The opposite of controlling dancers (through set external parameters such as counts, a set spacing, a fixed relation to the music and each other etc.), is handing over responsibility to them. Dancers sharing an equal responsibility in relations to the whole, will produce a clearer, more intresting, coherent and surprising choreographic result.
Order
I don't try to install order, I look for an order that gets installed by itself.
Attention
I choreograph attentions. Heightened states of attention. Layers of attentions, types of attentions, attentions spans.
Choreography
Choreography is a group of people trying to organize a certain amount of constantly evolving ideas and shared intentions.
Change/Control
If a system doesn't keep changing all the time, it's not system, it’s a control mechanism.
Empty your pockets
If you don't fully and transparently, share your tools and processes of creation with anyone that comes in contact with your work, (which they'll copy, or be smart enough to be inspired by and then come up with their own), you'll get stuck with them. The best way to develop new ways of working, is to constantly share and give away everything you've got.
Notes/Corrections
Giving dancers notes (or corrections when calling the thing by its name..), is probably the most overused, misused, lazy and abused working tool. it's a simplistic way to gain and maintain authority, and it reduces dancers into childish execution machines. I think that if a coherent choreographic system is in place, it will naturally guid the dancers, without stripping them down from their individuality and without dismantling their power position in the situation. I find the most effective note to be 'it's not clear, try again, or try something different'.
I like driving in my car
Choreographic structures are like cars. They're just potentials waiting to be driven. I like to bring dancers to a place where they are both comfortable with driving them, and have the knowledge on how to do so, rather than remote control them.
Choreographies
I think choreographies are either organic, self governed, self evident, autonomic entities, or they're nothing but artificially organized manifestations of their maker's ego.
Old masters
The masters of the past are something to build upon, while moving away from.
Self Expression
Good art is all about being of service to the people involved and the art form as consequence.
I find self expression as an artistic strategy, to be self indulgent, limited and harmful to both makers and audiences.
Follow in order to lead
My choreographic process is very much like the combination of a ball and a downhill. I let go of it, and then chase it down the hill to see what happens. I think of my process as something I'm following, rather than leading. Or better, in order to lead it clearly, I need to accept following it.
Products
The worst thing that could have happened to dance, and the choreographic medium as a result, was turning it into a product, thus detaching it from its qualities as a process based art form, happening over time in a way that can't really be summed up within the actual 'rules of the game'.
Contemporary choreogrphic work should consider this and think of ways to counter the 'product' culture the art form has fallen into.
Got it?
There's a funny tension between becoming more secure and clear about one's artistic process, and loosing the need that people 'get' it.
Let it be
I think choreography is mostly about being able to reach a certain state of mind, in which you're blocking and disturbing the natural flow of events, as litttle as possible.
You/Them
You should be able to separate your own perception of the work, from that of the audience. Both are valuable and important, but they don't mix well. I feel it's important to be able to travel between the two freely, in a way that allows them both to impact the evolution of the work.
Visualisations
Esthetics and processes, are inherently related to questions of ethics and morality. Choreographies in that sense, can be viewed as visualisations of ethical and moral inquiries and stand points.
Break the rules
The mastery of a certain technique, process, way of working, is usually bound to the ability to bend its rules and step out of its logics when the need arises. That ability though, is usually linked to authorship. As in, it's usually only the people that were involved in developping the original process (that in itself is yet another issue, questioning the definition of authorship), which have effective access to this capacity.
Hierarchies
Dancers should resist playing the hierarchies game. It's them choosing a choreographer to work with, just as much as it is the choreographer choice to work with them. If dancers are being auctioned like cattle with numbers pinned on them, so should choreographers. The notion that there is a distinct hierarchical order putting choreographers above dancers, is the root of most evils within the art form.
What is it about?
- What's the work about?
- Well, it's mostly about how it's made and performed.
- Yes, yes, but what is it ABOUT? Like, what's the subject or theme?
- Hmmm, just what I said before, how it's made, and how it's being performed each time.
- I see. So there's no theme. Like, it's abstract?
- No no no no no. Not at all. People doing things, mechanisms, systems, that's all very concrete.
- Yes, but it doesn't speak about any specific theme, right? It's like open to be interpreted.
- Yes and no. It's open to different readings, but it's because when looking at how things are made, you're actually touching all the existing themes and subjects. So it does speak in a very direct way about many things, but it's up to the viewer to decide which he wants to think about.
- Hmmm, never got this abstract dance thingy really.
