everything with everything5. Gérard Genette, referring to Goodman notes that the categorisation of a work as autographic or allographic is affected by both how it is produced and whether it can be reproduced: In certain arts, [autographic] the notion of authenticity is meaningful, and is defined by a work’s history of production, while it is meaningless in others, [allographic] in which all correct copies of a work constitute so many valid instances of it (1997, p. 16). If I use the example of falling, holding, reaching, riding, it is likely that falling, holding, reaching and riding will have taken place at least at some point in our dancing with that score. I have no interest in our dancing standing for or referring to the scores in a way that would be able to be apprehended by a witness. Of course then you’re using the score, the score enters your body, so you have the score work your dance, make your dance (Satin 2009, p. 43). As we practice witnessing another, we again confront what gets in the way of truly seeing. However, the score would not guarantee that the same dance would result from a subsequent dancing with that score. A: Writing exercise, complete the following sentences: Collective reading on the writing exercise and combining a selection of sentences from different individuals. Watch "Back Dancing Improv… No membership required. These examples are all of conscious perceptions or deliberate actions which may take place while dancing with a score. Dance pairs can begin this form by playing the Back Game: improvisation while remaining back-to-back. The idea of the small dance resonated with me. The support that I hoped for, however, was not the direction or inducement to do anything in particular (or anything at all) but the momentum or opening to begin dancing. For the past 25 years, Olivia has worked as a performer, maker and lecturer of dance. something with something4. ‘Movements may come from any part of the body, at any speed or level, with any force or direction, for any duration, […] at any time. Recently, I have been using lists of words that I have gathered because I see them as being part of a certain category. (Ex: Trio, 2:00). Working with Warby gave me a new perception of improvisation. Where the cadences of time improvise themselves within various art practices simultaneously. A score, according to Goodman, is the means by which a work can be authoritatively identified from one performance of it to the next. He describes a painting as being autographic (1976, p. 113): it has been produced by one artist and cannot be reproduced unless it is forged of course. Its openness allows it to be a tool which can continually be re-visited by a dancing body that is becoming in its present. The possibility to dance while ‘not knowing’ exists in our way of dancing with scores. Try to imagine who this person is and what they are doing: where have they just been? The small dance is a way of perceiving and being attentive to the body: ‘feel the play of rush and pause of the small dance […] its always there‘ (Paxton 1986, p. 50). This is a simpler form, because its free-form element is exercised by the dancers' limbs. That hold could be tightened in times of need, that is, it could be consciously referred to, to initiate, adjust or affect the dancing in some way. ISSN 1322-76545. Our dancing with scores does not effect a simple causal relationship yet there is no doubt that, at times, there is an aspect of a score, let's say falling, which becomes physically manifest in our dancing with that score. In this work- we set up a space for improvisation that is focused on composition. The term ‘action’ as suggested by Hannah Arendt in her book The Human Condition, is used as a concept with which to think through the dancers’ experience in a shared practice. These approaches have shown good success in promoting functional gains in balance, gait, and UPDRS score. By practising with a particular thought or intention even if that intention is just to dance, the body is becoming tuned with that intention. It might feel particularly fruitful. By comparison, a piece of music is not autographic, however. If you are a beginner or feeling uncomfortable with being asked to move … The site at which the ‘creation’ is taking place, rather than in the instance of the single author conceiving the score, occurs as the dancers dance with the score. To help explore these ideas I refer to the theory of Nelson Goodman and discuss the use of scores by other dance practitioners including Steve Paxton, Yvonne Meier and Anna Halprin. Each participant is making choices based on what the space needs- while keeping an awareness of the outside picture. Scores can generate movement material, or it could support us as ‘a prop, a ruse, a pretense’. My introduction to the use of scores in dance improvisation was in the studio, in the workshops and the choreographic processes of improvisation practitioners. Scores have many definitions, as in Olivia Millard’s piece it states that ‘each user of scores in the dance improvisation finds her own use and meaning for them’. Dancers make choices within the score that they are given by using their bodies and imaginations. Gradually, the touching person(s) steps away to allow the moving person to dance unencumbered. The scores are not causal, nor does our dancing represent the scores. As the session progresses, we use the score to discuss our dancing experiences. This is the work of the performer as he or she meets an audience. A few weeks ago a group of long time Body Shifters had the pleasure of participating, teaching, and performing at the 10th annual Texas Dance Improvisation Festival (TDIF) hosted by Texas Women’s University. Holmes has an interest in a broad range of somatic practices including Ideokinesis, Alexander Technique and Body-Mind Centering. It does not mean the resulting performance ‘comes out of nowhere’ and practice and skill are required. At times the hold is so loose that there is probably a perception that there is little or no relationship between the score and the dancing. where are they going? She had many years experience as an improviser, working with Simone Forti, Lisa Nelson and Steve Paxton (Benoit 1997, p. 89). This was something that helped identify what I wanted to focus on and what spanned each element (many are interchangeable). Fourth Round 10 minutes- change facings of 1 spot within the dance (this could mean front to … We discuss, before going on, how the scores might be of use in the next part of the session. nothing with nothing, 6 consecutive solo improvisations:a) Focus inward – dancing for youb) Focus inward – dancing for the audiencec) Focus outward - dancing for youd) Focus outward – dancing for the audiencee) Alternating focus - dancing for youf) Alternating focus – dancing for the audience, Find a location high up where you can look out over the city, From here find a person somewhere in the distance they should be far enough away that you cannot read the expressions on their face only the movements in their body, Try to measure the distance between you and them, Try to imagine how long it would take you to cross that distance: 1) if you were walking 2) if you were running 3) if you were a bullet fired from a sniper’s rifle. A painting that exemplifies ‘red’ is both red and refers to the colour red. There are many more non-conscious actions which may take place as a result of patterning or bodily habits, still in relation to the score. These are very physical situations, I can see them and I can touch them (Benoit 117). Crisp is an Australian who is based in Europe for part of the year and divides her time between performing, developing new work and teaching. What is hidden behind walls, doors or under the sidewalk? Finding a felt sense of the moment, an uninterrupted connection of impulse into action, learning to self-witness, to stay aware of what is happening without prematurely shaping it, are all essential understandings for an artist. I attended workshops with several improvisation practitioners including KJ Holmes who is a dancer, poet and singer based in New York. Over, along, behind, above, within, through, between, alongside. The leisurely pace allows for the exploration of a myriad of levels and shapes. We then follow on by dancing and watching each other in varying ways, sometimes dancing for short periods and then swapping over and at other times dancing for up to 20 minutes. A solo improvisation a work could be considered to be autographic in that the score and the work would be devised and created by one person. The space, the body, the movement, the intention (what are you intending? So you take a score and your mind gets relief. Halprin even gave some of her scores a number from one to ten with the most open being one. With dance, particularly the kind that has been created by a choreographer there is a similar relationship to authorship when compared to a composed piece of music—the moves, like the notes may be interpreted by different artists, in this case by a dancer. A score is not a map for what to do, nor can it authoritatively define a dance or a work from one instance of it to the next, in the way Goodman describes. Anna Halprin felt liberated by working out that she could vary her work in terms of how ‘open’ or ‘closed’ she made the scores she worked with. I gradually became more exposed to improvisation for performance with my first opportunity to perform in an improvised work offered by Ros Warby in 2001 while working with Dance Works (2000). • Be aware.• Be available.• Be responsive.• Be clear. [from Alison Knowles - 'by Alison Knowles' see bibliography]. Maxfield has invited a number of consummate improvisers to participate in the investigation, and visitors to the museum are invited to … Sometimes they are used by all of us very closely for the whole session. In our practising, the starting point of a score, the whisper of something which we think we might know or have an association with, allows us to enter in to dancing, into an unstable situation and find, in our bodies, what that dance could be. For the last few years there has been an annual simultaneous practice of Nancy Stark Smith's Underscore (a framework score for CI and improvisational dance practice) in locations around the globe including Europe, Australia, and the USA. Other approaches offer structures for performing improvisation. Some techniques are meant to cultivate a group connection or build compositional ideas. Genette describes how an autographic work is often produced in one stage, such as a painting and an allographic work is produced in two stages, such as a musical composition. Other approaches offer structures for performing improvisation. Published by the Australian Dance Council – Ausdance Inc. Ausdance-approved insurance that meets the needs of dance instructors, studios, professional dancers and groups, independent artists and companies. The more we practised the clearer it became to me that not only were the scores not directly shaping the dancing, but that I did not want them to do so. In an interview in 1994, nearly twenty years after the transcribed workshops, Paxton described the small dance. Every joint of our body has its range of movement and there are countless combinations possible. In improvised dance, the question of whether a dance is autographic or allographic and of the author is even more complicated. Gèrard Genette, referring to the work of Goodman can assist here. One of the challenges in using scores is finding the right balance between enough structures that you feel free to move, but not too much that you feel restricted. In the classroom we have experimented with adapting improvisation games from theater and dance … I do, however, use my emerging understanding of how verbal scores might work for others in various practices to ask again and again what scores are in my practicing. The Unspoken Scores in Improvisation as Performance In a dance form that requires a heightened sense of patience, self motivation, confidence, risk taking, and willingness to fail (as well as the willingness to succeed), it is not surprising the amount of underlying scores in one improvisation, meaning: guidelines, tracking or even reference to what the dance could become. The audience person moves into the witness chair, when the witness enters the performance space and the event unravels in this manner; as each participant moves through the various roles/time frames of performer, witness and audience. what is their biggest fear? Solo improviser Suzanne Cotto describes starting from ‘zero’ where she has no plan; she has not prepared anything. [from Mary Overlie, Anne Bogart and Tina Landau]. ), the noticing, List B: How or Where? The aim is to share meditation and movement across the gap of social distancing. There is much passing on of information that is non-verbal, such as dancing, watching and touching. A point of departure: suggestions for any improvisor. The physical history in Cotto’s body has come about through her dancing history and through her practice. Many artists in dance and theatre use scores in a variety of ways. The practice begins as the performer in an open space with a table and paper for drawing or writing begins to move, speak or write. This more recent description of the small dance by Paxton is refined, as though he has shared it often in the intervening years. [from Rob Kitsos; see Joao Fiadeiro as another approach]. Even if we do not want a score, that is the score. 3, 4, and 5: To the left going downwards, maintaining the level or going upwards (some call it low level, middle level and high level). Improvisation explores the body's shape, different levels and dynamics. Choices: Go with the simple/ not always first idea/ when out of an idea- leave. Perhaps in improvising dance, choosing what aspect of an idea or a score to exemplify is not as clear as thinking and deciding and then acting. 2 Open improvisation operates without the use of scores, leaving all decisions regarding space, timing, movement quality, relationships, and so on to be made during the unfolding of the performance. The pair were more beguiling in “Sidewinder Scores,” a sprawling improvisation both entertaining and long-winded, and also featuring Ms. Monson, Ray … A performer, a witness seated in a chair, and an audience person seated behind the witness chair. In the years since that project, I have been working a core group of dancers once a week. These choreographic principles are assimilated into the body through practising with them. Participating or acting in this practice allows ways of thinking, understanding, experiencing, knowing that exist only while or at least because of the participation in this dancing. When I write them down, however, I am usually sitting down and not in the middle of dancing. This approach allowed me to eventually leave behind the over-valuing of certain types of movement such as the shapes and virtuosic steps of ballet or modern dance traditions and to begin to find an interest in a wider range of possibilities. Examining my use of scores in my own improvisation practice it discusses what scores might be and might do and how they relate to the real time composition of dance in the present of its making. © Copyright 2021 Australian Dance Council-Ausdance Inc. When I began my PhD project, I thought that I would shape the dance, not through explicitly directing the dancing which was to take place but through the use of scores which were designed to result in a certain way of dancing. ‘But to take notation as nothing, therefore but a practical aid to production is to miss its fundamental and theoretical role’ of the score that has the ‘logically prior office of identifying a work‘ (127). Recent performance work includes dance generated in and for particular sites with About Now (Peter Fraser and Shaun McLeod). Here I conclude that there is not a straightforward, causal relationship between a score, the way we use a score and the dancing we do when we practise with a score. What are scores? You can decide on several verbal cues from the radio or TV to put yourself into motion again, like ‘virus’ or ‘pandemic. I really began with a set of action words because I hoped that they might be supportive of our dancing. Circle the earth scores – For Crisp, her choreographic practice ‘focuses on the making of movement, rendering visible the constant decision-making of the dancer‘ (2011). A score is a preparation. Using Ensemble Thinking group composition scores, we will make dances, and talk about why they resonate, and why they do not, the elements that drive a dance towards artistic critical mass, and those that do not, producing stagnation as an outcome instead. 2: Upward. Using scores in dance improvisation. Movement in slow motion is by far my favorite thing to do (as my students will definitely confirm). A: Each person goes on an individual walk outside for 15 minutes, thinking about the concept of border and how this idea intersects with daily life and their immediate environment. What does it do? They are a prop, a ruse, a pretense which, while giving me the illusion of ‘knowing’ in my dancing, allow me to not know. Where does public and private space begin and end? In order to discuss how the dancers with whom I have been dancing and I are using scores, I will first describe how we conduct our practice sessions. Many artists in dance and theatre use scores in a variety of ways. I would also suggest that even within my own practice, I can only be an authority of my own experience of scores. and Clear the space, Roles:    Players, Light, Video, Sound, Visual Design. Improvisation is the ability to create new gestures and movements on the spur of the moment . when was the last time they kissed someone completely spontaneously? The same goes for couch, table and overstuffed pieces of furniture. Other improvisational scores ask dancers to make choices During this one-day, museum-wide event, Sarah Maxfield offers an improvisational score through which to investigate the use of scoring in dance and performance. The scores are not designed to have a particular effect or to make particular changes in anyone’s dancing. I was watching myself all the time. Improvisation scores are generally meant to be interpreted by the dancer, which can result in vastly different performances across dancers. Divide a variety of objects into two groups. It is about dancing‘ (Crisp 2011). In a transcription of the verbal sharing of information in a series of classes taught by Paxton in 1977, he describes the small dance, also named the stand, as ‘continuing to perceive mass and gravity as you move‘ (Paxton 1986, p. 66). Authentic Movement is a physical practice of listening for and embodying inner impulses. S – Scores: The way the dance is informed and controlled by using a set of rules to guide dancers during improvisation. In describing what that score could be, he says: It’s a line in space, a change in the light, the body falling[…]It’s a lot of off balance, being off center, the sensation inside an articulation, the speed at which I come near somebody, or at which I go away. 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