the reviews

State of Flux Reviews

Improvisation in whatever artform is about freedom; freedom of expression at the most overt level, throwing off all the restrictions and codes of artistic practice and replacing them with a spontaneous exploration of the very process of creating art. That it is art in process and simultaneously in product' is what places us, as observers, in a new relationship with the performers.

In dance, improvisation as a mode of performance represents fluidity, play and impulse, in contrast to the often rigid structure and form of choreographed movement. Sally Banes, in her 1993 text Democracy's Body, describes improvisation's extremity best: If all dance is evanescent, disappearing the moment it has been performed, improvisation emphasises that evanescence to the point that the identity of the dance is attenuated, leaving few traces in written scores, or even muscle memory.

In May, the Choreographic Centre hosted a weekend of improvisation, featuring the work of 4 groups that have embraced improvisation for the development of their performance. Familiar to Melbourne audiences, the groups were in Canberra as part of the third annual Precipice event .

Peter Trotman and Lynne Santos
Their improvisation starts with heavy movement arms sweeping. Then it floats the hands flexed. They are giving into their own weight, moving in isolation and yet there are moments of connection in the randomness. The pace increases and the movement becomes more abrupt, but there is still a seeming softness to their joints. There are static moments; then they are leaning into and later onto each other, pushing away and falling upon. There is a fluttering of hands. Heart beating pulse racing eyes blinking tongue licking, Trotman blurts out. There's a story to this performance, but where it ended up I have no idea.

State of Flux
The focus here is more on contact improvisation physical support, touch, suspension of weight. The duet between 2 of the performers, one in a wheelchair, conveyed the honesty of contact improvisation. There are chance funny moments he balances on her lap, shifts position his bum is in her face and intimate moments wheelchair discarded, rolling on the floor, moving over each other and some pretty clumsy moments too the uneasiness and heaviness of it all, bodies not intuitively sensing each other's next movement. Sometimes it seems like the distance between the individuals is expansive; at other times it seems like the group is a single entity.

Five Square Metres
There's a definite frivolity to this group; the 4 performers are expressive and frequently quite silly. The wit and chatter is all a vital part of the improvisation. The use of breath is another clever layer of the performance sighs, deep inhalations and exclamations, all uttered on top of each other and set against equally staccato movement, such as shuffling in file and bumping into each other. There seems to be more of a narrative than in the other events on the program. The movement is but one element of the performance, and more driven by the group than the individual, almost a kind of expression of community.

Gallymaufry
Andrew Morrish brings out his mike, Madeleine Flynn plucks her violin and Tim Humphrey toots the trumpet. Morrish does most of the talking, absurd little phrases really, amusing as part of the situation, I've been dreaming after hours. The music is cartoon-like in the way it complements his prattle. He steps away from the microphone, arms reaching, then stretching gently, he steps out into more dynamic movement. Humphrey is yelling, Open that door and jump! Is it a command for Morrish or for us? Madeleine goes to the accordion and Morrish is moving again. It's the funny mishmash of music, word and movement that gives the performance its meaning.

In an evening full of humour and more than the usual risk-taking, these groups created new performances and challenged us as observers to do a little risk-taking of our own.
Precipice: on and over the edge, The Choreographic Centre, Canberra, May 26-28, 2000

The disappearance of Dance Exchange from the Sydney dance scene leaves a sense of withdrawal among those of us who thrive on seeing polished exponents of contact improvisation. So it was with great expectations that I went to In Contact, in which US expert Nancy Stark Smith led the Melbourne group State of Flux after an intensive three-week workshop.

It was quickly obvious that three weeks isn't enough time, even with previous experience, to reach a peak level of fluency and bouyancy in this organic dance style.
But with a high degree of daring added to basic knowledge, it can be exciting - as this performance was in its most vigorous moments.
The State of Flux piece titled left (to the edge) involved five able-bodied performers and a sixth in and out of a wheelchair: David Corbet, Janice Florence, Martin Hughes, Jacob Lehrer, Wendy Smith and Nancy Stark Smith.

They worked hard, and often affectingly, as a cohesive unit in this naturalistic postmodern style that brings bodies into contact at almost any point along their length, recreating the possibilities of partnering anywhere from ground level to aerial contact - which happens to be an unusually strong and interesting element in this visiting artist's work.

Obviously, Nancy Stark Smith, with three decades of experience, was way ahead of her younger colleagues. I longed to see her dancing with someone who could match her. Instead, she performed a series of solo sequences in which the closest she got to a contact improvisation duo was a set piece in which she bounced off chairs, a table, high stool, broom and numerous cushions in a pretence of finding somewhere to sleep. Not the same thing as a moving human body.

But her final solo was delightfully engrossing, a kind of dancer's James Joyce. In a single phrase that was sometimes so teasingly slow it almost came to a halt, she moved through a range of shapes and moods that finally brought her to the piano where Mike Vargas was playing with subtlety and skill that enhanced the whole program. It was a spellbinding mix of understated movement and theatre.

The single showing of In Contact, a two-day workshop and a free forum were presented by the Performance Space in a new venture with antistatic, a committee of dance practitioners, theorists and teachers whose aim is to promote contemporary dance practice through critical debate and inquiry. Their next project is a three-night season by the Russell Maliphant Dance Company from Britain (February 6-8) followed by a two-day workshop.
To hark back to Dance Exchange, which contributed significantly with the similar Dancelink program, it is a plan filled with possibilities.

NOTE FROM FLUX:

There are many different understandings of Contact Improvisation. Apparently Dance Exchange (or Russel Dumas and some others) "performed" Contact Improvisation sometime in the 1970s. It must have been quite an interesting time for them as the form was only emerging and was so much rawer and singular than the form is now. I wonder if there are any records of these performances? It would be wonderful to be able to see the correlations between what was developing in the USA with Steve Paxton and the work that Dance Exchange (or whoever) were doing.
The most common understanding of the work that Russel and Dance Exchange created, and that they were most revered for, was creating choreographed work. I don't believe they ever investigated or practised improvisation as a performance form. There is a great difference between the work of Dance Exchange and State of Flux and it's a bit disappointing that the reviewer above could only make references that were comparative.

So, ultimately I would say...

Dance Exchange did not practise Contact Improvisation and never performed Contact Improvisation. Russel Dumas used principles that are fundamental to Contact practise to create choreographed works but never used the form in performance. The work Flux (along with Nancy and Mike) investigate is Improvisation in performance - there is no 'set' material in this work.