Thinking
about working within rules – as part of an excellent talk around the body as a
tool - Dominic Johnson http://www.sed.qmul.ac.uk/staff/johnsond.html
set out the MANIFESTO ON DANCE BY MEHMET SANDER – strenuous
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The
subjects of each dance are the movements themselves. Dance is to be performed
and perceived primarily on a physical level. Accordingly, risk taking is an
essential factor when performing a task in order to defy the audience’s
analyzing process. The task should be used to create a sense of urgency. A
risk-taking technique enables the dancers to be both observed and experienced
physically first. Furthermore, creating dance on an emotional basis is
self-indulgent, since as human beings we are already emotional. It is senseless
to incorporate an additional layer of emotion to movement. This non-emotional approach also enables the execution of a
task to be clearly manifested; rejecting a ‘performance’ element on the
dancers’ part. From the commencement of the dance piece to its conclusion, the
dancers never cease movement unless their range of motion is impeded by
physical forces such as the confinement of space or the impact against a wall or
other dancers. Consequently, the confinement of space increases new movement
possibilities. Another physical element in dance is the utilization of gravity
as an enchancement rather than an obstruction. Gravity
should be demonstrated as the initiator of movement rather than be camouflaged
as it is done in ballet. There are no transitions between tasks. The dancers
proceed to the next task as quickly as possible. Music is deleted. The timing
of the work stems from whatever patterns are natural to the execution of the
task. The concepts of the soloist and of unison movement are also omitted. The
choreography should create the space that exists between the dancers instead of
emphasizing on how the dancers move within the space. Rather than being
conditioned to accept the proscenium stage as standard space, the performance
space should be questioned with every dance piece. Evidently. The use of the stage wings is also omitted.
Horizontal and vertical orthogonals are applied to the occupancy of space.
Thus, geometric shapes such as the triangle, the circle and the square are used
as the performance space. Movement is approached scientifically; like a
scientist working in a lab. Physics is used to create locomotion through
invisible forces such as impact, rebound, inertia, velocity and ricochet.
Correspondingly, movement systems are developed without the use of the bottom
of the feet, i.e. popping, splatting, thumping.
