Inquiry: A Choreographic Promenade

Le corps de la graphie

In order to research about the choreographic process and collaboration, I first decided to focus on the idea of choreography, as a word, as a concept.

In my opinion choreography is not just about putting steps together that look visually pleasing. Like in any art form, the craft of the choreographer requires much more than aesthetics. That is why I am particularly focused on modern dance, which emerged en masse in the 80’s but can also be traced from the beginning of the twentieth century with Isadora Duncan and Vaslav Nijinsky for example.

   Let’s start with the word: CHOREOGRAPHY

Françoise Cruz wrote Angelin Preljocaj Topologie de l’Invisible, about the choreographer Angelin Preljocaj. She separates the word in two parts as you would but poetically reverse it and calls it ‘Le corps de la -graphie/The body of the –graphy’. Insisting on the idea of writing, Cruz then goes into the different notation systems and ways of writing dance.

            In 2015, Magali Nachtergael (lecturer in literature and contemporary arts) and Lucille Toth (dance and literature researcher) decided to research about the links between dance and literature in a co-written research: Danse contemporaine et littérature, entre fictions et performances écrites/Modern dance and literature, pathways between fictions and written performances. In their introduction they also describe choreography etymologically: khoreia, dance, graphy, writing. From that definition they dig into the pathways between dance and literature:

‘The word ’literature’ is therefore understood in its large understanding, free from any catch and that communicates with the unutterable, in the great tradition of hermetic poetry, an abstract poetry that resist to meanings and comprehension.’

 I find their approach particularly interesting, it implies a certain poetry of the body, no embellishment just the ink that a body leaves on our mind.

François-Eloi Lavignac in William Forsythe's In The Middle Somewhat Elevated, Photography by Kate Longley 

The text of the body

            Nachtergael and Toth also talk about ‘keeping track of an ephemeral gesture’, which is a core concept to choreography. In their description they go beyond describing the notation systems (Feuillet, Laban, Benesh) and go into  ‘idiosyncratic writings, sometimes inspired by semiology and linguistics, like the Improvisations Technologies by William Forsythe or the body-text by Pina Bausch, that make dance and text meet, discreetly inviting the text to restlessly reincarnate and reinvent itself in the bodies’. Isn’t that one of the most beautiful and poetic ways one could speak about choreography?  Although literature is at the core of this particular research, I find this approach fascinating and I feel like it could also be applied in classical ballet what do you think?

           

Perception

A concept that really inspires me is the one of perception. After seeing two of her pieces live and a lot of videos, Pina Bausch has definitely managed to trigger my perception. Etel Adnan describes it beautifully in a text published in a German newspaper Theatre der Zeit in September 2009:

 ‘Pina Bausch opened the doors of perception to us using dance, the most magical, primitive and most sophisticated of all the arts.’

 In my interpretation, Adnan means that all the little things that we perceive have been re-united by Pina Bausch in her work. The way he describes dance with these three words ‘magical’, ‘primitive’, ‘sophisticated’ values the fact that dance has travelled so much through history and traditions, it implies its religious aspect through history, different cultures dancing for different gods. Dance is enriched from its history and Pina has used that.

            Rosita Boisseau, journalist and critique for Le Monde and Télérama, author and exhibition manager, wrote Panorama de la danse contemporaine in 2008. It features a hundred modern choreographers and their highlights. In her introduction Boisseau talks about the audience and the idea of perception:

                ‘There are numerous audience members who search again and again the access codes to an art that is closer to the irrational than it is to logic: not to criss-cross an oeuvre but to relish the interstices, where everyone’s imagination has the freedom to slip in order to blossom. The artist Marcel Duchamp liked to say that it is the spectator that makes the oeuvre. Depending on whether they give themselves this right, trust their perceptions, open without any complex the valves of their subconscious. It is not just about consuming, but about enjoying inventing our own vision.’

Pina Bausch in Café Müller, Photography Jochen Viehoff 

Aspiration

In 2010, The Pina Bausch Foundation publishes this text about Pina. In my opinion, it says great things about being a choreographer and how it affects the public:

             ‘Constantly expanding her horizons, and yet remaining at one with herself; searching, undeterred, within herself, her dancers, life –what moves us, who we are, where we live- with so much energy and patience, again and again, finding, searching anew, examining everything precisely, laughing a lot: that was Pina.

             The pieces are preliminary findings, evidence of her search expressed directly by the body. Dance. Life. This search has always existed and will always exist, but what Pina had was the courage to listen to her feelings, to trust them. That is what she gave –to her dancers, her audience, her friends.

             This courage, to listen to yourself, never giving up: this is what we want to pass on.’

            As an aspiring choreographer, I feel absolutely inspired by these words. I have always been so moved by Pina’s way of translating life onto the stage. It makes a difference when you witness someone’s work that shows their total immersion within their search (of movement, of life…).

 Professional Inquiry

            Choreography is about life translated into the body, it’s about recreating those little things that we think don’t matter. That weird gesture I do with my fingers when I’m nervous, the way I use my tongue when I’m focused, The image of a plumb line and gravity when I do my first plié… the possibilities are endless to make people perceive their own life within the dance.

            This is a snippet of what I am coming across in my research. All opinions/comments are welcome as well as all interpretations.

A reflection on Ethics and Professional Practice

Reading about Professional Ethics and Ethics in general (Reader 5) was fascinating. It is a topic that is so present in every aspect of our lives.  Dance, like any professions, have its ethical issues and it is, in my opinion, our duty to make sure those are dealt with.

As a dancer, ethical issues are raised on a daily basis. I have to be careful to respect the works of art made by choreographers/artists. If I change a step in a ballet simply because I cannot do it without telling anyone, how do I know whether the mind behind the work would care or not? I might be bringing the work to another direction without even knowing. That is why it is always important to ask the artistic authority, because in theory they would have the keys to answer the issue.

When a choreographer creates movement, it is easy to steal vocabulary from other choreographers. Where is the line between copying (plagiarising) and being inspired by? I personally enjoy seeing a reference to another choreographer in an artist’s work as long as the reference is obvious, or mentioned. Claiming someone else’s work as our own is not even tempting. As a creator, ‘a writer of movement’, where is the thrill when the movements, phrases that you unveil belong to somebody else?

Photo: Christopher Duggan, Chor: Romeo and Juliet, Joëlle Bouvier, Cie: Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève 

Another example is the one of personal benefits versus external individual’s benefits. Some very talented dancers can have down times, low confidence and injuries which could benefit other dancers’ in their career and that’s the way a company goes. But creating doubt, a loss of confidence, or a physical injury on a peer is certainly, in my opinion, wrong. It seems easy to answer but it actually is not. Human beings are capable of despicable things to access their selfish desires and we all know that. What we sometimes do not realise is that it happens on every level. I am career driven, I want to know, learn, experience as much as I can, I want to be successful… but not to the price of my conscience and my good will. My peers, my contemporaries are the people who make me grow and they each have a life with a past, stories, culture… why would I want to harm a life that is worth the same as mine?

I have vivid memories of the ballet school where ethics were not respected. Weight loss or gain, other physical aspects of the body and technique were topics that were constantly brought up in the classroom. Ballet teachers thought it was okay to tell a teenager that she was ‘fat’ in front of the whole class. This kind of behaviour can actually destroy a human and I strongly disagree with it. Honesty is the most important virtue in my opinion but public humiliation is not. There are ways of being honest without having to hurt the person but by committing in helping them towards becoming a better dancer.

There could be many examples of the disrespect of the rules of ethics in the world of dance. The young generation of dancers that I am part of is responsible for making a change. I do not want the students of today to go through what I have been through as some kind of revenge. I think Professional ethics is about helping others, but also help our selves to achieve goals, it is a balance between the self and society to make sure that everyone live in a world where they feel fulfilled without having to compromise either on our own or other people’s achievements.

What do you think?

Shaping my inquiry

Throughout Module 1 I  came to the conclusion that I wanted to explore choreography and artistic collaborations as part of my inquiry.  Joining the Module 2 group skype was very beneficial and made the concept of researching a lot clearer.

Concerning this topic, I will be researching in the following areas:

-Choreographers talking/reviewing their own work

-Other people reviewing/setting a choreographer’s work

-Choreography as a concept, its definition

-Artistic collaborations that involve choreography.

-The ways of documenting choreography

I am particularly passionate about the field of modern dance and wish to know more about different choreographer's creative process so I can shape my own in order to one day put on my choreographies on stage.

I would really appreciate if fellow students could get involved in my topic, share their experience, knowledge, sources.