Movement Ritual︎︎︎
Introduction:
In the 1960s, a group of dancers, composers, and artists began to use an empty church in downtown Manhattan as performance space, which they named the Judson Dance Theatre. This community of artists were interested in breaking down the rules and forms of modern dance. They worked in a style known as the avant-garde, a French phase that means unusual, groundbreaking, or experimental. Their experiments created a totally new kind of dance, called postmodern dance. This dance style is also known as “movement.” Mollie McKinley designed this art prompt based on the Judson era dancers and choreographers.
To set up:
1. Clear a big space in your living room, bedroom, or out in your backyard so that the furniture is pushed out of the way and there are no objects on the floor to slip on. Get a family member to help if you need to. This is your new dance studio! You can wear whatever you like, but comfortable clothes work best.
2. Warm up your body with some stretching. Any stretching routine you may have learned in physical education class is fine, or follow this one. Stretching is important, so you don't hurt yourself. Make sure you take some deep breaths as you warm up.
3. Now get your music set up. You can use headphones; place your phone in a cup to make a mini-speaker; or you can use a smart speaker if you have one.
4. Now that you’re set up, we’re going to try dancing/moving using some of the principles of the Judson Dance Theatre choreographers. We are going to try using their use of rules and gamesto help us discover new ways of moving.
To begin:
You’re going to improvise your dance/movement. (Improvisation just means that you are going to move spontaneously, without rehearsal.)
Use the following three rules as you move:
1: Use all of your body to move: your feet, your toes, your arms, your hips, your head. All of it. You don't have to move all your body parts at the same time.
2: Use as much of your new dance studio as possible, don’t just stand in one place. Really explore your space with your movement. See if the space can be part of your dance.
3: Imagine that your everyday movements can become dance moves. Think of the gestures you use to brush your teeth: opening the cabinet to get your toothpaste, moving the brush back and forth across your mouth with your forearm, even walking in and out of the bathroom. When you take away the bathroom and the objects, can just the movements of your everyday rituals become a dance? Try repeating them and see what happens.
Improvise using these rules for at least 15 minutes.
Tips:
+If you’re feeling shy about dancing, that's okay. Work alone for as long as you need, perhaps in your bedroom if you can, getting comfortable moving around with more confidence.
+If you have limited movement in your body or use a wheelchair, that's great! Do what you can; even the smallest rhythmic movement or just vibing with the music is great. Even wiggling your shoulders slowly to the music from your bed is great. Small, subtle movements are encouraged.
+Your dance does not have to look a certain way, and there is no right or wrong way to move.
+Try making up your own rules. Remember that the Judson community was a group of rule-breakers, too.
In the 1960s, a group of dancers, composers, and artists began to use an empty church in downtown Manhattan as performance space, which they named the Judson Dance Theatre. This community of artists were interested in breaking down the rules and forms of modern dance. They worked in a style known as the avant-garde, a French phase that means unusual, groundbreaking, or experimental. Their experiments created a totally new kind of dance, called postmodern dance. This dance style is also known as “movement.” Mollie McKinley designed this art prompt based on the Judson era dancers and choreographers.
To set up:
1. Clear a big space in your living room, bedroom, or out in your backyard so that the furniture is pushed out of the way and there are no objects on the floor to slip on. Get a family member to help if you need to. This is your new dance studio! You can wear whatever you like, but comfortable clothes work best.
2. Warm up your body with some stretching. Any stretching routine you may have learned in physical education class is fine, or follow this one. Stretching is important, so you don't hurt yourself. Make sure you take some deep breaths as you warm up.
3. Now get your music set up. You can use headphones; place your phone in a cup to make a mini-speaker; or you can use a smart speaker if you have one.
4. Now that you’re set up, we’re going to try dancing/moving using some of the principles of the Judson Dance Theatre choreographers. We are going to try using their use of rules and gamesto help us discover new ways of moving.
To begin:
You’re going to improvise your dance/movement. (Improvisation just means that you are going to move spontaneously, without rehearsal.)
Use the following three rules as you move:
1: Use all of your body to move: your feet, your toes, your arms, your hips, your head. All of it. You don't have to move all your body parts at the same time.
2: Use as much of your new dance studio as possible, don’t just stand in one place. Really explore your space with your movement. See if the space can be part of your dance.
3: Imagine that your everyday movements can become dance moves. Think of the gestures you use to brush your teeth: opening the cabinet to get your toothpaste, moving the brush back and forth across your mouth with your forearm, even walking in and out of the bathroom. When you take away the bathroom and the objects, can just the movements of your everyday rituals become a dance? Try repeating them and see what happens.
Improvise using these rules for at least 15 minutes.
Tips:
+If you’re feeling shy about dancing, that's okay. Work alone for as long as you need, perhaps in your bedroom if you can, getting comfortable moving around with more confidence.
+If you have limited movement in your body or use a wheelchair, that's great! Do what you can; even the smallest rhythmic movement or just vibing with the music is great. Even wiggling your shoulders slowly to the music from your bed is great. Small, subtle movements are encouraged.
+Your dance does not have to look a certain way, and there is no right or wrong way to move.
+Try making up your own rules. Remember that the Judson community was a group of rule-breakers, too.
Welcome to mapping collaboration, a toolbox for workshopping and creating across disciplines...
In spite of a long history of interdisciplinary creation, from our earliest recorded arts to our present moment, artistic pedagogy has created divisions between disciplines. This has left artists in a "post-Babel" condition where we don't share the same language and definitions. It’s also encouraged artists to develop practices for devising, creating and composing work that are distinct to their disciplines.
In spite of a long history of interdisciplinary creation, from our earliest recorded arts to our present moment, artistic pedagogy has created divisions between disciplines. This has left artists in a "post-Babel" condition where we don't share the same language and definitions. It’s also encouraged artists to develop practices for devising, creating and composing work that are distinct to their disciplines.
The inspiration for this project came from faculty and students at Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts where BFA, MFA and PhD programs in Dance, Theatre Production and Design, Visual Art, Film, and Music and Sound all work together in studio settings and playfully experiment with processes of art-making.
We wanted to create a database of projects, assignments and theory that we collect inside the studio and from research happening in other places. We are curious about how we collaborate and how structures reoccur, translate and deviate from one discipline to another.
Composition is central to these processes and offers a base for our approaches and experiments. We are excited about what our students are doing and inspired by the new languages in contemporary art and performance we continue to see develop.
︎︎︎select a category above to build assignments, learn more about how artists process ideas across disciplines and to create a collaborative process of your own
︎︎︎these tools are collected and used in workshops and classes; some are resources from artists; some are quotes about art-making and how bodies think and listen; others are ideas to expand and disrupt your own training and processes.
︎︎︎Each idea is intentially short- and not meant to be executed as written, but to be adapted to your own practice and specific project/context. Some may be taken in parts or combined with others to spark new ways of training and making together.
︎︎︎submit your own ideas and tools so we can keep building this site!
︎︎︎select a category above to build assignments, learn more about how artists process ideas across disciplines and to create a collaborative process of your own
︎︎︎these tools are collected and used in workshops and classes; some are resources from artists; some are quotes about art-making and how bodies think and listen; others are ideas to expand and disrupt your own training and processes.
︎︎︎Each idea is intentially short- and not meant to be executed as written, but to be adapted to your own practice and specific project/context. Some may be taken in parts or combined with others to spark new ways of training and making together.
︎︎︎submit your own ideas and tools so we can keep building this site!
