The Equus Projects

Defaulting to Front

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 10:26:59 -0500

A brief preface to this post....

I choreograph for dancers and horses. Usually there is no defined, flat front. The immediacy of our work makes it impossible to be concerned with what angle a dancer is seen from. Now, when I watch choreography that seems to be unintentionally flattened, aligned with the viewers' gaze, I am baffled.

The again, some things just look more interesting seen from one angle than another....

Observations on Choreographic Defaulting to Front

•   Innumerable choreographic elements communicate to the viewer how to see, how to watch and how to engage with the work. One of the strongest elements in this complex choreographic stew is the use of space. This includes space between dancers (often the not too close distance that two dancers can stand close but not hit each other); facings within the piece; relationships of bodies to each other; and how the dance maker arranges the performers in spatial relationship to the audience.

•   No choreographic element is so completely neutral as the squared off, default to face front. Dancers facing downstage, squaring their movement off to a visible or invisible proscenium is a convention that, if not defined, justified or given a reason to be there inside the choreography, says nothing. Space becomes powerless.

•   That said some choreographers use this device very consciously and astutely. Their intention might be to confront the audience or deliver a message directly to the audience.

•   I suspect that many choreographers make their work in a square room with a mirror along one side. They have fashioned their choreography to "fit" into that rehearsal space and perhaps inadvertently chosen front to keep things organized. Dancers use the mirror to "see" their cues. Front takes on meaning. But it is not consciously part of the fabric of the work. (Unison is also puzzling, if not used for a good reason. But that is another subject).

Horses, Planes in Space and Choreographing to Front

•   I work with quadrapedal, consummately kinetic animals.

•   Being quadrapeds, horses are always carving the space three-dimensionally. Humans do as well but being bipeds,that is less obvious.

•   The horse's survival in the wild is dependent on being fully engaged in space at all times.

•   Equine life does not exist in the pure planes. Equine behavior cannot be flattened or idealized into flat surfaces.

•   So, the movement I make is never planar. For the most part, nor are the formations.

•   Using planar formations has however been an interesting way for me to allude to abstraction. In a recent work I used a frontal square formation to communicate an idealized memory. In Walking Score I used repetitive walking lines to create a human grid inside through which the equestrian and (ridden) horse would weave. At the climax of the piece the lines converge into a circle to trap horse and rider.

Making Three Dimensional Dances

•   Choreographing for dancers and horses has heightened my awareness of how powerfully space communicates. How a choreographers uses space contributes to defining far more than just "where." Space between communicates complex power structures. Movement through space, its ease (fluidity) or constriction gives movement its texture. Use of space defines time.

•   The first stage of making a work is to create a landscape, then define how the humans and equines live inside that landscape. If the human bodies move in a flattened planar fashion, the horses will inevitably become the strangers inside in that human landscape. Or vice versa. This could be a very interesting choreographic tool. If not deeply attended to this divergence is space becomes a huge and unsatisfying disconnect.

•   In training dancers to do this work, I must be sure that every dancer is able to constantly shift spatial orientation. Every choreographic module (and within each module) the choreography must function facing any direction.

•   I eliminate all concern with orientation to the viewer. The viewer becomes secondary.

•   Being seen is secondary to creating a dialogue between human and equine mover.

•   Having written this, at times I do have to be concerned with the dancers being on the inside shoulder of their equine partner which can at times place them behind (thus hidden) from the audience.

•   FYI: This is actually quite different from the concerns of a dressage rider who wants the judge to see certain movements of the horse from its most advantageous angles.

I Think All Choreography is Site Specific

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 18:53:31 -0500

I think all choreography is site specific. The site, in essence, dictates the internal logic of the work. The choreographer creates a specific movement language. Inside that language is a deeply ingrained sense of space: the density of the space, where the space is weighted, the proximity of bodies to one another. Inside that language is a sense of time: the speed of the movement as it moves through space and as it progresses through time; the speed with which the subject changes, when things happen. That language dictates how sound is used, when it is used, why it used. Embedded inside that internal logic lays the maker's relationship to the viewer. That relationship can shift but the shift ought to shift as part of the intention of the work. As a choreographic work unfolds the internal logic of the choreography is revealed. Sometimes the internal logic reveals itself within the first 3 second; sometimes within the first 3 minutes; sometimes it takes the entire piece to be revealed. That trajectory is, in itself, an internal logic.

Creative Process as Performance

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:37:19 -0500

I have been thinking about performance work that is deft framing of process. Years ago I saw a piece at PS 122 for which the choreographer had constructed a large enclosure with small windows. Inside the enclosure were several pieces of furniture and two cats. The audience was invited to look into the windows and watch the cats lounging, playing, sleeping. We were watching behavior, experiencing time passing. I did not feel cheated. I was fascinated. I think about this all the time when working with horses. Framing process. Last week we were in Florida working with an amazing natural horsemanship trainer. Our assignment was to go into a field with horses, choose a horse and create a kinetic dialogue effective enough that the horse would willingly follow us to the exit gate. An hour later the five of us had gathered our horses. This was a performance of a sort. Gradual time. Gentle outcomes. That afternoon we learned some new horsemanship tools. The next morning we had the same assignment. This time we gathered our equine partners in less than 20 minutes. Each horse followed its dancer with curiosity. What would make this event a performance? A slowly unfolding event.

Agreement(s)

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 13:52:10 -0500

When dancers improvise together there is usually the tacit agreement to make something happen, to meet, to dance together in some fashion. In most improvised dances the participants are able bodied, adult human beings, courageous enough to entertain the notion of moving in an improvised fashion with one another and trusting that all participating movers will try and find common ground. Even in the most unsuccessful improvised dance there is some common ground, if only the fact that the movers are all bipeds. In our work with horses we have found that the rules of kinetic engagement are different for humans than they are for horses. Many of those clever, human dancer assumptions do not mean anything to our equine partners.

A Response to "On Even Footing"

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 07:08:17 -0500

One of the many things I love about the work we do with dancers and horses is how it engages different worlds in creative dialogue. After posting "On Even Footing" I received an email from Jenny-Marie Heide, one of the equestrians we have had the pleasure of meeting in the course of our travels. Jenny-Marie is an equestrian and an officer in the US Navy. She and her husband Nate are stationed in Italy. Their work takes them all over the world.

jms

Jenny wrote me this email:

Equal footing...is, of course something we are always exploring with our horses, partnership vs. leadership and then trying to find the balance in there to be equal. But also recently an ongoing discussion between Nate and I looking at our efforts in the Navy to "build partnerships" with African countries when the balance of power is so unequal. So often what is called "partnerships" in the Navy is really a bid for control, to be the alpha while trying to make someone else feel equal. Equality and partnership cannot exist in such imbalance and in the end nothing is really gained for anyone.

I think again about how my interpretation of alpha has evolved - I do not want my horse to fear me and to follow my lead out of fear, I do not want to dominate my horses. I do want to have enough communication to hold their respect when I need it for my safety or theirs, but to communicate to them that I respect what they can teach me equally. My understanding of alpha is more now about having the skills and communication to lead when I need to, and to be able to allow them to lead at times to better teach me. Through balance, the constant shifting of alpha as a means of teaching and learning between us, we become more than if either of us leads always.

I find that also in our marriage, there are times when each of us has better skills to be the lead, and together sharing the lead, learning from each other, we find equal footing in the balance and a greater power together to reach our goals. So I think that yes, there is always a need to shift power, but how we choose to pursue it and use it makes all the difference in the world. I think without that dynamic of changing leadership in a relationship we would not teach or learn very much at all. Two complete equals are in balance, but it is a static, stagnant state.

On Even Footing

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 08:18:03 -0500

To Our Equine (and human) Partners:

I want to meet you on even ground

You and I as equals

I prefer to think that our interaction is not only about negotiating alpha status

Is that even possible?

I ask myself this question when I am in a round pen with a horse

Sometimes when I am at a party with lots of strangers

Occasionally in faculty meetings

I ask myself this when I return from the summer and greet my colleagues

I ask myself this when my husband and I argue

When my son wants attention

Are we always negotiating for power?

Daily Practice

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 08:28:54 -0500

Dancing with horses ought to be a daily practice. We create kinetic dialogues with equine partners. This means learning their language, fine-tuning our equine ground skills, developing an exquisite ability to read a horse, adjusting the choreographic score day-to-day, reading the temperament of our equine partner, letting go, paying attention. This is definitely not a skill one visits occasionally.

Focus on the horse's breathing

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 07:30:22 -0500

Following the stillness, following the approach and retreat, the next step of our dialogue is about touch.

Our touch is decisive, weighted touch without any directional intent.

The touch can be stroking. I like to keep my stroking curious. I assign myself the task of finding small anchors with the surfaces of my palm and fingers along the withers, against the long planes of his face, under the mouth. I am seeking spaces most humans do not use as stroking surfaces.

If I am intent upon my task and not waiting for any outcomes I can keep the flow easy and free.

The stillness is about resting into a point of contact. Stillness is not about waiting; stillness is no longer about time. I try not to be waiting.

I focus on the horse's breathing.

Scores - Creating Improvised Structures

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 06:37:32 -0500

In our dance studio work, my dancers and I create scores. By this I mean we create improvised rules structures for prescribed movement events. For instance if person A does a jumping action, up and down, person B assigns that jumping as a cue for herself to run in a circle around the jumping person. The jumping person decides when this movement event is over by simply stopping and moving elsewhere in the space or by performing a very different action. Usually person A and person B alternate who calls the cues. That way there is no one leader.

Stillness Scores

Sat, 20 Oct 2007 08:53:32 -0500

In our work with rider-less horses we practice "Stillness Scores." They are performed most successfully when the horses are grazing in a large, open field. The "Stillness Score" is a quiet mirroring exercise in which we spatially align our spines - head and tail - with our equine partner. We mirror the smallest shift of weight or change of focus. We try to find a common breath.

I begin with my hands...

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 11:11:37 -0500

Hands are tremendously important in our dances with horses. This is a brief description of how they convey intent and meaning.

Hands I begin with my hands. One hand placed on the shoulder. My palm is fully in contact with the muscular contour of the horse's shoulder. I find a gentle anchor with the heel, palm and fingers and adjust my chest, pelvis, legs and shoulder girdle so that I can feel my point of contact falling through my vertical skeleton and simultaneously into the vertical skeleton of the horse's shoulder girdle.

Speaking Eloquently to Non-verbal Creatures

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 15:47:46 -0500

Doug Fox, creator of Great Dance, approached me a few weeks ago at Dance/NYC's goodbye party for Bob Yesselman. Doug asked what I do and when I informed him that I choreographed performance works for dancers and horses, he was immediately interested. That is not always the reaction I get from people in the dance world.

Puzzlement would better describe the typical response. The various sub texts of that puzzled response might include: "Is this really dance?" "How do you choreograph for horses?" "Where do you rehearse?" "Do you perform in New York City? Where?"

I would like to have my performance work for dancers and horses receive the ear and full attention of the dance world. A blog seemed like a terrific opportunity to talk to the dance world, and other worlds as well. I decided to join forces with Doug Fox and create a blog about my work.