Supporting creativity Archives - Page 2 of 3

Supporting creativity Pt. 7

Learn a language. Learn a lot of them. There are some words that are far too weak to use and require reconsideration. Other languages have much better words. They sound better. More accurate. Beautiful. Hear them and wonder why we have to even translate. So many borrowed words already, what’s a few more?

Several years ago I began learning American Sign Language. It was useful with a few friends who were deaf or hard of hearing. Translate a little. Chat. Lend a hand. Of course, that made s

ense. What made more sense were the ways that my hands, face, and body moved when I spoke. All signing requires an expressive face, sometimes mouthing the words for both our sake. I quickly began to realize that my gesturing when I did not know a sign was not helpful at all. I quickly began to realize that repeating signs did not increase understanding. I quickly began to realize that the motion of words was much more accurate than the ones coming from my mouth.

Want. Here. Space. Now. Sit. Hunger. Control. Who. Hi. Sorry. Thanks. Turtle duck rabbit.

All signs that feel more real to perform than the words that inspired them.

You see, signing reminds us that movement is deliberate and meaningful. It carries with it all the expression that our selves can muster. Every word has the levels of height and width. Exaggerated without all the ‘verys’ and ‘reallys.’ Sarcasm? Far better in ASL.

Dance is like that. The learning curve in expressive movement hinges greatly on self image. It is important to help students move past the idea of what they look like when they express. Whether it is a series to sum up a word, a gesture to encompass pages, or something tacit that demands escape and its only medium is the body in four dimensions–there is never a doubt that something is being said and I just might have to respond.

Pardon me while I go express myself.

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Supporting creativity Pt. 6

The first time I have been moved nearly to tears by dance was in college. I have explained the tunnel vision of audience participation before. This lucid state was, is, like a drug to me. Attention. Do I have your attention? Yes. Now don’t anyone mess it up. Life became exciting. Busy. Graduation. Work. Busy. Life. Love. Things forgotten, lost, new concerns and tunnel vision around necessity.

Spooky Action was the first evening length piece that MiRo had developed since Pitch Black. It had been a few years and they, I, we had grown so much. It was based, deeper now, around their work at Fermilab. Extended and researched. There was sponsorship and beautiful video integration showing off the technology of Green Hippo–live manipulation of multiple video streams and sources. It was perfect. Enthralling and at no point were you distracted with figuring it out. It was a character of its own.

This was about the time that the students really started to get deep in the practical understanding of quantum entanglement. You know. Like sixth graders tend to do. MiRo is more than a dance company. The research they do for a piece is one of immersion. Pasteurized. Almost completely underwater. They expect the same from their students who embrace the focus and the exploration. They see that complexity and depth of expression comes from knowing the reason and the rationale; the process of embracing the chaos and making it beautiful.

This was about the time that I started to get deep in the practical understanding of working closely with dance. Something that I had not done in decades. Seeing Spooky Action in the basement performance studio of the Kimmel Center brought back the tunnel vision. The music by Peter Wyer fitting as always. A narrative about relationships. The piece, furious with all the passions I would expect from all those bodies on stage and projected. Pixelated. Picked apart. Accelerating. Becoming.

Tragic.

That’s how I explained it to Amanda. It was so sad.

The first time I have been moved nearly to tears by dance in decades was that day. A few years since MiRo Dance Theatre began working with students at the school and suddenly I felt very vulnerable. Aware that fast friends were capable of reaching into me. It is very much like sitting across from a Jiu Jitsu black belt or a sharpshooter. Potential lies within but never lies without.

I am grateful to my friends Tobin and Amanda and the ways they have changed me. I am writing every day this week and I am dancing like a disco fool on Saturday night to support and sustain the work that they do. If they can change me and they can change students and they can change…

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Supporting creativity Pt. 5

Much like the work in Principles of Uncertainty, chaos over time becomes pattern. That is just the way it is. Years ago, my wife and I had one of those inexpensive sound spa units in our bedroom. The allure of napping by a babbling brook. You know. Like you used to do? Well. I came home early with a headache. Punched up the sound spa. After a minute or so, the loops in the sounds became rhythmic. Obvious. Explicit. Annoying. Trash can. Even the most random events. There is so much less chaos than you think.

I notice patterns. It’s really at the core of what I do. If I were to consider my own (capital E) Expertise, I might say that it is pattern recognition. I know it sounds like something obvious. Simple. Apparently not. Anyway. I find so much of Miller Rothlein’s work as reflective. Not always of the directors. A persona. A characterized event. A wish. A life encountered or speculated.

Self Portrait was commissioned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and premiered in 2008. The work had some of its roots in the work of Frida Kahlo but each component was fitted, adapted, and joined to the history of Amanda Miller. Tracing the roles, travels, injuries, and loss across a timeline Miller found touchpoints. Solitary moments.

As a teacher with decades (a fact, not braggadocio) I am familiar with teaching subjects that are personally challenging. I remember wondering how personal this piece was to the directors as the student were developing their own works. The parallel process used by the company had been so effective. How would the students research and reflect, plan, develop, and interact with the content. Building their own self portrait. Amanda and Tobin watching them struggle in a similar way to their own developing work, in a similar way to Kahlo’s own developed work; history taking them farther back and finding those same pains. Different verbs. Different nouns. Names changed to confuse the innocent.

Sixth and seventh graders blending media to create a language that represented their lives. Completing the work and hiding their small movements that explain just a bit of themselves. Wondering if anyone will notice. Wondering if anyone will understand. Hoping that it is never mentioned.

Brave lonely movement before the whole world.

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Supporting creativity Pt. 4

Uncertainty. That is an excellent word to describe the research inspired by particle accelerators. Particles. Fast particles. 50 drummers. 25 dancers. 2 video artists. Chaos? Maybe. Until you start to see the patterns emerge. The relationships evolve. Suddenly a tragic story or exciting invitation. Audience members at the public performance were compelled, almost spiritually, to leap into the fray. We sat in the center. Another educator and I. It was a spectacle. Rhythmic. Terrifying. Cultish. Moving.

When Amanda and Tobin returned from Fermilab they were filled with stories. Mostly they talked about the noise. And the scientists who really connected to them as artists. They were asked to write an article for the Fermilab quarterly. They were invited back. Physicists became their friends here and afar. Entanglement. Relationships at any distance. Physicists near and physicists far. They were drawn, compelled even, to leap into the fray. The performance left a lasting scar. Not so much a wound as a surgery. A healing. There was little informal talk of it. Like a strange relationship.

The students understood the concepts and anticipated their influence on movement. They enjoyed near and long distance manipulation. Entanglement. It seemed a theme for the year and it persists. Students who started in the program many years ago are connected. They are tall. Wonderful near-adults. City kids. Tough. Until they see Tobin and Amanda. Busted. See their souls? Expressive and wanting to express. Friendship does not begin to explain it. Open. Wonderful. Artists. What’s been shared on the marley is the confession that we move and we dance because we need to tell the story without words. There is nothing to say that could not be better said with a turn, a reach. Deliberate look to the horizon, the ceiling. A hand. A noise made because of movement. Not accidental but impossible to replicate without that effort.

Like that audience member who was driven by the movement and drums and joined the dance. The students took that invitation to express themselves newly. One more language.

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