Hello fellow MAPPers, I’ve just come up for air out of a mountain of reading
material and realised that I haven’t posted anything in months. So this is a
long one (I mean really long), maybe get a cup of tea or just pretend you didn’t
see it J Some
of this may well seem muddled and confused as I still feel as if I have a long
way to go. I’ve pieced together some of the ideas that I’ve been thinking
through so I can see where I am now and continue to move forward with my
journey. I would of course love to hear any of your thoughts.
My starting point was to look at the uses of Graham outside
what people would consider ‘Graham Practice’ what are the deeper principles
underpinning my practice and how best to share these ideas with my students.
I began what seems like an age ago by looking the philosophy
behind the evolution of ideas on the connection between mind and body. We begin
with Cartesian dualism an idea elaborated on by Descartes that the mind and
body are separate and it is the mind that is in control of the body. Comprehending
a mind separate from a body is difficult a dancer as our existence rejects this
idea, we are moving thinkers and we are aware that our experiences through
actions lead to new knowledge. Understanding the sociocultural standpoints of
each perspective however helped me put this into context and gave basis for
further reading. I then began to look at concepts surrounding embodiment, with
Graham in mind one of the books read was ‘Nietzsche’s Dancers’ (Larothe 2006) I
was instantly drawn in by the concept of the I/body, the idea that we only
exist because of our lived experiences. Aha, this is more in line with my
thinking I thought. The writing is primarily concerned with exploring this
I/body in the context of revaluation of religious perceptions of the body. It
explores the philosophies of the body in pre Cartesian thinking and a revival
of these ideas through the dance imagery of Nietzsche and the work of Martha
Graham and Isadora Duncan. Larothe identifies religious vocabulary used by
Graham to express her ideals on dance and life and relates this to religious
affirmations of faith. I remember through my time studying many of my teachers
used vocabulary in the same vein describing ‘looking up to the heavens’
exploring the ‘inner landscape of the soul’, expressing a ‘feeling of
exaltation’. I remember feeling at the
time that this spiritual language was used to communicate feelings that we
experience as dancers yet struggle to put into the spoken word. This means of
communication to me represents significantly the exploration as dancers that we
go through to try and make sense of ourselves amongst the unknown. We learn from many sources that the Martha
Graham technique was initially conceived organically and simplistically through
the physical actions created by the breath through the body, the application of
which Larothe describes as expressing ‘faith in the body as a movement of
reflexivity through which we can generate ideals of ourselves’ through this process
we do the ‘I’ and experience a sense of bodily becoming, finding sources of
energy sensation and strength. The contraction and release representing the
breath and source of life, the spiral and opposition a simultaneously growing
strength and inner tension, the shifting of weight an acceptance of the earth
and an exploration of our place in the world. To many the dance appears
stylised with a visually distinctive quality, yet each movement is an action is
connected inextricably with intention and sensation and each dancer is encouraged
to feel and to listen to their own body. ‘a full embodiment of Graham-based
dance prevents any tendency for the external shape and design of these
signature movements to override the internal physiological processes that drive
them’ (Bannerman 2010)
Graham’s work can be linked to Neitzsche’s ideas on the will
to power and knowledge, she sees each dancer as striving for greatness and
‘becoming what one is to the highest degree of realisation.’ We can also look at it in terms of Foucault’s
ideas of inner struggle and domination where throughout life our more primal
instincts and visceral emotions are supressed giving us need for an outlet for
expression. We are able to use dance as a vessel for exploring and expressing
and communicating feelings and ideas that without this medium we could not
express, it is to these ideas Graham refers when speaking of dancers as
‘acrobats of God.’ Burkitt (1999)
explains that this is not the only way to view the idea of power, there is not
only power over and against others in a struggle of egoisms turned against each
other striving for submission and dominance, there is also a type of power that
exists between embodied beings and things, a shared and collective knowledge.
This transmission and communication leads to transformation and the conception
of new knowledge and is as embedded in our natural bio-history as the ideas of Nietzsche
and Foucault. This led me to explore
other perspectives on embodiment, what other theories are linked into this? Is
there more than just this mind/body connection? I found there are many strands
of thinking surrounding these ideas, our environment also comes into play, our ‘self’
is our lived experience in the world, where our sensory experience exists within
space and time. Ecophsychology comes into play, as we have an effect on our
environment, our environment also has an effect on us and our learning
processes. This is what Enghauser (2007) refers to as the ecosomatic approach –
mind + body +environment. It is in the interplay between our body, our mind and
the social connections within and amongst the wider world that form basis for
our being. In dance we have awareness that our place in time, our conditions
physically and the social environment in which we are placed have bearing on
our embodied state in any moment.
So, I’ve read some bits and pieces about the philosophy
behind current theory surrounding embodiment and I’ve tried to put this into
the context of how I relate this to dance knowledge, how does this relate to my
professional and pedagogical practice? It is hard for me to be objective and I
am not sure if my line of thinking is wholly founded, yet I perceive at least
in part that thinking surrounding dance training techniques is divided into two
schools of thought; the first where the dancer strives for correctness, ideals
and a physical aesthetic working within a codified structure repeatedly to
train the body to carry out set complicated movements with increasing ease and
accomplishment, and another where the dancer listens to the body, exploring the
self and the honesty of human movement in a search for the truths that live
among us. I consider the consensus for the Graham technique to be that it
belongs to the former. I began delving a little into the ‘Gaga’ method in which
Ohad Naharin trains his dancers as I thought it would be interesting to see the
take on embodiment of someone who has emerged from the Graham fold. When I
watch Batcheva I find so much to identify with and had considered this to be
the fact that there was clear lineage between the companies. In fact what I was
identifying with was something far less tangible as Naharin states that whilst
acknowledging Graham as part of his experience does not use it directly as
influence. (Perron 2006) It is deeper embedded principles that are transcending
these barriers and transmitting a shared meaning. In my practice of the Graham technique, yes I
do strive for certain aesthetics and repeat the same sequences repeatedly
adhering to a set of rules but it is within these rules that I find the freedom
to explore many of same principles that practitioners of release based
techniques employ. I find space within the rules of the vocabulary when Naharin
talks about ‘honesty’ in movement and overcoming physical and emotional
‘blockages’ to this I again relate. I explain this idea of freedom within rules
to my students as taking a journey frequently travelled, the first time you embark
on the route you need to concentrate on the directions, you take and maybe take
too many things with you that make the journey not only unfamiliar but
difficult, you maybe get a little lost on the way, maybe the next and the next time
these factors come into play but eventually you know where you are going and
you begin to explore new things, you see something new, you feel where the
ground changes, you see changes that occur day to day. It is the same route
that is providing the basis for that deeper level of understanding and
exploration. Every class is different because it is now, it is in relation to
time, to space, to our environment and our senses, as dancers we listen to our
bodies, we explore and we search for the new. I experience this same
familiarity when taking Graham class, it is my home, my safe place to explore,
learn and express new things.
I feel in part that the reason the potential of the understanding
of the Graham work is not being reached as there is some misconception
surrounding the vocabulary. Only an imprint containing aesthetic and codified
exercises is left leaving the substance behind. Some who do see the validity of
the instruction of the vocabulary would say that it is in order to have a basis
of technique from which to expand or rebel but to me it is more than this. It
is a case of experiencing the now within embodiment of the work as opposed to
maintaining history and tradition or practicing the work to enable experience
of the new or the now. How best to define this deeper understanding and enhance
the potential of the vocabulary as I share it with others? In a landscape with
ever increasing diversity in choreography and a focus on what are referred to
as ‘somatic’ or ‘eco-somatic’ practices. I would suggest that Graham training
can be a contributory method to such work sharing many of the same values. More
and more I hear of Modern or Contemporary companies taking company class in
ballet to meet technical demands, is there not a natural place for a Graham
class with a more relevant approach to better meet the demands required form
the dancers? Many who have studied the technique in depth express their
experiences in a similar way I do. Reading Bannerman and Horosko amongst
others, reflecting on my study at the Graham School, looking at my Aols and the
ways I have used such practice to inform other non –Graham work and exchanging
thoughts with other practitioners with whom I share practice has further
affirmed these feelings and ideals but I do not believe them to be the consensus,
is there a better way to share such ideas? Is it in the spoken word and the
imagery we pass on? Is it the enthusiasm and passion we put into our execution
and explanation? Is it a case of outlining the similarities between this and
other more current techniques focussing around embodiment and feeding this
larger practice into the instruction of Graham? Is there something else, an
added dimension that can communicate the depths of potential for expression
within the work? What can I as a Graham practitioner in the UK today continue
to learn from other movement systems and how can my sharing of the technique best
contribute to the current landscape of Contemporary dance?
Thank you for reading!
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