Communication in collaboration

 For our collaborative process, we have relied heavily upon verbal communication. Due to the pandemic we have had to collaborate from our independent households. For me, this changed my experience of creating performance greatly. A lot of ideas are generated from being in a studio throwing, receiving and building material around the room. Over camera this is lost as it is harder to see movement and the finer details. Body language is also lost, and we receive a lot of information subconsciously via this. As we have had to focus on communicating verbally more than anything, I became interested in how other collaborative groups communicated. 

"Sutra" is a collaborative performance between Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui who is a choreographer, and Anthony Gormley who is a sculptor. Anthony Gormley has designed the set for this performance, but has maintained an active interest in the act of choreography throughout his career. He is mainly interested in contemporary artists like Martha Graham, Pina Bausch, Trisha Brown and Michael Clark and uses these as inspiration.  The performance is also in collaboration with the Shaolin Monks who perform alongside Sidi Larbi-Cherkaoui and Szymon Brzoska, who has composed the music for this piece. 

The performance is exploring the spiritual passage of man from birth until death. The performers use the boxes throughout to symbolise several different things, such as graves, boats and a lotus flower. 

All of these performers are from different cultures and performance background, and some of them may not be able to speak the same language. Whilst researching the piece, it was commented on that translators had to be used to collaborate. Despite this language barrier, and the different cultures they have managed to  find common ground to make a relatable performance. By being able to create such a beautiful performance despite the barriers for me demonstrates the power of collaboration. 

 

This is similar to the Akram Khan and Israel Galvan's performance "Torobaka". In this performance, Flamenco and Kathak is fused to create something new. This performance is incredible, and is worth watching. Within the performance, the sounds of the different dance moves are combined to create the music for the performance. "Torobaka" is similar to "Sutra" in that the collaborators rely on translators. There are occasions that we see in the video documenting the performers collaborative process, that they don't need the translator to translate. Both of the performers are focused completely on their movement and rhythm's so that they can communicate without speaking.