Elaine Summers: Ouverture / By Chance - recreation as a reminder of a legacy

Ouverture (reconstruction) was shown as part of Movement Research's celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the very 1st Judson Dance Theater Performance on July 6, 2012, at the Judson Church. It was created by Elaine Summers (Wikipedia / website) and her idea to do a chance-movie (Banes, Sally, Democracy's Body - therefore also the alternative title "By Chance") and did so in collaboration with John Herbert McDowell and Eugene Friedman.

OUVERTURE (SPLIT SCREEN & BY CHANCE DANCE & FILM)
was originally performed in 1962 with fifteen minutes 16mm film & 1 dancer, realized for Judson Dance Theater's First Concert. Audience is requested to walk through the movie screen before seating.

In the film: Deborah Hay, Freddy Herko, Richard Brodney, Kenward Elmslie, Carol Summers, Elaine Summers, Sally Gross, Ruth Emerson, Carla Blanc, Arthur Levin, Al Carmines, George McGrath, Steve Paxton, Remy Charlip, Lila Pais, Josh Pais, John Worden, Sally Stackhouse, Harold Johnson, Joseph Schlichter, James Waring, Arlene Rothlein, Edward Barton, Rev. Howard Moody, Carolee Schneemann, Clyde, Rosie & Michael Lax, Christine Myers, Sandra Neals, Phoebe Neville, Larry Seigal, Robert Rainieri, Al Hansen, Ira Matteson, Bill Meyers, Johanna Vanderbeek, Carolyn Chrisman, Robert Ranieri, Norma Marder, Lou Rogers, John Patton, John Hoppe, Kyle Summers, Malcolm Goldstein, John Herbert McDowell, the parade for the astronauts on their return from the moon.

Don McDonagh and Robert Dunn chronicled the First Concert:
"McD: There's an interesting description by John McDowell of the opening of the first concert: 'The very first dance that ever happened at Judson was really very extraordinary in a couple of ways. First, the beginning of it, which was Bob Dunn's doing and was beautiful. The dance concert was announced to start at 8:15 and they went upstairs into the sanctuary to find that in order to get to their seats they had to walk across a movie that was going on. This movie consisted of some chance edited footage by Elaine Summers and test footage that I made... And we went on exactly, precisely for 15 minutes. The first dance which was by Ruth Emerson started on the dot of 8:30. As the movie was just about to go off, the six people or so involved came out, the movie sort of dissolved into the dance.
Dunn: Yes this was really incredible, the beginning of the first (Judson)concert. It doesn't sound like much now but it was extraordinary, my hair stands on end to think how that worked. Nobody ever did anything like that."  from Don McDonagh, The Rise & Fall & Rise of Modern Dance

Congratulations to all who made it possible!

local global universal • dreaming

as if the vast emptiness of the universe around us weren't challenge enough for our life, let alone the vast and ecological course of events on our planet where we originated and are embedded in its matrix. there will always be challenges to our existence, no need for any extra that we create ourselves. idiotic and needless to destroy our habitat and therefore ourselves before we've found out enough to be able to transplant sustainably to a new habitat. and even then, it can be fatal to no longer know of origins but internally still be bound by them, because once something it's gone, good bye ...

as if our organic life weren't already 'anarchy' enough and at the same time 'order' enough to live by and to find ways of survival. 'tribes/governments/nations/conglomerates' or 'values' may emerge over time but also dissolve like any organic entity. knowing that we're all one big super-organism, already, within all of the moons and stars. energy action voice stories language music images writing dance philosophy evolving ...
each generation anew should be presented both, the old traditional systems and at the same time the most contemporary questions and challenges. so that in the continuous interactions and exchanges optimum structures can be grown over time, for the benefit of us all. how we can live our lives in the here and now is challenge enough.

*                   *                   *

i realised once again how much dreaming be a free-flow action of our daily perception/processing/thinking/being/living when being conscious. to interfere with such a regenerative process seems to me highly risk-full because I find the value to be in the uncontrolled- / after-image / echo-like quality of dreaming .. a bit like flying actually ;-)
i believe a similar case is the practice of release-based techniques and approaches: to not 'mind-down' one's physical functioning, instead be very open and non-directive with any invasion, even just noticing one's sensations and what grows from continued noticing / perception and arrive at a responsible balance with conscious action / movement / articulation. where remains the role for conscious action, should that and only that remain the object of concentration? (a kind of black-box approach) eventually, any black box will ask for more and more refinement to ever more understand ever vaster aspects of existence.


(inspired by reading many Science Fiction books of diverse quality over many years, and the practice of body-mind work and explorations, also over many years)

*               *                      *

once at a General Assembly @OccupyRotterdam I said to a fellow Occupier "like us bunch of dreamers" and instantly realized that I was giving us a negative and derogatory value judgement at that moment. it became clear to us both instantly and she said: "well that's the good thing about us isn't it?" - and yes it is: to dream of better possibilities and find out how it alters all the other aspects of our reality ...

de raaf / raven (thinking of Hari Seldon)

tomorrow, against all odds, on the Schouwburgplein in Rotterdam between 19.00-19.45
it happens before the opening of the Rotterdam Dance Night and on the day of global protest-actions for May 12 2012
i was thinking of the fictional character Hari Seldon who at one point was called 'the raven' the fore-bearer of misfortune.
parallel I am watching "Variations V" by Merce Cunningham Dance Company and John Cage with musicians, plus films by Stan Vanderbeek, from UBU-WEB ... in a way punk has always been there! :-) (just notice the letter-types at the very beginning)
we are still in a sort of wake, what are we doing with the promises?

further ... O-WHITE

tonight I saw "traces & resonances" a series by performer Sato Endo and cellist Nina Hitz at Roodkapje Rotterdam (NL) with guest artist Lukas Simonis.

(see here an earlier example from their performance-series)

they managed to arrive at a nearly Cage-ian exchange of energies, whether it was movement of sound or body in the space freely interacting. the reactions went very well towards each other, each of the three performers acted in basic independence but with open responsibly to the other two, including the presence of the audience.
i was a bit missing the inclusion of or at least awareness / acknowledgement of the streets and passers-by outside, because Roodkapje on the Meent has these giant windows which open the enire room towards the street and the people passing by. i find it is such a traditional box-theatre thing to do. however there was one moment towards the end when Sato was slowly turning her head from side to side, acknowledging the cars that we could hear outside.

while I found that the number of audience was perfect for the size of the space and number of active performers, i also had the idea that in a larger city like e.g. New York, there would be simply much more energy concentrated, available, even just as a background against which such a performance could happen.
the state of con·sens·us was come very close to and present internally, although there was the focus inward within the venue, and a larger amount of independence between the performers.
i did write two more or less understandable Japanese haikus, one at the beginning and one at towards the end of the performance, and Sato and her friend Aki were very friendly and encouraging about them.

what got me really interested during the 2nd half was the idea that I should try to continue from where I thought they were, reach a sensorial consensus with my surroundings, and then go into a solo without music or other accompaniments than just what has already been . seeking a point of silence-zero-nothing, a kind of white where all of the sensorializing and calibrating-adjusting-tuning would flow into ONE thing, and to see what could go on from there and happen from that state of being ...
it would have to be a state where individuality would no longer be important, a kind of white energy that has absorbed all the colored movements before, the near-death experience of creating forms.
Hans Zender describes in his book "Happy New Ears" (a quote by John Cage)(1991) how from this near-death experience of art-making, comes the nothingness in which new experience, the experience of purely just being, can once again take place. any following making of forms, from this experience, would be a very different thing and matter. and definitely energy.
Gertrude Stein in her lecture "What Are Masterpieces and Why Are There So Few of Them" mentions a similar thing, namely that a master piece may talk about identity, but that there must be none involved in its creation, because as soon as identity happens, memory comes into play ("you are you because your little dog knows you") and "creation breaks down". this is a very difficult thing for any live performer, certainly a dancer or actor who communicate via their own presence, but possible when we succeed in maintaining this place of identity without interfering the realm where there is none.

just like Zender states that this experience of near-death of art ends the linearity of Western art-development of emancipation from any kind of convention until sensorial perception itself is left to be free, echoes with Mary Overlie's statement of Postmodernism leading into a circular situation where several languages of art interact with each other, without hegemony of any single one over another. (mentioned during her teaching at DANCE UNLIMITED, Sept 2002, not on this website -yet)

being so involved in working a part-time job and making projects with amateurs and communities (Delfshaven Dans! - uitnodiging aan stiekeme dansers) I doubly cherish the presence and opportunity to have these collegues working and living in this city of nearly 600.000 inhabitants to further such specialized concerns and helping me understand and think further in this direction as well - thank you! :-)

spoken en schimmen - ghosts and appearances

currently I am creating a choreography and joint dramaturgy for a performance of "Erste Walpurgisnacht" by Rotterdam choir Toonkunst, which is to be presented on June 25th in the Laurenskerk in Rotterdam. The story tells of two tribes, one Christian, one (formerly) pagan, oppressed by the Christian tribe. In order to continue their old tradition of honoring their superior deity, the pagan tribe assembles torches and rattles etc. to create the impression of a Devil's Night in the mountains, howling and making lots of noise. the strategy works: the Christian guardians run away in horror and the pagan tribespeople can put up a great flame (bonfire?) to honour their Superior All-Father. this story was written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and put to music later by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.

I realize as I go along that I, too, am touching upon various cultures.
the piece is created within the inofficially still ruling Dutch bourgeoisie, who are (for the most part) comfortable enacting such a story from their understanding. some Christian members of the choir however, chose not to participate in this performance.

now I am looking for pieces of religions that today I perceive as having a similar quality: bringing to the edge of understanding, practised by a socio-politically oppressed group of people, often defamed or denied - Candomblé in Brazil, Gnawa music in Morocco - Afro-American Spirituals? Celtic rites? Trance-music from the Raves of the 1990's? or "just" left-overs from e.g. Spring processions and Masked Dances from many parts of Europe with e.g. the advent of Spring, Epiphany (around January 6th) etc etc.

and I realize that I, too, must be very careful towards my commissioners who asked me to merely create dance that accompanies their vocal-performance: how far is it reasonable to go? how much light, challenge will be OK, what will be too much?

can I insert a reference to Palestine & Jerusalem without, figuratively, blowing up the Church and risking to 'bore' the expected audience of 800 people?

I do want to make a re-interpretation from and for the 21st century, but obviously I must not simply force my views on others. (that would be soooo 20th century and before that ...)
and although it was agreed that it is OK if I create a dance that questions the more simplistic, paternalistic perspective of the original story by Goethe from the 19th century, how to make that real?
I find important to challenge those points of supremacy, while the story itself is a perfect example for the unwillingness to give up traditionally inherited patterns, actually the necessity to continue practicing them, especially when they are connected to one's endangered survival due to oppression by another group.
being an intercultural person myself, I have experienced many times how important it is to re-iterate and re-perform certain songs, words, poems, records, videos that have been imbued with so much emotional content in my own past. (obviously not nearly being so threatened as countless other people on this planet at the same time)

do & see ~

Invitation to Secret Dancers - Rotterdam 2011

This coming Friday I get to realize another edition of Elaine Summers' "Invitation to Secret Dancers" as introduction to a neighbourhood-dance event in Het Oude Westen (the old West) a very multi-cultural neighbourhood in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The performance happens in collaboration with the Elaine Summers Dance & Film Archives and is a part of the ongoing project "Elaine Summers Dance Scores", where several of her works from the 1960s until today are collected, together with data on first performers, archival photos, footage etc.
Also, we are honoring the call of UNESCO for the yearly International Day of Dance, this year promoting dance in public spaces ...  
click here for the Dutch blog with more information about participants, photos, and videos


realisation 2010 on the Schouwburgplein, Rotterdam
What keeps fascinating me is that while the dance may appear 'easy' and is designed to be very accessible, it is actually quite a challenge for anyone involved: the dancers have to be very sensitive to the presence of the passing-by audience who they make contact with and invite to dance. They also must maintain an acute sense of actions around them and have a sense for how they can contribute to it.
And any Secret Dancer coming by may still feel like having to overcome barriers of not being used to dance in public, before letting go and happily joining the dance in their own way, rather than simply exercising a prescribed dance routine. (which might, however, be a possible option)

for a wonderful realisation of "Invitation to Secret Dancers" 
by Elaine Summers Dance & Film Co. at CEC Solar 1 in New York, 2005 click here

"Invitation to Secret Dancers" is very clearly an outstretched hand / arm / limb / gesture towards anyone, inviting and enabling them to dance, and potentially encouraging them to find their own dance as they go along. I find that this is an ongoing theme in her work. By originating Kinetic Awareness® Elaine Summers has even developed an entire technique / practice where students are developing just that, under guidance from a teacher - their very own way to move and dance. "Invitation to Secret Dancers" deals with the fifth and final phase of Kinetic Awareness® where after articulation, coordination, speed and tension-levels, the practitioner deals with relating one's own sense of movement to those of others.


Dance Scores
Just like many of the dance scores that Elaine has created throughout her career, I understand this dance as a tool for empowerment, directly in line with other works such as "Illuminated Workingman" or "One and One and One and One". The artistic background is one that practices inclusiveness of all kinds of movement in their own right, from the very start, without giving up either trained or untrained vocabulary, but rather understanding both as being in a continuum, and accepting each for its own potential. Aesthetics become perception again, just like is suggested by the Archaic Greek term 'aisthesis', taking for true, rather than merely a specified design that is accepted as "beautiful" or "desirable".

By interpreting the score for the dance, anyone involved can learn more about the subject of the dance itself. This, too, is very much in line with many of Summers' dance scores - another example could be "Walking Dance for Any Number" where one becomes acutely aware of ways to walk, simply by closely following the instructions.

Doing this dance, I find myself becoming ever more fine-tuned and able to make contact and have possible communication with potential strangers in public space, an issue that I've met with over almost 15 years of producing and performing work in public spaces (see below a first production with "Invitation to Secret Dancers" as part of the series con·sens·us in 2004)
But I also find I become ever more aware and able to formulate possible kinds of choreography that can be included to become a part of "Invitation to Secret Dancers". 

And so on we go ... as Elaine likes to say: Merry Dancing!



uitnodiging aan stiekeme dansers / Invitation to Secret Dancers has been realized with Natalie Dupon, coordinator of Neighbourhood Park Het Oude Westen (the Old West, a neighbourhood in Rotterdam) with thanks to Corrie Kreuk, Culture-Scout Menno Rosier / SBAW, Bernadet van Winden / SKVR and Janine Brall / Studio Yoga Maya. The overall event has been made possible by grants from the Rotterdam Arts Council, Stg. Bevordering van Volkskracht, Alliantie West-Kruiskade, Stadsmarinier, and a large number of volunteers - thank you very much!

inside - out

these past two weeks I've had the luck of seeing several dance performances: the improvisational presentation of Ivo Dimchev as a guest of Baila Louca and Para|Diso by Emio Greco | PC.

having seen and enjoyed much of Conny Janssen's piece 'zout' which uses live-guitar music and some video-projection, having seen her in an interview-show on television, i realised that she is able to move and interact on the same level as Dutch people in general, which allows her to become a mainstream-accepted choreographer in the Netherlands (and certainly in Rotterdam, where her company is one of the main modern dance companies of the city, next to the Scapino Ballet, Rotterdam Dance Works and the Meekers)

nearly finishing my own video of my contribution to Elaine Summers' "SKYDANCE / SKYTIME / SKYWEB improvisation with sun, moon, stars" I realised today that all of us essentially choreograph on the same level, because we make intentional choices to influence events that create the experience of a dance which can be witnessed, experienced, and in some way or other appreciated by present public in a social setting. this is the same for all of us and it happens on a directional level.

i also noticed however how we each can fall short on the fulfilment of what we set out to do.
in the case of the mainstream work, i found that the sensorial experience was not always fulfulling what was promised by the choreography, it hinted at what may have been intended, but i found that the dancers did not always have sufficient kinesthetic understanding of their own physicalities to realise the intended movements, let alone having space for the quality of dreams and their un-directedness, unless one choses to consciously interfere, such as in waking-dreaming or day-dreaming. (i learned very much about this value during my particpation in Ione's 15th Annual Dream Festival, on invitation by Elaine Summers Dance & Film Co.)

to put it short:
they do arrange reality in a certain way that has been accepted, but in my own experience there is more to life that is bypassed by these choreographies.
one could say meta-level and micro level, the meta-level being 'culture' the micro level our universe as it is every day in any detail of our living being etc.
throughout time there are always other people who do feel the necessity to realise a way of directing / meta, that is more in synchronicity and understanding of the micro.

any scientist, any philosopher, but also any artist, any professional at all (peasants, bakers, priests etc.) have areas that they are researching, finding out about, in their own time, exactly about problems arising from such macro-micro mismatches

< the wonders of life & existence


< level of conscious direction, focussing


< wonders of life & existence


in my own work, i came to let go of any 'meta'-level until i had more explored from the micro-. this has lead me to the Kinetic Awareness® work of Elaine Summers, and the work of Mary O'Donnell-Fulkerson, Mary Overlie and, again, many other teachers, where such explorations can happen without demanding that a preset meta-level must be met as a result in order to be acceptable (as does happen in forms of Yoga, or TaiChi, or Bartenieff Fundamentals, or in fact any set of movements that are codified into a 'language', similarly in archaic societies that recognize only one set of specific possible choices in design)

gradually, I was more and more able to re-relate the micro to the macro, and now have forms that have in themselves the conscious understanding of change being embedded in the choreography itself as a vital and decisive component. this is a demand I also make towards my own culture: that the ability of change be inherent and acknowledged as a fundamental part of any large-scale cultural system that wishes to remain alive and developing over longer stretches of time. (and be able more resiliently to deal with catastrophes or minor events of crisis)

the study of Open Form Composition at DANCE UNLIMITED in Arnhem was a great clarifying tool to learn, and it helped me to understand choreographies for dance-pieces as growing entities, that are moving, changing, have their own energetic conditions over time, and can give these excitements to others watching.

so who knows, after all, i might as yet be able to cross the bridge and make more and more people appreciate that what they may think of as a 'lack of choreography' '(too)ephemeral' etc. is not only very much adherent to the ephemerality of dance as in our life, but also can give very many vital components to any kind of culture, therefore being worthy of support.



[ "it's not impossible to - TURN IT IN-SIDE OUT ..." ;-) ]