DANCING HAPPY ON SAD MUSIC | A WORKSHOP ABOUT THE 'AND'

I N T R O D U C T I O N On the first day of the workshop, when meeting the group who was about to follow the workshop, I learned that most of the participants do not understand what the workshop is about and their decision to attend the workshop was taken because of the title, 'Dancing Happy on Sad Music'; The description text of the workshop was unclear but the title was curious and attracted attention. This gap, between the catchy title and the obscure proposition, was to influence the course of the workshop. 

My intention was to share improvisation and composition strategies which I used during the creation process of 'The Prize Piece' (2007). This performance was about the state of ambiguity, a bodymind condition when having the experience of as-if being in two places (opinions, wishes, needs, etc) at the same time. Since this project was an award commission, the starting point for the work was my personal experience about the situation of being awarded a prize.  Mainly due to the load of expectations surrounding the outcome of the commission, I was ambiguous about it and gradually regarded the award more and more as a sort of punishment.

How to embody the state of ambiguity? This question became the encore point for the creation process of The Prize Piece. 

The conceptual key was made in a form of the conjunction 'and'. Unhitching the thinking from the decisive and definite conjunction 'or' (prize OR punishment), the work opened a space for exploration around the 'and'.  'Or' proposes alternatives and at the same time it borders the field of options. On the other hand the connective and successional 'and' functions often to align comparable items. The matter at hand was not concerning the selection of one idea ('prize') or the other ('punishment') but to facilitate the compliance of differences - prize AND punishment. 

How to be 'and' rather than 'or'? The understanding that prize and punishment, pleasure and pain, fear and curiosity, acknowledgment and expectations, celebration and denunciation are able to concur in a complex, mental and emotional matrix, facilitated a state bodymind for The Prize Piece to emerge. The performance finally employed a structure of a playlist of what we called 'statements of ambiguities'. These statements were in a form of four solos. For each solo, a quaret was made which mirrored its idea and developed it further as a group composition. The first solo statement was 'dancing happy on sad music' and its mirrored quartet was 'endorphins'.

P R O C E S S Dancing happy on sad music, a cliche on top of a cliche, a form on top of a form. 

T H E  S T A R T The workshop started with individual practice.  In juxtaposition to each other, the participants explored the following tasks. No spectators to start with, then we opened the option to step out of the practice to watch:

1 Happy dance on happy music - the dance referred to gym work, clubbing and folk dancing. The movement was either jumping, bouncing or running,  rocking and shaking, plus swings of limbs, head and torso. Every movement was done to the beat of the music. The dance also included a social interaction, meaning disco dancing with each other, making eye contact, shouting and singing along with the music. The music was a playlist of workout music (170 bpm) and known dance hits from the 80's. As the dance went on, with the flooding sweat, the atmosphere became more and more light, if not vital. People were smiling, even laughing.

2 Happy dance in silence - this session included the same physical practice as in the previous session. The only difference was that there was no music. The task was to maintain the bouncy and rhythmical quality of movement, the play of references (gym, clubbing, folk dancing) and also the behavior that the happy dance produced such as smiling, laughing, singing, shouting, interacting with the others, without the support of the music. As this session went on, gradually the quality of the dance and the mode of behavior became mechanic, artificial and forced, not more than a formal shell of what is conventionally associated with happy dancing. 

3 Happy dance on sad  music - the task of this session was to maintain the  same dance and mode of behavior as in the previous rounds, insisting on the dance's rhythmical content (dancing to a beat) in juxtaposition to the sad music. The difference between the sad music and the happy music from the initial session, besides the style, arrangement, quality of sound and emotional content, was the much slower tempo. Often the music had no recognizable beat. The sad  music was a playlist of various pieces such as music from the film Melancholia by Lars von Trier (Prologue from 'Tristan and Isolda' by Wagner), or the last movement from the 'Quatuor poor la fin du Temps' by Messiaen. In short, a total different sonic universe from the starting point.  

The friction between the dance and the music in the last session, created a cinematic affect for the watchers. It reminded of a montage technique often used in films when joyful situations are superimposed with music with a different emotional content, that does not fit the situation. This  in order to suggest that the state of bliss will not last due to tragic circumstances which either were, or are about to unfold.  

The question of 'acting happy' verses 'dancing happy' and the issue of performativity became notable. Between acting and embodying, the question how the play of juxtaposed forms are further informed by the approach towards performance, came to the front. We ended the first day in a hip hop circle, in which the participants performed short solos of happy dance on sad music to each other, each reacting to these questions from their own understanding and standpoints. 

 C O N T I N U A T I O N Following the experience of the first day, the process unfolded as a result of these questions :

What is happy dancing when it is not placed in the realm of social interaction?

What is happy dancing when it is not formed as a cliche or associated with social conventions?

If the state of happiness is about joy, pleasure and being close to one's needs, and interests, how to individuate the happy dance? What will it communicate, what sort of dance will it end up being?

What is the bodyform of 'what you need' ? What is the bodyform of your pleasure? your interest? 

How the introspective dance that seems to emerge could become performative? What would make it into a performative gesture, meaning the inclusion of spectators ? 

How to perform a practice?

We decided to look into happy dancing  from the the perspective of being attentive to our curiosity and needs. This line of exploration was in conversation with my initial proposition about the conjunction 'and' - not only as a mental and physical state but aslo as an approach to practice and composition. In the next few days we undergo different sessions around those questions. Here are few examples of tasks and scores:

 Endorphins | Pain and Pleasure [or bliss out of the (self) kill]

A movement practice similar to the the very initial happy dancing from the first day made as a succession of movement-items from gym workout, clubbing and folk dancing. I guided the group with dance elements from the scene Endorphins from The Prize Piece, as a warm up to 'get going' at the start of the workshop: On the first day we went for an ongoing 20 minutes long session. The following day we went for 30 minutes long. This time there was no 'leader', we worked on our own and when we found it necessary, we followed each other. Both sessions were danced with electro-house music on 135bpm. 

 A score for 'what is the form of what you need'

1 Move with your pleasure, give attention to what you need, to the bodymind sensation of pleasure (and pain), curiosity (and boredom). 

2 Observe the forms that emerge - form as movement, action, posture and shape of your body, type of motion, quality of movement, relations (with people, objects, space, time), ideas, sensations, emotions * …  

3 When the form your current pleasure emerges, when you are about to recognize the outline of either a physical, mental or physical-mental happening, keep or repeat it in what ever way possible for you at the moment. 

4 When achieving the form of your pleasure, observe how it inhabits this sensation. See how the sensation is inhabited within the form that emerged. What is left from the initial interest, if/how the form maintains this sensation.

5 When this process is satisfied, give attention to your need/interest/pleasure/curiosity that presents itself in the moment and repeat the process. 

* In the context of this workshop my approach to form was very-very open. My invitation was to look at form a wide perspective caused some confusion among the participants and a wish for a narrower definition. I encouraged the ones who needed more restrictions to define their own individual guidelines about how to approach the question-problem of form.

 Failure and achievement, a score for failing to achieve a form: 

1 Move with attention to your interest 

2 When you start to recognize the form of your interest (whether it is a mental happening, a physical doing or both), evade it - intentionally fail to achieve or fulfill the emerging form, let another interest gain your attention.

3 When you are able to name, recognize, outline a new interest evade also its form, fail to achieve it.

4 And so on.

Notes:

• An individual practice in a group, in juxtaposition to each other, as well as a performative practice - when some participants step out to watch.
• A variation around duet-work created a paradox since a duet is also a form - therefore in the context of the duets round we gave more attention to the relations with others, but fail to achieve their form.
• In order to avoid chaotic 'zapping' situation, a crucial point for consideration about the scale of each process: As the approach to form is very wide, we noticed the different scales of forms and forming.  For instance: a movement emerges. The dancer is able to recognize the potential of its form, say it can become a swing of the head. To an extend, as a head swing, the form of that movement is about to be achieved, but if the curiosity of the dancer proposes more questions such as, what sort of a head swing is it, am I about to mime a movement associated with 'heavy metal' or am I to swing it in Limon's style? Or - is about the head moving or about the swing as a movement theme? This internal conversation can go on for a while till the dancer is to decide whether the form of her/his enquiry is satisfied. This understanding of scales of attention, or scales of enquiry, gave the dancers the opportunity to step out of the 'zapping' state some of them got trapped in. 

 An 'and' score:

Between 'what you need - give it a form'  and  'what you need - evade its form'.

1 Obtain and unfixed position or approach, meaning move between 'what you need - give it a form'  and  'what you need - evade its form'.

2 Change between one approach to the other as much as you like. 

3 Work with different scales of form and forming.

4 Observe the transition between scales and approaches.  

Notes:

• "Dance as noise" - is a dance that fails to achieve a form senseless? For some it is frustrating and irritating to both perform and watch "what you need - evade its form"
• An exercise in noise. We treat noise as unsystematic, unorganized, nonsenseless and / or loud sound and/or irritating sound. The sonic environment is offering more forms to negotiate with.  We practiced the 'and' score within an enhanced sonic environment. The first phase was to a music piece composed by my long term collaborator, composer Tom Parkinson, which he wrote for my performance The Dry Piece (2012). It is a piece of music made out of a collections of sounds - street noise, sounds of objects moving and machines wokring, and piano's meldoy.  The following sessions were to a mix of loud and irregular sound.  I mixed a wall of noise made out of different pieces in juxtaposition to each other: Morotn Feldman / Violin and String Quartet / String Quartet and Orchestra / Palais de Mari,  John Cage / Sound, Noise and Music for Approximate 30 Minutes, Brian Eno /Textures / Soundscapes, voice track from the film 'Worth a Thousands Words'(1967), Marzbow, Techno.
• How this score can become peformative? How to perform a practice? As the practice is introspective as well as noisy (for the outside eye - formless, irregular, chaotic), it proposes a state of of bodymind which is fascinating. We explored whether the adding of formal devices (such as copying or insisting on one idea) will stabilize the composition (not the practice) and offer a way to open the practice for an exchange with a public. 
• An 'and-and' score, between 'what you need - give it a form' and 'what you need - evade its form' andassuming a functional role, meaning practicing a formal device (copying, insisting,mirroring etc) so to serve the composition:
  • Obtain an unfixed position and approach towards the three modes.
  • Change between them as much as you like. 

E N D The starting point for the workshop (how to embody 'and' and apply it as a composition tool that allows contrasts, and differences to come together) was maintained although the intended methodology (sharing different strategies from a performance process which aimed to facilitate a starting point for the creation of solos) was transformed in the course of an invisible conversation with the workshop's participants. Still, the method we worked with was solo work but within a group; an individual practice that evolved out of a shared experience. 

This process ended up coming very close to current interest around my work as a choreographer. Since for me both practices - teaching and making - are interweaved, this is of no surprise, nevertheless wonderful. 

Last but no least: The impressions from the symposium on Form / Formlessness which took place the weekend previous to the start of the workshop, resonated with me and left a mark on the workshop. The play of circumstances leave me to wonder how the 'and' practice would/could have evolved in other conditions, in conversation with other other themes and topics.