens and Sabina Holzer.

We are in the 3rd year of the Reflex EUROPE project. The Project team is just about to prepare the 6th IDOCDE Symposium, that will take place in Vienna at the very end of July during the ImPulsTanz Festival. This year we are taking a risk by offering something new. Offering space to be together, to process our questions, to discuss the formats of reflecting on our work, to collectively compose together in the moment and create a structure for the celebration of teaching/ documenting/ sharing. We will follow the diverse documentation pathways that are in the MINDTHEDANCE.com, examine how the contributions can be applied and/ or developed and/or adapted and/ or danced.