THANK YOU

Hello,

just a note to say thank you to all of our Boosted supporters - we were successful in raising funds for the immediate future of Composure. (https://www.boosted.org.nz/projects/composure) We have some exciting plans and will continue communications through our blog.

We are currently having a break but will be back practicing from mid-January.

Wishing everyone safe and happy holidays xxxxx

COMPOSURE - Part III Session 17 Open Rehearsal

We had an open rehearsal to share our practice with others, to invite discussion around improvisation / performance / practice / product.

We ran the rehearsal as usual, going from warm ups, to tasks, to improvisations. We did short improvisations with one shaper and a couple of shifters and then invited discussion for all to contribute to.

1. shaper = LC
JD -hung on to first provocation, even while finding new things
OG -stayed in the first task longer than later tasks - used it to totally drop in to start
JD -didn't really do any of own tasks, waited for shaper
BM -we did lots of morphing (what we explored in the warm up tasks!)
LC -began with idea of spacing; 3 physicallizing a task, 1 verbalizing the task.
OG -having an 'audience' meant that my experience was tainted... thought about 'what does this look like'
BM -was doing a head connected exploration with EF and at one point responded 'no' to a further direction. straight away realised it was wrong, so went back to exploration and morphed out of it instead
LC -aware of other people watching, offered them opportunity to suggest a task to me "what would you like to see them do?"

how did you respond to the improv? did hearing/not hearing the directions change experience? how were expectations created / met?
B -the struggle between OG lifting JD was really satisfying because it was so authentic
P -it's relational; authenticity comes from navigating space/other person through a genuine action
C -had different expectations, but didn't need to see certain tasks completed
P -at one point there were 2 duets, but no relationship between the two. how can you change the worlds/awareness to enable connection? identify particular moments / break away with nothing to do / spread out 
A -I wanted to hear the instructions the shaper gave to the shifters
B -it's unsatisfying when the perfomers drop out of performance mode

2. shaper = BM
-----'audience' could sit anywhere in space / could move around in space / could join in
used tool of catch/throw/grab exercise to begin improv which clearly has 'rules' though those rules are not necessarily readable/understandable
OG -started at high energy

how was watching this one different from the last one?
J -it looked more fun therefore, nicer to watch
B -it's a big thing to introduce other bodies into the space / how long does audience interaction last for do we need to set up guidelines hereA -when I sat in the space, I felt involved (felt like moving) especially when a shifter sat next to me
C -wanted to sit in the middle of the space, for a close up view, but it was hard to watch up close
P -viewing this work as a show, it is relatively low risk. how do we raise the stakes?
K -you could show the tools / do you want to make the tools (the how of the task) visible or do you want it to be shiny/performative. this could be explored through how the shapers shape the work? how performative is that delivery?
v -this work and way of working seems pedagogical rather than performative
P -moments of show pony / seductive moments

3. shaper = JD
this was a trio
C -it was different to watch, easier to focus -perhaps because it was only 3 people, or perhaps the group was more unified in their movement / ideas / approach
B -trio is always relational
v -the piece was more performative in the performative nature of JD's directions. How to radically develop the role of the shaper? What is the intention behind shaping? -perhaps in each episode, the shaper has a different intention. What is the shaper interested in and why? What other modalities can that person take on? What is the balance between a matter of fact delivery and performance making?B -there is such a range of nuances in the language ... could we potentially utilize these through pre-writing offers?
C -would love to see the shifters make more offers, rather than waiting for shapers

This opportunity to open up our rehearsals as been really enriching ... it has given us much to think about!! If any thoughts continue to pop up, we'd love to hear from you! Nga mihi mahana tenei ki a koutou katoa.

COMPOSURE - Part III Session 16

WARM UP

We started walking.
in silence
we traced patterns on the floor
we weaved in / through / around eachother
in silence
we developed the walking and pathways to become more complicated paths with more complex rhythms

There were three of us, BM, LC, and a new friend AN. We started so simply that we really quickly tuned in to each other, and from that point easily developed/expanded the material we were working with
-straight pathways become curved/long/short/backwards/spiral
-steady rhythms became syncopated/with some pauses/syncing up to other's patterns/different rhythms within the body
-action of walking became falling/spiraling/running

The image of weaving emerged.
So we explored weaving:
-pathways, patterns, movement trajectories, within our body, amongst/in/around an other
EF joined us and she explored weaving as an internal image -so we all tried this!

Weaving image
(unweave = unwind body / weave = re-wind body)

BM
-undwinding; started at the top of the head, down the body and out arms
-body still; unwind mind
-weave up mind; then to the inside of the body (organs) then to outside - last, think about skin

EF
-felt someone nearby and felt connection (sensing, not touch)
-pulling me in towards the other (person/body part/floor/wall)
-hard to unwind
-went with intuition of pattern
-tried shutting off but brain was still moving body
-unwound into sleep position

LC
-planned sequence of image in head before doing it
-hard to action the image in the mid-range (between standing on feet and sitting on bum)
-brought up image of fading -I faded to the back of my body
-unwound to savasana position (associations of neutral/muscle memories of being unwound?)

AN
-doesn't have to physicalise the image
-chest forward - figuring out what I can


Later, as a new thing to do ... we went along K Rd to find a place to try our walking/weaving improvisation from earlier .... here's a short video!

COMPOSURE - Part III Video

A snippet of our live-choreography practice

COMPOSURE - Part III Session 15

We began moving with our eyes shut, to activate our other sense more strongly. We explored shapes, movement pathways,


BM - completely different moves with eyes shut; it feels way better but maybe doesn't look better? It eliminates self judging in the moment
LC - my touch sensors are more active therefore I just more (myself and other when in contact)when I explore a body part on right, the left body part mirrors it; I find it really hard to concentrate via sensing on two things at once
JD - as soon as my eyes opened, my rhythm changed - I slipped in to the group rhythm
RT - went totally in to habitual movement

Tricky point: how do we get into contact with the others..... when that instruction is given, it can sometimes feel forced to get in touch. how do you know when the other is ready? how do you navigate touch/contact with eyes shut

Throughout this task there seemed to be windows of opportunity appear as a point to change but we all stayed the same
-we were all on the ground... either a new idea, a stillness, some common movement could have developed .. but we stayed a little in our own worlds

SO, in the next improvisation we explicitly gave each other the task to identify those windows of opportunity and give verbal offers to the group to help us get on the same path / lead us in that direction / assist in the progression of the group work rather than the individual within the group/



IDENTIFY / OFFER
JD - saw we were interacting in a line, sub-consciously exploring counter-balancing; gave direction to do more counter-balance
JD - saw the other 3 were doing something super interesting, didn't feel necessary to that idea so separated self and directed the exploration of other 3
LC - identified an idea earlier of movement from the head, carried that on later

This mode of identifying what the improvisation needs, finding ways to steer the direction of the group and the movement, and methods of delivering the instructions is one of our main focuses in this practice. Would love to hear any thoughts / experiences / suggestions from anyone out there reading!! 

HELP!!

hello.

we bring you a short advertising break in our weekly reflections to say, we need your help!!

We have some big performance plans! ...both here in the Auckland Fringe Festival and also, hopefully, in the Dunedin Fringe Festival. BUT, there are significant costs involved in hiring performance spaces, production equipment, travelling, and marketing. (So far, the whole project has been self-funded)

We have set up a Boosted campaign to raise money for the project. Boosted is a crowdfunding platform and works as an 'all or nothing' model. If we don't hit 100% of our funding by our closing date, all funds that have been received are automatically returned to our donors. And there are no fees attached to this for us OR the people that donate to our campaign. (If you have more questions about Boosted, go here.)

We would really appreciate any help you are able to give! If you have friends to share this with we are really happy for you to forward this message on to anyone who might be interested in supporting our project.

Arohanui,

Composure team

COMPOSURE - Part III Session 14

July - November 2016

Moving as a GROUP

We developed different ways / systems / timings / to move as an individual but in connectedness with the group.
aim to create movement language we know super well as anchors/buoys to our improvisations


+Group Slink:
  the basic pattern is-
  1 move
  2 still
  3 still
  4 still
  (but we could do any numbers really)
  - we only move (a solid/shift/transfer -type movement) on the 1. we don't have to move on the 1. we can break away (on the 1) and do whatever type (continuous) movement we like and then rejoin the group on a 1
  - we did it in mini groups and each group had their own timing, in a canon. So each groups' movement on the 1 was different, but there was unity in the overall rhythm

+conveyor belt: walking down & up the room using the same timing as above
  1 step
  2 still
  3 still
  4 still
  (but we could do any numbers really)
  - we can break away and walk for as long as we want (any style, any direction etc) before getting back on the conveyor belt.
  - this is a cool base. we can break off from here to do any of our other tasks -face off, catch/throw/grab, biosis duet, characters ....anything else!
  - would be good to develop triggers into those ^ tasks
  - do we find songs that the conveyor belt is associated with??

Unfortunately, we have no video evidence....sorry, we were all too immersed to step out and film! But we shall do it again.