Leave your comments here
As part of the performance season in Canberra, May 2006 we are handing out business cards with our website on them. This is to encourage people to leave their comments about the performance (or performances) they saw. We’re interested in hearing about what people saw, about the stories, about the responses and feelings evoked, and any other comments/thoughts there may be.
Click on the comment link below – go for your life!
May 19th, 2006 at 4:17 pm
Hi, I saw you perform last night at Gorman House. Really enjoyed the performance. I didn’t read the program before hand and my interpretation or feeling whilst watching was:-
The first section with no music was really free, pure and sensual. I could feel the king gee work clothes against your bare skin and thought you could too (obviously, but I mean in a sensual and arousing way). Also the feel and texture of the floor and wall coverings. It was almost as if my senses were picking up on this as well. It didn’t matter if you were dancing together or apart, it was just really universally exhiliarating. When the music started it was as if you had been given the apple in the garden of eden and the purity left the set and after that all sorts of more destructive emotions came into play. This wasn’t a bad thing. But for me it was if there was a sense of loss and lostness at times. As well as I lost concentration a bit, maybe this was because I didn’t want to go there.
I just realised that we, as spectators, heap a lot of crap on performers sometimes. It’s almost like having a needy relationship…yuk…
Anyway, well done and keep up the good work doing what you guys want to do. Bugger people’s interpretations.
Caroline
October 19th, 2006 at 7:39 pm
I dont understand contact improvisation.
I don’t understand it as a performance tool.
As a development technique, rehearsal methodology, yes.
But I often find that it loses any power in its delivery as ‘art’
This suggest for me that ‘art’ has a statement, or intent.
Can you tell me what the intent of contact improvisation is as a performance form?
Is it simply to see artists creating something unmeditated?
But in this, what is the worth for me as an audience member in observing that?
For me, whenever I see you guys perform I am struck by your abilities, but wish there was a director in there.
Shaping it, making it go further than simple movement?
Telling a definite story?
Giving me food for thought…which I think I need in artworks.
Is this just me?
Is this simple movement and that is all?
if it is just simple movement (or simply movement – not movement that is simple),
can’t I just watch a dog running after a stick in the park for movement?
That is improvisation.
Or a child playing in the garden.
it is strange to see two grown men ‘playing’
Is this part of the attraction?
Is there attraction between you two?
Do you ever work together but in others work?
Are you ever engaged to be contact movers in another artists work?
Have you ever worked with a theatre director or text?
Do you consider your work equally a performative response, as well as a research response?
is this work you guys make ever informed by the way you are feeling that day?
I mean, some days can you just not be bothered, so just stand there?
I mean this is improvisational isn’t it?
and would you ever perform just standing there?
and would you be suprised if the audience walked out?
would you want to see a ‘performance’ where two guys just stood there?
Is there anywhere really lasting you can go with this sort of journey?
What developments are there for an audience watching over time?
Apart of course from the relationship between the performers?
Is this the entire thing? The two of you, rather than the third result – the outcome?
If this is about the process, why would an audience be required?
Is this for an audience, or for you two?
I don’t understand the purpose of it.
Like a ‘play’ programmed by a major theatre company, sometimes I feel it exists just to sell tickets.
I wonder how you guys feel working in Australia which has a really meagre appreciation for art forms.
is there much of this sort of activity happening internationally?
and is it the sort of work that will ever receive a wide audience?
If it is not, why do you make this work?
what are your aims and objectives in pursuing this artform?
If that is the right term. Is it? Work.
I mean you guys work sure, it is obvious, you are workers, your skill level is profound.
But work, that title, suggests something planned.
But this isn’t planned is it?
Or is it loosely contrived, structured?
In which case it is structured improvisation.
So in this sense, by not pushing that structure further, isn’t that just being lazy?
I mean you train together, why not make a defining structure together.
Are you hiding behind the term ‘improvised’?
so if it doesn’t ‘work’ you can laugh it off and say that’s alright, it’s improvisation, not everything works.
Do you ever make dance works using your skills and techniques but with a definite and planned outcome?
when you train, and something happens, like those moments we see sometimes when you perform, and it is wow!
why dont you collect a hundred of them and link them?
maybe add some text so there is a story?
Is this my frustration? That I want a story? That I want to be told what to see?
Are you only working alone, or have you thought about working with other artists as directors of your work?
When you work with Maddy and Tim, do they ever compose something and you choreograph to it?
Or is the entire thing led by feel?
When I have seen your work, I see progression in it, but not enough to sustain me.
Individually you are both really strong performers, together you are amazing, but I always run out of steam for it.
I get frustrated. I want so much more.
Or is it the case that there is nobody really suitable to be able to understand what you do?
What sort of response do you want people to have to your work?
Are we to look for greater meaning than just two guys dancing together in a room?
Is this enough for you?
Is this enough to classify it as art?
Or is there further you could go?
Or is this not about art at all?
It is about love for the work?
If this is the case, would you consider yourselves ‘amateurs”
(primarily doing it for the love of it)
rather than professional
(doing it for money)
Is this a stupid sort of distinction to make?
How is contact improvisation considered by funding bodies?
do the australia council recognise it as an artform?
Or a training tool only?
This work you make is simply part of a larger pallete of creative energy you work from,
how valuable is to you guys individually in the rest of your professional lives?
Is it to you guys, the most important part of your creative output?
Or is it also for you two just another way of being friends and making love together?
Or is it simply an avenue of possibility, like the many other strands you pursue.
How often do you train together?
Is it getting boring for you?
What sustains you?
I remember watching some of the work David made with Paul…I think I saw some video, or read a review.
This is an actual ‘show’
Is Excavate a ‘show’
or is it going to end up as a ‘show’
Same as Homonculus with Grant
a ‘real show’
after you strike it on the head, the reason behind it?
Or is it jst enough that it is what it is?
pondering, thinking…
Much love.
Respect
and admiration.
Much love, I trust you have a great response to my questions!
Angus Cerini
October 19th, 2006 at 10:17 pm
zzzzzz…
oh, sorry, what was that?
i nodded off for a moment there.
i think you were asking a question… something about art?
is that right?
…
but seriously, do you really want an answer for each of those questions?
if you do i’ll happily go through them and answer them… but i’m not convinced that’s what you’re really after at all.
lots of questions and some provocations there but how much real interest or engagement?
i’d suggest that as someone who has seen Excavate (have you?) you could take a moment to think about your response to it. maybe aesthetically it’s not a work or art that interests you or engages you. and of course that’s fine. there’s plenty of work like that out there. but why do you have so many questions about the form of performance improvisation? ever listened to any jazz (free jazz, be-bop, fusion, whatever you like really)? had the same problems with it? do you accept it as a legitimate art form? (i’m really curious to hear if this is a no or a yes)
i’d be happy to have a proper discussion about this with you ang. not sure that this is the way to do it. maybe i will just answer each question and make some statements as well and then leave the discussion for in person sometime.
—
Can you tell me what the intent of contact improvisation is as a performance form?
No. Mostly because that’s not how I define what we do. Contact Improvisation is a base mode for us for making works of contemporary performing art (how’s that for some definitive terms).
Is it simply to see artists creating something unmeditated?
So if i’m answering this about what i just defined then I’d say no. I’m interested in having an arts practice that attempts to deal with mediation by attempting to remove some of the artifice of theatre. I’ve been doing this in many ways for many years – recently i’ve seen you do it too, in fact, greeting an audience as they walk in to the theatre is one of these techniques i’ve been implementing for a long time.
But in this, what is the worth for me as an audience member in observing that?
The worth in seeing performance? Sheesh, you want me to do all the work and tell you what it’s worth? Doesn’t that make art become a little didactic and limited?
For me, whenever I see you guys perform I am struck by your abilities, but wish there was a director in there.
Shaping it, making it go further than simple movement?
Telling a definite story?
Giving me food for thought…which I think I need in artworks.
Is this just me?
Is this simple movement and that is all?
if it is just simple movement (or simply movement – not movement that is simple),
can’t I just watch a dog running after a stick in the park for movement?
Hmmm, A lot of people come away from our work with very strong narratives and understandings about what we were doing. Many of these people are more acquainted with theatre rather than dance. I’m happy for you to go and watch a dog in the park if you like. Plenty of works of art have been made from observing animals moving. What I love about dance is that it can speak in a way that text based theatre can’t. It can give rise to meaning and understanding at a visceral kineaesthetic level and move people in an intimate and involving way. Go and look at some of the responses to the Excavate showing for some of the stories people have seen in our work. Maybe it is just you?
it is strange to see two grown men ‘playing’
Is this part of the attraction?
Attraction for you? Maybe.
Is there attraction between you two?
There is for me.
Do you ever work together but in others work?
Yes.
Are you ever engaged to be contact movers in another artists work?
Yes.
Have you ever worked with a theatre director or text?
Yes.
Do you consider your work equally a performative response, as well as a research response?
Yes. Performance is the thing.
is this work you guys make ever informed by the way you are feeling that day?
Yes.
I mean, some days can you just not be bothered, so just stand there?
No.
I mean this is improvisational isn’t it?
Yes.
and would you ever perform just standing there?
Possibly.
and would you be suprised if the audience walked out?
No.
Possibly.
Is there anywhere really lasting you can go with this sort of journey?
What sort of journey? Improvised performance? Our duet practice? Art? Or do you mean the two guys just standing there?
What developments are there for an audience watching over time?
Do you mean for within each work or over a whole series of work or over a few years of watching? Or are you talking about those two guys standing there again?
Apart of course from the relationship between the performers?
Well, it’s definitely about relationship. Isn’t it all? Isn’t that what your work is about?
Is this the entire thing? The two of you, rather than the third result – the outcome?
What do you mean? How is there no outcome?
If this is about the process, why would an audience be required?
The process doesn’t exist without an audience. You can’t do performance improvisation with an audience. The audience is a necessary feature of any performing art – do I need to be saying this? What’s your real question?
Is this for an audience, or for you two?
Both.
I don’t understand the purpose of it.
Like a ‘play’ programmed by a major theatre company, sometimes I feel it exists just to sell tickets.
The purpose of art… well, that’s a big one isn’t it? Although I think you’re inferring that it’s not really art that we make. Or that it’s just for a surface reason – money or glory or something like that. One of the reasons I’ve kept being involved in the arts is because I want to make a difference. What that means is doing work that can allow people to have a change in perspective, to see or experience something they wouldn’t necessarily come upon otherwise, to give them a sense that the world is bigger than their day to day lives. And the way I’m doing it is the best way I know how – the way I feel competent and skilled enough to communicate things. I also don’t want to force feed people, I love art that allows people to read things differently. To allow ambiguity and inference and suggestion to be alive and active in performance. To have people engage in the work and be a part of the work. I don’t want the work I make to be sugar coated.
I wonder how you guys feel working in Australia which has a really meagre appreciation for art forms.
is there much of this sort of activity happening internationally?
and is it the sort of work that will ever receive a wide audience?
I love Australia. Not so the government (is it sedition if I tell everyone they should get off their arses and march on parliament to get rid of the incompetent incumbents?). And the apathy around political engagement. There’s a strong community of people around the world practising performance improvisation. Want a list? Will it ever receive a wide audience? Do now we’re responsible for that too?
If it is not, why do you make this work?
Crikey, so now the only reason to make work is to get a bigger audience?
what are your aims and objectives in pursuing this artform?
World domination. No less. I’m going to stop now. Maybe Jacob will jump in where I left off and finish it off for me. Otherwise I’ll get back to this eventually.
Much love ang.
Hope all’s well OS.
d
December 6th, 2006 at 9:19 pm
Love it!
What I thought of watching Excavate was how mean (performance wise) Jake can be, and how like an angel Dave can be. I started thinking about a show called Unction…like two brothers, one nice, one mean – kinda like Kane and Abel. Just read a John Steinbeck novel ‘East of Eden’, man, it would be great to see you guys do a novel as an hour of improv. Or the bible? Of Mice and Men? This is probably just me.
It is true about movement/dance/non text having a whole different world of meaning that words. I feel hamstrung by this 1) my reluctance to stop using written words, 2) the damn hard work it takes to be a mover.
Most of my questions just popped out, but I like that you answered them. I suppose most of them I ask of myself too.
That one about audience seems so crucial in presenting work. I wish I didn’t feel like I had to appeal and get big houses, on one level it is just a budgetary thing…unfortunately. I suppose I was asking how you get through psychologically knowing that contact improv (in fact the entire dance form as a body) is under supported in Australia. I am really interested to know how to keep the spirits up, hence my question about the amateur/professional question…how do we sustain ourselves as artists…look, a pretty boring discussion, we do it cos we love it…sheesh, forgive me.
Hey, one final question. That night you guys were doing the improv at Dancehouse, say about two or three years ago, ‘The Boys’ and there were like ten guys all moving, just quickly, that was one of the most exciting performance events ever – something about man energy, but my question, when your pants came off Dave, and you were in underpants, was that planned? Or was this improvisation? It had a feeling to it like you knew they were planning to strip you? It was such a fresh and beautiful and enjoyable moment.
Perhaps my reluctance to love contact improv is more about me than you. It freaks me out the thought of getting in front of an audience not knowing what is going to happen. Wish I had the trust you two do.
Much respect, and thanks for your answers.
Angus