Sorry about dropping this stitch, been off
playing ghazals and drinking with Jaipur
Jawa Brass Band in Crawley!
O post colonialism!
Hi Karlien, yes 'contact jamming' does refer to
Contact Improvisation as Paxton and others
developed it. There will be a festival of
contact with Steve in residence for one month
at Chisenhale Dance Space in London's East End
during September, if you're interested get there.
Contact is great to do, and better to do than to watch.
Although it's fun to watch if you've done it enuf
to know what you're looking at. It's rightly
termed an art-sport. Key practitioners include(d)
Nancy Stark-Smith (who edits Contact Quarterly -
a fine mag) and Lisa Nelson (an extraordinary
dancer and mixed-media performer who first came
to the UK dancing 'Private Parts' with Steve),
Kirstie Simpson, Danny Lepkoff, Andrew Harwood,
Mary Prestidge, Laurie Booth - many others
The way in is through doing it and then the Contact
Quarterly. I had the chance to perform as 'writer'
with Kirstie, Lisa and Mary - to dance with them
and study a while with Nancy. At the time i was
most active in such circles Paige Mitchell was
also dancing on such edges and for part of that
time Allen and Paige and myself shared a house
together. Allen (unless he's got something
extra to say here, was well aware of that 'movement').
Contact was claimed by Carolee Schneeman, who said
that's what she was doing in her 'Meat Joy' pieces
at Judson and so on - that sphaggetti of writhing
orgiastic bodies. Well it alwasy looked more like
a prudish underwear prelude to Nitsch's blood and gore
specs. But the connection is also valid because of the
location. No doubt the presence of that work at Judson
was part of the stream of influences that converged.
Work at Judson interests me greatly. Mostly because of
the interdisciplinarity of approaches and the collectivity
of the curation. The focus on the local and the everyday
was signal. The cross-polination with Fluxus, Kaprow,
the inception of Grand Union, the presence of the likes of
MacLow and Monk inside each other's work is fascinating
when it comes to their own later practice.
Karlien, I'm a kung fu movie fan as well. Woo is highly
stylised and choreographed bodies in flight, much in the
DV8, Wim Vanderkeybus mould of what gets referred to as
'euro-crash' in the new dance argot. It's what La La La
Human Steps generated - although i find much of such work
simply about technique and virtuosity - not my line.
Reminds me of a woman i once met who was a balletomane and
would sit in the front row so she could watch 'the slack
being taken up at the back of the knee'.
But back to Woo, and Chan who can be extraordinary and the
shaolin jump cut stuff like 'Warriors from Zoo Mountain' and
'Touch of Zen' with that monk who bleeds gold.
My sense has always been of energy lines being arced in
space - the ribbon twirl - the sword line - the
tassle - the breath - the spurt - the bow - the
social gesture extended / exploded, put under pressure
much as language through poetry. Highly articulated space.
Almost anxiety over ownership of territory, the 'occupation'
of a room or a street or marketplace by the ability to
span it at any given moment with one's body. And desire,
oodles of desire - to fly, to spin, drop, hurl, jump,
collide, release blah blah. I find spatial orientation
of body in relation to spatial placement of text
a current interest.
On the common basis for poetry, music, dance, I can't
recommend Eric Havelock's 'Preface to Plato' highly
enuf. In particular his chapter 'The Psychology of the
Poetic Performance' where he outlines the interdependency
of the aforementioned three artforms. Reckon you'd find
it interesting. Simple, but clear.
I'd also recommend, but it's not an idle read 'Space, Text
and Gender' by Henrietta Moore. I'm still struggling with
her elucidation of 'space as text' but there's something
strong going on there.
more please, Karlien i like what you're saying here a lot
love and love
cris
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