FULL NAME:

Annie Kloppenberg

PHONE NUMBER:

USA 011.781.718.1762

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TITLE OF THE ACTIVITY:

 FOREWORD/AFTERWORD Workshop & Discussion: How to make this dance

DETAILED CONTENT DESCRIPTION (150 words or more):

 Foreward/Afterward is a piece in two parts, a method, a structure, and an exercise in collaborative authorship. In the workshop, the co-creators of this work share their template for a collaborative performance and choreographic structure that activates, in separate phases, logics that are interior to the body and choreographic choices that come from a different set of principles. We then give participants time to test and perform the structure. A discussion will begin with our presentation on modes of inquiry in performance and choreography that raises pointed questions and about this structure and leaves plenty of room for the conversation to meander according to participant interest.

 In Foreword, the artists introduce a simple, but powerful method of amassing material silently, improvisationally, and collectively in a process that prioritizes simultaneous moving and decoding of action. The strategy creates a shared physical language, sourced from the bodies and aesthetics of the group, but, more importantly, from the liminal spaces between those allegiances—and without discussion. An important rule: we are never leading and never only following.

 Then, the group shapes a performance; the physical material from Forword becomes the information mined to pursue choreographic thought and action in making Afterword. The jump from the shared and immediate generation of physical content to its deliberate crafting into a product raises fundamental, but complex questions germane to practice-based research and to how we teach creative action in this form. What makes a dance? What makes apiece we are proud to put our names on? How do we identify ideas that have been sourced from the body and enliven them through choreographic structure? What is the relationship of “phrase” material to choreographic product? How do we actively privilege choreographic thought as it emerges from the particular, physical logic of a single phrase? What does that leave out? Even in a time crunch, how do we commit to making new choreography without defaulting to familiar “tools”? What do we “cut” and what do we keep? How do we agree? How do we teach a from that is predicated on its own constant change? Might this structure permit collaboration across styles and aesthetic points of view?

 This structure trades as much on tension, instability, and disagreement as it does on agreements, proposing that, among many other factors, the success (or failure) of this art-making methodology relies on productive friction to push the nature of action and choreography beyond the realm of the dances we already know how to make.

As three University professors of dance, this performance structure is also a teaching model and research platform through which we examine performance as research and the distinctive nature of knowledge construction in and through this endlessly repeatable, multi-phased process. In the discussion we propose paradigms for understanding our distinct ways of knowing. www.forewordafterword.com

 We are beginning to teach this structure in workshops internationally (we have performed and  taught in several US sites and will be teaching in Athens in June), and these workshops allow others to pursue, perform, and teach the structure with a set of agreements. We are hoping to expand upon this research by expanding the voices that contribute to it. Look for our website launch soon, which will chronicle the life of the piece and the mobilization of ideas through physical action and choreographic choice.

SUMMARY OF CONTENT DESCRIPTION (max 60 words; for publishing)         

 Foreward/Afterward is a performance, workshop, and research platform; a piece in two parts, method, and exercise in collaborative authorship. The template creates a shared physical language sourced from the embodied logics and aesthetic—and especially from the liminal spaces between those allegiances—then it activates choreographic choice, and raises fundamental questions about physical logic and what makes a dance.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY (max 60 words for publishing (if co-taught all in all max 60 words)

 Rachel Boggia, Meredith Lyons, and Annie Kloppenberg (USA) are University Professors of Dance who maintain active professional careers performing and presenting work nationally and internationally. Among many other projects, media artist Boggia runs Meta-Academy with Marlon Barrios Solano, Lyons serves as Admissions Director for The Bates Dance Festival, and Kloppenberg co-founded and curates a professional training program in Boston, MA.

AIMED AT WHO (AND HOW MANY PEOPLE MIN /MAX?

 Aimed at: Teachers of creative process, improvisation, choreography; professional dance artists interested in collaboration, improvisation, and choreographic choice. We would only really need a minimum of three, but could teach a group up to 15-20, potentially a few more.

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TIME REQUEST:

 We can be very flexible in terms of time—we have taught this content in a variety of settings and in different amounts of time. It would be great to have a nice long time (3-5 hours total…or more even); the more time we have, the more experimental we could become. We could certainly even fill a whole day. It would also be fine to work in two separate sessions. In other words, this is quite flexible!

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS (audio, beamer, etc.):

 We can also be flexible here. It is nice to have somewhere to plug an MP3 in, and, we would kick off the discussion with a  powerpoint, if we had access to a projector, but we could also create handouts.

SPACE NECESSITY (studio size etc):

 This depends on the size of the group. There needs to be space for everyone to move, but the discussion could happen in a tighter space.