on March 27, 2008On 7 March a stimulating Connecting Conversation took place at the Walter Maas Huis, in a series on Artistry and improvisation. The theme ‘Memory’ proved very fertile. Afterwards I wrote a reflection on this day, from the experience of reading the book On Dialogue by David Bohm.
on March 17, 2008Professional conversation is often strongly formatted. Expert meeting, symposium, debate, study day and conference, they all follow well known traditional forms. We meet and talk within the lines of the symposium habits.
WHY DO WE DO THAT? CAN WE CHANGE THIS CONTEXT?
on March 7, 2008Today I worked in London together with Helena Gaunt (Deputy Head of Wind, Brass and Percussion) Sean Gregory (musician, Head of the Centre for Creative and Professional Practice, Head of Professional Development), Christian Burgess (Head of Acting). We only had a small hour with the four of us. We came together to discuss the research application in the ‘beyond text’ programme Helena made and where we all take part in. Instead of speaking we would however in line with the idea ‘beyond text’ play together. Sean and Gregory seemed surprised to see us really with instruments. With a minimum of exchange in words we prepared a simple set with the piano and chairs for the musicians. We played for about half an hour and recorded the session on video. Then we had another half hour for a conversation about what we experienced.
on February 25, 2008On the 4th of February I conducted workshop about the theme ‘sitting not knowing’ at the Walter Maas Huis. I introduced the idea that you can begin an improvisation in different ways. You can enter an improvisation for instance as sound, as communication, as looking for rhythmic patterns, as an exercise, as a slightly dramatic personage leaving your chair, as a performance with meaning included and so on.
