On Saturday, July 25th, I facilitated a workshop based on 100 prompts for creative, improvisational, and/or physical conditioning practice at the third IDOCDE Symposium at ImPulsTanz. Following are some impressions and questions that serve as my record of the day. 

I had planned on leading the group through all 100 of my prompts. It was a daunting task (although I was attracted by the overwhelming possibilities it promised to bring). Once I attended the opening talks and welcoming events of the Symposium, however, I realized I wanted to restructure away from pure teaching (on my end) and doing (on the attendees' end). What are we talking about when we talk about form and formlessness? These questions surfaced as necessary and I began the morning workshop by situating myself in my own definititions (and accompanying baggage) of them. Form to me implies structure. Formlessness implies a fluidity, spaciousness, and potential dissolving of structure. 

Which led me to recalling my latest work, Dissolver and its narrative-representational-resistant drive towards abstraction, even while situations were being set up in which characters might emerge, relationships were starting to suggest themselves, and that pesky "story" was rearing its potential. I realized that although I tend to teach with tight structures, in my choreorgphic work I am constantly seeking freedom and open-interpretations.

So we didn't get through all 100 prompts! We accomplished about 55 of them, and then I asked the group to divide itself into duets. Each person then served as a coach for her or his partner. Coach on what? Well, what did their partner most need? Advice on multi-tasking? Massage? Performance tips? I enjoyed observing a vast diversity of approaches to this task.

Why did I introduce it? Well, the 100 days score is an offering. It is about supporting each other in commiting to and cultivating a daily practice. It is about celebrating all that we have to offer each other. It is about taking charge of a perhaps little thing and hopefully seeing this little thing transform and sustain whomever we offer it to.