dancer/teacher/aspiring choreographer
born in Cyprus February 20th 1985
currently enamored with Ariana Grande
motorbike rider in the making
Notes on choreography:
Forsythe: dancing has nothing to do with closure or exclusion of movement possibilities
Taylor: movement defined spatially, but with such fluency that body shapes registered without ever being fixed in a position
(extracts from 50 Contemporary Choreographers/Martha Bremser)
Physical manifestations of inhabited space
Potentiality of possibility for and in the space
Space is a element of dance
(from: Spatial engagement in site specific choreography, Tara Munjee)
First Encounter
While visiting the Benaki museum's, [OUT]TOP/AS exhibition, I came across the work of Spatial Media Group called Polispective. Two quadrilaterals marked on the floor, intertwined forming a triangle between them. Projected on the surface in front of them images of the city meshed in a 3D model that did not appear to have a solid form but rather moved according to your place in the space created by the quadrilaterals. Also projected was the image of two quadrilateral surfaces on each side of the meshed image that rotated on their central axis according to your position, facing them you saw the surface created, rotating 90° the surface became a line.
It was a work that got me thinking of lines, angles and axis. The space created by simple geometry. I had a little dialogue with the piece, moving my self in the space and out, seeing if my body could recreate the lines, shifting my axis too and noticing the varying shapes of the central image. Tangled images of different places reshaping while you changed position and therefore perspective.
Second Task
While in class we started experimenting kinesiologically with the work we encountered. Lines and angles were of course the first things to appear in the space with the body's own natural geometry. Then came the second task. What came into my mind was the creation of air currents. How we move the air molecules of the atmosphere surrounding us without ever really noticing that we do. So the task I gave my fellow student and myself was to create or to move the air around us and focus on how the flow of it while moving affected our body. We could create an air current by spinning an arm or even blowing air out of our mouths on a limb, but keeping in mind that also our lines and axis could be used to create it too. It was a different experience focusing on how the air, something so common, something we interact with everyday, flows and affects the body differently according to your place, movement and speed. How different a movement feels, even walking or just sitting, small gestures, when you actually notice and focus on the air fluctuations that are either created by the environment itself or your own movement through the space. This ignited my first thoughts on the piece being also a research. How do bodies and subsequently minds react when you take notice of the air moving through your fingers as you walk. How its density changes depending on the space you are in, or out.
The Car Factory
During a class we were told that a wing of the Benaki museum used to be a car factory. Being a petrolhead with a love for things automobile, I began thinking of dancers as cars. How a factory designs and shapes the body of a car according to its needs, of speed and efficiency. How dancers train/shape their body according to their own needs or discipline they chose. The car factory and the task for air brought in my thought the wind tunnels car manufacturers use to study how aerodynamic a vehicle is. The aerodynamics of movement. How aerodynamic are our bodies and what is our own interaction with the air. As in aeronautics you require a vehicle to have less friction with the air. To use the air flow to its advantage achieving optimal speed and fluidity in motion. How can that be translated to the human body?
Wind Tunnel
"A wind tunnel is a tool used in aerodynamic research to study the effects of air moving past solid objects."(https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_tunnel). Continuing my online research on automotive aerodynamics I came upon some interesting notes. In automotive aerodynamic research the air is considered fluid. "An aerodynamic automobile will integrate the wheel arcs and lights into the overall shape to reduce drag. It will be streamlined; for example, it does not have sharp edges crossing the wind stream above the windshield..."(https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_aerodynamics).
So the first two pieces of my choreography/research began to emerge. One is having a body\ies being static and create an "artificial" airflow around them that will resemble the air resistance they would encounter if actually moving. Second is having a body accelerating by itself in space and move according to the "real" air resistance it encounters. The single body will be creating its own movement pattern according to the shapes/planes/axis created by the formation of the body/ies in the "wind tunnel". The idea is similar to testing a car indoors in an "artificial environment" and then applying the feedback/results to the outdoor environment.
Under The Stairs And Into The Perimeter
My piece will be in dialogue with the museums first floor staircase and perimetrical promenade. I chose the space under the staircase because I needed a confined place where I would place the body/ies with a floor fan that will be creating an airflow. The flow will be directed and the body/ies will move accordingly allowing the air to pass between them. The three dancers are tasked with using their lines, planes and axis to form an aerodynamic unity that allows the fluidity of the air to glide through and over them, reaching the last body and then fade. These three stages of the formulation will then be applied on the moving body, which will be replicating them with increasing speed on the perimetrical promenade, making the necessary adjustments in order to minimize drag and allow the movement to be efficient in the external environment. The confinement of the original space(staircase gap) will serve to see if the minimizing surface effect is viable while trying to perform the movement sequence over a greater and more open space. This now is starting to formulate my dialogue with the space. Closed, confined space movement being applied to a large expanding space. Will the figure get lost in the vastness. Its increasing speed not allowing for poses to be discerned. Bigger space, smaller movements. The contrast of the two, space expanding, figure shrinking. The air between the body and the space remaining the only link. A space phenomenally immovable is stirred inside by a body shifting the molecules of air. The air inside the space, the air around the body.
Academic References
Brandstetter, Gabriele and Ulvaeus, Marta "Defigurative Choreography: From Marcel Duchamp to William Forsythe", The MIT Press
First Encounter With The Space
The 19th of November
In my dialogue with the space I kept the principals of the planes and the space from the original work that initiated this process which was Polispective. I then went on to add the connection with the building itself and its car factory history. On the day of the performance we had two rounds of each piece. Mine began with the placing of the three dancers under the staircase. Beginning in a seated position I went on to turn on the fans and generating air. This caused their bodies to start moving. After Dr. Colberg's notes, I presented myself with a new task. 7 cycles of running through the space at full speed. First cycle combining the patterns from all three dancers and recreating them while moving through the space. Second cycle recreating the movement pattern of only one dancer. Third cycle recreating combined pattern. Fourth cycle focusing on another one. Fifth cycle recreating a combined pattern of the three. Sixth focusing on the last dancer and Seventh cycle again combining their patterns. The increasing exhaustion from experimenting with the movement at speed through the space made my sense of focus more acute. After the last cycle was completed I turned off the fan and continued moving through the space fading the patterns out. There was the vastness of the museums space that really created the opposition I imagined before. In the dimmed light of the first floor the figure racing, not standing still and becoming a blur, the blur enhanced by not having a light or any focus on the body. Even the bodies under the stairs being visible only by the air moving them.
Collaboration Aftermath
The main collaboration of this work was primarily the one of space and movement. How the two collaborate in creating a visual effect and a sense for someone watching. There is a direct cooperation between them. The space dictates movement and the movement replies to space. The collaboration between the bodies of the dancers engaging with each other individually but also their interaction with the space. Different spaces create different visuals for movement. A movement being made in a narrow confined space and continued in an open large one has a different meaning. One can choose to minimize and maximize according to space and the space reacts back. The figure confined can still remain confined even by the change of space. But one can change the mobility of the confinement. So the space inhabited by the figure can move in its surrounding environment. And although inner structure is not changed, that structure which is space within space, can create more expanse in its environment. There is always collaboration of body and space in dance. It is unavoidable. We are directly affected by our surroundings. They inspire us to move and we answer to them. We can create space and we are space.
Collaboration Aftermath
The main collaboration of this work was primarily the one of space and movement. How the two collaborate in creating a visual effect and a sense for someone watching. There is a direct cooperation between them. The space dictates movement and the movement replies to space. The collaboration between the bodies of the dancers engaging with each other individually but also their interaction with the space. Different spaces create different visuals for movement. A movement being made in a narrow confined space and continued in an open large one has a different meaning. One can choose to minimize and maximize according to space and the space reacts back. The figure confined can still remain confined even by the change of space. But one can change the mobility of the confinement. So the space inhabited by the figure can move in its surrounding environment. And although inner structure is not changed, that structure which is space within space, can create more expanse in its environment. There is always collaboration of body and space in dance. It is unavoidable. We are directly affected by our surroundings. They inspire us to move and we answer to them. We can create space and we are space.
