rehearsal

April 19, 2018Catherine Chliaras No Comments

Thursday, 19 April

Good news: A good rehearsal today, as we finished the whole piece.

Bad news: Two dancers wanted to quit, because they didn’t have time for their studies and the rehearsals.

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We started with the dancers sitting down back-to-back trying to push away the “cage” they imagined they were in. They were pushing and pushing imaginative walls until they were scattered in the room.

They were allowed to go only on one direction: they one they could face while they were seated.

In the meantime, the video we recorded is going to be playing loudly behind them.

Scattered where they are, a dance comes and they start dancing (next rehearsal, Saturday 21/4).

And then they fall.

They reach their partners and form a mass after 9 repetitions of the text “Body pressure”. I must make a comment here: the partner work was better than the previous time. Today they felt more comfortable with each other, they were more creative in how and where to push and they were very conscious of the space they used, so it was easy for them to create a “body of bodies” with a flow and no interruptions. Consequently, they got exhausted faster and I could hear that in their breaths, but they didn’t stop.

With that flow and care, they started raising each other up, before they empty the space.

I gave them instructions on how to come back to the stage again in the end and what to re-perform.

I must, also, keep in mind, that the dancers are 1st-years and the following week is their assessment week and that means that they are going to be tired. I have organised what I want to do in the next rehearsals and hopefully everything will go without any more problems.

March 1, 2018Catherine Chliaras No Comments

Tuesday, 20 February

Rehearsal

In a cold weather, six of my dancers and I, walked past the campus and found a big black industrial wall, ready to accommodate dancers’ “Body pressure”.

Facing and not the camera, the dancers were pushing in their way the wall while reciting the words of the text.

But why?

Marina Abramovic’s “Body pressure” included a glass wall and her body, when behind her there played a recording of her reciting the text.

I wanted to make something similar, but not the same. I wanted a one-sided wall, so that the audience would have to only take in what they see without approaching, going round or focus on the wall. I, also, wanted to give color to my video, so the dancers are wearing colors instead of one-color outfits. However, they all wear red lipstick; a reason for that will be later revealed. Lastly, they are reciting the text without recording but live. It is difficult to see who is reciting which line and that makes it more distant and difficult to connect the bodies to the voice. If we think more about it, this is what Marina Abramovic did: she removed her voice when she was performing, while adding it on her; not with her or in her or out of her.

The video that will be edited, will be projected during the first part of the final choreography in-progress I will make on “Body pressure”.

Find out more about the choreography and my ideas, that I base on Marina Abramovic’s performance and documentation on “Body pressure”,
the readings, the discussions with my tutor and classmate and my ideas by clicking here.

Lesson on performance

How can performance be every action that is being watched by an audience?

My in-the-box mind cannot even think about it.

Please follow this link to read my ideas on this.

February 13, 2018Catherine Chliaras No Comments

Tuesday, 13 February

Today it was a very productive day.

I had my first rehearsal with my dancers on the piece “Body Pressure”, one of the Seven Easy Pieces of Marina Abramovic. Though it might seem really nothing, the dancers reached what I wanted them to understand: pushing against a wall can become easier, more exhaustive and more natural all in the same moment. As they told me, they felt good towards the end. This is good… Because they are going to be repeating it hundreds of times!

Also, afterwards we had an Examining Choreography class, where we performed our own scores inspired by the Seven Easy Pieces. I chose the “How to explain pictures to a dead hare”.

Jamie, my classmate, performed a piece inspired by “Conditioning” and it was interesting because we participated, too. I had to tape his feet on the wall. It was very creative for me and I was feeling I had to make many decisions, as to where to put the tape, if I hurt Jamie, how fast to do it… Because I was running out of time.

In the end of the class, Kayla Bowtell, our teacher, gave us her score on “Body Pressure” and “Seedbed”. She gave us two eggs and was giving us tasks: tie the egg on your heal, move forward, find each other with your eyes closed, look at each other with your eyes closed, now look at each other at your own time, start using Body Pressure based on the text (where Jamie was pushing me with so much strength, I really feel my back ache!), then we had to rest on/in each other, create 3 poses for each other’s body and repeat 30 times and when we finish, sit down and look at each other, move the chairs towards or far from each other and then the Body Pressure text was on again. So exhausting…

But, I can feel so inspired today. It is amazing what bodies can do, if you don’t tell them to dance, but to just push or use their minds for their bodies! I, also, feel changed. Like I gave a fatal punch to a brick wall of limitations in my mind.