As we gradually approach the end of the academic year, I thought
I would share a moment from earlier in the Next Choreography course (from the
28th February to be exact), that had particular poignance for me.
After exploring devised movement during the session, where the
dancer worked in collaboration with a fellow class member to improve on an
individually devised dance piece, we wrote down in our notebooks a stream of
consciousness that summed up what we had felt during the class, each sentence
starting with the words “I am going…”.
Hannah volunteered to perform her devised movement work to the
class, and did so beautifully. Without having heard my written stream of
consciousness, Charlotte suggested I read my internal dialogue as a narration
to Hannah’s movements. We started off just performing our separate creations at
the same time, not necessarily paying much attention to the other’s work.
However, the more she danced, the more observant I was of her accents and of
her moments of stillness, and so I adjusted my tone of voice to fit her
movements. By the end we were entirely in sync, moulding our own creations to
make this epic improvised choreographic piece.
I was surprised and genuinely awe struck by how well our two art
forms fitted together. Without having any relation to each other’s work all
evening, we had somehow created a piece that combined spoken word and dance,
that could have been devised in collaboration from the beginning of the night.
I wasn’t the only one to notice it; the entire class was buzzing with
excitement by what we had all just witnessed! I left the session that day
feeling this incredible sense of satisfaction, and yet I felt blown away in
equal measure in experiencing what I had during that session. We were chosen to
perform together totally by chance, and somehow ended up being exactly what the
other needed to make our pieces whole.
This was only one of the many times Next Choreography has
made me think so existentially, but this particular memory I know will stay in
my mind for many years to come.
The stream of consciousness that I read out is as follows:
I am going on a journey, only analogue
scribbles of scrappy lines. I am going down a path of handwritten nonsense,
forward, backward, dip sideways. I am going between the lines, unsure if they
feel it too. I am going down linear strips of elephant grey, brown, there white
circle, safe. I am going to move, between them, no? Yes. I am going on a ride,
far beyond this place, above anything physical; I am going nowhere, yet
straight, and hoping all go upwards.
