Teaching a class at TTT meeting-Brussels  June 8th 2013

                                                                 by Rob Hayden and Iñaki Azpillaga

CONCEIVING THE CLASS IN COLLABORATION

Rob and me came together to discuss about how to build up the class in collaboration for the TTT meeting in Brussels. We spent some time collecting terms and looking for shared interests… I recuperated these notes from our first meeting:

• Relating versus connecting
• To influence the physical experience
• Oneiric associations
• Body-Physical-Craft
• Polishing the Mirror
• We share interest in performing: The performing act
• Dramaturgical approaches
• Documentation without words + Verbal discussion.

We started by juxtaposing exercises that looked very correct and we could have solved the formality very quickly.

It didn’t seem though that we were mixing flesh, blood and minds: We were TWO separate entities without the common aim of constructing ONE class.

So we insisted in looking for new formulas.

We concluded that Rob was going to deliver the main content and I was going to introduce ideas that would influence/prepare the participants for Rob's experience.

We continued ruminating ideas in the next days: The contents had to contain the dramaturgical approach, the body/physical/craft, flesh… all what we spoke in our first encounter.

Rob's score had to be simple enough to manifest the inpact of my introduction.

The contents came up gradually and some of the exercises appeared spontaneously at the last moment.

Iñaki’s part

How can I CONTAMINATE the teaching with information other than dance?

The Associative mechanisms were the key. The dream-world offers many possibilities and introduces absurdity as an interesting trigger for the dramaturgical creativity; Time and space modification, incongruence, fears, water…

!!!!!! BUT at the last moment, I decided to move our minds towards our daily environmental information. !!!!!!!!

MUSIC:           

For the arrival of the participants in the studio I played a music score of John Cage that uses choral voices and reciting to start prepararing Rob’s exercise. Rob and me had shared delirious moments with that music.

STREET OBSERVATION:           

Once everyone had arrived, we left the studio and had a walk in the neighborhood. I wanted the people to observe the street and absorve from the environment.

I proposed a game called Kaleidoscope: In 2 minutes time, one has to find objects in the visual field starting with a randomly chosen letter and write it in a piece of paper.

This game gets interesting when we start writing words that aren’t strictly subjects or are a subjective interpretation of the terms. Collectively we discuss the acceptance of the doubtful terms by introducing flexibility and general consensus.

(Winning it undoubtably plays a roll in this activity… but you see how far do you keep it in a second row)

ASSOCIATION:           

We continued playing another game of chain association with words: Writing on paper, one word leads you to the next one in a speed flow that searches for impeding any consciousness choice: in order to have faster and bigger jumps we just use words, instead of sentences. When the flow disappears we end it up and we read each other’s chains searching to understand the ideas behind and the way each of us associates.

WATER:            

Back in the studio, we poured about 15 litters of water in the floor of the studio. It was a hot day in Brussels.

 Thanks to all these inputs, we underwent through layers related to:

• Senses: Music, Water, Observation
• Imagery that tended to connect the humans we are with elements from the reality and life-experiences: Street wandering.
• Associations: Bringing up to the conscious the thoughts lying in the background of our minds.
• Group agreements: Kaleidos game.

And Rob took the helm of the class…

Rob’s part

TTT stands for Teaching The Teachers . It is an initiative from Jardin d'Europe which aims at giving an answer to a European dance scene in need of new teaching and training methods in the field of Contemporary Dance, taking into account the various forms enriching dance creation nowadays, such as dramaturgy, scenography, lighting, visual arts practices, transforming movement into film/image, dance photography. Respective activities e.g. workshops, lasting each of them about ten days - are taking place at the relevant intiatives/venues of the participating co-organisers (Ultima Vez for Brussels
).