slightlymoving

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.

Improvising All the Way

Special guest Martin Hughes leaps into the mix with the regular Little Con artists (Dianne, Shaun, Paul, Joey, Ann-maree) to play a little one hour improv game. Who knows what, where, when and who will attempt to make dance out of chaos and chaos out of dance, as the impulse to jump in and jump out is obeyed and ignored, imposed and composed, vetted and fated? Yes it could all go horribly wrong. Now you wouldn’t want to miss that would you??

See you there. We’ll risk it if you will!

so the little con is a monthly dance improv event held in melbourne. it started around the same time that conundrum ended (after 10 years of monthly improvised performances) and has had a few different incarnations.

i was interested to see this description in their latest email bulletin mention risk.

while i understand risk as being somehow involved in live performance (liveness, eh simon), i’m less convinced by the idea that it’s more present in improvised work. at least, i’ve never experienced it in that way. putting your work on stage can be risky in any form, but the risks tend to be thought of more as being about ‘getting it right’, or pleasing/offending/stunning the audience. i mean, the risk is that the work doesn’t communicate, right? or that it has no impact on the people who have come to watch/listen/experience it? and that risk is present in all forms (well… most forms, idol doesn’t count).

anyway, there also seems to be a generalised idea that in improvised performance the performers are taking more of a risk because they don’t know what material/content/structure will come out during the performance. and i’m not sure why, but can’t recall ever having even thought about this in my own practice. with a rigourous and ongoing practice that level of risk is insignificant - or maybe it’s significant but the perception of it decreases dramatically.

which reminds me of rock climbing. in rock climbing, the real risk varies according to the skill and physical attributes of the climber, the difficulty of the route, the prevailing conditions and the quality of the gear. the perceived risk varies according to the climbers physical and mental state, and in turn it affects the real risk (positively or negatively). a low perceived risk can lead to mistakes being made but can also allow a higher level of functioning. i think in performance it comes back to that idea of being in a state of confident expectation (being a poor equivalent for perceived risk) to allow the performer full access to their skills and creativity.

phew

in other news, i passed my mid year barrier exam, which was a fucker of an exam. started muscoloskeletal and neuro block, which is already fascinating and overwhelming.

—-
The Little Con
Friday 25th July, 7pm
Cost: $5 @ the door.
Venue: Cecil Street Studio, 66 Cecil Street, Fitzroy VIC 3065
littlecon@gmail.com