Artistically and philosophically I am uninteresting in being the sole decider of the choreography. I am interested in facilitating to a dancer a developed skill set for which they can learn how to make their own choices for their dancing, to give them the experience of what it feels like to have to take responsibility for their dance, their choices, their actions.
[I also frame this passage with the assumption that the dancer/dance maker is already clear that with this sense of responsibility for make their own choices, that they respond to the responsibility of their audience. I believe there is an underlying assumption, with few exceptions, that a performer is working toward connecting to their audience, to actually have an intention to transmit some kind of information – not to fall prey to egotistical self-indulgence. Part of this exploration is to articulate this space where within the context of communication, in some way, freedom meets responsibility.]
I am not currently interested in giving value to the content of the actions (what one does), but rather, that the action of the choice itself becomes the subject matter. The timing of choices, the placement of choices, the engagement of formal or anarchistic composition, the continuity of the development or subversion an ongoing set of ideas – how the choices moves the ideas along, like in a conversation. This is what I am interested in, in terms of choreographic material. Given that of course, the content of a choice affects an enormous amount onto the dance, but the content is often what is only seen - its context of placement and relating-ness is often deprived of investigation.
We watch the choice making AS choreography. Impulse, judgment, decision and then action - is choreography. And implies much more.
I want to expose my students to the premise that as a dancer (one who creates through the body), they have autonomy and choice. I want this also to be interesting and fun to them. Sometimes this is an issue that comes up late in the dancers development, since when a dancer is younger there is still an emphasis on wanting to be told what to do and to receive affirmation from the one who gave the orders.
This is a huge step from conventional models of dance expression, where the dancers are the ‘fulfiller’ of the choreographic desires of an external source. Choreography by its literal definition is ‘body writing’. The act of dancing suggests this SENSE of self-authorship.
My interest choreographically, is to pass the baton of authorship onto the dancers themselves. It is only when a dancer is given this space to make choices within the dance, that the dance can transcend from the space of the illusion of something real, to something that is real. All choreographers worth a grain of salt are after the same thing – a dance that feels as through its actually happening for the first time, right there in front of you, a human experience occurring.
Why not actually train that way?
My opinion is that the experience of a living dance cannot be duplicated or controlled no matter how skilled at illusion the performer or director may be.
