Endgame (an essay)

I first saw Beckett’s Endgame twelve years ago at the conservatory I was attending. I loved it.

I sat close to the stage, next to the boy I liked. I was blown away by the crafted experience of audience members laughing at things that ultimately were very serious. The play offered me an intellectual, and spiritual, respite from technical dance training.

In the twelve years that have since passed, both of my grandmothers died. I moved five times. I got married. I was pregnant and lost the pregnancy. There have been many beginnings and endings. In short, life has happened.

Tonight, I brought life with me to BAM and a new performance of Endgame. I connected with Beckett’s play and his characters in many new ways.

Nagg and Nell, talking from their solitary trashcans, became the nursing home patients with whom I’ve worked. Trapped and protected by their claustrophobic metal homes, they search for a way to connect. They eat dry biscuits and try to tell jokes like they used to. They itch, they fall asleep, they die.

Clov and Hamm’s stuffed dog became the teddy bear of my friend’s six year old son. The bear he put down just long enough to open his arms wide and, leading with his little chest, give me an enormous, open hug.

Hamm’s failed search for painkillers brought me to friends’ diagnoses that are unbearable -- and the raw aliveness of bearing. I felt the hopelessness of the set’s nearly windowless walls.

Tonight, Nagg and Nell, Clov and Hamm became the partnerships I have known. We stumble through repetition and annoyance, power, deception, love and need. We see one another and also avoid seeing.

Beckett, through his meticulously choreographed stage directions and script, gives me a lot to see. He points me to murky and meaningful areas of my life. Tonight, as with the first time I saw Endgame, I felt the audience around me laugh while I did not. I felt the tension, or connection, between being entertained and being real.

Support Precedes Movement

I was introduced to this phrase at The School for Body Mind Centering. Lately I’ve been thinking about “Support Precedes Movement” within individual movement studies and as a way to look at the role of a choreographer.

Anatomical, physical support precedes the physical execution of a movement. If I am in touch with the deep support of my body's core muscles, I am better to able to move. I am more efficient, more powerful, more expressive. I am less prone to injury when I get out of a chair, run, dance, even when I slip and fall.

Emotional support precedes the physical execution of a movement. If I have a strong sense of internal emotional support, if I feel confident, open, resilient, I have more choices available to me when I move. I can let go of body habits and armoring that don’t serve me. I can try new ways of moving that seem different from my personality and not fear loosing myself. When the dancers I work with feel supported, feel seen and heard, they create and move with great imagination and honesty and passion.

Anatomical, physical support precedes emotional movement. When I find the support of my feet grounding into the earth, I am better able to stay present within a strong emotion. When my body feels support, I am able to allow emotions like anger and sadness to move through me.

Emotional support precedes emotional movement. When I know that I have people to talk to and tools like writing and meditation, I am better able to venture, move into new emotional territory. I know I can take risks and that I can change.

A choreographer’s own anatomical, physical, and emotional support precede the movement of a creative process. When a choreographer is grounded in her own body, her own interests, her own reasons for making art, when she has personal support and financial (imagine!) support, she can move to entirely new, deep areas. When she has support, she can support the movement of her collaborators and her audience.

It is the choreographer’s responsibility to be conscious and clear about how she chooses to support, or not support an audience. If, as an audience member, I feel supported by the choreographer and the choices she has made, I will move with her to any number of dark, confusing, chaotic, passionate, dull places. When I do not feel supported, I am unwilling to move. When I don’t feel that the choreographer has thought of me and made deliberate decisions about my experience, I don’t trust where I am being taken and I resist. I am not talking about hand-holding or making easy pieces. On the contrary, I am looking for ways to better take audiences into uneasy places, to the places where movement in the big sense of the word happens.

What is the support that allows movement within our audiences?

1. Clarity and confidence within the artistic vision.

2. Clarity and confidence in the execution of that vision.

3. Thoughtful attention given to the kinds of movement
(emotional, intellectual, kinesthetic) we hope for within our audience.

4. Thoughtful attention given to the best ways to bring this particular vision and this particular kind of movement to this particular audience.

What is the artist interested in? What is she exploring? Why is she making art and sharing it with an audience? What is her intent for the audience? How does each part of the performance-going experience support this intent? Do the aesthetic, tone, and comfort level in this performance space support this particular vision? What experience does the audience member have at the box office, in the lobby, as she walks into the performance space? Do the first moments of a piece convey confidence of artistic vision? (This is not the same as dancers walking around looking confident. The artistic vision could convey confidence by directing the dancers to look not-confident.) Is the piece structured in a way that supports its intent?

These are my thoughts so far. I’d love to hear others.

AVMG PERFORMANCES April 8, 12, 13!

Tuesday, April 8 at 7pm
Dance Conversations at the Flea. Free.
41 White St. btwn. Broadway and Church.NYC.
Curated by Nina Winthrop and Taimi Strehlow. Moderated by Melinda Ring.Work by Aynsley Vandenbroucke Movement Group, Macushla Roulleau, Amber Sloan, and Roxanne Steinberg.
We're showing work in progress excerpts from a piece looking at the abstraction of words and movement...

Saturday, April 12 and Sunday, April 13 at 7:30pm
AVMG performs Full Circle at Baryshnikov Arts Center
Studio 6A, 450 W. 37th Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues. NYC.
Tickets $15 reserved thru SmartTix.com, $20 at the door
Performed in the round and lit entirely by flashlights, Full Circle explores circles, cycles, perception, and community.
AVMG'sFull Circle excerpt. Videography by Jenny Holub. Live music by Leanne Darling and John Wieczorek.

Upcoming Performances
April 23-28
AVMG performs Full Circle at Centro Coreografico do Rio
in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

May 29
AVMG performs as part of an installation at Patricia Sweetow Gallery
in San Francisco, CA.

Writing on Performances

Drawing by Jules Feiffer

Lately I've been puzzling over some questions related to writing about performances, so I haven't written much. Counter Critic has a nice essay about some of these questions.

I like writing because it encourages me to look deeply at dance; when I write about something I've seen, I see more. I'm most interested in engaging with a dance and finding a way in. I'm much less interested in making a judgement. This is partly because I think that if we're doing our jobs as artists, all performances are, to some extent, works in progress. So what an audience or writer sees, feels and thinks is infinitely more useful and interesting than whether the dance is good or bad.

At the same time, I do see dances and creative-thought-processes that I love, and ones that I really don't. The trick is that this dance community is my community and I know people involved in the majority of performances I see. It makes more sense to me to have an active dialogue with friends than to write about their work on a website. And yet, we see each other's work in performance and we support it and cheer each other on but, for the most part, we don't go in during rehearsals and speak honestly about the work.

I haven't figured out how to address these issues. But I have a few thoughts: I want to nurture more relationships within dance in which we watch each other's work and dialogue openly and honestly about it. And I will write more about themes and questions that begin to emerge from numbers of performances rather than about specific performances. These will be slow-going processes....

NYTimes Article on Obama Body Language

Photo Steve Fenn/ABC

In a New York Times article called "Obama Communicates, Even Without Words," Alessandra Stanley makes a brief attempt to look at Barack Obama's sensitive, effective use of movement. A movement analyst could have done it better. Note his subtle Narrowing and folding of his arms and legs to attune to the women.

Ways of Seeing (Narrowing)

When we name a movement, we can see it and experience it more clearly. This series explores the many names that Laban Movement Analysis (See post on LMA) offers. While these often sound like regular English words, they sometimes have slightly different meanings when used in an LMA context.

Shape Flow refers to the subtle, personal movement that underlies all movement and breath. For more information on Shape Flow, see previous post.

One element of Shape Flow is Narrowing.








Photo of woman by William Eggleston.
Man and woman by Mike Disfarmer.

In Narrowing, a Shape Flow movement condenses in towards the center within the horizontal dimension. It is the opposite of Widening. The people above are Narrowing. Their torsos seem to shrink (They are also Shortening.) Narrowing is the movement we do when we try to take up less space. When we are scared, or shy, or not breathing fully. Sometimes we Narrow so the people around us will not feel threatened.
NYC subway riders in their Narrowing dance.
Photo by Travis Ruse.

Try it: Exhale and contract your ribs in towards your center. Smoosh your shoulders and arms in towards your sides. Feel your torso Narrow. Pretend two elevator doors are closing in on your sides. Think about the times in your life when you Narrow. Is that effective for you? The next time you are on a train or bus or plane, notice the people around you. Who Narrows and who Widens? Do the opposite of what you normally do.

Ways of Seeing (Widening)

When we name a movement, we can see it and experience it more clearly. This series explores the many names that Laban Movement Analysis (See post on LMA) offers. While these often sound like regular English words, they sometimes have slightly different meanings when used in an LMA context.

Shape Flow refers to the subtle, personal movement that underlies all movement and breath. For more information on Shape Flow, see previous post.

One element of Shape Flow is Widening.




Photo of boy by Nicholas Nixon.
Photo of woman by Richard Avedon.

In Widening, a Shape Flow movement expands to the right and left, in the horizontal dimension. The boy and the woman above are Widening. Their arms move out to the side, but their breath and whole bodily senses do too. Widening is expansive, open, vulnerable. It is the movement we do before we give someone a big hug. We Widen when we are proud, full of life. Also when we want to establish dominance, power.



Man, Unknown, MOMA collection.
Photo of woman by Ernest J. Bellocq.

Try it: Take a deep breath and expand your ribs out to the right and the left. Feel your chest and shoulders Widen. Allow your arms to follow the movement of your breath, imagine the whole world is yours. Think about the times in your life when you Widen. Decide on one situation in which you would like to Widen more. Think of the people you know who Widen. Do those moments excite you, irritate you? Do you trust them? Watch for the next time a dancer Widens in order to stretch out a movement, appear bigger.