Through RISK there’s a potential for FAILURE

I asked two performers to explore “contain the collapse” as a physical movement exercise. First, they did this independently, then we explored how it could work in a duet. The task involved an oxymoron— creating contradictory conditions to reveal a paradox. When exploring this independently it created an interesting physical state, yet when asked to “contain each others collapse, while still exploring their own” in a duet, challenges arose as the mind had to concentrate on more elements. A layer of text material was added into the equation, along with the microphones and wires. I was attempting to overload the dancers with layers of information, tasks and details, causing them to eventually “fail” in their attempts. The moment of failure was when the performers “collapsed” in a sense; as if a system was overwhelmed. I found this moment alluring, it only happened for a brief moment before the performers attempted to tune into the task again. I experienced this moment as vulnerable, the performers seemed extra alert and aware. I wondered if getting to this state could be an approach to work in the unexpected and indetermined. We talked about failing collectively, and I explained that the importance of the work was about working and trying quality that came out of the tasks, rather than “succeeding”. This took the pressure and self-judgement off the performers, creating a sense of freedom for experimentation and play. We continued to work with impossible tasks in the process, accumulating layers of information to push the performers to be in uncertain states; where they knew that they might potentially fail. The process required these discoveries and discussions, to clarify the important parameters of the performance.

I noticed that if dancers were too “in their head”, they were actively thinking, planning and trying to get the task “correct” — then they were already tuned out and not present, hence the idea of overloading the system. During Rosalind Goldberg´s workshop early August 2020, I discovered parallel interests in creating space for the unknown to occur, failure, and layering of tasks. I connect with Goldbergs multi-attentive practice: where the dancers’ interest in the explorations is important throughout the structured choreography. In her work this is achieved by overloading the dancer with information, giving them something to concentrate on all the time and having physical anchor points. For me this multi-attentive practice echoes in my practice of layering tasks and parameters that the performers are working with in a performance.