the institute for crazy dancing

Ten Thousand Fathoms

by Jason 499 days ago

Notes from meetings of the: TEN THOUSAND FATHOMS STEERING GROUP.

 

 

A solitude ten thousand fathoms deep

Sustains the bed on which we lie, my dear;

Although I love you, you will have to leap

Our dream of safety has to disappear

(W H Auden)

 

August 2010 - Opening Statement:

WHAT's IT Like

What's it For

( What's IT aLL About ) ?

LOVE

You are here, listen very carefully…

The PRECARIOUS BALANCE:

of Multiple Forces, Reflection & Contemplation, Fun, Rhythm & Time, Journeys, intersections…

Think before you speak.

Your voyage starts now:

Charts, directions, compass, bearing, Sexton, tide, time, position. Plan, model, diagram, shape & form, Sourcing, building, crafting. [Piecing together the jigsaw]…

IMPRO

• VE
• VISE
• MPTU

TRANSITIONAL (forever in a state of journey)

Dream think speak act…. Routes, directions and diverse intersections

PLAY

The play of forces, status, sensitivity, breath, voices, actions, characters, environment: the rhythms of forces in action… (even stillness has breath…)

Ever-shifting parameters: opening & closing judgments to facilitate steps / stages / phases…

• WHO ARE THE FOOLS
• AND WHO ARE THE FIGUREHEADS
• AND HOW DO THEY INTERSECT,
• DIVIDE, COLLIDE, INTERRUPT…
• COMMUNICATE, COLLUDE,
• EXCHANGE
• VALUE
• De-value and re-value. An ever evolving process

 

PUZZLE - performance puzzle

JIGSAW PIECES:

• Sections + Intersections
• Reverberations
• Rhythm
• Tone
• Energy
• Colour light film
• Precarious balances
• Practical Tasks
  

To Pause:

Swing gently, Let time pass you by, To be adrift, And calm.

The JOURNEY:

Who will wear the Golden Robe?

Do you get it, and if so

What is it?

The DRAWING of LOTS (Or - trepidation)

ASSEMBLAGES

Folding in order to Unfold the journey (Or - origami)

DIS/ORIENTATION Past - Present - Future

The storm… Swing, & then… Rock (abye, abye, abye…)

The STARS, constellations, signs, Omens, births and deaths…

A New Day: The Beyond.

The Never-Ending Plank (starts). The circle of life:

INTERIOR & EXTERIOR

The construct. INSTANT GRATIFICATION & THE ETERNAL GOOD. Becoming Ship-Shape (and a short 'clown show').

Rum & Ginger - 2 characters dance…

THE ANSWER PLEASE

Robinson Crusoe

Alone on the Island of the Self.

CURTAIN

CALLS

(The Never-Ending Plank continues…)

 

29/11/ 2010

Present:

Oscar Clementine (Conceptual Clown), Les Sandwash (Creative Producer) and Jason Hird (Director) discuss the charts and direction for the Ship o'Fools journey….

OC: Animals (and children) are in the world, like water is in water…  Let's perceive of participation in the world differently…

JH: There are no passengers, only crew. No hierarchy…

LS: And what of artifice, dear?! After all it's all made up - and failing to plan is planning to fail. I have an urge to control. Think of the picture!

JH: It's how we piece the jigsaw - the picture - together.

LS: Very well. Accept and develop a list-less state - encounter and embrace frustration as delicious hurdles… What's it called anyway?

OC: Ship o'Fools?

JH: Boat-Building for Beginners…

LS: What about 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'?!

[PAUSE]

JH: Each piece of the jigsaw contains some kind of metaphorical (or allegorical, philosophical or practical) meaning… As the pieces piece together layers of rhythm, Time and point of view develop and expand… Each piece of the puzzle should reverberate with meaning. The performance is the series of imbued practical tasks and precarious balances which lead to the construction of a beautiful boat.

OC: Who are the figureheads, and who are the fools - and where have they taken us so far? Where are we going?... But where could we go, and how could we get there? How do we piece the puzzle of our life together? How does it all dis/connect? And how does it feel?

LS: Creating transformative experiences…

OC: Stop - look - listen - think - pause - speak… Here we are, listen very carefully.

JH: (quotes from TMC) It's a sphere in the beginning. It pulsates, throbs. Rivets: wood and metal, slot and pivot joints, locking pegs… A code system for order of complex assembly. A canvas gives it shape - all wrapped in text/tile, skin. Goes through a series of transformations - sphere, trampoline, massive bass drum, projection screen, tunnel of despair… a transformative magical shape-shifting boat. It's like a puppet.

OC: Let's create the boat with people, with paper, with designed structures… Let's put it all in a tent shaped like the hull of an upturned boat, with peep-holes sewn into the canvas so that the people queing up to get in can get a peep at what's inside…

LS: Yes. Let's.

OC: And the stars, the constellations… Dream like you will live forever, live like you will die today… All our lives are in pieces, aren't they?

JH: Allowing space for imagination… we've got participation, music, video, performance… dramaturgy of the pause

OC: The dramaturgical arc of experiences through the course of the voyage…

LS: Yes, but what about the money?

OC: The Ship sets sail from the Harbour of Destiny, along the precipice of despair, through a lull in time, to a land of freedom fantasies where there is rum, singing and dancing. Everyone goes home transformed answering with the same answer to the question: Do you get it, and if so, what is it…?

LS: And what is the answer? And what about the pirates?

JH: And the refugee boats…

OC: And the OECD. A reconsideration of the way the world is divvied up…

JH: Fifteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest…

 

Definitive descriptive text at 17.12.2010 for:

Ship o'FoOls

(or Boat-Building for Beginners)

The Institute for Crazy Dancing is currently developing its next participatory performance work. Initial practical Research & Development was undertaken in Yorkshire during Summer 2010. Consideration and analysis of this R&D period has helped assemble structures and parameters through which the ICD aim to refine, edit and orchestrate participatory and performance material into a full show.

The show is a series of participations, with a live score, accompanied by projections of the stars, and facilitated by a crew of strange and beautiful clowns (aerialists, musicians, singers, dancers and designers). It is a journey into a fantasy where there are no passengers, only crew. It aims to create a moment of pause and reflection; a time to connect with fellow travellers; an opportunity to become more yourself; a glimpse of true love, as well as nostalgia for a harmonious future.

"In many ways, we are all in the same boat; but in so many other ways, we are not.

With a proposal for a fairer future at the heart of the journey, the audience will be taken to places where they feel like we all really are in the same boat".

(Captain Clementine)

The show is destined for indoor and outdoor manifestations. The outdoor version takes place in a tent which is shaped like the upside down hull of a boat. The indoor version takes place on an end-on stage taking groups of people from the audience into the action on a rotational basis (according to Lot Numbers).

This is a voyage through the tunnel of despair, via the constellations, to achieve certification in the Quest to discover who will wear the Golden Robe. Will it be the proud or the humble, the greedy or the generous? Become ship-shape in this participatory performance: ready & transformed in order to change the world...

Piecing together the puzzle of our lives together - it is all about connections and points of view...

The live score will be of disco-pop-trad-shanty-chainsaw-vocal-acoustic-electro-silent proportions - based around themes and variations from 'The Drunken Sailor', 'Bobby Shafto' and 'My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean'; and the participations will include: the drawing of Lots, rocking in a hammock, origami boat-building, plus other practical tasks and precarious balances.

Rum punch, singing and dancing are optional, but recommended...

They all build a beautiful, magical, transformational jigsaw-puzzle boat…

 

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