The Art Haus SLC                
  • Home
  • About The Art Haus SLC
  • Who We Are
  • Events
  • Art in the Living Room
  • The Art Haus SLC Blog

Why I Art Haus SLC

6/21/2012

3 Comments

 
The above video shows a brief snippet of some work developed in a workshop hosted by The Art Haus SLC in Salt Lake this past Spring where I also guest lectured at UVU in the theatre department under the direction of Barrett Ogden. 

From my previous post on this blog you are well aware that I was raised in a community of tight-knit artist types but my own interest in theatre and performance has always moved me to an ever increasingly smaller niche group of artists.  My work is nestled in devising new pieces of performance where action is at the forefront of the creative process.  To this end my research and development in rehearsal rooms has been working in the creation of movement structures based on the dreams and memories of participants.  These workshop performers developed brief movement structures in a three hour workshop this Spring, which you can see in the video above.

I could talk about catharsis and the creative process, or I could quote a long list of practitioners working in the same vein of physical performance as myself.  Instead I'm going to appeal to the logical side of our readers by talking about process and how my work based in New York City can benefit and be benefited by a collaboration with The Art Haus SLC.  To give an example of how cross-country collaboration can be stimulating and exciting to the performance community and the local community, I'm first going to provide an example from a current project I'm working on with an artist in Los Angeles that is under consideration for a Creative Capital grant. 

We began using text from Mark 5:25-34:

25 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years...27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment...30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?..32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. 33 But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. 34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.

From this text these videos were produced:


The first pair of performers read the text and put the words into action.  This short video then replaced the original source text and another set of performers watched this video as the source for their own performance, which follows:
And again, this video replaced the first as a source for performance and was viewed by another two performers who then interpreted it as follows:


When the project is fully funded the productions will continue through 1000 performances and 2000 performers.  For this portfolio we stopped at three.  When these videos reached me in NYC I then broke the movement down and analyzed it for it's movement qualities.  I prepared for a group of dancers note cards describing snippets of movement.  Let's get interactive for a moment. 

Pretend you never saw these videos and only read a card telling you to embody these actions:

  • Sit in a kneeling position with the ankles crossed, left ankle over right and with the right hand by the right hip and left hand resting on the left ankle.  Weight rests heavily in the back right hip.  The gaze is looking high to the right corner.  
  • Reach a fully extended left arm in a steady arc to eye level at the left side of the body.  Let the arm curve down to touch the ground. 

Read over the card for a few minutes (not too long) and then let your creative body take on the movement.  Allow it to become whatever your body feels the words mean. 

From dozens of these cards, drawings, and similar instructions, NYC based dancers/performers created this movement sequence:
Now what does this work have to do with The Art Haus SLC?  Everything.  We are ready to bring collaborations from around the world to the artistic and educational community in Salt Lake City.  I mentioned in a previous post bringing artists from LA, Japan, and Salt Lake City together and I was serious about that because through the use of technology, we are able to do it with relative ease and minimal cost compared to 20, 15, or even 10 years ago. 

We can even think more simply.  What if we were to bring events that are already staples in the Salt Lake City performance community, such as the annual 24 hour play festival, and create a platform for arts communities in New York City, Los Angeles, and even Paris (Texas, obviously) to be involved in the work?  In 24-hours, performers in New York City can easily access scripts from Paris (TX), and Paris (TX) can receive scripts from Los Angeles and Salt Lake City can produce work written that very day in Los Angeles, CA.  In just one day we can have a cross-country collaboration at our fingertips.

This can even extend to education programming.  Perhaps we can enter schools when they are studying China, or Hungary, or Japan and we can connect them to our colleagues working in these countries to deepen the student's understanding of their lessons.  Classrooms can be taken through rehearsal rooms in Hong Kong or traditional folk performances in Spain.  Technology brings endless options and we intend to take advantage of these options to benefit the international community and the community in Salt Lake. 

This is why I am working for The Art Haus SLC.  I want to see these collaborations and educational opportunities happen, and we will.  We look forward to sharing this work with you from wherever you are in the world. 

By: Sara Moncivais

Please go here to donate and make these little international dreams a reality
3 Comments
Abby Rose Peterson
6/21/2012 01:43:02 pm

Thank you for posting this, Sara.
I was one of the dancers in the video in NYC who took the cards with actions, and put it to movement. I'm a dancer. Much of my life I've studied ballet, jazz, and modern. I've worked as a dancer; always being a puppet to the choreographer's/director's visions.

With that said, having the freedom to do anything under the guidelines of the card was difficult for me. I wanted to keep true as possible to the specific actions that were directed. Now as I look at the above video, I wish I would have added more of my own interpretations to the movement. This is why I think the Art House is important for artists. It gives us a home to play with our creative "juices," and work on breaking through boundaries that we limit ourselves to. I don't want to always be a dancer, in fact I'm learning that I CAN'T always be a dancer as I age. I do want to choreograph and put my work on other people, and it's important to have a voice that is yours alone. Again, I believe the Art House is a venue where artists can find their voice. Whether it is through dance, theatre, or the visual arts.

This experience was fun. It was fun creating my phrase of movement, and it was fun repeating it over and over again as different qualities came out in each repeat. Different feelings or visions emerged as we were performing. It's fun working with Sara who creates a healthy, safe environment to explore ideas. She sets good open boundaries that gave me enough freedom to figure out what I wanted to do/create.

Reply
Carly Berrett
6/23/2012 02:07:30 pm

Thanks for sharing your inspiration, process, and a peak into the directions it can take you and other artists. I truly enjoyed watching how the work evolved from the beginning stages to this point in the process. I'm curious about your role in this last work with the dancers/movers. How much direction did you give them? Where do you see the next step taking you? All the best of luck in your creative endeavors!!!

Reply
Sara Moncivais
6/24/2012 12:21:23 am

I'm happy you took a look, Carly. I would love to get in a room and work with you some time- and to answer your question about my role in the last piece- I don't actually do much. I tried to create very clear defined movement phrases that were written for the movers in the room but other than that I put no restrictions on their actions. The instructions were clear enough that I knew there would be some shared actions among them that would serve as movement motifs and then let their own personal movement qualities serve them however they would. The most I ever did was put them in shapes and ask one dancer to learn another's movement phrase and perform it instead of her own. There were some happy accidents in their performance though, no?

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    The Art Haus SLC

    Bringing creativity to the lives of individuals, families and students in the Salt Lake City area.

    Archives

    July 2013
    May 2013
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012

    Categories

    All
    Arts Education
    Community
    Contemporary Arts
    Dewey Square
    Donate
    Fox 25
    Kickstarter
    Multicultural
    Mural
    New Venue
    Os Gemeos
    The Art Haus Slc
    Timeless

    RSS Feed