Rambert School Clowndance Intensive 2023
FRIDAY: Duets
As the last day of the intensive, today should have been given over to creating something. I had hoped to be able to follow the group’s pleasure and return to anything they had particularly enjoyed, to develop it into a short piece of choreographed performance. Unfortunately, I woke up on Thursday morning feeling so ill that I had to cancel the session and spend the day in bed. So instead Friday was spent looking at duets, as I didn’t want to skip this part of the course.
Material Covered:
We started with walking, which today I used to lead us into a deceptively simple game, again borrowed from Jon Davison; Dancing (Davison, 2015). The players walk in silence, then when music comes on they make eye contact with another player and dance together, maintaining the eye contact, until the music stops.
We followed this with my gamified adaptation of the dance improv format The Conversation (Blom and Chaplin, 1989), using the feedback mechanism of ‘I wanted more of…’ to inform the next duet each time. I asked the dancers to play with shifting their focus between their partner and the audience.
We finished off with a new experiment. I wanted to explore the idea of unison being a form of visual illusion, which might give rise to a laugh from the enjoyment of knowing your eyes are being tricked. We tried this first by creating short dance phrases to be performed as duets in tight unison, then pedestrian phrases performed the same way. We finished the week off with a whole-group dance improv game, in which we set a short repeating phrase, with the rule that someone must be performing it at all times. Other than that we were free to enter, exit and move as we pleased.
We started with walking, which today I used to lead us into a deceptively simple game, again borrowed from Jon Davison; Dancing (Davison, 2015). The players walk in silence, then when music comes on they make eye contact with another player and dance together, maintaining the eye contact, until the music stops.
We followed this with my gamified adaptation of the dance improv format The Conversation (Blom and Chaplin, 1989), using the feedback mechanism of ‘I wanted more of…’ to inform the next duet each time. I asked the dancers to play with shifting their focus between their partner and the audience.
We finished off with a new experiment. I wanted to explore the idea of unison being a form of visual illusion, which might give rise to a laugh from the enjoyment of knowing your eyes are being tricked. We tried this first by creating short dance phrases to be performed as duets in tight unison, then pedestrian phrases performed the same way. We finished the week off with a whole-group dance improv game, in which we set a short repeating phrase, with the rule that someone must be performing it at all times. Other than that we were free to enter, exit and move as we pleased.
Moment 1:
Here are the first three of six duets the dancers improvised today, the other three unfortunately drifted too far out of frame to be satisfying to watch. (Filming my own sessions is an ongoing challenge!) Here’s a moment to look for in each:
Here are the first three of six duets the dancers improvised today, the other three unfortunately drifted too far out of frame to be satisfying to watch. (Filming my own sessions is an ongoing challenge!) Here’s a moment to look for in each:
- Finch and Nightingale showing that they can hear the music too, by pulling out the word ‘you’
- Mistlethrush and Kestrel playing the game of not-quite, not-yet touching until nearly the very end of the song, and the satisfaction when their heads finally do touch
- Heron and Magpie’s sudden and spontaneous train, which made everyone laugh with surprise
VIDEOS: The Conversation
Three improvised duets, based on Boom and Chaplin's The Conversation provocation
Three improvised duets, based on Boom and Chaplin's The Conversation provocation
Moment 2:
The final group improv felt a little flat afterwards. I wondered whether I needed to set a few more rules, and the dancers said it felt more like a conventional dance improv task. However, as I was watching the video back, I noticed lots of glimmering little moments that we didn’t see at the time, and realised that what we had been missing was an audience, to tell us where the fun was. I spotted:
A ninja fight without breaking the choreographed arm phrase; making the choreography a ‘problem’ to work round, meaning we were playing a game with it.
Cheerleading someone when they were getting exhausted repeating the phrase
Trotting through without referencing whatever else was happening
Going too fast, going too slow, and having an opinion
Perhaps you’ll spot something else?
The final group improv felt a little flat afterwards. I wondered whether I needed to set a few more rules, and the dancers said it felt more like a conventional dance improv task. However, as I was watching the video back, I noticed lots of glimmering little moments that we didn’t see at the time, and realised that what we had been missing was an audience, to tell us where the fun was. I spotted:
A ninja fight without breaking the choreographed arm phrase; making the choreography a ‘problem’ to work round, meaning we were playing a game with it.
Cheerleading someone when they were getting exhausted repeating the phrase
Trotting through without referencing whatever else was happening
Going too fast, going too slow, and having an opinion
Perhaps you’ll spot something else?
VIDEO: Unison as Visual Illusion
Kitty and the Rambert School dancers experiment with using a repeated phrase of choreography as a game problem
Kitty and the Rambert School dancers experiment with using a repeated phrase of choreography as a game problem
We talked today about dancing with another person, which is of course a very familiar experience that we had just looked at from a slightly different viewpoint today. The dancers felt today that they were putting the characters first and the dancing second, instead of vice versa, and trusting that for the audience, just watching the relationships was enough.
We also had a very interesting conversation about the use of facial expression in contemporary dance. We agreed that there was a default that we all tend to slip into; blank, serious, deadpan, with our cheekbones sticking out! Some people argued that that reflected the inward focus of being in the zone while we dance, thinking from inside our bodies. Others recalled working with Thick and Tight, who choreograph facial expressions as they work with lipsync, and we wondered whether we could think about training facial muscles like any other part of the body.
I wonder how we can balance the need to be in the zone and in your own body with keeping something responsive enough to the outside world to communicate to the audience. This is a particular challenge with repertory; how do we keep dancers’ individuality and humanity while they master the form of someone else’s movement? I would be very interested to know whether dipping a toe into the waters of Clowndance this week has any impact on how these dancers work across the more formal aspects of their training.
I noticed as we talked that once again we had created some silly in-jokes within the group. Where once I might have thought of this as a guilty pleasure, I’m now happy to interpret it as a sign that I have fostered a feeling of safety and community. (see my blog Bonding, Needs and Boss Clowns)
We also had a very interesting conversation about the use of facial expression in contemporary dance. We agreed that there was a default that we all tend to slip into; blank, serious, deadpan, with our cheekbones sticking out! Some people argued that that reflected the inward focus of being in the zone while we dance, thinking from inside our bodies. Others recalled working with Thick and Tight, who choreograph facial expressions as they work with lipsync, and we wondered whether we could think about training facial muscles like any other part of the body.
I wonder how we can balance the need to be in the zone and in your own body with keeping something responsive enough to the outside world to communicate to the audience. This is a particular challenge with repertory; how do we keep dancers’ individuality and humanity while they master the form of someone else’s movement? I would be very interested to know whether dipping a toe into the waters of Clowndance this week has any impact on how these dancers work across the more formal aspects of their training.
I noticed as we talked that once again we had created some silly in-jokes within the group. Where once I might have thought of this as a guilty pleasure, I’m now happy to interpret it as a sign that I have fostered a feeling of safety and community. (see my blog Bonding, Needs and Boss Clowns)
Some of the best moments were coincidental/lucky/unlucky/accidental – maybe a testament to the value of live performance
LIVENESS
Live experiences and connections between people are precious- we crave them. I crave them.
I wanted more of THIS
It’s quite cool that this is our profession- you can make a living from this shit!
Reflective Roll notes: 03/11/23
LIVENESS
Live experiences and connections between people are precious- we crave them. I crave them.
I wanted more of THIS
It’s quite cool that this is our profession- you can make a living from this shit!
Reflective Roll notes: 03/11/23
I asked the dancers to think about a clown resolution- something they want to take forward into the rest of their practice
Very grateful to experience & work in safe space- would like to know how to recreate!
During the game game it really stood out to me just how long we could be immersed in each others’ world- without feeling aware or self conscious about the absurdity- felt super comfy.
So nice to move, play, perform in a studio space without the mirror for an extended period of time. I feel different about the mirror now
I’m gonna take my true self with all the emotions more, cause I felt that my true self has been hiding but now that I’ve shown it and felt it I can’t get rid of it and I don’t want to.
My clown resolution: not to shun the funniness of situations- dance is taken too seriously, if it’s funny that’s valid
Clown resolution- really liked using the audience- creating that relationship & bringing it into the one onstage- want to incorporate that more in my choreographic practice
Clown resolution- let the audience see you struggle or feel silly/embarrassed
Resolution- my clown persona, I’d love to see how that manifests in my dance work
The focus on developing relationships on stage & with audience
Personal Post-It notes: 03/11/23
During the game game it really stood out to me just how long we could be immersed in each others’ world- without feeling aware or self conscious about the absurdity- felt super comfy.
So nice to move, play, perform in a studio space without the mirror for an extended period of time. I feel different about the mirror now
I’m gonna take my true self with all the emotions more, cause I felt that my true self has been hiding but now that I’ve shown it and felt it I can’t get rid of it and I don’t want to.
My clown resolution: not to shun the funniness of situations- dance is taken too seriously, if it’s funny that’s valid
Clown resolution- really liked using the audience- creating that relationship & bringing it into the one onstage- want to incorporate that more in my choreographic practice
Clown resolution- let the audience see you struggle or feel silly/embarrassed
Resolution- my clown persona, I’d love to see how that manifests in my dance work
The focus on developing relationships on stage & with audience
Personal Post-It notes: 03/11/23
Bibliography
Blom, L.A. and Chaplin, L.T. (1989) The intimate act of choreography. Cecil Court, London: Dance Books.
Davison, J. (2015) Clown training: a practical guide. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Blom, L.A. and Chaplin, L.T. (1989) The intimate act of choreography. Cecil Court, London: Dance Books.
Davison, J. (2015) Clown training: a practical guide. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
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