Choreographing is an ongoing juggling act between dancers and choreographer, of both trust and responsibility.
Learning
Everything I know, I learned it through choreographing.
everything I learned about people, groups, relationships, systems, responsibility, trust, processes, art, politics, love, fear, faith, and the act itself of learning, I learned through the choreographic process.
It's my teacher, mentor, guide and coach.
photo by Julia Gat
Change
A choreographic system which does not harness the entire choreographic capacity of the dancers involved, is working at 5% of its overall creative potential. The processing power of a system is directly linked to its ability to combine that of all its participants.
In most cases, the current state of affairs is that dancers are educated and tamed not to tap into their choreographic potentials, as they are mostly expected to follow input given by the choreographer (which basically means the work will necessarily be about her/him, which is the single most boring creative strategy I find). This being the norm, has so many negative implications on the current choreographic landscape, and only a dramatic shift in the existing education methods of young dancers, alongside a redefinition of what is a choreographer's role, might allow for a much needed change.
Critics
Reading dance critics sometimes feels like listening to a child holding a toy car in his hand, while explaining to an old mechanic, who spent a life time taking apart engins and putting them back together, how cars function. It's hilarious and ridiculous at the same time (without the sweetness of course...)
There is no other art form happening withing the context of such poor readership, which is to a large extent the reason for the ongoing marginalization of choreography as an art form.
*not all of them.
the THING itself
I think of choreography as a sort of natural phenomena. Something to look at and contemplate upon, like one would any other manifestation of naturally assembled elements. In that sense, a choreography has the same properties and may provide the same experience one would have when looking at the ocean, the sky, a crowded street, a flock of birds, a mountain or a group of children playing.
Bounding choreography to specific themes, narratives or messages, reduces it into something that smells like preaching or propaganda in the best case, or gossip when at its worse. And in both cases, it is unavoidably deeply manipulative. The thing I find most appealing about all natural phenomenas, is that there isn't the slightest shade of manipulation about them. The option doesn't even exist.
The récurent need of both makers and audiences to handicap the choreographic medium in such ways, has more to do with fear than anything else I feel. It's a way to find reassurance by avoiding completely the act of unbiased, open observation. I think that choreography should deal with how things are made, rather than how they look or what is the story they tell, which is always bound to be a superficial discussion about appearances, rather than an examination of the THING itself.
The damages this approach to dance making produces to everyone involved, choreographers, dancers, audiences and the art form in general, are innumerable I find.
Consciousness
Choreography is a sort of group consciousness. Very different from the individual one, yet very transformative in the way it affects and Informs it.
Sport/Art
I'm sometimes envious of sports and how easy it is to measure craftsmanship, talent and ability when referring to specific athletes, coatches or teams.. It seams as though you can't apply the same logic to the arts, as it's a matter of taste or cultural context etc, but the truth is it's actually not that different. Craftsmanship is mesurable. I can argue that I can play tennis, and that my version of playing the game is as valid as the one played by Roger Federer, but that would be ridiculous. It has to do with both an indepth understanding of the game and at the same time, being able to act upon that understanding in ways which are original, effective, creative and inspiring. Artistic craftsmanship is indeed mesurable I think, the fact though there will never be any agreed upon system to measure it, is both frustrating as it is exhilarating.
Easy
Degrading dancers is the easiest way to create maximum 'effect'. It's also the lowest form of choreographing. .
Intuition
The best dancers are those able to anticipate how things are going to unfold. They are basically constantly dancing and aligning themselves in relation to what will happen choreographically ahead of where they are at any given point in time and space.
Things you can do to an audience:
Provoke
Thought provoke
Overwhelm
Control
Free
Confuse
Entertain
Challenge
Reassure
Amuse
Take over
Inspire
Love
Shock
Comfort
Puzzle
Condescend
Trick
Empower
Educate
Manipulate
Lie
Close
Open
But you have to pass through the dancers for all these. As in, whatever it is you want to do to your audience, you'll have to do the exact same thing to your dancers first. No way around it. You eventually relate to your audience in the same way you do to the dancers you're working with.
Responsabillty
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.
