What is Emio Greco's Obession with Classical Prima Donnas?

An experience of the dansopera De Soprano's from an Italian choreographer 

This show was a grand spectacle on a classical level. This was a collaboration of the Opera Zuid and ICK Amsterdam as part of Emio's evident fixation with opera's heroines. 

The Show Must Go On

A single man begins in nothing but a black turtle shell and clear, platform heels with a full set up for a 8-piece orchestra, percussion, a 'glass harp' and platforms surrounding the stage.

This single man states the names of feminists from throughout history in his masked voice. Slowing the rest of the cast join on stage: 6 dancers, 3 singers, the conductor, and 8 musicians. Their faces were are all covered in chain mail as they stood facing the audience in what seemed like some sort of protest or stance.

The rest of the show goes on as a conversation between dancers, opera singers, and music, between the classical and the modern. Mostly the music and dancers blended seamlessly in harmony. The transition moments were bombarded with digital technics, guitar solos, and video projections interrupting the classical opera scene.

And as with his last piece, Verdi, the women dancers and singers wore their heels high and proud, dressed in draping, translucent slips, and rock&rolled the stage with strong feminist power.

So What Happened to Opera?

Despite the spectacle, the variety, and interaction, I was bored. Perhaps I miss the knowledge of classical Verdi opera's so I can not bring in the story to what I was seeing. And even so I feel that these dance pieces, with such action and variety, should be a story in themselves. I didn't understand the interlacing of the video projections or the moments of self-critique or the story line in general.

So instead I focused on little things; the dancer's movements, and way the singer's interact with the stage, how the conductor works together with the dancers. The dancing was beautiful. The six danced in harmony, and nearly unison but given the freedom to add their own voice to the movement. They are stunning dancers, naturally and this I enjoyed. And I got a little lost in their flow. The beauty wasn't quite enough to keep me engaged in the piece as a whole.

Greco naturally must have a deep interest in Verdi's operas. It's running through the core of the piece. For me, not having the history and knowledge of Italian Arias and story lines, I was missing out on the very foundation of what I was watching.

Improvisation: Not Spontaneous?

What are we really saying when we say 'in the moment' or 'be present'?

And what exactly is improvisation? The term as become so widely spread, it no longer describes one idea, mind-set, or working method. Gaga, Open-form Composition, Spontaneous Composition, Forsythe, Contact Improvisation...  I can not simply "improvise" for you. (Which is what my 11-year-old niece requested when I had to explain to her I don't have any dance 'routines' but I mostly improvise. My response was "Let's do it together, it's more fun that way!"). I too was being vague in this context, unable to give a clear picture to a young, inspiring dancer about what kind of field she was up against.

Let's start to be critical about what we are asking from ourselves when we Improvise. What are we really doing here?

There's some sort of phenomenon in which we expect ourselves as dancers to be able to differentiate between acting according to a (inner) sensation that is happening right now and the knowledge that we have gained from the past, (which actually enables us to make decisions and predict the future). Thusly, we can not separate ourselves from our knowledge.

What is Improvisation?

What if we approached it this way:

We are knowledgeable about what we are doing. We are putting ourselves into situations of pressure, or the unknown, or collaborative communities and forcing a response to that instance. We are risking.

We are not trying to think out of the box, always creating something new, better, innovative, different than before. We are looking at "what's inside the box?"

The questions I have now:

Where is the revolution of improvisation beyond being 'innovative'?

Where are the risks in the arts that actually matter?

(Thanks to Joào de Silva for his lecture today on Improvisation and Risk-Taking. Many of the ideas here come from him. Best of luck on your Phd)

R'dam Projects OCTOBER

Next steps: Projects Ideas

Here we have arrived to October, and I finally have some moments of rest to reset, recharge, and restart. I've been dancing all day for the last 2 weeks back in Arnhem with Ime. It's exhilarating to be in motion again. We're working with inquiring our approach to movement and the holistic body, from toes to core to finger tips!

I won't go much further into that, because today I want to put on paper some ideas running through my head

The First Idea: 

I'm currently working on a proposal for a artistic research over the next month for the Minor Maker 2

3-6 interdisciplinary artists 

1 working space

36 hours together 

1 world to create.  

Repeat over the next 9 months, at which point it will accumulate into a performance/presentation/installation. 

Focus: Sensation&Perception/Time&Space

The Second Idea:

There have been some very inspiring shows that I have seen lately which struck to visually in my mind. Combining this powerful visual element with my interest in audience perception and interaction, I see potential to transform space and even time. 

Elements:

Collaborate with an visual/design artist 

Use mirrors and video projection 

Create a theater/performance space where the audience is in and around 

Use elements of dance improvisation and film

The objective is to alter the perception of the space, to begin to create illusions. Where you would normally step into a theater, here you would enter a multi-dimensional landscape which challenges you to look beyond the black box

Interested? Contact me! 

Cassidy.Carbine@gmail.com

Till next time, Artists,

Cass

Week 3: Auditions

The last two Saturday I took part in two different auditions. It's always nerve-wracking to some extent, I don't always know how to prepare, what to expect, and if it's a situation I'd even like to see myself in. 

Last Saturday, the 2nd, was the infamous Jan Fabre. Antwerp-based, visual-artist-turned-theater-maker Fabre is a handful. I had heard only negative things about him as a person and very mixed reviews on his work. He recently got lots of Belgium media attention for his continual throwing of cats in his latest work. 

And that's not all... Here are the audition notes: 

"The 24-hour Project will be a Fabre project about Greek mythology, a search for the origins of tragedy. A battlefield of love and war. The actors wake and sleep on stage. For twenty-four hours Fabre directs his images using their stolen dreams.The 24-Hour Project cannibalises theatre. For a whole day and night the remnants are digested and ejected through the passage where everything ends up. In this way Fabre metamorphoses theatre. Has done all his life."

Contrary to the project itself, the first round was packed tightly into 1,5 hrs. I have never been so pushed, manipulated, displayed, and humiliated. We did a 'warm-up' of fast-moving turns, jumps, and acrobatics, solo improvisations to Michael Jackson, embodied killer animals and died for ten minutes, stared in the eyes of another completely motionless, and stood like columns while each of us introduced ourselves one-by-one and spoke a short text. 

He uses dancers as if their bodies and talents are clay to be sculpted, to be pushed to the limits of psycho, crazy, and grotesque. I was nearly the color blue so  he could use me to paint his artwork with. Where was the human relation in all of this?

Look, I like crazy. I love extremes. I want theater pieces to make you uncomfortable and questioning. This level has to come from a vary real place, it needs to be developed and trust between the director, performers and spectators needs to be in place for there to be any meaningful necessity for the extreme. 

Fabre didn't have my trust, my appreciation, my willingness, so how could I make the spectator also believe in what I was doing?

I didn't make it to the callback, and I would have walked out had I have been. I knew he was crazy... but I had to see it first hand if he was still a credible artist. 
If this man didn't channel his 'crazy' toward art-making.... he might just be a serial killer. 




So:

Yesterday's audition was far from this scene and it was a welcomed calmness. 


The choreographer, Elio Gervasi, is soft-spoken and kind-hearted. We worked mostly in improvisation. He gave a small warm-up with connections in Counter- and Release techniques, loosening up our joints and becoming available for movement. We learned an arm phrase that was big, spirally, and free of counts. To this we improvised the leg and bodywork. After a short break, we came to to watch, one-by-one again, a solo improv in the circle. The atmosphere with time was supportive and encouraging you to move like you.

However, I didn't connect with a lot of what Gervasi was asking for. He was difficult to understand through his accent and even passed that didn't give clear tasks. 
As I gathered by the end, he was looking for pure movement. Nothing expressive, with performance 'code', tricks. Just movement. 
I wasn't sure to what extend this meant. What about dynamics? and different textures? Qualities of movements? I had spent the last week with Peter Jasko explore all the different ways a body could move, have qualities, and be dynamic. And now I was asked to be a moving body...

I assume I'd understand it a bit better if I worked with him for longer. There is a simplicity that was alluring to me. He lets the body speak for itself. And a release to allow yourself to just be. I missed the challenge. I want to step into the studio every day to discover something new, pushing myself to different directions, abilities, possibilities. Where was the drive? the struggle? the NEED?

I'll hear back from him on Tuesday.

Week 3: What have I gotten myself into??

Wow. It has been a Great 2 days. 

I've signed up for more than I can handle this week and I'm totally digging it. 

First, in the morning I'm taking technique class with Peter Jasko. You could call it technique, but it's mostly improv—based, where we are busy researching our own movements. 

After this, I continue with Jasko with "Spontaneous Composition". We further research movement, adding layers of qualities and possibilities. We play solo as well and in groups, trios, duets.

Just for an idea of the movements and obsurdity of what I'm working on this week, here's some inspiration from Jasko:

After these 5 hours, I have a lunch break. Time to collect my thoughts...

And from 5-8 I take another very active workshops "Physical Verses" with Damian Jalet who worked with Sidi Larbi often. We explore centrifugal force with our center and limbs flying and spinning around the floor. Then we go into some other tasks, learning repetoire, working together as a group, and continuing harvesting centrifugal force in our own bodies. 

Some work from Jalet:

Needless to say... it's all too much for me. But i'm enjoying it oh so much!

I'm covered in bruises on my hips and knees and elbows because I get into this state where I'm exploring movement in such a different way, I end up in places I've never been before. 

Especialy with Jasko's work, he emphasizes the moving from the body, the body knowledge. Instead of mentally preparing what's going to happen next, you go for it. The focus is not on analyzing what the state, or feeling, or quality of the movement is, the focus is on 'doing' before even knowing where you're going. 
It's a kind of work that I'm really excited to be tapping into. I'm usually the more brainy thinker, and I'm thoroughly enjoying trusting in my body and seeing what already exists in it. 

I'm building a lot of trust in myself. and letting go of the fear of going to unknown places. 

I reach by the end of the day a level of complete exhaustion, and in this zone, when I continue to push the physical limits, I start to discover new things and develop new trust in my movements, stamina, and improvisation qualities. 

Day 3 of week 3... It's a killer! 

Day 7: Meg Stuart's Marathon Performance: Sketches/Notebook

This piece was just what I needed to See. 4 hours of scores, sketches and a journey into a Crystal Cave. 

Meg Stuart's Sketches/Notebook was not your average performance. And I don't mean it deviated from the normal structure. I mean that it defiantly left the realm of traditional dance pieces to the other extreme, it was a new creation in itself. 

You step into the theater space to find creatures playing in their element. The stage is transformed into a visually dynamic setting with ramps, chairs in clusters, props, fabrics and pillows of various textures, wardrobes full of costumes, and technical equipment. The show had already started when the audience arrives; we just happen to witness this scene as if joining them for a normal afternoon tea. But nothing was Normal.

I can not begin to go into the details of the whole four hours. What happened in that space from 9:00 until 1:30 in the morning is something so complex and involved, I can only give you a tiny glimpse into what occurred in this spacetime  

There was an element of transparency. The performance was open: in the show the process was very visible to the spectator. The technique, costume, stage & lighting designers were in the same space as the performers, therefore becoming performers themselves.  

Following the openness of the piece, there was an incredible amount of spectator interaction. What started with small things to engage the audience [little nods, handing out costumes, assigning tasks] leading to larger roles in the overall. Audience members were dressed up for a photos shoot, invited into a clumping circle and eventually into a communal improvisation and 'structure building'.

With this audience-spectator interaction, there was a sense of harmony and togetherness. By the end piece, I had been on stage a number of times, including a duet with a cast member and orienting myself structurally. There was definitely a level of trust which the audience had in the performers. I learned the rules they were operating and felt safe within that. I'm curious though how to make the trust go even deeper to the point when you get the audience to interact or do something which is outside of their comfort zone. A moment when they release their traditional ideas of the spectator/performer role and let go into the moment. I had the thought sometimes that I really wanted to join or propose an idea into the space but I never acted on that. How can you create the environment where I felt free to do so? or even required and willing to propose ideas during the performance?

This is a question I want to explore for myself and in my own work. It's a great research!

I loved the visual aspect of the piece. You could see so many layers of details. The spacing of the stage area had an immediate impact with ramps and areas of chairs arranged in a unique pattern. Quickly the element of texture and colors were introduced. With reflective and shiny as a theme, arranged within the space were with different fabrics, transparent plastics, geode rocks, colorful costumes, and a discoball to name a few items. Each were introduced on their own, given a distinct role in the piece related to the other items. It was a magical clash of 

This work is filled with layers of information! It touches sensory stimuli, social-cultural issues, performative tasks, and redefining theater space and time. 

I loved it. I loved the marathon of the extended four hour version. Its duration flooded me with waves from complete engagement to closing eyelids. I was overwhelmed and completely pleased with the direction Meg Stuart went into. All more I can say is I want more of this. 

Day 4: Reflections on the First Days

Three days into the festival, and there is just so much to say!

I had a chat with Benji after the classes yesterday and we talked for hours about what we've been learning. Our heads are full with inspiration and possibilities. I'll start with some new insights from Jonathan Burrow's workshop

What we have been doing in his workshop is going along the process he used for the last piece he created with Matteo Fargion. 

It starts with creating the simplest of movement phrases. Nothing ambitious, nothing even spectacular or interesting. In fact, it's almost irritating to make because it's so dull. He calls this "Empty, inadequate movement". It is made within a structure A, B, C, D where A is comprised of 4 'things' (movements, gestures, actions etc) B is 8, C is 6 and D is 2. It is then placed in the structure ABACDCAB. This is a reference to "La Folia"from Vivaldi. A deviation from the pattern is optional on the 2nd and 3rd A, for instance a slight pause or change of speed.

It is a system for producing movement phrases to be used in a larger context. Place a title next to it, and suddenly the piece has context and movement has inferences. 

There are lots of interesting things that arise from using a set structure to make a phrase rather than personal preference or choice. What appeared meaningless gains meaning in the structure whether that was the intended outcome or not. It happens outside of the creators control. Especially when the title given is also a randomized process. Then there is the question of how the material is performed. Does one acknowledge the connections which happen by chance?