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This webiste is built as part of a Practice as Research (PaR) project that will accumulate to reveal the developmental role of the concious dancer in performance improvisation. The 'BLOG' enteries will document the improvisational studio based approaches and practice, whilst the 'RESEARCH' section will give contextual insight into the ideas surrounding and emerging from the practice to help me develop, think and define my role as a performer and dance maker in performance improvisation. 

Praxis One: An Overview

 

In sharing the findings of my Praxis One, i aim to present an approach that allows for conscious exploration of self in improvisation practice. The process details of each step are discovered in among this website....

 

* I began with identifying my personal movement language - taking a backward look into my history, surfacing the influences and habits of my trained body. I explored this through a series of improvisation studio practices, exploring the methods of practicing artists, the surfacing questions and the immediate responses of the mind and body. (see blog)

 

* I identified a taxonomy that allowed the movement practice a focus. It is a 4 system tool exploring what the body and mind is doing, thinking, feeling & sensing - offering an awareness of what we notice when consciousness is applied to each area. This futher provides the dancer with a language that is affected by the body and mind.

 

  • Ask questions, keep it open and respond to the present moment. Begin and end with the body. I start from a sensorial place - accessing what's available through the nervous system, processed by thought and executed through habit.

  • I move sequentially; i like fluidity, I focus on the spine and feet. I identify my centre in the pelvis. My fingers signal that my focus and energy is beyond the body and immediate sight. I move through shapes. A released feeling. Stretch & strength in the hip flexors and quads. I bite my lip, i make 'quality noise' and hold my breath when taking risk.

 

*My focus grew from material-based improvistation to performance based-improvistion.

 

* I identified the need for structure when exploring the role of chance in performance. I worked with two (very different - not intentional) scores that pre-set a layer of the decision-making process in performance improvisation. I identified what was then noticed within this - how this shifted my role of the body and mind.

 

  • Desire for spatial direction and sense of time. I proprioceptively go to a new place...i allow the body to adjust and become more accessible... I explore the collection of my habits. I use observed patterns when rehearsing to memorise the score. I like character, persona....a single focus. I like to surface emotion, sharing feeling.

 

* My response questioned my compositional desires. A choreographic framing within the liveness of improvisation. I am interested to notice the choices made in 'setting' a choreographic frame (score) - from the starting point of the body, in light of what has been personally discovered thus far. I invite people to witness this. In revealling process, I aim to lay bare the questions that  surface when exploring the space between improvisation and choreography with the body&mind. 

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