choreographing senses/sensing choreography
Felix Marchand
Jul 21 – Aug 08, 2014
“Holding the moment open a few seconds longer widens the gap where the old behavior/idea/thought/feeling would have gone. And maybe you have nothing to put in its stead. So put in nothing.” (Nancy Stark Smith, “Taking No for An Answer”)
This workshop wants to understand and enhance the position of a dancer/ performer in a choreographic surrounding. The main focus thereby is to increase our ability to perceive our surroundings while moving, but still to be able to make choices on the way. It is a workshop that unfolds choreographies by the performer in front of an audience. In this sense every day we will perform for each other. Perception, strategies and principles are the keynotes of this workshop, offering the participants tools to enter this multilayered approach of performing.
perception
Through exercises borrowed from several mind-body practices (Alexander-Technique, anatomical functional release, etc.) and games we will enrich our awareness to see, hear and sense ourselves, our colleagues and the space around us. These taught skills will enable the body to read the surrounding information and to make constant decisions. This stream of information needs to be absorbed by a sparkling sensitivity and a sharp-minded body, in order to perform the ongoing choreography that lies in front of us.
strategies
To detect the choreography present at anytime each of the participants will create their own strategies. We will bring these strategies to a conscious level. How can I keep myself curious? What makes me exciting? How can I translate the stream of information into movement? Which decisions are you making while we are moving? What attracts me in the space? Do I want to merge into the group? Where is the moment for my solo? Does the space need a solo? Is the audience still with me?
The movers/makers will map out for themselves their individual approach to the moving body in space. Participants will simultaneously be encouraged to embrace and to smash their knowledge, in order to shake the ground and perceive differently.
principles
Principles are an overall set of tasks, in which we will perform. They are designed to apply and to understand the gained knowledge. I will provide in the beginning of this workshop some of the principles I also use in my own work. Later on, the participants will be encouraged to generate their own principles. The aim is to create tasks which are open enough to unfold the mind of the performer and yet are not arbitrary. This mode of performing will set us into movement and create an atmosphere where the performers navigate, laying out step-by-step the choreography in front of the audience. Everyday we will perform for each other and discuss the seen.
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Felix Marchand started to dance when he was 21. He had lived in Hamburg and had just finished his obligatory social service, when he started an education as a dance pedagogic at the Erika-Klütz-Schule. Quickly he realized that he wanted to perform and to create his own work. So after his graduation, forced and motivated by all his teachers, he applied for several schools and luckily got a place in Arnhem at the European Dance Development Centre. There he spend four years and met Ayara Hernandez Holz, with whom he founded LUPITA PULPO. They moved to Berlin and under this name they produce their own work, which is shown regularly in Europe and South America. Next to his own work he performs as well for other choreographers, like Thomas Lehmen, Martin Nachbar, Sommer Ulrickson, Jochen Roller, Silke Z., Liisa Pentti, Ji-Hyun Youn, Diego Gil, Clement Layes, Beide Messies and Begüm Erciyas.
website
www.lupitapulpo.org
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photos:
Arauco Hernandez
Leticia Skrycky
Meyers orginals
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