Team Member

Performance-Studies Ideas

Hi everyone! 

Here are a few of the ideas that were brought up during the rehearsal. In order for the performance to happen in such a short amount of time, please add your ideas, contribute, comment and expand upon the ideas, as much as possible.   

Instructions: 

To edit the discussion and add ideas:  

In the top right corner of the page there is a tab that says OPTIONS, 

scroll down and click Edit Discussion.

  

To start a discussion (encouraged!) on one of the ideas, make a separate comment thread for each activity. 

You are in control, so make sure you don't delete the entire conversation! 

We are looking forward to hearing your responses and ideas! 

 

Thank you!

 

 Add a plus + next to an idea if you are interested in the activity. 


Where have we taken the neutral/pedestrian body. The ordinary vs. the extraordinary body?

  1. Three bodies are taped to the museum windows  and remain taped for three hours.
  2. One body is tied to the back of a bookshelf located in the lobby area with many strings
  3. Three people who could be taken as museum-goers are seated in the cafe area and taped to their seats or coffee cups.
  4. A body struggles forward while attached to a harness that constantly pulls them back+
  5. A body constantly shifts into precise ballet positions
  6. A body naked released/relaxed and still
  7. A body naked tense and still
  8. A body at the stair case that ascends and descends a staircase yet never really succeeds in either action
  9. A body in a state of just having fallen from a tight rope.
  10. A body just at the point of speaking
  11. A body just before going ascends and descends the stairs. 
  12. A body constantly repeating pirouettes 
  13. A body taped to the door handle of the lobby door or to a door handle similar to that door but with out a door
  14. A body hanging up side down, almost touching the ground while another body is standing next to it.
  15. Three bodies in frozen 3 dimensional shapes roll around the floor. 
  16. A naked body covered in white paint next to a naked body without paint. 
  17. An image being projected onto a body as a canvas.
  18. Two bodies wrestling.
  19. A body being exposed by another body.
  20. A body dressing and making themselves up and then undoing the entire process. 
  21. A body performing a technical dance in a suit.
  22. A group of 7 naked bodies next to one clothed and then 7 clothed bodies and one naked body.
  23. A body exposing themselves. 
  24. A body singling out specific parts of the body. 
  25. A man wearing a Burka and female wearing a tuxedo.
  26. A body with its face covered but the genitals are exposed. 
  27. A body in the act of balancing. 
  28. A series of bodies more progressively clothed---jumping. 

** Actions will unfortunately not be taking place in the lobby area

Views: 320

Replies to This Discussion


Friend of LEIMAYPermalink Reply by Jeremy Goren on November 22, 2012 at 9:25pm

It looks like we're itching to play with contrasts, and I'm thinking about ordinary versus extraordinary and 'pedestrian' in terms of the dance itself and have an image of: club dancing, which could happen in juxtaposition with artistic (modern or classical...) dance or simply exist in contrast to the space itself, where it's rather clearly out of place.


LEIMAY Ensemble & Guest ColaboratorsPermalink Reply by Michael Ring on November 24, 2012 at 2:42am
I'm with Jeremy. I was thinking club dancing/grinding in slow motion, naked/painted. No music present, but the actions of the pedestrian taken out of its ordinary context and set into the realm of extraordinary.

Friend of LEIMAYPermalink Reply by Jeremy Goren on November 24, 2012 at 11:10am

There was another moment during our improvisation that struck me -- James was doing what looked to my untrained eyes like some basic balletic forms, and I tried to follow him exactly; after some time of this, we found ourselves simply leaning against the wall in a casual position but aware state, still synchronized. (ordinary/extraordinary, pedestrian) This game of one person trying to follow another exactly is active and interesting to me -- and has built in the active and perhaps changing contrast of a body following movements it knows and a body following another through foreign movements. The trained versus the training. 


Friend of LEIMAYPermalink Reply by James Gardella on November 24, 2012 at 8:43pm

Some of these action studies, if continued for a long time, to me may become more about endurance, persistence, and pushing limits (social, cultural, mental/emotional, physical, perceptual, etc.). This combined with the element of nudity makes me think of work that has already been done by Marina Abramović and other performance artists.

 

To stay focused mainly on our research themes, and given the amount of time we have to prepare, I envision an open improvisational structure that gives us freedom in what action studies/activities we engage in and for how long, and how we transition. This would provide us with an opportunity to observe what’s going on around us and to explore the boundary and relationship between viewer and participant. We could be influenced by what we see, interpreting the results our research as its happening, and let this feed back into the research. For instance, you see something in front of you, and you can join in....maybe you join in nude…maybe join in wearing a different outfit….maybe you join in and out continuously, with different facings…maybe you join in and do the study in a way different than others, offering a different interpretation. Maybe the others shift their interpretation or maybe not.  Maybe you start a different study entirely to contrast, then maybe others will join you…maybe people are moving between these two activities continuously…maybe you are alone in a corner, doing the same action study repeatedly for an hour. So many possibilities.

 

It could be as simple as this. We make a one page Word document with our prompt at the top in italics, like:

 

Where have we taken the neutral/pedestrian body, the ordinary vs. extraordinary body?  What are we interested in presenting 'via the body' currently and into the future? Imagine a future body.

 

and below that would be our list of potential action studies. We print out multiple copies of this document and tape them to the walls throughout the space at eye level for our reference. We form a pile of a variety of different clothing items and accessories we can all share, or scatter them around the space. Then we start. 


Friend of LEIMAYPermalink Reply by Jeremy Goren on November 26, 2012 at 10:26am

This is very interesting, James. I don't know if it would serve the overall intention and plan of the event, but it's certainly appealing.


Friend of LEIMAYPermalink Reply by Jeremy Goren on November 26, 2012 at 10:24am

I'd like to throw speed into the mix, which somehow seems to have escaped our musings. A slow-motion dancer; a person crossing or encircling the room in slow motion; a person moving through lobby and down the stairs and through the theater in slow motion. The same fast. Two different people doing opposite speeds --- or the same person actually jumping from fast to slow motion and back again continuously throughout the process.


Friend of LEIMAYPermalink Reply by Ian Wen on November 26, 2012 at 11:01am

I would enjoy this type of investigation as well.  It would in a sense dialogue what "pedestrian" speed is.

 


Friend of LEIMAYPermalink Reply by Tara Fenamore on November 26, 2012 at 12:01pm
The exploration of speed is such a great idea. I'm really glad you brought it into the discussion. Walking is immediately identified as a pedestrian action. How about simply walking in slow motion? The physical action is still the same. The person is still performing the mechanics of "walking." However, somehow it is less recognizable as "pedestrian." It challenges the audiences internal gage on what is "normal" or "pedestrian."

Friend of LEIMAYPermalink Reply by Tara Fenamore on November 26, 2012 at 12:11pm
In response to James' improvisational score:

The improvisational score like the one proposed has also been explored in a performative setting by a myriad of different theatre/dance/performance artists. I also think that the experience of endurance, persistence and pushing limits (in essence, some kind of opposition and conflict) is intrinsic to performance generally and our research themes. Even within the context of your score, endurance, persistence and pushing limits would be manifest in the expression and exploration. I experienced and witnessed that during our improvisation last Monday.

LEIMAY Ensemble & Guest ColaboratorsPermalink Reply by Elizabeth McAuliffe on November 26, 2012 at 12:19pm

For some reason the discussion about speed made me think about touch.  What kind of touch is pedestrian? ordinary? extraordinary? intentional or unintentional?  when we are smashed against each other on the subway or bumping into each other on the street, this to me is unintentional/ pedestrian.  if i bump into someone on the street accidentally should i apologize?  was it a bad thing? will the person i bumped into take it personally and be offended?  i am also recalling what cesar brought up about fighting and making love as the most intense forms of human contact, versus shaking hands, etc.  


Friend of LEIMAYPermalink Reply by Tara Fenamore on November 26, 2012 at 12:47pm
Yes, like...if you are watching Swan Lake at NYC Ballet and two dancers accidentally collide, they are NEVER going to stop and apologize. That would betray the world of the ballet. They keep going. If you collide with someone on the street you never just keep going. You always compulsively and instinctively apologize. It's almost the same instinct you have when you fall and you immediately get back up. It's beyond thought.

I think an apology - especially as a result of an accidental touch - is one of those instincts programmed as a result of socialization. That really interests me.

Would a neutral body apologize? I think not. When I think of a neutral body, I think of the "ideal" performance body. That state of being we all strive to attain on the stage. Ever-present and powerful..always ready to react beyond thought or self-consciousness. An apology implies a moment in which self-consciousness overpowers that immediate experience.

Then again, two impeccably trained ballet dancers on the stage may experience self-consciousness in that moment of collision. Yet - hopefully, they do not allow those societal, pedestrian impulses to pollute their "neutralized" performance systems and allow an apology to escape. I don't know. It's complex - as these research topics are.

I agree with Elizabeth in that it is something worth exploring.

Team MemberPermalink Reply by LEIMAY on November 26, 2012 at 5:03pm

You guys have been great with all this ideas so far. I am now with Shige and we have been reading and discussing all your ideas. As you know there is only so much we can do giving the time we have, so we will prepare the structure for the days. Also I will lead the days as if we were in a workshop. To allow for both , the time for discussion, or notes as well as for individual or ensemble explorations. Unfortunately we won't be able to use the lobby. And in fact our actions will have to happen inside the theater and no at other space of  the museum...!

I will be posting here again soon. For now please be prepare for tomorrow Tuesday!

Thank you,

Ximena

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