Artistic practice
The main interest that has permeated all my philosophy, teachings and projects working with movement and dance has been improvisation. Exploring its possibilities as a catalyst to generate material. Diving into its depths on opening up and liberating the mind in a direct, joyful and therapeutic way. Most of all exploring and refining its possibility to function as a performance technique. I want to unearth and explore the ways in which we can sharpen honesty, clarity and presence in the immediate creative decision making process. The ultimate goal with this is to inform and enhance my ability to choreograph in the moment. Within improvisation, I have been experimenting with different sets of frames and intentions with the goals of separating the self from the process and finding the middle way between opposites. If we can take a step back from our constant identification with and reaction to the ongoing stream of thoughts, we all have the ability to see that consciousness is as an edgeless canvas where everything merely ascends from and descends into a mysterious nothingness. If you apply this state in improvisation you will come that much closer to the core and be able to interpret and express whatever arises from the universe with greater clarity and without the interruption and interpretation of the ego. The flipside being that this way of working can be perceived as excluding or private in the eyes of the spectator. This is where the importance of structure, frame and intention comes in. My main objective here is as mentioned to find a balance or a middle way between the private and exclusive feelings and the shallow, obvious and demonstrative.
Another interest of mine is presenting site-specifically. Mainly exploring the impact location and framing can have on the generated material and how to integrate and marry the two. Also flipping this around and making the location the starting point and catalyst for the material. My interest in working like this is rooted in the way we conventionally observe and engage with different types of space: The underlying hierarchy and value we put into them and that certain spaces are connected to certain behaviours and activities. So what happens when we interfere or interrupt this? How can we manipulate or transform a location depending on what we do in it?
And does this alter our awareness of it? Zen Buddhism has been of much inspiration. Often, when they describe, paint or interact with nature, they do it more as if it is a living, breathing partner alongside whom they can create.
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Artistic practice for me is a holistic concept that includes method, philosophy, pedagogy and communication within and of your artistic identity and vision. The method is the backbone and engine, the doing. The philosophy is the brain and heart, the intention behind the doing. Pedagogy is the possibility to plant the seed of creation in others and the constant learning process that often accompanies healthy teaching practice. Communication is your relationship to the audience and your ability to touch them.
At the core of my approach lie consciousness, the sensing-body and improvisation. The first represents the canvas on which everything appears. The second, the physical instrument through which everything is experienced. The third is the method that links the first two together into creative expression. Improvisation, if seen as a technique which you can make progress in and one you can inform with certain frames and intentions, has the ability to find clarity in the middle way and generate powerful honesty, focus and vulnerability, which connects to people like nothing else.
Artistic practice is a means to be creative and to create.
To create is to give form to that which rests in the formless. It is to interpret and manifest the universe in your own way. It is the ability to shape and nuance reality. It ties bonds and inspires further creation. It reveals what a moment ago never was. Forever expanding the possibilities of being alive. To create is to swim within the current of the universe.
