Blog post
Tsang Wing Fai
When you dance with props or objects, how do you get to know the object?
One dancer responds, “I see whether it’s hard or soft, its qualities, whether it has cultural meanings, and what its uses are… I think about the relationships between body and prop…”
Another: I want to know the weight of it, and the texture…
And another: The sense of touch and shape
We were talking about the cow and not being able to touch the cow (cloud!)… Each of you take some and just explore… cloud is just a metaphor, it’s out of place so it can be anything… Don’t eat it… (gestures of eating)… one dancer makes a Santa Claus beard. Just explore the material, you can completely destroy it, just play… texture, weight, colour, what can it become, what can you imagine from it, enjoy it (task)
Dancers flatten the cloud material on the floor and pound it in a loose circle as if they are threshing in the field, labouring, or doing a craft circle. Dancers begin to fan out with the materials, to partner with the cloud. Fei puts the cloud up her T-Shirt, everyone laughs. One dancer pretends to be pregnant… another adorns herself with the cloud, jewellery, a wig, one blows the material in the air… another rubs her skin with it, cleans herself with it… another arranges the material neatly on the floor… seems to be making shapes or structures out of it… one balances as much as she can on her head, as if she is on a catwalk or returning from the market… one makes small balls and throws these across the space but they don’t travel very far because the polyester filling is ultra light… one makes a kind of lattice and uses this to cover his face and head like a hood or hat… “Christmas decoration”… one makes a kind of weave or hair extension that she keeps in place with a hair tie… repetitive breathy music plays overhead… general sorting and sampling of the material… one dancer attempts to slide across the floor, putting her weight onto the material, foot first… flattening, threshing, rolling, compressing.
“The longer you mess with it the more dense it gets. I found it hard to re-fluff it.”
In Chinese, “It’s meditative to tease the material apart”
“We don’t investigate what is inside a cushion, we hold it on the outside. Testing how long the material will hold by a thread. Not that easy to change the shape unless you make it more dense.”
“The material rebounds…”
“Imagine this is our body, becoming very light. Keep this feeling of the body and lets try standing up and remembering this. Keep bouncing, find a space, keep it in the air.”
The energy in the studio shifts with the introduciton of the material. Glimpses of performance history, of Yvonne Rainer and her dancers lugging mattresses aroung the performance area. Of the displacement of qualities from body to object and vice versa. The material introduces a partner for dialogue and exploration, activating the dancers in their investigations. I am curious to see where this leads.
June 29 afternoon
Studio 3 FUBUNATION
Listening to Waddah is inspiring: “Check in with ourselves, our breath… just try to notice your breath… where do you feel it, in your belly, your back, how heavy do you eyelids feel, where do you feel the weight of the soles of your feet, are your shoulders relaxed, how soft are the joints in your body, thinking about all the space around your body, the space underneath your armpits, the space in between your fingers, in between your knees… what does an exhale feel like in your body, and if you magnify that a little into a movement… breathing out, a sense of yielding, of letting go, of releasing, and breathing in, refuelling, recharging, a cycle… When you move think about various parts of your body, do they feel heavy or light, changing the nature of the space… if you tilt your hip, how does that affect your spine… just move to feel, not to perform… observe the information your body gives itself in response to a decision… always check in with your breath, it has to be present with everything we do… I will offer some contact… think about the energy you give to the room, with your back as well as your front… just think about stretching the possibilities of how we move, the snake in our spine, the twist, and then think about timing as well… how much time do you give to something, how long to you allow a single moment to exist, don’t always feel the need to move on… start to explore that idea of taking up space when you’re moving or not moving… Are you falling into a place of habit? Sometimes it’s really good not to go with your first instinct but your second… choose to go against it and see what happens… always look for those places and pockets of less… where do you choose to take your eyes… and together as a room we’re just starting to decelerate… still making our own choices but now coming together…”
How do we arrive at a process?
How to tackle the fear of not knowing?
Dancers are distributed across the whole studio; they move at different speeds; some twist, others on the floor, others work more with hand gestures.
“Making a choice in your body and then seeing what the remnants of that decision are… idea of consequence, I initiate movement, I bend my knee which tilts my spine and diverts my eye… when do we take over, when do we let lie… with someone I want to do a short exercise where you suggest something, make a decision for you and your job is only to follow that decision… If you don’t give me enough information, or not good information, I don’t know where to go with that… and then if you give me direct information, the ask feels clear, the sense of direction feels clear… if you’re the person doing, it’s about being clear… to feel the involuntariness of it…”
“If you think you’re being clear with your instruction, be even more clear… if you’re the person moving you shouldn’t have to second guess… what the puppeteer is deciding… As a mover, I’m going to make a decision that functionally works… sometimes I can give quite small instruction, or challenge her to stay with me… if you’re the person moving… the thing that will help is to try and be soft…”
30 June Tuesday morning
Studio 3 Wang Ru-ping
Dancers clapping and stamping rhythmically. Followers and leaders. There is a game of follow the leader happening but the rules are somewhat unclear. The dancers move as a pack. It seems that the person at the front of the group is the leader. Once the group turns, the position of leader shifts to a new person: the head of the group. And at some point, the group turns to rhythmic clapping and sashaying. I wonder whether the group is going to break or split. There is a commitment to the pack. “I think it’s still a little abstract. Leadership is more concrete. This time let’s try breaking through to take the leadership role.” They start from the beginning with spinning. This leader is a little more gestural: shushing sounds with index finger; clap. And then the groups shifts to the London dancer as leader. And quickly shifts back. A kind of battle. The duration of each leader speeds up. One dancer turns the fan on and stands right in front of it with his hands on his hips; he stares right at me from across the studio: disconcerting. The dancers work in pairs; on forms of conversation. “First of all, present yourself, then present the dialogue. So if the group has a lot of energy you go with the flow. The group will be doing its thing.”
Studio 3 Tuesday afternoon
FUBUNATION
Dancers face each other in two lines. Walk slowly towards each other, maintaining eye contact. What does connection mean: reference points or differences in another body; how these points harmonize or collide. Don’t feel stuck on a train track; open up to your peripheral vision; work on your expression; “you’re going towards something; you’re giving a lot in this direction; but you’re leaving behind; there’s a trail of narrative; there’s a presence that remains as you leave it behind. Thinking about that might leave a bit more consideration of your backspace.”
“It felt like there was a really big story going on between us.” Changing who you’re conversing with… gives different context.
Studio 6 Yu Pik Yim
The back row of dancers move with umbrellas. The front row of dancers receive instruction from the choreographer. High kicks and twists. Not much is happening. Unclear whether some work has been set, if dancers are waiting for instruction, taking a rest, or working independently. I wonder why some of the dancers dance with umbrellas and some do not.
Monday morning 6 July
Studio 10 FUBUNATION
Waddah is giving directions to two dancers, suggesting how they move between states of tension and softness. Soften, soften, soften, strong. Aiming for contrast. Don’t let go of one pose to find the next one; you have to take it with you. Wait for the breath. Better. Does it feel different?
Written by: Tom Hastings (Scholar)
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