Thread by @NYUADArtsCenter

We start a dance workshop with @candocodance drawing from Jeanine Durning’s approach to “non-stopping”: “Start before you’re ready.”

#DanceReflections by @vancleefarpels at @NYUAbuDhabi

The next exercise is called “weaving.” It’s basically, we’ll be weaving.

Jeanine gave us some directions. No hesitation. Be unapologetic.

Ready?

Begin.

I think we can make our circle a little bit smaller.

Let’s give ourselves some real contact.

This is what we’re gonna do.

It’s gonna blow your brains.

We’re gonna do a little do-se-do.

5-4-3-2-11111111

Let’s try singing.

Jeanine won’t like it. But she’s not here.

4-3-2-1……

We have what we call “attention games.” This was one of them.

Now I’m going to throw you into the deep end. I’m going to set a timer for 5 minutes and we’re going to move continuously.

Any movement is valid.

Jeanine says we should move at the rate of intention.

You can learn about the environment we’re in together by moving through it.

Introducing objects into the space.

If/when I come into contact with an object, how does it change my body?

Can I move this object with care?

Try not to search for something to do.

You’re already doing it.

Now we’re going to do a game called “rolling with the chair.”

There’s no right way to do it. We’re rolling with a chair.

No. Really. They are rolling with chairs.

“That’s really exhausting.”

Yeah, it’s really exhausting. That’s the first 10 minutes of the piece.

Post workshop Q&A:

What do you hope to achieve by this “non-stopping?”

Presence.

It’s not just a dance practice but a philosophy.
Be in the moment where you are.

These exercises were developed by Jeanine Durning to “tune the muscle of attention.”

She doesn’t use the word improvisation. Even though the movement is unstructured, it’s very disciplined and structured.

In Last Shelter, we respond to the objects and each other in real time.

There is a big risk involved in performing the work. It’s quite scary.

It’s a choreographic commentary on how we live with uncertainty.

And Last Shelter is a strong contrast with Trisha Brown’s Set & Reset/Reset, in which every movement is set.

Question re dance “scores”: it’s a set of rules.

Big question: how does disability affect the dancers’ experience of non-stopping.

It effects everything. But it’s such an open proposition. In the company we discuss this at length - we all have such different bodies, ways of moving.

Anna, who is Deaf, talks about how she engages the speaking parts of the piece. “I don’t need to know everything that’s going on in the piece.” But her interpreters do write down everything that’s going on in the piece so she has access to the collective memory later.

We have a few tickets still available for Saturday’s @candocodance performance - best seats are now in the balcony, where you can really see the full stage patterns.

nyuad-artscenter.org/en_US/events/2…

@threadreaderapp please unroll