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.
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.’
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.
