Research - Initial

INTRODUCTION

This page will help you understand where our initial ideas had come from as well as the readings and viewings we had undertaken in order to create our collaborative project.

These posts will consist of the initial readings and research we had done before we began our choreography and turning our research into movement.

These posts will also consist of the collaborators discussing their own interpretations of the readings and analyzing these different scholarly ideas. 

-----

BURROWS AND BOGART

‘The best way to collaborate is to choose the right person to collaborate with, and then trust them implicitly.’ This was said to me by the composer Kevin Volans.

From a conversation with the author, 1993.’

(Burrows p5)

 

When Volans spoke to Burrows about collaboration in this manner Volans speaks about finding the “right person” to collaborate with. This is interesting because this raises the question of what makes someone the right person? How do we know if someone’s the “right person”? Within “intentions” by Anna Bogart, Bogart speaks about how if you look for the “right person” to collaborate with you will never find someone, and how it is better to work enthusiastically with equally enthusiastic people who are currently present and allow connections to form that will lead you to more people. Due to this, we know Bogart and Volans have different views on who to collaborate with although both discuss similar attitudes to Collaboration. From the readings, it would appear both practitioners feel that trust in your collaborators is essential.

Bogart, on pg 31 describes collaborators as people who “will serve as mirror, engine, necessary resistance, and inspiration”. This quote explains the multiple roles collaborators will undertake, and also begins to explore the dynamics within a collaborative relationship. Bogart later says how you need to “learn to love, admire, respect and appreciate” your collaborators. Part of this process is to trust your collaborators, even if only within a professional capacity.

 The phrase “necessary resistance” begins to discuss how whilst collaborating people may not all agree on the same things, but this is required to create and develop the work. Within his writing, Burrows discusses collaboration as ‘From the writer Joe Kelleher: ‘Collaborating is like two people banging their heads against each other, and the collaboration is the bruises that are left behind.’ Joe Kelleher, Ibid.’ (Burrows p59). This quote for me shows how Burrows shares a similar perspective to Bogart about the collaborative dynamic. The metaphor of the collaboration being “the bruises left behind” creates a mental image of a forceful, rather painful process at times. However, this is necessary as without this process a  “bruise” or performance wouldn’t be produced. 

----

ZERO DEGREES ANALYSIS

After watching Zero Degrees by Akram Khan and Sidi Labri Cherkaoui, it is clear to me that both artists have worked collaboratively to create this piece of work. This is because the artists tell a story about a man on a journey and the problems he faced using movement and speech. Both artists move and speak in complete sync with each other, which reveals to me that the artists worked extremely well together in order to achieve such accuracy. I find this piece of work interesting because the way in which both artists are so in sync with each other creates the impression that they are one, although they appear to be from different cultures. This piece of work inspires my thinking around collaborative practice as it reminds me of the isolated body part pieces we started to work on, as the movement in Zero Degrees is isolated and gestural. Therefore, to develop our isolated body part pieces, we could add moments where we speak in sync with each other.

----

RESEARCH

https://www.danceinforma.com/2019/04/02/do-and-donts-for-collaborating-in-dance/

Eva Dean, founder and director of Eva Dean Dance (NYC), describes how engaging in other kinds of collaboration – those many might not at first see as collaboration – helped her to, as a young artist in New York City, begin creating work with few resources. For instance, she created a work on her rooftop largely because she couldn’t afford to rent out a venue. “Making that work shaped my work and the artist I am,” she shares. 

Dean asserts that dance artists collaborate with the spaces in which they dance. Concerning outdoor site-specific work, “you’re not going to get better lighting and scenic design,” she quips. There might not be a highly interactive working relationship there, but artists must engage with what a site offers and how it may challenge them. Bringing a collaborative mindset to working with a site might very well make that work more fruitful and enjoyable. 

----

CODES OF PRACTICE FOR COLLABORATION

DO:

- Let your voice be heard. Share your opinion with your peers.

- Listen to other peoples ideas. They might think of something you haven't.

- Structure what you are doing, and make sure everyone understands it and the goals you aim to achieve at the end of it. 

- Give positive feedback when a collaboration looks good or is working well. 

- Enjoy the experimentation of it, especially with us doing it over zoom. This is an opportunity that we probably won't get again.

DON'T:

- Take constructive criticism to heart. Your idea may not be chosen, but the most important thing is that you voiced it to begin with. 

- Limit your views on what collaboration is. In terms of collaboration, it can be whatever you want it to be. The opportunities are endless, especially with us doing it technologically. 

- Be afraid to voice your opinion if something isn't working for you, or something doesn't look great when it is performed cohesively. 

- Leave anyone out of the collaboration. If you feel they aren't participating as much as others are, then ask them a question directly to see what ideas they have.

----

VISITING COLLABORATORS 

On this module, we have been able to watch work from visiting collaborators, which in this case was a master’s students from our university called Holly. Holly showed us a piece of work she made for university about 1950s housewives, which I found extremely interesting and inspiring. This is because just like us Holly is creating work at a time of national lockdown with only limited space and technology. For example, Holly told us that all footage was filmed and edited using her mobile phone, which I was completely shocked by as the footage was very high quality and professional. This feeds into how I am producing and filming work at the minute as I don’t have professional cameras at home to use and by Holly telling us this, it made me feel more confident about filming using my phone at home. Holly also spoke about how although she used a small flat to film in, she tried to use a variety of different rooms so that there were different frames and she also filmed outside the flat. I can imagine doing this in my own piece of work, if I was creating quite a long piece of work because I feel like only seeing one space for a long time can get boring and repetitive. When thinking about colour, I remember that Holly spoke about the multi-coloured rope lights she used in her piece. She discussed how she made the choice to incorporate these into her piece simply because she liked the way they looked, which suggests to me that they weren’t significant in conveying the idea of housewives in her piece. When Holly spoke about this, it reminded me of when I have filmed snippets of choreography for this module in my bedroom and have switched on my spotlights on my vanity mirror because I like the ambience they create. In addition, Holly told us that she created a storyboard and thought out her different frames prior to her filming the whole piece, which she told us she got done in just one day. I find this inspiring that she filmed all on one day as it shows me just how much work she had top put in in order to achieve this. I imagine that if I was going to create a piece of work similar to the style of Holly’s that I would ensure to plan and storyboard my piece and also choreograph so that I could film the whole thing all on one day.

----

DEFINING COLLABORATION

'From the writer Joe Kelleher: ‘Collaborating is like two people banging their heads against each other, and the collaboration is the bruises that are left behind.’ Joe Kelleher, Ibid.’ (Burrows p5)

In my opinion, this idea from Kelleher is an easy way to understand the basics of collaboration. This is because it creates the impression of unity and working together as one to reach a goal. For example, the two people banging their heads together can be described as the working together/ process and the bruises are the result/ product of the collaboration. I also think this quote from Kelleher introduces the idea of democracy in collaboration, as it expresses how the two people are both banging their heads, which makes them equal in a sense. This suggests to me that collaboration is about working equally with other people in a comfortable and welcoming environment, where all collaborators are as important as one another. 

----

ZERO DEGREES / AKRAM KHAN & SIDI LARBI

CHERKAOUI - TRAILER

The link to the clip -zero degrees / Akram Khan & Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui - trailer - YouTube

After watching this clip it's clear to me that I love Akran Khan's work he tries and fuses many forms and always does them successfully to leave me wanting to watch more. 

What I love about this clip was up until 2.41 both Larbi and Khan were in complete synchronisation in speech and in the gestural movement they were performing. It sort of reminded me of comical sketches when they are trying to tell a story badly however the execution was so precise and accurate it was funny it was great.

Once the movement begins you get to see a full look at set and costume which all seem very dull in my opinion , however I think its some to show rawness and naturalness within it . Another key point i noticed about this trailer is that it's not until about 30 secs before the end is the first time we see both dancers not in close proximity to each other as they are doing step drags from either side of the stage.

---

WALK ALL OVER YOU - EVA LOURIE

 Link to the video -Walk All Over You - YouTube

The simplicity but power this video hold is great  The movement material in this is not crazy or too much it's simple and focuses on  only one part of the body the bottom of the legs and feet. The face or upper body is never shown which I think is really cleaver and fits in with the music perfectly ,e specially the lyrics. The song is fairly old song which we can see is replicated in the fashion style in some clips we have long heavily patterned skirt and some just with mix matching heels with tights. It's actually the variety of colours in this piece that sort of reminds me our bright top piece because of the brightness of colours.

---

SIDI LARBI CHERKAOUI - COLLABORATIVE WORKS

Sutra, Zero Degrees and Puz/zle

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui has created a multitude of works, they are usually interdisciplinary and/or collaborative and often draw upon the idea of making connections.

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's works can be divided into five sections (each a different company) in chronological order they are: 

Debute 

Les Ballets C. de la B. 

Toneelhuis 

Eastman 

Royal Ballet Flanders/Eastman 

He created many different projects for each company, you can view a list of his works and some additional information about him by clicking the link below.

https://www.east-man.be/en/people/161/

For this post I have linked three of his performances for you to check out, He worked with a variety of collaborators on each. I've linked the videos of the performance or their trailer below as well as the Eastman overview of each, and some additional information.

Sutra

Eastman Overview - 

https://www.east-man.be/en/14/18/Sutra

Youtube link -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNHMrSh4XB4

Zero Degrees

Eastman Overview - 

https://www.east-man.be/en/14/44/Zero-Degrees

Youtube Link Trailer -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wQG9BTW5AE

Puz/zle

Eastman Overview - 

https://www.east-man.be/en/14/12/Puzzle

Youtube link -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwlTGJ1tcRs

The Guardian Review - Puz/zle:

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/apr/25/puzzle-sidi-larbi-cherkaoui-review

---

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. 

---