WORKSHOP: wireless
Posted by bellanna on May 2, 2008
Dancers Michael Schumacher (USA) and Liat Waysbort (Israel), together with film maker Roberta Marques (Brazil) (who highly unfortunately wasn’t present) and dramaturge/performer Robert Steijn (NL), gave a workshop during SPRINGDANCE 2008 about bringing together various different disciplines through intimate encounters and mutual confessions. The workshop took place April 24, 25, and 26 in Utrecht; I only participated on the 25th.
The outline of the workshop included the following description: “Like in the post-modern dance of the sixties, they are looking for new connections on a human scale. As (improvising) working artists they wish to be confronted on the dance floor with a discipline in which they have had no training. Wireless is the first phase of a performance about the darker sides that come to light when we come into contact with people who do not share our ideas. These four artists want to take the first step with people from the dance sector who have an interest in interdisciplinary work.”
Admittedly, and understandably, my expectations of the workshop were quite high. I had also expected some technical equipment to be present, as the registration letter had promised. Nevertheless, only two cameras were present, no beamer, no PC, and no editing equipment. It turned out that the workshop was more like most (improvisational) workshops I have participated in, meaning that the focus was placed of several techniques to heighten bodily/sensory awareness. We were asked to focus on sensorial experiences other than mere visual ones. How does a mirror taste? Which smell would you connect to a mirror? What happens when several sensorial data are the simultaneous focal points?
Only during the opening remarks was the issue of filming, editing, and ‘the camera’ addressed. Some people did walk around with a camera whilst everyone was moving, and interestingly reflected on the use of such devices as ‘disturbing’, ‘annoying’, or ’strange’. They didn’t know how to ‘connect’ with the camera, as they perceived it as an objective recording device, an ‘all-seeing eye’. Well… I think quite some people have different views on this, and I am certainly one of them.
In sum, the Wireless workshop was an occasion to meet some new people (although quite some people I already know participated) and to move together, but that is all.
