EDGE (2000/2001)

 revisiting this piece from 2000-2001 is a very good reminder. 

I had just turned 28, finally gotten to EDDC which had been a bridge too far for me back in 1992, made financially possible because I could benefit from a temporary assistance for artists living in the Netherlands. that kind of support meant the world for me, helped in the struggles with family who did what they could to be supportive but were still very much struggling to accept it all. 

being on edge, moving on edge, out of the safe but rather immobile comfort zone, into the present and danger, was very tantalizing for someone with the generational trauma of parents and grandparents (Hungarian refugees during and after both world wars) but it was also a Hic Rhodos Hic Salta , in the here and now, as imperfect and as unrehearsed and un-worked-out as it were. 

the struggle I had with personal expression as very real, the blockage in my rib-cage ( "don't speak, don't feel yourself in the presence of others" ) was still very, very much active.

 

Meg Chang was right in her observation of me when she attended a rehearsal of "In Circles" back in New York in 1997, the wide open loft space was still too small for my immense energy and drive, uncontainable. 

I recognize this drive in everything, and it could also wear out, destroy in the longer term, cut down. ( Ursula K. LeGuin, about "the creator spirit", in The Dispossessed) 

Here, the piece was epic, the ambitions could have filled an entire evening's performance, but had to be fit into a student performance evening at an institution, with very helpful and supportive colleagues who nonetheless were much younger than me and partly at different stages in their own art production. That said, I remember marvelling at how accomplished they all were and how relatively late to the party I felt myself to be. 

I can feel sympathy and solidarity for my younger self, a great deal. the drive has been given space to realize itself ever better, what I had been striving for for decades in part has finally been accomplished. a bit more relaxation, and finding some much needed further realization by being able to finally relax a bit, allow for time to happen, finding trust in the self, which has become more able to exist and express itself and communicate with others more effectively.

and I still keep going towards the edge of what is alive in the moment, as much as I can, as far as possible, but no longer at the cost of ecology. in that sense I am finally catching up with some of my colleagues from back then. quoting an artist-friend, live and learn. 

(no, I am not naked, I am wearing a silver-pailleted tanga that I bought in a sex-shop nearby)

as a result, the helplessness, shortcomings, are just as much a part of this performance, the inability as much as the ability and the powerhouse that got much needed affirmation in the right kind of environment, comparable to what I understood Elaine Summers felt when she met and worked with the people who, together with her, later would be referred to as Judson Dance Theater.

i keep wondering these days if I should re-stage this work again, but so much has changed internally. this change would create a distance to the raw need at the time. the shape would be more as I wanted back then. how would I "re-visit" and restage the internal drive from back then? 

 

PS: this was part B that was not realized during the evening, it took a few years and it was recorded in 2005.

music, a plan for 2026

what does my body want to express without the holding form/lens of a specific piece of music? I have asked this question before. having become better and better over the years with form-u-lat-ing my dance to music, even creating more traditionally "set" choreographies, it may be time to focus on this question even more clearly and with more time and attention. how I am able to express myself personally, communicate (drama? theater?) may be an important component to explore and/or to avoid trappings of ( = becoming the same as music) at the same time. 

2026 here we come

#wintersolstice #stillness 
#reflections #decisions

 

dance, art, human beings, nature as commodity ... (entertainment, distraction, commercial interruption, nothing serious)

 a recent discussion with a lover prompted me to reflect more on my reservations about treating dance, art, human beings as entertainment, nothing serious, palatable, consumable. 

entertainment helps to distract, distance, disperse before closer contact and engagement could happen.

looking around the planet and what the consequences are to this very day, I do believe we must once again re-consider at what price, how far we are willing to go.

a very extreme example, but with the Epstein files in the US of A not so strange at all, most likely not recent or local either.

there is a lot more that can be said.
it is one thing to kill to eat, even to make it delicious and extra nutritious. one cell eating another etc. but the waste and scale make a difference. 

i believe those who will survive the current apocalypse may simply not get the resources to waste very much, on the contrary. (much like European Protestants during the small ice age)

sky stories, "empty sky", sky space - open

these days I have been working intensively on collecting sky-stories and traditions from several more regions and belief systems, very aware how sketchy and singular any such single collection will be. 

stepping out on the balcony I took a moment to allow in the sense of the open late-evening summer sky, the (cirrus?)clouds very light, moving a little faster, while it's getting dark. 

after so many days connected and connecting to the laptop or the phone for communications it was good to have a moment with nothing else happening but clouds moving above me and a wide open sky. 

(I finally understood why on this planet most of us see the sky as blue, plants as green) (link to the video)

the traditional names for sky in Chinese and Japanese both have notions of "space, void" in the characters, and "tall" and "large" 天 空 (link to the entire word) it felt good to have a moment of relative void, especially after so many languages, drawings, assumption-opinions, cultural formations. cultural patterns form so much of what we perceive, even when we attempt to not perceive anything in particular. 

i also learned that there may be a connection between the English word sky and the German word scheu for reticient, withholding, cloaking, eschewing. an interesting relation to the experience of vast void open, space where movement and a sense of freedom, as in flying can happen. 

19 June 2025

there is no need to do everything for everyone else, the right kinds of instigation can be enough for more people to notice more easily, pointers, indices, even if these days an endlessly ongoing stream may seem possible (it isn't there are some very finite resources) if this project helps more of us realize, it will be working. 

the imperfections and shortcomings can inspire how to do better. (alas there remains the power-imbalance of knowledge & understanding versus might-makes-right)  

this working with awareness, may be Elaine Summers' most powerful legacy for us all, the most inclusive and connective, echoing what Dr. Rebecca Loukes has written recently about her Kinetic Awareness practice, the empty space in which something can happen. 

if during your 24 hours of skytime you are noticing the sky, looking at a sky-photo or video, a webcam showing the sky, talk about the sky, notice a weather-report slightly differently, ... then it's skytime 

"the sky is ours all together
consider the wonders of it all!" 

Elaine Summers, 1995

     

www.skytime.org  

skytime NOW

it took me until this afternoon, after yet another nap, to finally realize physically that the 24-hour edition of Skytime by Elaine Summers for her Centennial will begin Sunday next week (!)  

only now can I feel with my body how long it will be until then, how many more days until the moment has come and the sun rises over the Chatham islands of Aotearoa, New Zealand at 8.06h local time which will be 21.21h local time here. 

perhaps this is why my body is preparing so clearly for a marathon, as has been planned.

time to cut corners and face what is still manageable and realistic. 

and get ready for the big day ...  

#skytime #ElaineSummers #ElaineSummersCentennial #SkytimeAYearAndADay 

for Jessica Denson and NowMarch in the US of A

the conceptual artist is the last resort: there is no way, at present to fully realize the idea, the concept - but the idea itself, is already art, and there can be ways to share it, hint at it, no matter how minuscule. in the worst case the effect is also so minuscule that it will be bypassed by people's expectations. but still, even then, the difference has been made. 

today I reviewed "popERA" from 2000 which furthered my opening to theater and performance art and political and social change. the tactic of the vignettes put to pieces of music, often using minimal means at times, resonates with the protests by Jessica Denson and the #NowMarch #14Now today and until January 6th https://nowmarch.org 

* Ms Denson by her looks and character and by her work and achievements would be a perfect dancer for "Jezebel" based on the song by Brian Eno and David Byrne : On a suggested catwalk, various kinds of extremely beautiful young, feminizable-looking people (by more 'traditional' beauty standards) keep walking up and down, coming close to the public, posing, then walking back, like in a fashion show, all wearing variations of clothing that has prints of what is also projected on the walls all over, visual renditions of two works Miklós Váci's, namely the sentence "but can't you see how much I love you" in Braille, ... 

in the same way, Ms Denson is pleading with her fellow-country people, protesting against the illegal installation of the Trump (or as Timothy Snyder quipped in best Queen-Fashion, the Mump[s]) regime, despite the 14th Amendment to the US constitution, section 3 which states clearly that no one shall be admitted to office who, having sworn and oath to the constitution then engaged in insurrection against it. 

of course Black people in the same US of A can claim from the beginning that when did White Americans and their Latin/Hispanic, Indian- and other adjacent populations ever get their legal rights, and then the First Nations on Turtle Island and the treaties made with them. However all of the above will bode even worse, also for these people-groups, because the regime of Trump will not only destabilize the US of A and all in its grip, but also tip the balance in favor of the facist heirs of feudal EurAsia, with no other power left to balance Hitler, Stalin, Putin, Xi, Modi, Kim, etc. #catastrophictippingpoint

inspiration, echoes, copy-cats ...

last week Friday I realized that two of the 6 presented 1-min. extracts from the Anniversary performances at tic tac art center in Brussels echoed two dances of mine, remarkably close, and during the same evening that Wendy Perron performed a touching and beautifully crafted personal solo there. 

here are the links to recordings of the dances, followed by the dances that I recognized in them:

https://www.instagram.com/p/C-xQUlWMRQx/?img_index=7
Corbul/Raven (2009)

https://www.instagram.com/p/C-xQUlWMRQx/?img_index=5
Sokrates (2001/2014)

the latter obviously is connected via the costume. this costume is one that I "borrowed" from Elaine Summers and her use of it in her pieces like theater piece for chairs and ladders (1965) and walking dance for any # (1969) incl. a concert at St. Mark's Church in New York city. it became a kind of trademark for my own "white" series of dances that I began around 1997, which were out in the open, quite friendly-connective, and community-oriented, incl. Kruisingen (crossings) Heemraadsplein (2009) and its continuation into Delfshaven Dans!

more thoughts
copying can definitely be a form of flattery, especially when the copyist re-creates something instead of re-using a ready-made for personal gain and career, without having to invest more deeply in the source, let alone not naming the sources, no matter how seemingly obscure or 'unimportant'. the echo of the Raven solo at tic tac art center beautifully re-creates the costume (all black) the flurry moves forward and backward, the silence, and the expressive hands.  

during my own career i have used liberally from Elaine Summers and Trisha Brown, as inspiration, strategies, vocabularies etc., as well as from many others, for various reasons. more than one piece of music, fine-arts etc. has found its way into my own works. 

if indeed both choreographers echoed works of mine, then I am happy to see that neither of them has my body-type.

professional ecology
acknowledging one's sources openly would make our ecosystem in dance more complex, a bit less "simple" but like other credits they could help funnel means, energy-attention, awareness to dancers who may not have the same means or inclination of dissemination, but do have enough to create their work, on their terms, and meaningful enough to be copied from or echoed. 

in an environment structured from a false and untenable interpretation of "survival of the fittest" and feudal-neoliberal (pseudo)Darwinian competition for (artificially low-kept = ) scarce means, such a strategy takes away from the "new", "lonely genius", etc. but it does make for stronger inter-connectivity as an eco-system over time.

fortunately there is by a now a greater conversation about culturally formed privileges, who gets to do what when and why, intersectionality, etc. etc. etc. one may say this is public honoring of lineages could be a further extension of such net-working, open-source. each one of us has a different (personal, professional) situation, and so will make different choices.