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Christy Funsch // Teacher
IDOCs » Documentation of the 100 days score
On Saturday, July 25th, I facilitated a workshop based on 100 prompts for creative, improvisational, and/or physical conditioning practice at IDOCDE Symposium at ImPulsTanz. Following are some impressions and questions that serve as my record of the day.
2015.09.07

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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. 


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iris julian // Teacher
2015.09.26
Dear Christy :: your question "what are we talking about when we talk about form and formlessness" is highly interesting and opening a bunch of possibilities, to my mind depending where we are coming from: I come from a training in Axis Syllybus with its focus on the body and the structures the body-based-movements already offer - my question for a perennial research is now: how to connect Axis Syllabus with structures of the history of dance? If we would connect this with the vast field of Somatics ... then the research would be even more complex ... possibilities everywhere ...


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Christy Funsch // Teacher
2015.10.05
hello, iris, great to hear from you. The little Axis Syllabus I have done has brought to mind Functional Anatomy, which is another road of language we could go down in considering the implications of "function" and its place in dance history!


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Sabina Holzer Eligible Member // Teacher
2015.12.09
Dear Christy,
mmmhmm :)) now you made me super curious to hear more about your "100 prompts for creative, improvisational, and/or physical conditioning practice". Where do they come from? How have they been developed? What are they? -- Wanna tell some more? Or tell where to find information about it? Thank you!


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Christy Funsch // Teacher
2015.12.10
Hello, Sabina!,
Here is some information about my 100 days score:

One night, in late 2013, my dear colleague Rowena Richie admiringly mentioned Cheryl Strayed’s Wild for Strayed’s goal of walking the Pacific Coast Trail for 100 days. Rowena said she wanted to do 100 days of something. I offered to create 100 days of prompts to support Rowena’s curiosity.

The 100 days score is simply that: a list of 100 prompts to spark movement and creative (all of the prompts can be done in any media) investigations. The prompts are designed to take place in your apartment, in rented studio space, outside in both urban and green environments, in cafes—anywhere you can make them happen.

The goal is to support home practice in direct and tangible ways, to direct practice towards exploration and away from production, to examine our first choices and immediate instincts, and to invite in influence from other media as a means of enriching creativity. The score can be used for compositional, improvisational, and/or physical-mental conditioning ends. Most importantly the score values autonomy and the freeing of exploration from productivity.

“Rules:”
Commit to practicing everyday for 100 days
Commit to documenting (in any media) your practice
Prompts can be done in any media
Don’t look ahead to future prompts
You can involve other people in the prompts
Don’t try to “make” something: surrender accumulative goals BUT don’t shy away from returning to material with new eyes and an attention to going deeper

FEEL FREE


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