What follows is a real email exchange between Steve Paxton and Carlos Oliveira.
Thu, 5 Apr 2007 18:46:55 -0500
Boris Charmatz has given me only your email. Please tell me more.
your email dancer,
Steve Paxton
Fri, 6 Apr 2007 11:23:01 +0100
What do you want to know about?
Carlos
Sat, 7 Apr 2007 08:59:20 -0500
Hello Carlos,
Learning your name is a big step forward. Please send me a little of your history, your present moment, and what future you hope for? I am an improvisational dancer very interested in movement of the human body, so I am most interested in how you move. But that may be impossible to learn by email.
steve
Sat, 07 Apr 2007 15:53:33 +0100
Carlos is the Portuguese Version of Karl in German or Carl in English.
Here in Portugal everybody I’ve met in the dance frame knows your work specially regarding contact improvisation. I've done some workshops on it mostly with Ana Borges, a Portuguese choreographer, and read about your work on the 60s and 70s. What follows is a little bit of me.
Till my eighteens I’ve always been involved in amateur theatre activities. Acting, production and creation have always been occupations for my spare times. Meanwhile, in 1998, I’ve finished high school and went to Lisbon, to study Environmental Engineering. I accomplished, in 2003, a MA having done, at the same time, several independent studies, such as: ecological balance studies, landscape form analysis and environmental impact assessments. After graduation, I’ve made a professional training program, which consisted in satellite imagery analysis towards qualitative and quantitative determination of green areas.
After this, I reoriented my activities towards the practice of performance arts. During 2004, I traveled through Portugal and done workshops on performance art, experimental theatre and contemporary dance. I’ve also engaged myself in a new circus project with a juggler. The performance was scarcely presented due to an invitation to coordinate, during 2005, the theatre department on the National Institute for Leisure (INATEL). On this position I’ve organized and produced several kinds of activities, such as: editing of new texts for performance, direction of two theatre festivals: one for the stage and one for the street, administration of a theatre library, and coordination of a national plan for theatre support.
Then, in the end of 2005, Giacomo Scalisi, Belém’s Cultural Centre (CCB) Theatre Consultant, proposed me a co-production for an artistic residence with the objective of creating a new circus performance to première in November 2006. I’ve created a youth association with the objective of helping young artists on production, creation and promotion of their works, so that, legally, it would be possible to co-product with CCB.
For the performance itself, we’ve worked closely with Madalena Vitorino because it was of our interest to develop body movement as far as it would be possible. The performance is now touring through Portugal.
Meanwhile, as director of the youth association, I’ve engaged myself in grouping young artists whose work can, somehow, come together. At this moment we have activities on music, dance, theatre and new circus, both on production and creation, as well as on education.
Now, I need to engage myself in an intense and profound investigation on performance. As I’ve been working, through 2006, with choreographer João Fiadeiro on his Real Time Composition Method, I realized the richness of the body as a place of work, and I want to focus myself on the cultural body: the body that reveals itself just by being. In this sense I want to develop my work in several directions: 1) social art, as in performance for layman: recreational play and formation of teachers; 2) science of performance: investigation on theoretical aspects of ethics and aesthetics, as well as choreology; 3) the practice of art: making my own artistic path; 4) pedagogy: training of professional performers.
Also I need, on an academic level, to obtain some higher education so that my professional activities come to be done in a more consistent manner. I have to gain an artistic direction, even if it is to administrate arts, which I want to do in Portugal, and this is something that I expect from the course. The possibility of participating in a process that aims to produce new relations between body and knowledge, to develop critical approaches on culture, reflections on pedagogical systems as ways to transmit information, discussions on communication itself; this is something that I need to proceed on working with performance arts.
That is it.
Carlos
Sat, 07 Apr 2007 15:56:42 +0100
Have Boris sent you the imaginary email exchange between the two of us i wrote this last week?
Carlos
Sun, 8 Apr 2007 08:33:05 -0500
No. Boris sent me only your email address. He is making a situation where we have to make our own connection.
Maybe I should introduce myself. I am a dancer who is interested in physical systems, that is, how practice affects the body of the dancer. I am interested in performing improvisational dance, which I now take to mean being interested in how movement comes to the mind of the dancer through natural and man-made systems... and so I'm very curious about what makes dancers want to move, to dance as a form of art. Because when I think about it, I realize that all art forms rely on movement, but no other uses the artist as a medium.
I live on a farm, in the country in Vermont, where I have a studio. I grow my own food, spend my time composting and cutting hay, growing vegetables, and eating. I think about dance as I do so.
Regards,
Steve
Sun, 8 Apr 2007 10:15:55 -0500
Great letter. I have the idea that the direction you mention at the end of the letter is finally a personal growth. This is because I am working on the premise that the material of the live performer is sensations of the body, so to grow in performance is to find and organize the sensations one has to obtain a performance, and seek new experiences of the body, to gather new material. These two stratagems, to find or to organize the sensations, are possible through the opening of awareness with, possibly, study of movement disciplines, which take one beyond development, as it happened to occur. (For instance, juggling.)
“The possibility of participating in a process that aims to produce new relations between body and knowledge, to develop critical approaches on culture, reflections on pedagogical systems as ways to transmit information, discussions on communication itself; this is something that I need to proceed on working with performance arts.”
I am tempted to say, 'me too'. The new relations between body and knowledge are popping up all the time, especially in the new brain imaging. Of course before we can digest that material, we should have some idea of the context, both anatomically and historically. That could be in itself a life study. Where do you look for ideas about this? I have taken a lot from Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, who has spent her life elaborating on anatomy and development. The life sciences have been chugging along, and given us new materials, which redraw the body's definition. By existing they critique the existing culture, and point to new pedagogical systems. Maybe my question would be, how long is the period between stimulus by life sciences or the arts, and response by the culture?
Steve
Sun, 8 Apr 2007 19:58:29 +0100
The main characteristic of these times we're living is the possible concurrence of all previous times in the present. It is as if the history timeline had been compressed in the present, making possible to live and work on any kind of registered knowledge. One can invoke knowledge quality and its genealogy to counter-argument this thought. But there's no need to it, because it is possible to work with two different kinds of quality knowledge without making an evaluation of them, but simply observing what happens when they come together. So, it's a question of combination, and nowadays it is possible to combine everything. At least on art: because of its freedom.
With this premise it is not a question of "how long is the period between stimulus by life sciences or the arts, and response by the culture", but a question of how is each individual dealing with knowledge and constructing his culture? Hence, what is the available knowledge for each individual?
To grow is to discover and organize. To produce knowledge is to discover and organize. Thus, to grow is to produce knowledge. The artist is the one who receives information from nature and, with his subjectivity, reproduces his own way of understanding this same information in his work. Hence, the artwork is just a natures' reflection on/through (the mirror is also a window) the artists' eyes. Without a doubt, art is an application of knowledge. What makes it different from any other kind of knowledge application is its "dépense" economy. There's no kind of profit in it.
This premise makes me want to work with whatever is an "out of any economical system" manifestation. Peoples' psychology and culture are, to me, right now territories where i find the most interesting material to work on. As a counterpoint, i also find that every possible reference collected in these materials can be used to give them a context regarding the exterior world. This way, a connection remains between what is subjective and what is objective, between what is interior and what is exterior.
For specific body knowledge I take a lot from traditional Chinese martial practices in general, and Qigong In particular. This is an ancient Chinese health care system that integrates physical postures, breathing techniques and focused intention. It as to do with body energy: its awareness and control.
Carlos
Mon, 9 Apr 2007 19:20:25 -0500
That is, knowledge quality and its genealogy? Is this the time to invoke it?
Steve
Tue, 10 Apr 2007 14:07:06 +0100
It is not. I already said it.
One can take whatever information one can reach and deal with it without any preconceptions, meaning, in a completely free way. This is what is in the origin of cultural crisis. Because culture is made of information and the way generations deal with it. Now, regarding artistic processes, what are the possible methods to combine and process information? What kinds of information can be combined? How to work this information? With which kind of aesthetics? The answer to these questions relies on the individual or in the group of individuals, and their subjective approach to knowledge. To culturally react on knowledge, first, it is necessary to act upon knowledge. The length of action and reaction, in this process, vary between individuals regarding their involvement in the production of new knowledge.
Carlos
Wed, 11 Apr 2007 08:51:22 -0500
I think you are talking about practice. What to practice? That is, a sort of active vessel into which to pour all the information, aesthetics. BUT, the practice is nonverbal. It is like a naturalist observing water. Maybe the question is, how to practice without forcing the practice into the shapes of others, the previous generations, and the knowledge. How to experience with no prejudice. Maybe possible? What about breath, for instance?
Steve
Wed, 11 Apr 2007 23:23:13 +0100
Knowledge is, for itself, a prejudice. To contain practice in the range of senses is to forget knowledge. But this is still an experience. There's always a struggle between you and yourself, because it is not possible for you to eradicate completely your cultural being. The naturalist knows what he's observing. There's a certain quantity of knowledge in the act of observing water. Even in the act of breading (when you make it the object of your attention). Is there an exact quantity of knowledge, so that is possible to act without forcing into other shapes? Without wanting? Just using what is strictly necessary. There's a need of letting you go. But how much can you let yourself go? Isn't it doomed to be a non 100% exercise?
I'm writing this and remembering my experience with contact-improvisation. There's always a fluctuation between different states of mind and body, and this is what determines its efficiency, because sometimes you must react and you do it with something you carry within you: a cultural inheritance. Is it possible to determine exactly what is genetic from what is cultural? I think not. And what's the point? In this sense the remaining question is: what is the possible ground zero? The "Tabula Rasa"?
Carlos
Thu, 12 Apr 2007 09:48:28 -0500
Ah Carlos, you work so hard on these constructs. Reading them, I get the picture that you are going for the absolutes, even doubting that they are possible.
Of course you won't find the Tabula Rasa using theory. This only gives Tabula Theorum. Some meditations skirt - not avoid, but slip by - this problem by accepting the tabula as it is. Like not paying attention to a TV set playing in the room. It changes, it is not going to stop, so one can step back and witness that.
Any way, I read your questions invoking totality with little alarm bells going off.
“…doomed to be a non 100% exercise? ... what is the possible ground zero? The "tabula rasa"”.
As exercise, which do you prefer? A non-100% exercise, or a 0% exercise? Where did you learn about tabula rasa? They used to be the state attributed to new-borns, but I think they has been discredited in the research into infant psychology and the arguments about nature and nurture. Babies are pre-determined to some degree. So no rasa. Part of this predetermination seems to be toward cultural norms. I just have to ask you, what is wrong with being in part a cultural being? The naturalist inevitably 'knows' what water is. He is a naturalist, though, because he tries to put the previous knowledge aside and attempts to understand the nature of water. He tries to see 'it,' not himself. He tries. You only state that he will be prejudiced and thus incapable of pure understanding. I ask you, what if separate bits of knowledge, different points of view, are the best humans are ordinarily capable of? What if the various bits of water knowledge add up to something more complex than any one mind is able to experience? What if adding just one factor - say water's molecular attraction - to the views of the fisherman, the swimmer, the gardener, the dancer (composed mostly of water), is the point of the job?
The subjective/objective polarity is a philosophical morass. It ignores the possibility that we interact with the world both physically and with the mind. That is, we are part of our environment. We affect it, it affects us. One thing. That is instead of a tabula rasa, better metaphor might be a mirror. Anyway, important to realize that these are just metaphors, a long journey from blank experience.
When you say about CI, "sometimes you must react and you do it with something you carry within you: a cultural inheritance. Is it possible to determine exactly what is genetic from what is cultural?" Are you overlooking the reflexes? They are reactions, which do not arise in the brain, and may or may not be culturally influenced. That is, they may be influenced and even corrected. That is the reflexive contraction in fear of falling may be turned into an extension into rolling. But while admitting reflexes can be influenced, I argue that it is only the affect of the reflex, which changes. The reflex may manifest as either contraction or projection. The contraction or projection is the cultural part. The reflex is an impulse. I have come to assume that the point in all this is to do with the imperfect relativity of the senses. That is, I am attracted to the idea that the senses are imperfect and relative. You seem to be distressed. What to you make of the senses?
Kurt Vonnegut has died. Rest in peace, or so it goes.
Steve
Mon, 16 Apr 2007 17:28:15 +0100
Tough in the exercise there's a subject and an object what seems to be the important variable is the moment itself. As if in each moment, both the subject and the object, are to be new to each other. Like experimenting something for the first time, with out prejudice. The exercise development turns out to be unknown. But the neutral subject approach towards the object opens the range of possibilities for it, and only an openness of mind and body can deal with the impossible and the infinite within the neutral. This kind of approach is to be made through ones' senses, as they are the most effective tools to work on the object discovery. I have been working the weight of a stone in my body, discovering through my senses how does this strange object affects my movement. The interesting part for me was to find out the power relations between the two bodies. It is stone who is in control of my movement, when the premise is to keep it in balance.
Carlos
Tue, 17 Apr 2007 08:02:42 -0500
As two language-based creatures corresponding about dance by email, we have gone rather far, thanks to your very good English and the philosophical nature of your mind. After reading and enjoying the language you developed below, I have to point out that not only is it based in metaphor, it is a language-based metaphor. Which is cool, but of course self-referential.
Our time together is short, so I will skip to the chase. Pick your metaphors carefully. You start this letter with subject and object. Such a viewpoint is blind to gravity, which is a great equalizer, and which would somewhat erase the distinction between you and the stone.
Some thinkers hold that metaphor is so natural to the mind that we can't think without them, while others hold that such development is only one kind of intelligence. Intelligence, as in military-speak, as when we say, 'gathering intelligence about the weapons'. Yes, as you point out, the senses. Intelligence in other words not as an attribute, but as objectified, out there, possibly camouflaged, interlaced, intrinsic and essential.
I ask you, what is a membrane?
With that leap, regards,
Steve
Wed, 18 Apr 2007 13:15:34 +0100
Membrane is a layer. It can be more or less tangible, more or less permeable, but always works as a frontier between two diferent things: objects, ideas, senses, etc.
Membrane is a filter. It can work as a wall, as an open road, or as everything in the middle.
Membrane is a communication mediator. Every possible exchange between two aspects of life is done through it.
Membrane is a concept. What we think of it comes from a lack of unity between us and everything else. In this sense membrane is ”solitude". An isolation tool.
Carlos
And so it goes…
