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contactfestival Freiburg 2007 | ||
Katy Dymoke article for CQ | ||
On my way to Freiburg with my son now 20 years old and studying architecture, we visited the Cathedral in Strasbourg. Liam drew my attention to a stain glass window by Chagall, that touched and moved me, and started an inner emotional dance that resonates with a fundamentally human principle that he defined and so often taken for granted: “One does not do a thing if one does not love” Marc Chagall A contact festival "extraordinaire", that was sold out in 24 hours. Contact Festival Freiburg is a beacon for dancers from all over the globe. But not only for the dance, it can’t be, why else should we all be so keenly flocking there? There must be more to it, the place, the context and the containment of the meeting by Benno, Ecki and Barbara? With genuine, open-hearted leadership they shape the setting and gather the community with a range of incentives. Firstly for the teachers weekend meeting, food and communal dormitory in a studio or camping is included; teachers delivering sessions don’t pay at all; teachers from past festivals get to join the team of 45 teachers to share ideas insights and jamming. We arrive on Friday and go till Monday lunch. We get directed as to how the festival is going to run so we share and create the festival together. From the start there was a sense of resolution that we were all there to ensure the care-taking, safety, accessibility, flexibility and enjoyment. The teachers meeting was a weekend to dance but also to get us all singing from the same song sheet. We all had responsibility to ensure the 200 participants would get the best week possible. The mission; to be generous, open and embracing leadership together, with the view that we are all part-taking in the dance, in contact improvisation, to promote and preserve the form. A Festival is an exchange beyond cultural boundaries, in this case, through the dancing body, allowing shifts and changes for individuals whether at a physical cellular level, or spiritual and energetic. In the initial teachers weekend the potential was realised through the formal sessions, and with the Jams offered up an opportunity for professional networking, connecting and reconnecting, for me with people I haven’t really seen for 16 years! This encounter marked this point in time as a source of inspiration and growth for each person present to carry forward and nurture. I recall dancing beyond my limits by allowing my partner and I to meet almost on a performance level, challenging ourselves with the knowledge of our years of experience and our trust of ourselves and our own virtuosity. It was as if each dance manifested the energies of two personalities, playing, testing, pushing, resting, lying, jumping, flying and falling, pushing the boundaries of our own experience and expertise to make something unique and new. This level of exchange was the icing on the cake, the going away present, the self-affirmation that nurtures and inspires us to continue dancing. The teacher’s weekend clarified our roles and responsibilities. We were there to teach, to facilitate Jams, to offer one to one sessions, to ensure each person gets the vital information in their own language, to be a buddy to new comers, and a whole list of practical house keeping tasks. When the 200 participants arrived on the Monday, the enormity of this commitment became real, the vested importance of this event was impressive, and the huge opening circle was joyous and celebratory. The festival wanted us to consider our role in the purveyance of CI; the QUESTIONS for the teachers were;
Each person noted her/his own and they were put into categories that we then discussed in smaller groups or danced and felt in the body. The festival would offer up many more, to do with principles, methods and processes, participant responses, CI in performance, and so on. Clearly finding one that encapsulates the overall nature of the dance, the game, the art sport, that defines CI, is not easy. Written notes from teachers (Photo: Patrique Beelaert) The questions for all festival participants were more general:
With hindsight we may all reflect upon the week and find our own answers. In general it seems to be that in our choice of intensive or class, we all look for information that enriches the dance and this comes in many guises; this may be through aspects of the personality, personal journey and insights offered by the teacher. Or it may also be through specific pedagogic principles that enlighten our bodies and minds, or maybe through somatic study and the application of anatomical information that enhances the sense of fullness, engagement and physical presence, i.e. embodiment. It may be through energetic qualities, analysis and reflection, or through silence, blindfolding or closing the eyes. In each case surely the “core” intention is about coming here to discover, to expand my potential, to provide a greater freedom or sense of liberation of my body in movement? But is it just the body? It seems that it’s a metaphor for much more, as the body is site for our social, political, cultural being. So liberating the body becomes a metaphor for the liberation of the person, of our personal sense of who we are, freedom from aspects of our lives that tie us down, oppress us, close us in, protect us. In this lies and the wider socio-cultural proposition that becomes controversial and a potential site for conflict, both healthy and problematic, as we aren’t all ready to be liberated and we will all have different definitions from our own conditioning as to what this is! HISTORY TALK On reflection after so many years and so many dances I recall a key moment where my mind jolted. It is no coincidence that the presence of Touchdown Dance, a company of visually impaired and sighted dancers that was founded by Steve Paxton and Anne Kilcoyne in the UK in 1986, affirmed this principle. Stuart Jackson, Holly Thomas and Janee hall have all danced for many years but due to visual impairment they are excluded from most dance experiences that communicate through sight. Their presence stimulated and challenged the festival to shift it’s comfort zone and become accessible to their needs. Teachers had to consider how to teach, how to demonstrate and enable the visually impaired dancers to get the information. So in keeping with the principle of benign autocracy, the student becomes the teacher, they express what they need, to each other. There is a quiver of discomfort as patterns adjust and change but then a sigh of satisfaction and tears or cries of relief as they discover how to take time and how it works and that is works. There were many “wow” moments as Asha said to me “I have had a wonderful time with Stuart, an amazing and wonderful time, I wish to continue this dance when I get back.” Touchdown also performed two scores from the current show CLOSER, and so it seems, it has finally coming full circle, back into the wider community of Contact Improvisation, from whence it started. It was and will remain a touching and empowering experience for all of us. 5 half day INTENSIVE courses Chris Aiken - Fulcrum “…do under your partner as you would have them do under you”. Steve Paxton Photo: Patrique Beelaert Questions & answers from OTHER TEACHERS! Safeguarding the community. Our reflexive responses are in constant play in the contact dance. They underlie our ability to co-ordinate and respond when we move with or against gravity and through the 3 dimensions. Dis-orientation challenges our vestibular sense and educates our prehension to trust and follow as we flow in and out of each other’s kinesphere. The dance does require a certain re-education of our normal movement patterns so there is a need for form, to enable us to maximise our potential and range in the dance experience. With this a recognition of emergent or quantum methods of learning, the “aha” moment of grasping the feeling of the movement as well as the form can come at any time and generally when the thinking mind has let go. On reflection now I come to understand the magnetism of the intensives and the necessity of the Jams, both are essential learning contexts for receiving and integrating the information and allow for a time frame where each person can decide for themselves how much they can take of each. |
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