21-27 May 2012, ASSEMBLÉE IN LES LABORATOIRES D’AUBERVILLIERS BY AGENCE

Upon the invitation of Agence and Les Laboratoires des Aubervilliers I am working from 21 to 27 May in this center for performing arts and visual art situated in the banlieu of Paris. I am attending and participating in a series of ‘assemblies’ held this week.

“For Assembly, Agency calls things, or controversies, forth from its list speculating on the question: “How can bodies get included within art practices?”. On a first view it might seem like an odd question. Bodies are already part of of art practices. Practices involving bodies have been around for centuries. Only since the second half of the 20th century expressions that were solely fulfilled by means of bodily movements were considered ‘worthy’ of copyright protection, and choreography was included into intellectual property. How did this transformation affect and still alters the ecologies of practices like burlesque, circus, dance, martial arts, etc..?”

For the occasion Agency selected four things, alternately addressing the issues from cases engaging burlesque, martial arts, circus and modern dance. Meanwhile the things are also available and can be consulted during this week. For more info: http://www.leslaboratoires.org

April 17th 2012, Silly Singing at DIA

On 18 April 2012 I gave a one day workshop upon invitation of the performance artist Ian White, who runs a performance program at the Dutch Art Institute. This program, attended by a dozen of MA students and supported by ‘If I can’t dance, I cannot be part of your revolution’ looks into the nexus of performance and visual art, facilitating the bridging of both disciplines. After reading the detailed student’s blog (https://practicetheatre.wordpress.com/), I proposed to Ian to work on the voice and do Silly Singing, an approach to voice work that looks into ad lib singing on the intersection point between recitative, chorus and spoken word. Ian White quotes me during the class: “This form takes thinking and talking straight into the action of singing, and as silly as it is, we sing what comes to our minds. Of course the minds get lured into other patterns of thinking and perception, because that’s what melody and rhythm tend to do; they tricks us into other alleys. The purpose is not to compose a good song (ad lib), because also the song patterns get overruled now and then by the urgency of expressing thought.” The other part of the workshop was dedicated to ‘creative feedback tools’, a method that I tested in a series of workshops, amongst others with Victoria Perez. For more info, read the blog of DIA.