What: Amsterdam

Teaching Residency # 2

Studio Habertu / ICK

Date: Nov 15^th 2014

With:

Eszter Gál, Pia Lindy, Elina Ikonen, Francesco Scavetta, Robin Berkelmans,

Maria Ines Villasmil & Roos van Berkel

From:

The Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Austria/Hungary

The studio is one street away from the red light district in Amsterdam. On my way to the studio, I pass the windows framed with red light. Some have their curtains closed, whilst others show a scarcely dressed female that displays her body. With increasing mixed feelings with regards to this context, I pass the windows with an aim that is in no way connected to legalized prostitution: I am on my way to the 2^nd LEAP Teaching Residency that facilitates the exchange between the countries named above.

Within the program of this residency, we usually open the morning with a Moon Practise - a practice that is carried through from the Teaching Residency in Sweden past July.

The following is a reflection on what I so far understand the Moon Practise to be, an attempt to accurately describe some of my sensations during the practice with the aim to transmit the experience and a conclusion on how see this practice relate to societal context. Whilst writing this document, I focus on the aim of this residency: from quantity to quality – the creation of meaning during the process of documenting.

The Moon Practise…..

is a happening and a gathering in a performative context. As a movement-based performative practice, the group is divided in 2: one half forms an audience while the other half performs. Agreeing to a non-judgmental, valorizing watching and being watched, the communal space is opened for the happening. The performers are asked to begin the practice by standing in the middle of the space, slightly off center, facing the audience. This time I am part of the half that performs. I take place next to the other movers and from there the journey begins, lasting for about 15 minutes.

I see…

The audience and I look at the surrounding space which feels like a big attic. Looking up I see wooden beams painted white, to the sides I see narrow brick pillars. Our attention seems to be going forwards, but I can feel it sliding more and more towards and into our bodies. Inviting us to sense each other’s attention and impulses.

I sense….

How I invite myself to be open and in the moment. I shift from being open and fully available to space and time, to becoming conscious of what I’m doing (yes, censoring myself..). Being in a totally open improvisation whilst being watched and sharing the floor with professional dance colleagues, is a great gathering that intimidates at times. I guess it is the totally open format that mostly triggers these momentary shifts.

I hear…

How the sounds of the space in which we perform, is registered in such a different way from the point where the performative space supposedly stops. I have a continuous awareness of the sounds in the ‘around space’ as well as the ‘within space’. But the latter is acknowledged and responded to with more immediacy. Hearing whilst being watched and sensing…

For now I would like to conclude that the Moon Practise is a gathering of shared responsibility, one that travels beyond the walls of the dance studio. The collective awareness and especially the non-judgmental attitude towards the taking of initiative is a life skill that is directly bodily practiced within this ‘form’.