Janine and Elodie: March 2009

Wednesday, 25 March 2009

The influence of Simone Forti's Logomotion on our research

Our project together is the result of both our individuality and our shared experiences and training. We both agree that the separate Logomotion workshops we took with Simone Forti (Elodie in November 2007 in France and Janine in March 2008 in Italy) play a large part in our current research. Of course, we are not arguing that our process is similar to Simone's or directly derived form her work, our research isn't a straight continuation of the process she led us through. We would like, however, to acknowledge the influence of our experience with Simone's on our joint research.

I remember Simone mentioning the image of using the process to open small windows. These small windows could open to a whole new world to explore. I think Simone's workshops were like windows too: they opened new areas for us to explore or not, planted seeds that could grow right then or that would grow later. This is how I like to think of Simone's influence on our research: she shared some tools, methods, ideas, experiences that took us ahead faster than we would have otherwise. I believe that the workshops mostly helped reveal things that existed in us already.

The most important seed that was planted for me working with Simone was the idea that seemed central to her work: body/mind/world. Improvising with her Logomotion method, I experienced something quite similar to what physically goes on in our processing machine: as we improvise, we build a web between our body and our mind, therefore opening a small window to a/our world, or part of it. The improvisation itself is entirely embedded in that world, that we may have never accessed, or not be aware of.

I also realised working with Simone that something very powerful could happen in the improvisation if I was in a specific physical and mental state of awareness. For the first time then, I managed to source my improvisation from a very deep level of the self that wouldn't be concerned with aesthetic views or putting a preconceived form on the body. The movement could be sourced from the inside-out. This has interested me very much since and I feel that it is partly what we are doing in our process though approaching from a very different place.

I feel that this deep dive requires the mind to be in a certain place; would I be able to access that deep level with the focus on choreography, aesthetic qualities or composition (although in some ways the Logomotion is in itself compositional)? In the workshop we focussed on books we were reading, conversations about them, or on our writings around the books, sourcing our improvisations from these elements or rather, as I understand it now, from the resonance of those experiences. This very strong focus on specific yet undefined elements detaches our mind from judgement of the improvisation or arbitrary choreographic choices and therefore allows us find new paths is the body as well as new connections between the body, the mind and the world.

Although in the something that that is we focus on the resonance of what we perceive from objects rather than on text, the stimulated channels are very similar: in both cases, it strongly had the impression that refining the idea/improvisation/process was like spinning wool. Starting with something quite confused and undefined yet tangible, we follow and clarify a developing thread of idea that demands attention as it can escape us or break at any moment.

The Logomotion workshops also opened new areas for us in the process of improvisation. Working on text, speech and movement with Simone allowed us to explore a certain sensibility that we had and discover ways to use it.
Our use of speech in our research is strongly related to our experience with Simone: it is another media to explore and embody the resonance of the initial stimulus. Speech finds its source in the body and explores the same threads as the movement. Speech and movement are therefore the manifestation of the same non linear thinking process.

For Simone thinking, along with memory, knowledge, imagination and association are key elements of the improvisation: they modify the landscape of the improvisation and focus the attention away from choreographic concerns, opening ourselves to the surprise of new elements.
In our process, we identified those elements as the second layer of interrogation. After interrogating objects with our senses, we let that second layer come into play and inform the improvisation tracing new paths, all related to the original object by association memory and so on.
Simone's workshop really brought the richness of that second layer and the lush playfulness of it to my awareness. Memory, knowledge, imagination and association weave complex links between body, mind and world.

As a conclusion I would say that Simone Forti's greatest influence is in the possibilities that she opened for us. Today, we are not working with the Logomotion method, neither are we focussing on applying what she taught us. However, elements of her work and memories of that experience often come up as we research. We find support, confidence and hope from the powerful human experience that working with her represented for both of us.

Simone

Simone Forti in Orvieto, Italy, March 2008.

J: In the workshop experiences we had with Simone Forti we experienced her Logomotion research separately, but similarly. In Orvieto, I explored speaking-writing-moving really for the first time with any focus and longevity of investigation. In my own practice, I recognise now that the interplay between text and movement has always been present, but in a mostly undisclosed manner. I mean that when I worked with Simone I could feel a "homeliness" in working between text and movement, but that the methodology was unfamiliar to me. I had never exposed my process in that respect, inpart I think because of my infancy as a maker. I found the workshop investigations then at once challenging and familiar....

E: Text, speech and movement have been part of my creative practice for quite a long time. I remember exploring speech and movement in my own choreographies as a student at Laban, as well as sourcing my work from reflective writing, and therefore letting some of it filter in the work. Working with Simone helped me bridge these different elements as well as understand how they can all be the manifestation of the same creative activity. It was extremely challenging to me as it placed the self at the center of the experience, therefore leading me to a very vulnerable yet extremely rich place.

J: As Elodie and I have discussed our work we have settled on the term "track-changing" to describe the potential for information to be converted into another medium. This may not be a clean translation, and here the idea of currency is useful to me. In Simone's work we both experienced and witnessed instances of live processing in the improvised form- when the idea spoken or danced changes either in content or due to swapping between the modes of expression (movement, language). Much much more could be said here about the beauty of clarity in these processes. In recent conversations we have have discussed and shared writings and talked a little of dances experienced with Simone, noting our mutual interest in the integrity of the decision making processes in speaking/ writing/ dancing which follows a stream of consciousness subject to diversion and content switching.

Thoughts on our work in an educational context

Our research project is broadly concerned with a question: What is the something that that is?

When physically negotiating the world we are continually processing visual and sensational information aswell as information coming from memory and imagination.

In dance classes there is often a prioritising of form. We are exploring the relationship between perceptual and physical information and our own movement by exploring the properties proposed by objects. For example this might begin with a personification of object, noticing structural similarities between the object and our own bodies which might suggest "stimulus" type physical visual response. As the process of "seeing" or attending to an object is refined we can notice ideas proposed by the object such as a quality of tiny disorganisation, stability with lightness, having the appearance of integrity but being separable by force...and so on. The aim for such explorations is to open up th world of possibility for physical embodiment and creative engagement with the world through movement when the propositions contain logical oppositions.

The experiments are designed to be fun, suggesting investigative tools for creative play, broadening movement vocabularies, challenging ideas about compositional tools in secondary dance education and making movement relevant in everyday life. In the workshops we are exploring the way that people gesticulate in speech, how their bodies are active in communication and how close this is to the experience of information processing during improvisation.

A return to a state of wonder at the world is possible through attention, too often young people are bombarded with complex sensory information that stimulates them in a manner conducive to physical passivity. We are interested in how to open a channel of stimulation by acting in and on the world, looking twice and taking responsibility for our own physical responsiveness.

Beyond these ideas around movement studies in dance education, we are developing a creative methodology from which we will build a performative score. In March 2009 we are still working to define and refine the terms of this method in our studio practice, thinking, writing and teaching.

A few questions we asked the young people involved in the workshops we did at Dance Warehouse.

1.Have you been involved in a workshop/ class like this before? If not, how was it different from the other classes you have done?

2.What sorts of things are you interested in? This can be subjects at school, books you read, films, music, issues in the world e.t.c.

3.How do you think about your dance classes? Are they for fun, fitness, to be with your friends, perhaps you want to study dance when
you leave school or you can be creative in classes in a different way to other parts of your life. There isn't a correct answer!

4.Is there anything that you especially remember from the workshop- that you enjoyed or found difficult? Did you feel challenged?

5. If we think about the objects we used, can you say something about how that was for you. What relationship did you manage to build with the object, or how did you physically relate to it. Write anything that you remember, I know it was a while ago...

6. We asked you to move without telling what to do, it was up to you to respond physically. How did this feel- was it fun, or scary? Did you feel more confident at the end of the session?

7. Finally, would you like to do more of this type of workshop? Feel free to write anything that we haven't thought of asking!