The daily grind between projects has begun.
My current routine is as follows: two grant applications per week (yes, this is a distinct form of training for freelance artists 💪), training in between, reviewing academic vacancies, and working part-time as a choreography consultant.
I would like to elaborate on the latter.
Choreographer ≠ Choreographic Consultant
* The choreographer is in charge of everything: the concept, theme, schedules, contracts, choreographic decisions, structure, and responsibility.
* A choreographic consultant is an expert in movement composition with a fresh perspective. Sometimes they are called an outside eye. This is often the role of a dance dramaturg.
How it looks in practice
Over the past week, I have been working on two projects:
* a solo dancer (she previously participated in my project),
* a duet based on the text of a play.
My work usually goes like this:
Over the past week, I have been working on two projects:
* a solo dancer (she previously participated in my project),
* a duet based on the text of a play.
My work usually goes like this:
1. I ask the dancers what exactly will help them right now.
2. I watch a rehearsal or video and write down everything I can: rhythms, pauses, patterns, where attention is lost.
3. I describe everything I saw: how the space is arranged, what states the performer is in, how the gaze works, what meanings and questions arise, what the beginning and end do to me.
4. Together, we highlight what is most important: what we want to keep, what to emphasize, and what to discard (kill your darlings).
5. We work on changes: movements, gaze, scale, and vectors of space; we add or remove (or repaint, or leave untouched) the fourth wall; we refine the beginning and the end.
6. We review the new run-through! Does everything really work as we expect?
What I understand after such consultations
- I really enjoy refining other people's material, helping it shine - while adding as little of myself as possible.
- When working, I always want to keep too many layers. But viewers can only handle a maximum of 3-4 objects of attention at the same time.
The question I want to explore is: can kinesthetic attention be more multifocal than visual attention? That is, while keeping in mind the space, your relationship with the viewer, the order of movements, the changing sensations of internal tissues touching each other—and, for example, accelerating or decelerating timing—can you hold more than 4 layers of attention? Does this difference in modes (mental, sensory, visual, auditory, spatial) help?
Or is it just that the dancer is experiencing the material for the 50th time, while the viewer always sees it for the first time?
In general, if you need choreographic advice, write to me.
The photo shows Natasha Golubtsova and Christos Litsios performing at Velonotte Hamburg (I provided remote choreographic consulting from Berlin).
My current routine is as follows: two grant applications per week (yes, this is a distinct form of training for freelance artists 💪), training in between, reviewing academic vacancies, and working part-time as a choreography consultant.
I would like to elaborate on the latter.
Choreographer ≠ Choreographic Consultant
* The choreographer is in charge of everything: the concept, theme, schedules, contracts, choreographic decisions, structure, and responsibility.
* A choreographic consultant is an expert in movement composition with a fresh perspective. Sometimes they are called an outside eye. This is often the role of a dance dramaturg.
How it looks in practice
Over the past week, I have been working on two projects:
* a solo dancer (she previously participated in my project),
* a duet based on the text of a play.
My work usually goes like this:
Over the past week, I have been working on two projects:
* a solo dancer (she previously participated in my project),
* a duet based on the text of a play.
My work usually goes like this:
1. I ask the dancers what exactly will help them right now.
2. I watch a rehearsal or video and write down everything I can: rhythms, pauses, patterns, where attention is lost.
3. I describe everything I saw: how the space is arranged, what states the performer is in, how the gaze works, what meanings and questions arise, what the beginning and end do to me.
4. Together, we highlight what is most important: what we want to keep, what to emphasize, and what to discard (kill your darlings).
5. We work on changes: movements, gaze, scale, and vectors of space; we add or remove (or repaint, or leave untouched) the fourth wall; we refine the beginning and the end.
6. We review the new run-through! Does everything really work as we expect?
What I understand after such consultations
- I really enjoy refining other people's material, helping it shine - while adding as little of myself as possible.
- When working, I always want to keep too many layers. But viewers can only handle a maximum of 3-4 objects of attention at the same time.
The question I want to explore is: can kinesthetic attention be more multifocal than visual attention? That is, while keeping in mind the space, your relationship with the viewer, the order of movements, the changing sensations of internal tissues touching each other—and, for example, accelerating or decelerating timing—can you hold more than 4 layers of attention? Does this difference in modes (mental, sensory, visual, auditory, spatial) help?
Or is it just that the dancer is experiencing the material for the 50th time, while the viewer always sees it for the first time?
In general, if you need choreographic advice, write to me.
The photo shows Natasha Golubtsova and Christos Litsios performing at Velonotte Hamburg (I provided remote choreographic consulting from Berlin).