After a SCENARIO

Scenario 1 seemed to work. Very interesting experience. A piece that came from process but is not about a process... although it's nothing more than our process and meeting.
We will show it between 1-3 May in Oberwart/Austria in OHO. If somebody is going to be around at that time feel very welcome to come and see us!

a SCENARIO

Our last 2,5 weeks in Pinkafeld seems to be very fruitful. I don't want now to conclude this period because it's not over yet. But just shortly... we discovered new for us methods of working, we observed ourselves in creative process, we found some interesting ways of communicating, we feel that we enriched our artistic language, we found some new choreographic tools... But on top of all we tried to stay open till the last moment of residency (and still try)... what was not so easy because we couldn't ignore the fact that our research has to and will be presented in some form in the theatre.

Tomorrow we would like to try one strategy of "stage summary".
We call it SCENARIO.
Tomorrow SCENARIO 1.

The past (our Pinkafeldish experiences in particular) is in us. We want to bring it to the presence. These realities will mix in "now". We want to free our LITTLE SCIENTISTS, the active and passive observers in one... They will execute the scenario we prepare before the presentation. They will also observe themselves in "now".
A scenario will be a holly structure. After articulating it no changes are possible.
A scenario will consist of situations and themes we've worked on for the last 2,5 weeks.
We will execute the scenario as if it was already presented... in another words as if it is ready and already performed piece.

Wish us good luck!

Still on the road... (Langhansgasse)

How to present the identity?

Two people... different by definition...
woman and man... one space which they share... the same working and out-of-working hours... cooking together... time between work and out-of-work not clear really... in general some kind of synchronicity.

(Maybe our unison and all the thoughts around are actually not a coincidence or an expression of the moment - it's just a side thought though.)

All things happen through doing and tuning. Anna sings in the kitchen... I write but in the same time hear her singing. The song that we use in the studio changes constantly through the context that changes around... We don't have a clear theme. Actually all our interests meet in doing, reflecting, again doing and again reflecting. In one minute things will be different. They might be richer but they might also form the past which we want to forget... Because again the circumstances changed.

And in the same time we would like to create something that we could present, something almost timeless... but parallelly a core of our meeting. It's not a chaotic meeting or chaotic process. It's in fact very well tuned. But all conventional tools of representation seems to fail... We don't have enough time to create a spectacle, we don't want to make a lecture, we don't really want to improvise on what we worked... How to find a glue? Or... do we have to find a glue? But if we don't have a glue things might seems to be not connected...

My brain looks for clarity, for a ground... I want it now! It's very impatient.
But in the same time I don't want to close the possibilities... I'm staying close and open... in between stability and unstability... Our process or rather creation stays in between stability and unstability. It's precious but fragile... how far to trust this unstability? It's also a quality in fact... But then how to present the unstability or rather fragility? How to present in one frame the things that are becoming in the moment but are strongly related to what was?

.............

The creature that exists already for a while... it has a past, it has its own habits, it has some ways of communicating. The creature is unique. It has its own particular movement of eyebrows. It likes specific perfume. It has a small tick in one of the fingers. It has its own way of articulating the words... emotional and behavioral patterns of dealing with other creatures... specific way of seeing the world... It has its own identity. The identity is visible in everything the creature does. Now... how to present this creature? Does it need any extra context?

Still on unison - now from Anna

Dear Radek,

Yes, I agree – a unison takes away our individuality, too some extent at least. Synchronization decides for us. It is an old fashioned idea – two (or more) dancers moving together, a mere effect. What do we perceive when we watch a perfect unison dance? Virtuosity, harmony, symmetry, strength, logic, order? Maybe…

Unison can be (let me sound a bit sentimental, old fashioned and pretentious) joy of sharing the same experience, it can give you a place of belonging, ground under your feet. A structure you can leave and than go back to. Don’t other people and their presence give us a background, a context, against which we can define ourselves? I hear you asking me : yeah, but, not necessarily in unison… And your are probably right. Unison is not a necessity, it is an interesting possibility. Synchronization of movement and its meaning is a challenging task. Especially after all the bad fame it received in the recent history of choreography.

I believe there is a way to be truly with someone without abandoning yourself. Integration comes from differentiation, not from unity. In our duet we can become “wholeness” , at the same time strongly individual, only if we are completely sure of what we are doing, only if we stay specific and unique. A kind of paradox? Am I making any sense? I know what I wanna say, kind of… Probably I was cleaning too much and got high on chemicals…

Thursday

Anna and Radek do the unison... They try to synchronize intensions, movements, emotions, breathing, speaking, singing, focusing... utopian and impossible task because one could always go deeper and deeper into unison... seems there would never be a bottom. But they try to go quite deep and they realize more and more how utopian they are...

I want to become you...

When they are trying to become the unison they are loosing partly their own qualities and identities sacrificing them for uniformity. Big percentage of Anna's and Radek's attention goes to the partner. In a way they are loosing their special features, their uniqueness...
They are reducing themselves as well. More and more in time... more they want to be the same - the perfect unison - more they have to simplify.... reduce their functions, personal patterns, etc.
So they objectify themselves... they can become each other in reduction...

But is reduced Anna still Anna? Is minimalized Radek still Radek?

In the middle at D.ID

gib anclgeni...

ibg canlenig...

big claneing...

big cleaning day!

Tuesday at D.ID

A: You and me are two unrelated concepts – what will happen if we confront them? What if we stretch the form of the world at this very moment? I am the potentiality of your new reality, of your next move. Look inside your own body... Get a grip of yourself and of the other arm, foot, tongue, neck. Is it my hand?… not any more… well yes, actually it is still mine. My hands in your hands are my hands…

R: I’d like to become you. I feel your weight, your temperature, your breathe… I can sense where my hand in your hand will move now… you speak and I observe your mouth and your eyes looking for some missing word somewhere in the air… I try to speak like you… I look for missing word in the air… I observe myself trying to speak like you… can I break the border between you and me… What is actually this border? Maybe if we change the context of our reality I can become easily you? Or I just simply will be you?

A: Could I borrow you for a moment?



...

Residency at D.ID - the beginning of 2nd week

Monday. Anna came back from Vienna at the morning. Long talk with Manfred - good, clearing-up...
A sun passing through the windows creates nice scenography on the floor... Deformed shapes of the windows... Strange perspectives... We are a bit misplaced today, aren't we?

Hard to start after the weekend. Last week was so productive, full of impressions, ideas, try-outs, never-ending improvisations... But today everything seems to be at least "under a big question mark". Did we move somewhere? Are we going somewhere? Our direction seems to be very blurred or maybe just intuitive... We know what but not yet how. It's difficult to verbalize what we do... the misplacement, the contexts and meanings that are unexpectedly and continuously changing creating another contexts and meanings... how much should we be concrete and how much abstract? what is our language?
...
Brain cleaning. Intuitively something to get on a track. Misses Robinson, Dustin Hoffman, misplaced sexuality...
...
And again Anna, me and deformed windows on the floor... I dance. Anna observes. Misplacement of physical impulses... Should be an elbow but it goes to the knee, should be the right heel but a tongue takes it over... Interesting results but where does it go?

A change. Anna dances. I observe... Same conclusion! Not any further...

Maybe together... misplacement of body parts. Anna's hand is Anna's tongue is my index finger is touching Anna's pelvis that becomes my nose touching in round motion the ear of Anna... Meeting of our chicks. Pause. Does it create a meaning? ... are we too much abstract? A finger goes inside the mouth. A baby? Oral sex? Out in own thoughts? My finger is Anna's finger... we're not yet there. Long pause...


Finally we agreed that there is something unique in our cooperation... We both feel it. It gives us the hope and the force to go on... Lets go through everything we have done till now... we have our notebooks in the hands... another never-ending improvisation... but yes, we are getting again closer... we know it, we feel it but we can't yet set the rules... there are still some things beyond our conscious impressions... too important to give them up.

Manfred came again. He brought us Sacks... Great, new food... and again we talk... we are becoming through a talk... The optimism is back...

Radek and Anna at residency at D.ID/dance identity in Pinkafeld/Austria

When: 01-21 February 2009
What: artistic residency in D.ID/dance identity
Where: Pinkafeld/Burgenland - Austria

Anna Nowak and me received an artistic residency from D.ID/dance identity (artistic director: Liz King). The results of our 3 weeks long research will be presented between 1-3 May'09 in a dance festival in in Oberwart/Burgenland. More informations will follow.

Concept, Choreography & Performance: Anna Nowak, Radek Hewelt
Coaching: Manfred Biskup

Links:
D.ID/dance identity - http://www.dance-identity.at
- http://www.oho.at