2019-20
Moon Spot - The microgravity test
Entry date: 7th February 2020
Artistic research currently in process as part of the MFA program Dance Partnership at the Danish National School of Performing Arts. This research is an entry point towards the thesis project that I will be working on until graduation in spring 2021 (During this period I'm also going to be on maternity leave for a few months with my second child).
Artistic research currently in process as part of the MFA program Dance Partnership at the Danish National School of Performing Arts. This research is an entry point towards the thesis project that I will be working on until graduation in spring 2021 (During this period I'm also going to be on maternity leave for a few months with my second child).
Leading up to...
As my interests continue to gravitate towards huge concepts such as perspectives on reality and it’s perception, gravity and using vertical dance to explore these concepts. For this research, I have been focusing on the idea of sharing the experience of being in an alternate gravity state. Instead of performing for others as I normally do I constructed a one-on-one mini-lab and invited persons of various backgrounds to have a taste of how it is to work in an aerial dance system that can play and alter the sensation of gravitational forces on the body. This exploration is a way to come out of the intimate by also a limited shell of the performer/choreographer role that I have often where the experience is quite deep but also only within, and to explore what are other peoples experiences? How do they explore and play? Do we share similar reactions? or do people respond completely differently both in the negative and the positive?
Why the moon…?
During the planning stages of the experiment, while I was trying to figure the HOW of the sharing, my thesis supervisor Camille Buttingsrud dropped me a note to check out the book A neurophenomenology of Awe and Wonder by Shaun Gallagher et al. This book explores the concepts of Awe and Wonder from the perspective of astronauts orbiting around the earth. The astronaut’s interviews include vivid descriptions of the view on earth and of the overview effect that has the potential to be life-changing and spiritually/emotionally impactful. Shaun and his team recreated an astronaut’s experience in order to explore further the overwhelming feeling one can have when placed in front of such a unique viewpoint as your home planet. Two things drew my attention, the first was the observation of how well do we humans know about what it’s like to be in space even though most of us have never even come close. The familiarity with space is due to popular culture, films, photos, media reports and so on. The second thing was that in Gallagher and his colleague’s research when they decided to make a recreation of the astronaut’s experience in orbit, they chose to focus primarily on the visual sense, that they deemed as most relevant and recreated the same view that one would see from space. They did not make any attempt to include the sensation of microgravity which would be the ‘air’ the body’s of the astronauts would be immersed in.
This made me think, maybe I could do that part of the research. Like a little sister from afar, without permission, I could follow similar steps and questions the Awe and Wonder team followed, only I would focus on the microgravity. The advantage this would provide would be a clear idea of ‘where we are’ when it came to alternate gravity, instead of trying to come up with the right instructions, concepts to describe this alternate gravity in the aerial dance system, I could simply adjust it to be familiar. We will go to the moon. Now an image comes to mind and it could be much easier to invite participants to enter the experiment.
So I built the experiment around the idea of an image and imagination rather than a technical construction. This choice gave both me and the participants a clear frame, as well as the freedom to enter and explore.
Going forward
Going forward I have to figure out if I’d like to stick with the moon and go even deeper, explore other types of spaces or venture towards other types of experiments altogether. It all depends on that chore question which should lead the research, a question I still can’t figure out what is!! As I have become only more curious in much more than one direction...
2018-19
MYOPIC TIME
At the moment we are working on new research in the area of counter weight between a dancer and a transforming object of differing weight.
Wishing to transform the relation between the dancer and her gravity gradually and with great precision to allow freedom and variety of working with gravity in a dynamic shift. The goal is to give the dancer a great freedom to travel vertically and horizontally while demonstrating that with each possibility we find, a restriction occurs. The dance exists and thrives within that tension.
The research is conducted through a series of residencies around Europe and mentorships of the following VDF companies: Cie Retouramont (Paris), IADF/Fidget Feet (Ireland), Gravity & Levity (UK) and Il Posto European Vertical Dance Centre (Venice). The residencies are supported by the Danish Arts Foundation grant, International activities.
Myopic Time will premiere on the 19th of January 2019 at Dynamo Workspace in Odense in Denmark. and will then after go on a danish tour to Copenhagen, Århus, Ålborg and Skagen. Exact performing schedule is announced on our calendar.
Wishing to transform the relation between the dancer and her gravity gradually and with great precision to allow freedom and variety of working with gravity in a dynamic shift. The goal is to give the dancer a great freedom to travel vertically and horizontally while demonstrating that with each possibility we find, a restriction occurs. The dance exists and thrives within that tension.
The research is conducted through a series of residencies around Europe and mentorships of the following VDF companies: Cie Retouramont (Paris), IADF/Fidget Feet (Ireland), Gravity & Levity (UK) and Il Posto European Vertical Dance Centre (Venice). The residencies are supported by the Danish Arts Foundation grant, International activities.
Myopic Time will premiere on the 19th of January 2019 at Dynamo Workspace in Odense in Denmark. and will then after go on a danish tour to Copenhagen, Århus, Ålborg and Skagen. Exact performing schedule is announced on our calendar.