Jacob's PCC Keynote

On May 9th I gave the keynote at Performance Creation Canada Halifax – I've posted my notes on the Small Wooden Shoe and thought I'd link to them here as well. Comments more then welcome.

I want to talk today about why I think this event matters. And why I think that Performance Creation matters. I'm going to define some terms, then start with the thing that matters most, and move on to 3 good things and one bad, I'll try to be clear about some things in the middle of that and I'll try to link everything back to actual art making process. And I'll end with some proposals.

Link

FTR: 5 not unrelated things (Notes 3)

5 not unrelated things

1
Toronto designer Lewis Nicholson asks his students to do what seems not that hard: To bring in five unrelated objects. It is, of course, impossible. The moment I hold an object up to another, I make connections between them. Since learning this exercise, I think of it often when I need cheering up. We (and our objects) are all related.

2
It is tyranny to remove difference. Tyranny as the accepted lie of sameness. Stepping together being a public display of tyranny – as is being punished for being out of line.

Variation might be an antidote to tyranny – not that we all must be variant all the time – but that there is a capacity to shift. To be the same or to move apart or maybe even both.

Perhaps “not tyranny” isn’t a lack of authority but an understanding that authority is fluid and consensual. But this will require some work on everyone’s part.

And this is also about the eyes – the tyrannized should no longer need to see, says the tyrant. So to keep looking. To keep seeing.

3
It was when I started looking. This seems obvious. But of course it was when I started looking. They couldn’t actually keep it going – I mean clearly they were trying and they were close. Maybe closer then I’d ever seen or wanted to. But still he was taller than her. And different hair. Maybe that was it – that their hair refused to participate. Though he had tried. A lot of product. He had tried – but even if he had succeeded in controlling his hair, which he hadn’t – their hair was different. And their nails too. I am fairly certain their pupils dilated at different rates – even when I shone the light on them both.

4
Repetition is hard. Hard because there can be too much with too little attention. I rush towards the new, not noticing that I do the same things over and over. It’s not the repetition that’s a problem – I hardly think I’m alone in that – it’s the not noticing.

Doing something again might be a claim. A claim that it is worth it. That there are things worth doing over.

In digital, I can talk about “lossless” copying. That we are not digital is important and really very good.

Redoing is an opportunity, a chance for change. Nothing can be done twice.

5
I could see it in the lean of his body. He had thought about it four times before – his body had tilted forward as if he were going to get up – but then he didn’t – maybe he thought better of it. Then he saw something – the getting-up was not from the inside, but from something else, maybe a pigeon taking off or the way that gentlemen stooped to pick something off the ground. Whatever it was, it pushed him over the limit and he stood up from the bench. After he took three steps he slowed – as if realizing at that moment that he had stood up. And maybe he couldn’t remember what had inspired such a clear exit from the bench. He couldn’t remember the pigeon or the stooping gentleman – but I think he suspected he had not made the decision alone.

FTR: The story so far (Notes 2)

The story so far

Michael Trent has an idea to make a series of double bills – intimate collaborations with another artist – not necessarily another choreographer, but possibly another choreographer. He wishes to meet other artists in a way that can only happen by making a show.

In November of 2006 he sees /Dance/Songs/, Ame Henderson’s recent piece with her company Public Recordings. He decides he would like to ask Ame to be the other artist for Double Bill #1.

She agrees.

They want to deepen their own work by meeting the other. Not necessarily move towards the other, but to respond.

They decide each will make a piece and that they will share the same collaborators.

They agree to work with scenographer Trevor Schwellnus, who had designed /Dance/Songs/ and many other shows in the Toronto theatre scene. He creates worlds of real objects re-visioned on stage.

For the music they talk to Eric Chenaux. Eric Chenaux makes music with many collaborators in many configurations – one of them is The Reveries with Doug Tielli and Ryan Driver. The Reveries only do covers. And they only cover love ballads – American songbook standards to Willie Nelson and Sade. The Reveries cover these love ballads with waterproof cell phone speakers in their mouths.

They ask Chenaux what he thinks he would like to do with The Reveries for Double Bill #1. He proposes the company work with five CD’s of love ballads The Reveries might cover, that there would be a home stereo on stage and the dancers could pick the songs they wanted to listen to while they danced. Then, as late in the process as possible, the “originals” would be replaced by covers as done by The Reveries.
Ame and Michael agree.

They work for a week in December – testing ideas, playing with possibilities.
In February they come back to the work.

A week ago they switched to the music of The Reveries.

On Monday they moved to the theatre.

And now you are here.

Thanks for coming.

FTR: A Note on Notes & Places to Start (Notes 1)

The program notes from Double Bill #1 - For the record.

A Note on Notes
As an audience member, I have a complicated relationship with program notes.

I want to like them. But sometimes it’s hard. I want them to tell me some things but not others – to open doors, but allow for the space of personal interpretation that I so treasure in contemporary art. I want some context for the work I’m about to see or just saw (sometimes I like to leave the reading until after), some sense of how we all arrived here and maybe some things to think about in relation to my experience.
With these notes, I’ve tried to do that by providing three of the ways that I relate to the works in tonight’s show: first, starting places, then how we got here, and finally five not unrelated thoughts that I’ve had while working on this project.
I hope that these notes might be useful to you – but please, don’t feel obligated. You are more than qualified to write your own.

Any thoughts on the notes or the work are more than welcome - jacob@dancemakers.org

I hope you enjoy your evening.
– Jacob

Places to start
It Was a Nice Party.
Ame Henderson wants to reconstruct a chaotic event by sampling and covering. To reinvent and replay sources, to find a surprising authenticity in the face of the constructed image. She is interested in finding out what happens when cinema’s edits and angles are translated onto the body.

It started with bank robberies and attacking birds – but it was a party that stuck.

In a room that is itself a cover, the dancers don’t move until the film does.

And The Rest.
Michael Trent wonders about tyranny – the large and the small, the self-imposed, the political and the rest. Addressed with moving, breathing bodies, the work questions affinities, methods of control and the dynamics of making choices.

Starting with a huge roll of paper, the company writes tyrannies, alphabetically. There are hundreds. They aren’t necessarily all so bad. Except when they can’t change.

So they work on difference and change.

Three things as we get close.

a reminder about Double Bill #1, an announcement of Thinking Out Loud, and a very good music show tonight (Saturday) - not in that order.

We are close now – Double Bill #1 is just a few days from opening (details below) – and things are going really very well – a run of both pieces yesterday with tech and costume and hair at the Dancemakers studio – the works are, I think, rare and wonderful. The pieces are very different and yet the connections are some of the best parts. The dancers are so generous, invested and present that I could watch them all day and just be happy with that.

And the music. The music is astounding and beautiful. It's performed (not live - for that, see below - but the recordings are magic) by The Reveries - The Reveries play sweet-jazz standards and the music of artists Nick Cave, Willie Nelson and Sade (to date). They perform with small, adapted cell-phone speakers inside their mouths. The speaker signal is filtered in a wild array of wah-wah effects caused by the changing shape of their mouth cavity. The mouth speakers also re-route the sounds of one another’s instruments. For example, Eric’s guitar is heard through Doug’s mouth and Ryan’s thumb reeds/vocals are heard through Eric’s mouth.

They will break your heart if you let them.

And you have a chance to do that tonight - The Reveries are releasing their third album on the Rat-drifting label: Matchmakers Volume 1: The Music Of Willie Nelson tonight at the Tranzac. Doors at 9:30 (Details below.) There will be a reggae dance party after.

And then Friday - at 7 pm at the theatre, we (myself, Micheal Trent and Ame Henderson) will be doing a Double Bill version of Thinking Out Loud - a series of conversations about dance and ideas that Dancemakers is doing around all our shows. Because we feel we don't talk about the art enough, and that it's hard to move forward without talking about what you're doing. These conversations will be about some of the bigger ideas contained in the work - not to explain away, or tell you what you're about to see, but to place the art in context and generate discussion about the form itself and it's place in art and social history. And it would be better if you were there. It doesn't matter if you see the show that night, you can come to the event anyways, even if you saw the show Wednesday and then were going to see it again on Saturday, you could come Friday to think out loud.

ok. Time to finish the programs.

hope to see you at least once this week.
and if you feel inclined to pass this along, we'd like that too.
thanks
Jacob

____


New from Dancemakers
Double Bill #1

New dances by Ame Henderson (It Was A Nice Party) and Michael Trent (And The Rest)

Created with and Performed by: Clinton Draper, Kate Hilliard, Kate Holden,
Benjamin Kamino and Steeve Paquet

Music performed by: The Reveries
Scenographer: Trevor Schwellnus
Rehearsal Director: Bonnie Kim
Dramaturge: Jacob Zimmer
Costume Designer: Claudia Fancello

April 9-12 at 8pm & April 12 at 3pm
Premiere Dance Theatre, part of Harbourfront Centre’s NextSteps series;
Harbourfront Centre, 207 Queens Quay West

PLUS!
April 11 from 7-7:45 pm, all ticket purchasers are invited to a special edition of Thinking Out Loud - our new series of conversations about art and ideas, animated by Michael Trent, Ame Henderson and Dancemakers Dramaturge/Animateur Jacob Zimmer.

Tickets: Regular: $22-$38; Students/Seniors/CADA:$20-$33
Call/Click: 416.973.4000 or www.harbourfrontcentre.com

A little more information:
Dancemakers website: http://www.dancemakers.org
Dancemakers blog: http://www.blogspot.dancemakers.com
Public Recordings/Ame Henderson website: http://www.publicrecordings.org
Reveries website: http://www.rat-drifting.com/
Reveries Myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/thereveriesoftoronto

---

The Reveries are pleased to announce the release of their third album on the Rat-drifting label:
Matchmakers Volume 1: The Music Of Willie Nelson

The Reveries use mouthspeakers, saws, streetsweeper bristles, voices, guitars, pieces of balloons, hamonicas, drum machine, drums, and tangled wires to recapture the essence of popular love songs.
The Reveries are Eric Chenaux, Ryan Driver, Doug Tielli, and Jean Martin.
This is their first CD dedicated to the music of a single songwriter, one for whom we should all have a very special place in our hearts.

"If a songbird flew into his mouth and opened cans of cooing Pepsi cola in the depths, Willie Nelson's lungs would be two blustering nests buzzing with the sonorous voices of buried chirp and indigestion. The Reveries play the music of Willie Nelson half way between dyspepsy and marble-mouth on the instruments they've given their breath to hallow."

~Andrew Zukerman

Chris Harper will be the spinning fine reggae music following the Reveries' performance!

Saturday April 5th
at Tranzac Main Hall (292 Brunswick Avenue)
9:30 pm
$10

Please come!

There is a problem with language.

There is a problem with language. In finding the right words and ways of describing the work we are doing. The problem is that there is so much language being used that it has been rendered almost meaningless.

Part of my job is to write about the work, and to write about it while it’s being made – to write about it for media, for email blasts and Facebook events. To find ways of describing, hinting and enticing. To use the limited space to tell the reader something that will make them curious, excited enough to come out to the show.

I don’t have any problem with the persuasive nature of this writing – I want to be able to articulate what excites me and the people I work with. This articulation is crucial for contemporary and conceptual work, since there is much resistance and fear that surrounds work that to me is completely about a connection with and respect for the audience. And I want people to see the work, because I think it’s important. And I know that if people don’t come it’s harder to do the work. The box office is by no means the end-all here, the art is (that’s why I like working here), but it needs to be reckoned with. A dance company is not the cheapest thing to keep going.

All that to say, I don’t mind writing with responsibility to entice.

But it has become very difficult to find words that have any meaning left.

A few months ago I was riding in a truck with Trevor Schwellnus, a dear friend (and scenographer for Double Bill #1) and he was wondering about the point at which we would give up on the English language since every word would have been used as a lie. (He blogs about the conversations here.)

So, this sentence, from the Facebook event: “Double Bill #1 is a daring confrontation with the unknown from two of Toronto’s most exciting and innovative choreographers.”

I think it’s true. Michael has made programming choices that bring the company face to face with “I don’t know” – which is where art making should come from, but is brave and rare in a cultural climate of scarcity (more I think on this climate later.) And I get excited about seeing a new show by both Michael and Ame – and they are both, with all their differences, innovating in their processes and relationship with the form of dance.

But when I read the sentence and especially imagine others reading it, it feels full of words that everybody uses and so have become empty and meaningless.

It was replaced for the email blast with: “Double Bill #1 pushes at convention and brings risk, innovation and serious play to the Premiere Dance Theatre. A performance event not to be missed.”

Which I also like, and says many of the same things and some new things while avoiding a few of the clichés (“two of Toronto’s most…”)

I’m not sure there’s a single solution for this. Having work live up to its publicity might do something to bring meaning back to the language we use to talk about it seems like a first step.

Also longer form writing (e.g. this blog) in which idea’s can be teased out seem like another aspect of helping. I think a lot about what has happened with music blogs, where critics and committed audience have an active relationship of talking about the music they love. See Carl Wilson’s Zoilus for a great example. Recently performance maker and writer Chris Dupius has started writing on line and Kelly Nestruck, now the theatre critic for the Globe has a blog here.

I hope that with in these longer forms, less restrained by the history of the blurb and lies of repetition, we can find ways of talking about the work that are not empty and meaningless – both the work and the audience deserve it.

About the music for Double Bill #1

Eric Chenaux makes music with many collaborators in many configurations – one of them is the Reveries.

The Reveries only do covers. And they only cover love ballads - American song book standards to Willie Nelson and Sade. They cover these love ballads through waterproof cell phone microphones they hold in their mouths.

Choreographers Michael Trent and Ame Henderson asked Chenaux what he thought he would like to do with the Reveries for Double Bill #1. He proposed Trent and Henderson work with 6 CD's of love ballads the Reveries might cover, that there would be a home stereo on stage and the dancers could pick the songs they wanted to listen to while they danced. Then, as late in the process as possible, the "originals" would be replaced by covers as done by the Reveries.

Trent and Henderson agreed.

The Reveries are:
Eric Chenaux (vocals, guitar, mouth-speaker)
Ryan Driver (vocals, quasi-ruler bass, thumbreeds, mouth-speaker)
Doug Tielli (vocals, guitar, saw, mouth-speaker)

“The current title-holder of Weirdest Band in Town, The Reveries.”
-Carl Wilson, Globe and Mail

“The Reveries' music is really very pretty. In its woozy, Ella-on-Quaaludes way, it reveres and revives the original tunes, but reels them back to the body, amid all its ungainly, embarassing excesses. The beauty may even be heightened by the impediments, levitated out of the songs into pure, messy abstraction.”
-Carl Wilson, Globe and Mail

Link (label)
and link (myspace)