FOR TWO ARTISTS WHO ARE SELF-PRODUCING EVENTS FOR THEIR LOCAL COMMUNITIES, THE NOTION OF HAVING A PRACTICE THAT NEGATED ANY KIND OF PRODUCT APPEALED—AT ONCE SUSTAIN- ABLE AND RESTORATIVE.
Anne Huang phrase “task over longing.” What does this mean? CF: “Task over longing” reaches back to the brilliant Rowena Richie. A few years ago I was part of her piece Dearly Gathered which interrogated how capitalism engenders longing. Since th n it’s been on my mind and deeply informs my upcoming work EPOCH . As embod- ied in our score, I’m keenly aware of my longing when I am in the act of going to (my spot in) the woods. Then, as soon as, or even before I arrive, I feel free of desire. I go to the woods because it’s part of my day. I think the frequency keeps me in task mode. AF: How do you find yourself relating to me in your/our practice through the distance? CF: It’s a boost for sure, and some of that boost is the not-so-simple realization that you’re doing it. You’re held to the same task. It’s like we’re co-workers. And in the sharing of data and documentation there’s a lan- guage that’s ours-we are co-authoring it as we practice. I find a lot of richness and mystery in the way minds work, and our minds work differently. I admire how you articulate your perceptions. I try on the words you use, I take them with me, almost like a puzzle of sorts, and if I start there in that thought process of decipher- ing, then I am led somewhere. It isn’t as causal as “Oh! Now I know what she is talking about, I’ll do that, too.” It’s more like your thought ends and mine begins, or I’m distracted and that itself is a kind of continuance. AF: I echo this appreciation for the way our minds work differently. I fascinate on how we might interpret the same set of parameters so differently. We’ve talked about “task” being enough. You coined this wonderful AF: Yes, definitely the frequency is a powerful element. And also how it can be something that you do even when you don’t feel like doing it. It’s both a comfort and a type of labor. I love the word “practice.” What does it mean to have a practice? And what are we practicing? As an improviser I have continually come to find my experience of improvisation as a practice of presence, or becoming present, or maybe it’s “presence-ing.” I feel that so clearly in our current way of working. As though I sense the practice as a constant companion, like a steady hum or vibration, or some kind of benevo- lent spirit guide. CF: “Practice as a constant companion” - Wow, yes! This reminds me of that song “Love Letters” (“I’m not alone in the night, when I can have all the love you write…”). How poignant this idea is during SIP. Who doesn’t feel alone? Part of what we are up to with this practice involves documentation. When I see your documentation I am struck by how substantial your practice seems. It’s
We were set to be working together again throughout 2020, on Christy’s new work EPOCH , which was sched- uled to premiere at ODC Theater in San Francisco, in fall of 2020. Needless to say, this was rescheduled along with the multitude. As our adaptability was tested, our ability to function and approach process in the usual ways has been faced with increasing ambiguity. The need to reframe artistic practices has become paramount. We wanted to find a way to work together but without the historically valued parameter of creating any type of product or production—no dance film, no choreog- raphy to hold onto and no performative component (maybe subconsciously invoking Yvonne Rainer’s infa- mous No Manifesto ). For two artists who are self-pro- ducing events for their local communities, the notion of having a practice that negated any kind of product appealed—at once sustainable and restorative. It spoke to embracing a formalism that is of this moment in time—at once rejecting productivity in a definitive way, but also forging a rigorous practice which asks for a specific level of commitment and durational scope. One that values “task over longing” and carving out time for research that acknowledges the changed world we inhabit. We landed on the score for week 1 on 12/31/20 and began on 1/1/2021. Since that time we have been collab- oratively creating scores and practicing a minimum of 5 days a week with a commitment to 3 months of practice. We are documenting through images, writings, drawings, sound recordings and video recordings. Our process has been to agree on the parameters at the start of each week, and share documentation on the last day through a shared “google folder.” Sometimes we are returning to things. Sometimes we choose slightly different areas of focus or interest, but they are always linked so that we can have the experience of being in this shared practice. Some of our parameters for working with score have been: • Unanchoring: a deliberateness that resists accumulat- ing or culminating • Coaches. Coaching: expanding through influence • Chance procedures to determine focus and duration • Observation as a state of receptivity: move while noticing. Receiving is an active state
• Practice sensing with the whole body at once/ multiple directions • Connecting to rhythm in visual and aural fields • Quantifiable data of latitudes, longitudes; distance travelled; direction; time of day and weather; Beau- fort scale (this is a wind tracking system); cardinal directions; Perimeter/Horizon/Locus-all as a means of locating our individual worlds • Track/name what emerges by making verbal lists, voice recordings, and/or maps • Repeat and/or return (to place or directives) and find something new in the midst of ongoingness • Let yourself be seen • Shake up/shed/radicalize • Forgiveness/failure In the spirit of our non-productive approach, we are framing this article as a series of questions, which serves as a branching out of our continued conversation. We are using article writing to reveal more about our research and also to create more potential directions for future dialogue. HOW and WHY Aura Fischbeck: Why is a regular improvisational prac- tice important (to you)? Christy Funsch: It’s the earliest way I made sense of the world, and is still the most meaningful way I have found to be in the world. It’s not that it helps formulate thought, it’s that it IS thought (thank you Susan Rethorst!). It’s a crucial way of functioning. It’s foundational. AF: How has this practice affected/changed your SIP experience? CF: Well, task is good for me. I was raised in a very task- based worker bee household, and I know how to func- tion in that way. It’s grounding for me-especially task that doesn’t lead to product. The doing of it is its own reward. It’s also a way for me to give a different kind of attention to the natural world here. The woods have been my safe spot, a place where I feel completely accepted. And that kind of acceptance makes possible a specific kind of action and risk-taking. The practice has not been as bright for me when I’m inside at home. Which is a bummer, because it is now on average about 25 degrees Fahrenheit outside!
Kerry Lee Christy Funsch
that the documentation refers me to a larger, deep world of being in something. When and how do you choose to document? AF: I think the documentation is usually something I want you to see or hear or something I want to be able to offer both of us to be able to know about or reference in our collection of data. Sometimes it’s also just naming like “today I’m in/with the garbage” when I noticed that there was garbage strewn around the area where I was danc- ing. And so as a phrase it becomes recontextualized. So it’s both about observing what’s happening but it’s also a practice of harvesting. I start with whatever parameters we have set for the particular week, and this tunes my attention in a particular way, tunes me to what I’m in relationship to. This could be visual, aural, spatial, concep- tual, somatic, directional, etc. I think that’s how the doc- umentation “asks” to be included. It’s a kind of “thingy- ness.” For example, with the sound recordings it started because I became very aware of the sound of my boots on the gravel I was dancing on and wanted you to be able to hear my dance, versus see it. CF: “How the documentation asks to be included”—yes to that! That, to me, is a continuation of not valuing the product but instead continuing to notice what is there.
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In Dance | May 2014 | dancersgroup.org
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