Today was day two of my week-long creative lab being mentored by a master of choreography and dance, Peter Boneham.
Day one started off with him asking us three questions.
Question one: Are you making dance or new dance?
Question two: Why are you a dance maker?
Question three:What do you want to achieve through your work?
Finding the answers to these questions was actually quite hard. He talked about how we all love to dance and it's enjoyable but there must be more to it than that.
I said that I wasn't interested in making the work for myself or for the audience, he didn't like this and accused me of masturbation. What I meant to say is that I don't make it for myself and I don't make it in the worry of what the audience may think or what judgement they might make as this can often dictate you're work and the choices/risks you make and therefore the overall quality and that I do it because I am simply compelled to.
Peter is really great. He is very supportive. He just watches us create material and occassionally offers something, a suggestion, a thought. It's very intense.
I prefer to work for short periods many times throughout the day as I fatigue easily and get bored of myself very quickly and so in this case it's quite interesting because i'm almost being forced to work for long periods of time. Personally, I don't find it productive, just confusing and tiring for the brain. Of course, he isn't forcing us to do anything, so I leave the room every now and then to refresh myself.
I'm not quite sure what this is yet. I think this might be a chance to see a reflection of myself and my work and how i'm making it. I do have to say though that I am moving differently and taking the time to explore it. My body really hurts because it has come to be that I'm working with alot of contortion and twisting and generally being in an awkward position to create distorted images of the body so it's really pushing my strength and flexibility.
There are two others taking part, Anna Kryztek and Tamara Searle.
Anna is incredible. Technically she is sublime but she is a minimalist and creates works of great intensity and of experimental nature, really really wonderful, I've been a fan for a long time. I don't know Tamara as she lives in Australia usually and has come over especially for the festival.
It's so interesting be in the space with the others because I can see what they are doing while i'm working. sometimes I just stop and watch. I'm particularly interested in Anna's work and concepts because like I said, she is a minimalist, so she eliminates elements from her work that don't need to be there and it got me thinking about dance and how decorated it is and how most people don't stay true to a concept and just decorate it with flowery bits. For example, she was talking about how she has made a decision to eliminate any sort of turns from her work because she thinks that they are simply a thrill, it looks and feels nice but nothing else. It got me thinking about how I decorate things and I find myself producing farmore refined and truthful material that doesn't necessarily look beautiful but is far more interesting and true to a concept.
I'm not really sure what to get out of all this, maybe I won't get anything and that'll be ok if that's the case but I'm interested to see how Peter can push me and what I can learn from him and if it affects my future practice as a Choreographer and Dancer.
