slightlymoving

Jacob and I performed tonight. First time together since the start of the year.

We had a fairly short warmup time, which served to show us just how little stamina we have. And during the day we’d been discussing our practice and teaching and thoughts about improv process. Entanglement.

The performance went reasonably well and in reviewing I think that while we have a strong performance ‘muscle’ our dance and compositions ‘muscles’ have atrophied somewhat. I’m keen to see what happens over the next few nights…

Earlier in the day I’d listened to the Hon Nicola Roxon talk at GP’09 conference about national health reform. The Q+A that followed was interesting and was recorded as part if their ‘consultation’ process. I like to think that the reforms are being approach in an open and strategic manner, but it’s hard to tell right now.

Oh oh… Starting to mix my posts…

there’s a video on Vimeo with the tags: ballerina, zombie and dance

it’s called Zomberina!

i’ll watch it when i get a spare 40 mins.

seeing i teased earlier i thought i’d chip away at those thoughts.

i’ve assisted in (and watched quite a bit of) abdominal surgery in the last 4 months or so. a lot of these have been hernia repairs, but also laparotomies, appendectomies, nephrectomies, hysterectomies, and even an open cholecystectomy (and a bunch of laparoscopic cholecystectomies).

it’s been fascinating to see the layers of the abdominal wall exposed time and time again with different body sizes and shapes. after making an incision in the skin most surgeons will then use diathermy to burn through the subcutaneous fat. this will expose the superficial fascia (fibrous tissue, at this location named Scarpa’s fascia, bloody eponyms) which is often divided with a scalpel. in the more lateral areas this exposes the external oblique muscle which is superficial to the internal oblique.

a common procedure is (after incision) to place a clip on the external oblique and retract to expose the deeper layers. this clip often stays in place for the duration - as it makes accessing the external oblique easier when closing (i assume - all of this is observation, btw).

below the internal oblique is the tranversus abdominus, then the transversalis fascia followed by some peritoneal fat and finally the peritoneum itself.

when forceps are attached and you’re asked to retract or hold, the surgeon will smoetimes let you know how hard to pull (or not as the case may be). this also applies to retractors, but when you’re holding onto a tool that is biting into the tissue it’s good to be paying attention. what has been interesting for me is that each layer has very different properties - and having seen more than one assistant yank too hard and pull a clip off or tear some tissue, there’s a learning about the tensile strength of these tissues that is only really developed by practice. because, of course, as people age the properties change - and each patient is different.

while it’s not the most important thing to consider, any extra trauma places an additional load on the patient’s metabolism and repairing function. and there’s a need for sensitivity and alertness in assisting that means being aware of the physical properties of the body in front of you. which, if you’ve read any of my posts on dance, ties in with presence and sensation.

that is all for that one :)

i re-found an email conversation between Lloyd Swanton and myself from June 2000.

i’d emailed Lloyd sometime after first seeing The Necks live. i’d heard their recordings a number of times before then, but it was the live experience that gave me a better understanding of how they worked. after the live show i was curious about their process. at that time i had been working with State of Flux for a few years - Flux work[ed]s (more on that another time!) with real-time choreography using contact improvisation as a foundation. it featured 5 dancers; janice florence, martin hughes, wendy smith, jacob lehrer and myself. we research[ed] contact through teaching and performing. group dynamics and development of material and structure in the moment were an important part of the work of Flux.

so, from that basis, i was interested in how The Necks worked as a group. i don’t think Lloyd would mind me sharing some of the responses he wrote to my questions about process, but to be fair i’m going to show what i wrote too:

i’m interested in what your process is… how you create structure and keep track of it real time - what arises through performance - how that may differ from rehearsals - how you communicate to each other - what your understandings are of what is occuring when playing together - how you negotiate the line between leading and following the improv - what response the audience can generate - i think i could go on here…

so, a bit sketchy from me - but reading this again i remember how i was interested in how in a group improvisation each participant can have wildly differing understandings/thoughts/stories about what is occurring, what has occurred and what will occur. there was a time when with Flux we explored this through reporting on what we thought was occurring as it happened - each person naming how they saw the material and structure evolving as it did. in a way this helped define the improvisational practice further while also showing us where our ideas converged and departed.

but back to Lloyd. there are a few great things he wrote about that I wanted to share. the first is related to what Jacob and I call entwining or entanglement. before performing we would take time to just spend time together noodling - maybe physically, maybe verbally, maybe both - often with no particular focus other than to start linking in - throwing lines over each other, weaving threads around each other, removing the focus on the upcoming performance. i get the feeling jacob could describe it better than that. from Lloyd’s email:

Before a performance, (huge trade secret being given away here!) we’re usually doing something stupid in the band room, like a kicking competition with a Coke can and a wastepaper bin. Perhaps this clears our minds, wipes out stage fright, helps us relax. Perhaps it’s just stupidity. Whatever - we’re certainly not sitting there psyching ourselves up.

preparation can occur in many different ways - and i think what lloyd wrote has a link into both the notion of entanglement and a decluttering or neutralising. a group functions through it’s relationships and it’s communication - sometimes the focus on the relationship can allow the opportunity to connect. more from Lloyd:

However, we’re talking about the broader concepts of music constantly when we’re just hanging out, or travelling on tour, (and we’ve been together a long time) and I think these ideas settle in our minds fairly subliminally; they consequently lodge there very firmly, and help to give a unity in the direction of our improvisations.

i’ll continue this later. got to have some sleep now.