2014 Lab comes to an end....

5^th International Kinitiras Choreography Lab 2014

End of Lab Sharing Open Event

25^th July 2014, 9.00pm

The 5th International Kinitiras Choreography Lab 2014 drew to an end with the sharing of the on Friday 25th July, 9.00pm.  This 5^th edition of our project welcomed international participants who worked together with Greek artists in a creative dialogue that has resulted in a variety of approaches and concerns.    The event was presented  as an open platform hoping to demonstrate the manner in which collaborations were realized, processes intertwined with each other’s yet remained distinct and unique.  The audience was encouraged  to move around the space, position and reposition themselves in different and proximal relationships with the artists and their proposals. The presentations within the event followed this order:

Plasticscape(s)

MARIA SERMPOU (GR)

Performers:  Anka Gaceska, Marianna Panourgia, Vicky Angelidou, Maria Sermpou

Space is limited and yet still infinite. What is there in between?

I explored the relationship of the material with the body and the space in between/the space created. The idea of the project is closely connected to a metaphor and the concept of sustainability with breath as its main element:  breath that produces a space, but also begins to be extinguished by the properties of the material:  "How do I negotiate my breath and create a space in between the body and the material? How do I best sustain my space?  How does the reciprocal relationship between body and environment sustained? 

Bathroom Vignettes (1)

MARILI PIZARRO (PR)

An ongoing of spaces and the particular actions that emerge from them through different performative intentions regarding specificity of space and structures.

Cabezidura (Hardheaded)

CRISTINA LUGO (PR)

Sound:  devised by artista

Proyect description: part of “Cristi's Very Serious Dancing Nonsense Series”

I have challenged myself to be lead by a physical material un order to take myself to a specific goal. This material is my drive but it is also my burden. I move only where it leads me to, but I am also the one that moves it, for it can't move itself. That does not mean that I have total control of it, therefore I must also respond the laws of chance that control both of us.CristinaLugo (PR)

My other body
MARIANNA PANOURGIA (GR)

Music: dj shadow building steam with grains of salt.
Look at me. Look at me. Look at me now…What do you feel? …I will dance for you as if you were my other body…I will dance for you as if you were my own body…
What do you feel?We will be confused…we will be exposed…we will change…we will emerge… What do you feel? ...

Bathroom Vignettes (2)

MARILI PIZARRO (PR)

Song live from the shower, M.Pizarro sings 'Dile que por mi no tema' from Celia Cruz y la Sonora Matancera

“Let's go." "We can't." "Why not?" "We're waiting for Godot. (1)

ANKA GACESKA (SERBIA)

Waiting! What does it mean? My idea has started on the "In between" workshop held by Lynda Birkedal - .I wondered:  Is waiting something that is in between of "doing something" and "doing nothing"? We are usually led by thought that waiting is passive. But, if we consider the presence of expectancy, it is evident that waiting is active, since the person who is waiting is always searching for something to do to make waiting bearable. I found a connection with  Samuel Beckett ‘s "Waiting for Godot". I want to reposition the dialogue between the two characters to the relationship between  me and the audience.

 Flight to the Past

VICKY ANGELIDOU (GR)

Performers:  Marili Pizarro, Cristina Lugo, Vicky Anagelidou.

Audio: Recorded texts of Mariana Zisi

This work is based on the autobiographical writings of my mother and it deals with love, death and a human being's effort to carry on with her life in company with the void another human being's loss leaves behind. The process took us to investigate the relationship between feeling and kinetic exploration  using imagery linked to kinetic instructions, we experimented with objects as a trigger for movement, as well as to the effect of working across three interconnected ‘sites’.

It was a process influenced by  John Paul Zaccarini’s statement:  "What matters the most? The journey or the result?". Maybe... my answer so far: "The journey mirrors itself in the result... and the result is the mirror of the journey..."

“Let's go." "We can't." "Why not?" "We're waiting for Godot. (2)

ANKA GACESKA (SERBIA)

Bathroom Vignettes (3)

MARILI PIZARRO (PR)

With Marianna Panourgia, Vicjy Angelidou, Marili Pizarro with Cristina Lugo.

A collaboration in two/ parts
ELENI MYLONA  (GR/SWITZERLAND) & HILLY BODIN (USA)
Music by : Klaus Nomi, Cold Song

Spoken text: Greece- A Cry , Eleni Mylona
Research question: how does one bring upon/hold/sustain a space
where creative people could be? (Tasks are constructed for an individual to explore)
Answer: the reflection of an individual's perception can always acquire space, during which they withstand the layering of tasks, brought upon/held/sustained in this space; the creative exploration has the choice to be immersive within itself.

For the Lab:

Pavlos Mavridis:  Lighting & Sound                              

Ana Sánchez-Colberg:  Producer, Lab mentor

With our thanks to Angeliki, Exarminia, and most important the Kinitiras Studio directors -Vicky, Flora and Antigone- for their unrelenting support of the Lab in these 5 editions!  It has been an amazing journey.  Also thanks to all the contributing artists:  Androniki Marathaki (GR), Robert Clark (UK), Linda Birkedal (N), John Paul Zaccarini (SE). Michael Klien (Austria) for their contribution to the process of this year’s lab. 

The 5^th International Kinitiras Choreography Lab has received support from: 

                    

As we are busy preparing for Friday's sharing...

we receive this email from John-Paul...

Dear All,

I would have liked to write a fully-referenced text as my contribution to the blog, so you could see the genealogy of my reflections about the workshop; something polished, complete. But my experience of the workshop is neither complete nor polished. It stays with me, moving me, making me think and write.

There is always an expectation when you walk into a space and someone else is there. You have your own hopes for the situation and the other has their’s and the only way you have of identifying with them is usually projection of your own desires.

I’m used to walking into the space and being, quite literally, phallic. I show off, make jokes, flirt, use a lot of sarcasm, shock tactics and I make sure I develop a transference with each and every person in the room. And they usually want me to centre the space so they can journey within it safe. Safe within their own worlds, only because those are held in space by someone else.

This time, the space was different this time. Everyone held their own space and the space of the others and for once, I myself felt held.

It’s so difficult to find words for the workshop and even more difficult to find a stable metaphor or fiction or narrative or ethics for the experience. Instead an image came to mind which is the nearest way I have at the moment for describing it:

In fairytales and myths there is often a sacred or magical object, artefact, weapon or adornment – sometimes it is a curse or bind, other times it is a gift that will take the heroine to the next, most dangerous stage of her journey. It is a delicately spun thing, cob-web thin, nearly invisible but it is as strong as the strongest metal. It can capture a dragon and make a thief tell the truth, it will help win the battle or bring a wrong-doer to justice.It’s a magical object, we don’t know how it works. We only know that, in order for it to work, we have to believe it will actually capture the dragon and it is this belief that makes it work.

There was a cobweb fine connectivity in the workshop, a network managing itself, self-organising and evolving. I felt part of that network and felt I was given the space to be an equal member of that momentary organization rather than a superior one, or one that knew more. 

This is perhaps a very clear example of the ethics from which our own work arises, and which can be polished away in the final product or over-ornamented in a distrustful effort to distract the other from you and your world in the performance in order to fit in with the already-existing market. This, for me, is where a politics can arise from an ethics, rather than an idealised system or fantasy. There is politics in our practice because there is always already an ethics there, waiting to be brought to light – unconcealed. Ethics as a meta-politics. If none of us ever manage to fully bring that to the performance space, where we enter the system of exchange-value, then perhaps, in staying faithful to the event that brought us to this place of performance, we can still share our (non-exchangeable) value in other ways, through other fields, without the medium of exchange, but through the medium of the gift.

This is certainly what the workshop experience was for me – a pure gift –showing me how you gave to each other and gave to the space as much as you gave to yourselves. As a result of this it seemed that for the first time in a long time, I was being given an appropriate space to test my own notions of what it means to be an artist as citizen. 

Special. Rare. Thank-you.

John-Paul.

Stockholm 22.07.2014

Michael Klien, 17th July, 2014

Parliaments... this one a closed one. Only a set of instructions. Act (move, walk, sit, sleep,do not 'perform', move in full throughtful body, Badieu?). Observe (someone must always be in your peripheral view, remain engaged with the group, avoid self-containedness, full on gaze).  Ponder (deep thoughts, immersed). Sediment (what remains, what settles, what recurs).  All these form a recursive set of states of entering, pursuing, living 'parliaments'.  Some donts:  no sitting against a wall, no water, no toilet break, no notebooks (there goes ' thoughts on the go ' and the computer in the corner), no 'creativity' (meaning trying to be choreographically 'clever'), no 'performing touch, (this  led to debate - what touch, which  touch, when touch - finally sort of an understanding - socially conditioned touch - a hug, a wave, 'contact-improv' touching)...  William James (brother to Henry) is read...(funny one day I must tell Michael that most of his refrences are late 'Romantics' -James, Rilke, Rodin, Blake- and male at that, many ' nature-spritualists' who saw salvation from industrialism through immersion in nature and nature's ways - is that were we are at?). 

John Paul Zaccarini, 14th-15th July 2014

Affect-that which moves, energizes, viscerally, before anything is grasped and made into a tangible emotion.  Source if a passion, before a passion becomes a meaning. Seeing and writing.  Uncovering the layers of articulation.  What is in the practice, in the doing- echoes back to the idea of what movement experiences evoke.  The writing allows us to consider once again what is 'in our' work- how general ideas (not descriptive themes) begin to unfold a practice. a  practice that includes a way of doing (a methodology-workshops with Ana and Androniki), a politics (Robert and Ana)  and now - through the exercises John Paul puts us through - an ethics (principles that govern a person's behaviour or the conducting of an activity).

We have come around full circle -  There is a lot of discussion of how the other is 'involved' (involucrated - Arendt's embrouilled?) within the practice.  Who and how is other in our practice (ahh echoes of the discussions in the EUNIC workshop last Saturday).  Back to the nitty-gritty of a task:  John Paul asks us to watch somebody's movement (a short section of it- repeated so that it can be viewed in detail) and write its narrative - a reading, but a reading that remains close to its source and does not fly away into cultural reading and theoretical interpretations that become alienated from the act that originated it.  Later we will address the movement's geneaology- its evolution.

We view and review the material- John Paul speaks of scenarios- whweree passion and desire come into play- but then the writing- gives us a bit of a distance to be able to stay close and intimate to the material, whilst also being able to 'see it', not just 'feel it'....  how do these become our 'articles of faith' about our practice...

We move on- who is the other viewing- we remember Vicky's word - falling in love- not as a representation but as a practice 'of love' through the work?  going back to the Ethics of the work - we re-read and will re-write the text, we are not after something to represent on stage, but to see what are the strengths of the imagery/turn of a phrases perhaps that are directly connected to the practice and 'how it works'...articles of faith...



                                                  Recapping, modes of writing:
Transcribing movement:  takes us to consider the difference between a score and a script - script seems to be determining - closed.  Score seems to leave a lot open to interpretation. Narrative fiction:  the movement evolving into a self contained verbal object.
Bracketing the moment of dance:  trying to capture a moment and view it as free from cultural bagagge as possible (I remind them of Birdwhistle's idea that bracketing may only last seconds...). Performative text:  text parallel to the physical text so that the text performs what the body is doing? A text that acts upon the body as muchas the body upon itself. A text that invites texture and affect rather than descriptive/representational responses.  The metaphor - when an aspect of your practice can be transferable to another field...  The thought that ethics is in the 'excess' is an interesting one...as it is central to ethics but exceeds any particular work (and any of its participants).

Linda Birkedal, 10th-11th July

Threads -


In Between.


Words appear on walls - touch, sound, dilema.




We choose not to tape the sessions, keep it intimate...between us.

Thoughts on the go:

[ΜΑΡΙΑΝΝΑ]
ΑΜΦΙΣΗΜΙΑ..ΤΙ ΥΠΕΡΟΧΗ ΙΔΙΟΤΗΤΑ ΓΙΑ ΝΑ ΔΟΥΛΕΨΕΙΣ..

(Anka)
Sta je to cekanje? Ne raditi nista ili raditi nesto - ono je izmedju. Prvobitna teza je da cekanje moze biti aktivno i pasivno...ali istrazujuci ovaj materijal nikako ne otkrivam pasivni aspekat cekanja.....mozda on ne postoji?

Marili
Trabajamos con el termino "In between"... no puedo evitar llevarlo al espanol "Entremedios". Entre medios en espanol tambien significa estar entre medios artisticos...Lo estimo una realidad personal: entre la pintura, entre el performance, entre la danza...

[Maria]
The concept of "In between..." involves and pertains an indefinite amount of possibilities that are simply out there.  The magical moment arose when we got together in trios and started brainstorming. In a few moments, my brain just went hyper with excitement! And when we all got together to discuss about our 'findings' the collective thoughts that were generated just added more layers to that magical elements in the moment and this particular worksohop..!

  

Robert Clark Day, 7th-8th July

Empathy.  We go out and try to follow an individual in the street.  Not to imitate what they afre doing, but to really observe their behaviour and see how it impacts upon us.   One comes back with ice cream- having been forced to go inside a shop and do something or the 'subject' would have become aware of being observed.   Tough physical days.... deep somatic and kinetic work.  If it was a 'happiness' workshop last time Rob was here, this time we share an intensity which surprises us all.

Thoughts on the go:
[Μαριάννα]
Νιώθω πολύ ελεύθερη να έχω την δυνατότητα να επαναλαμβάνω το εαυτό μου δουλέυοντας με τα συναισθήματά μου και εκφράζοντας τα κινητικά.
είναι ενδιαφέρον πως η αισθητική βοηθάει νε μεταφράσουμε τα συναισθηματά μας..
Πόσο δύσκολο είναι να χορεύουμε για τους άλλους?????

[Maria]
The task of following a stranger on the steet: weird...uncomfortable...stalkerish...awareness of my physical self as part of being aware of the other person's physical presence...
Followed by extreme phyicality, kinesis, connection with the other which was exactly what I needed. A lot of awareness arising from the physical movement.

Create/Change Workshop 12th July 2014

Create/Change – A workshop on creative industries and social entrepreneurship

Linda Birkedal. Photo: Molitrix Scenekunst

On 12 July, a workshop entitled “Create/Change” will take place at Kinitiras Studio in Athens with the participation of Norwegian dancer and choreographer Linda Birkedal.

The workshop is a part of the 5^th International Kinitiras Choreography Lab and will focus on creative industries and social entrepreneurship. It is arranged in collaboration with the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) and is a part of EUNIC’s project “Arts for Social Development”. Artists NGOs, educators and policy makers who wish to attend the workshop are encouraged to read more about it and sign up here before Friday 11 July. See also the programme and the invitation below and attached on the right column.

This year dancer, producer and choreographer Linda Birkedal has been invited from Norway to share her experience from working with Molitrix Scenekunst based in Stavanger, Norway. After graduating from the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance in London in 1995, she has worked on a number of different projects in Norway and abroad, both as a dancer and as a choreographer.
Birkedal will also hold her own workshop “Between threads” 10 and 11 July. In between relates to what is between, not on the edge or on the border, but between. It also relates to what is not yet finished, what is on the way, and in process.

5^th International Kinitiras Choreography Lab, 1 to 25 July 2014For close to a month this July, Greek and international dancers meet up at the yearly event the International Kinitiras Choreography Lab to share their experiences and upcoming projects. The Lab creates a welcome space for artists to develop their talents both personally and professionally.  
The purpose of the yearly Kinitiras Choreography Lab is to “promote new artistic development through providing access to long-life education of the participant artists in order to reevaluate the contribution that dance makes to our contemporary society given current economic and social challenges.”

A number of international artists have been invited and with this the Lab manages not only to link dance practitioners in Greece with the international dance sector, but also to create and sustain an international community that encourages artists to collaborate on projects across the world.

The International Kinitiras Choreography Lab is supported by the Norwegian Embassy and the Norwegian Institute at Athens. The workshop on 12 July is a collaboration between Kinitiras Studios and the following EUNIC members in Athens: The Austrian Embassy, the British Council, the Hellenic Institute of Culture, the House of Cyprus, the Norwegian Embassy, the Norwegian Institute at Athens and the Swedish Institute.

Androniki Marathaki, 5th July 2014

 Warming up- painting the floor with all available cells, eyes open, to wake up...then we pair up, one body rolling/touching the floor- the partner touching her, as both move across the floor... "open you r eyes, open your eyes, look at the space, look at the lines, touch with the whole palm, real pressure, if you see something that is not touching the floor, push down unto it...." establishing contact across bodies,  and across the bodies negotiating the task through space...



Now standing, only one foot or hand can be on the floor...a-symetry... testing rules - we go back to yesterday's fragments with the objects/materials, working on clarifying the physical rules given definition to the process.  As a way to understand rule making- Androniki asks each to take turns working with the object/rule - as that happens the group will follow in the negative space of the movement process - each becomes aware of the space used (or not used), this task clarifies the 'live use' of the space.   We go back to the work with the objects - refining by considering a challenge, an impossibility, a different beginning, a different place in space....  what else can develop the process?



We witness each other's process, we comment- images come to mind- I step in from my quiet corner to remind them- how the witnessing of the process is evoking.... once again we write- this time from a double perspective - she/me, we exchange rules (now the rule os from the writing, I do not work with mine) but I must use the same material -  nuanes continue to appear.

Androniki Marathaki, 4th July 2014

Movement unconscious made conscious. Consciousness/awareness brings clarity of what is at our disposal. Androniki takes us through a slow awakening of eyes, joints, legs, even voice in relation to the space.  The scale of the movement increases as speed is gradually increased, then the amount of space made available increases...but all motion is relative to observation of the space- there is an intentionality of the movement in relation to the space - Androniki speaks of journeys taht begin to take place...80%, 90% 100% until it is not possible to continue, 'your choice' .. Objects are brought in to the space - to engage with them 'ordinarily', playing with them, trying to 'understand' the movement in relation to it/them: move it, move yourself, move with it...observe yourself with the object/material....observe yourself iin moving, without losing purpose - try for the movement to become an outcome from the engagement with the object (the purpose).... Play, find the game with it, explore possibilities - with different body parts, cahnging levels, what about trying to meet an 'impossibility' , set/discover a challenge, ordinary/extraordinary shifts (again). ...  let the knowledge of dancing /choreographic begin to exist together with your ordinary engagement with the object.... it is not what you do, but how you deal with the consequences of the choice...

Thoughts on the go:

[Maria]
The stick is an extension of my limbs. It comes in and out. It intertwines, extends, and draws lines.
It's a game with myself; a kind of primal exercise.

[Cristina]
Hay 5 piedras que estan ahi. Ellas me mueven en linea mientras que solo pienso en moverlas a ellas. Me encierran en un circulo que me abre dimensiones. Finalmente solo estoy, pasiva como la piedra misma.

[Marili]
El papel de periodico fue el ultimo objeto con cual experimente, me intereso su versatilidad y liviandad. El juego que inicie al igual que los otros requiso la limitacion del uso de las manos. La idea de manipular objetos toma una cualidad ludica en el momento que evado el uso de las manos.

[Vicky]
Me and the Paper.....
A new relationship is born!!! I now love to read and then ... play with my newspaper!!!

[Olga]
Φυσάω και πετάω....αδειάζω στο χώρο και ξαναρχίζω - κολλάει ένα μικρό κομμάτι στο πέλμα μου κ με παρακινεί σε χορό άγνωστο και οικείο.



We experiment with gold-leaf -  and sound voice=slow, silence=speed, tryng to find new nuances to 'the game'. Ten minutes are given to return to the original object and clarify the 'game' and its features (space, levels, focus, etc).  The energy of the group is palpably higher.    We discuss each other's rules adn we pass them on.  We now explore the rule of the other with the original object... We witness in teams - each collaboration discussses what ahooened in the giving and taking of the rules - we discuss aiming to refine - not correct....  see if an aspect of the rule was not prsent- how to direct for this features to emerge.  We pair up again, both people share a rule and vice versa...