Earthdance

Steve Paxton: Earthdance

         Out of Steve Paxton's initial developments of contact improvisation, many festivals, intensives and dance spaces focus on his work. The most notable of these dance spaces that fosters contact improvisation is Earthdance. Earthdance is a collective space in which artists can come to further their work in improvisation, contact improvisation, and experimental movement. This space focuses on community, embodied knowledge, ecology, artist-run, social justice, and cultural exchange. 

Photo by John Barret

        Earthdance was created in 1986 by Boston dancers. This space spans over 175 acres in Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts. This space can be rented by performers, teachers, or groups. Earthdance hosts some of the most well-known contact improvisation intensives, one of which is Nancy Stark Smith's. Earthdance hosts many contact improv jams throughout the year. Earthdance also fosters local programs like Sustainability Sundays and Julius Ford/Harriet Tubman Healthy Living Community. Earthdance holds artists in residency where they work interdisciplinary between movement, visual art, installation, music, theatre, and design.

E|MERGE: Interdisciplinary Artist Residency

Information above available at http://www.earthdance.net/about

Contact Improvisation Techniques

Steve Paxton: Contact Improvisation Techniques

       Out of Paxton's initial exploration with contact movement; a series of techniques and vocabulary have been created which further and define his research. The information provided below is derived from an article created by Adwoa Lemieux who studied the connections and benefit between contact improvisation and physical therapy. This list is not complete but explains basic concepts in contact improvisation. 

Small Dance: vertical posture is in rest so the skeleton can support the body while muscles are relaxed. In this state, one becomes aware of the tiny shifts and repositioning of the body as it breathes.

Atmosphere or Environment: a state of movement that aligns with the properties and elements of

• Air- a state when one feels effortless and weightless
• Water- a state in which one experiences flow of water in it's up and down motions
• Fire- a state of quick, rapid, and shifting motions that align with flames
• Earth- a sense of being grounded and supported by the earth
• Ether- is the omnipresent element that connects us to who we are and gives us a sense of purpose

Counterbalancing: two people balancing their weight through pulling or pushing in a state of tension

Trisha Brown, Leaning Duets, 1970

Depth of Touch: level of which the touch permeates whether being surface level of skin or deeper into the musculature

Giving Weight: intentionally pouring one's weight into another's structure

Receiving Weight: providing support for one who is giving weight

Jam: practice space for those wanting to experience contact improvisation

A contact jam at HaKvutza BeYafo; photo by Eliana Ben David
http://www.danceinisrael.com/2008/12/making-contact-contact-improvisation-in-israel/

Lemieux article: (http://www.contactimprov.net/lemieux.html)

Personal Opinion

Steve Paxton: Personal Opinion

        So what does Steve Paxton have to do with me? To begin with, he began a technique of exploration and play. To me, there has never been anything more satisfying than improvising with another person. Often times, when I try to recall it afterwards, I don't remember any of it other than the feeling I had during it. Contact improvisation allows me to reach a higher intellectual and spiritual state in which I experience another human being's perspective and way of moving through time and space. Contact improvisation improves upon one's own knowledge of their body and how they transfer and apply weight to a surface. This hyperawareness reaches into other areas of my life. One becomes aware  of how others move through space in their daily life.

       Contact improvisation has extended it's reach into my artwork. One can find many parallels between my artwork and my experiences with contact improvisation. This is apparent to how I treat space within a picture plane and how I use a medium. Often times, while working I am spread out in a configuration of supplies and I have to move frequently with large motions from the shoulder to create  my work. I treat the picture plan as space and real life to find ways in which objects relate in my piece. Below is an example of how contact improvisation has related to my artwork.

     Because I am so inspired by contact improvisation and believe in it's abilities to improve one's awareness of their body, time, and space, I have implemented it within my own classes. Contact improvisation is different with each person and sometimes it seems to flow and work well and other times partners have to push through tension to work cohesively. It is something that comes with time and experience. Below is a video of two artists Irene Sposetti and Johan Nilsson who created Being Motion in which they travel in areas of Stockholm and India to teach methods of contact improvisation. 

Historical Context

Steve Paxton: Historical Context  

        Steve's early collaboration with Merce Cunningham exposed him to new ways to approach dance and art. Merce Cunningham was the first choreographer to challenge notions of linear narrative's in concert dance works. Cunningham sparked the shift in dance from modern art to postmodern art. Postmodern art is characterized by art for arts sake, authenticity, universality, and medium specificity. Postmodern art questioned and blurred the lines between high and low art. It put an emphasis on the process of creating art more so then the product of art. Postmodernists value human experiences and interpretations because they believe that is what defines and makes up reality for each individual. At the same time as Cunningham, visual artists like Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. Below is an example of Merce Cunningham, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns in which one can see an emphasis on the technique and process of inventing art. 

Merce Cunningham, Coast Zone, 1983

 

Robert Rauschenberg, Collection, 1954
http://www.sfmoma.org/explore/collection/artwork/262

Jasper Johns, After Untitled, 1976
http://www.artnet.com/artwork/426195458/425105436/
jasper-johns-after-untitled-six-screen-prints.html

        Based on Copeland's article Postmodern Dance, Postmodern Architecture, Postmodernism, the Judson Dance Theatre grew out of Cunningham's work and immersed itself in the shift of concert dance into post-modernism. The artists made this shift by declaring that dance could have no meaning. Their work was characterized by repetition, disconnect with or no music at all, pedestrian movement, verbal noises, props, and lack of emotion. Copeland states, "The found movement, like the found object, is estranged from its "natural" context, and the ultimate effect of this displacement is to increase, rather than decrease, the distance between spectator and performer" (32-33). Fellow member and collaborator, Yvonne Rainer, composed the "No Manifesto," which rejected the dramatic performance and defined the group's purpose. The Judson Dance Theatre and post modern artists expanded what was accepted as art which in turn gave future artists more freedom with subject matter and processes. 

   Yvonne Rainer "No Manifesto"

      "No to spectacle.

       No to virtuosity.

       No to transformations and magic and make-believe.
       No to the glamour and transcendency of the star image.
       No to the heroic.

       No to the anti-heroic.

       No to trash imagery.
       No to involvement of performer or spectator. 
       No to style.
       No to camp.
       No to seduction of spectator by the wiles of the performer.
       No to eccentricity.
       No to moving or being moved"

         After Judson, Paxton furthered his research in contact improvisation. He premiered the first contact improvisation performance called Magnesium in 1972 at Oberlin College. Soon after this performance, Paxton's collective performed in New York at the John Weber Art Gallery. Paxton's invention of contact improvisation allowed dancer's and non dancers alike to experience a universal understanding of dance where anyone could relate to time, space, and another body. This invention is not only part of concert dance history but has integrated into acting and forms of therapy. Paxton's contributions to the dance world have been immense and without postmodern artists our culture would have a more narrow approach to art. Below is a video of Paxton discussing how he came to create Magnesium.

       Another one of his famous works is Satisfyin' Lover which was performed in 1968 and reviewed by Jill Johnston from the village voice. Johnston wrote, "let us now praise famous ordinary people" which comments on Paxton's use of anyone breaking the barrier of who is a dancer. This piece was re performed this year in a dance series called "Some Sweet Day" from October through November. Claudia La Rocco reviewed this new exhibition in which she says, "there is still a dismaying amount of resistance to the crucial Judson idea that dancers and dance need not be virtuosic to be artists and art." The Judson's ideas are still present in today's society. Their questions remain unanswered and dancer's are still exploring these idea's today.

Link to Copeland's article: (http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.lib.indiana.edu/stable/pdfplus/3245292.pdf)

  Link to Rocco review: (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/19/arts/dance/steve-paxtons-satisfyin-lover-and-state-at-moma.html?_r=0)              

Background Information

Steve Paxton: Background Information

Steve Paxton, 1984, Peggy Jarrell Kaplan

http://www.movementresearch.org/criticalcorrespondence/blog/?p=2778

            Steve Paxton, born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1939, is well-known for his impact in creating contact improvisation. As a child, he trained in gymnastics and began his dance training with Jose Limon in 1960. His biggest influence was Merce Cunningham.

            Steve Paxton was a part of Cunningham's company when he established the choreographic process known as "chance operations." This process began by identifying a range of topics and movements to choose from. Through "chance" someone would pick a movement and Cunningham would string together a series of these movements. Cunningham's work was often times not only physically challenging but also mentally difficult. Because his choreography was decided by chance, the dancers often times had to move quickly from one movement to the next with no transition. This process challenged dancer's minds and bodies by discovering how they could move through this choreography.

Steve Paxton and Merce Cunningham in “Antic Meet,” 1964. (Photo by Jack Mitchell)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/arts-post/post/merce-cunningham-dancer-steve-paxton-recalls-early-days/2011/12/01/gIQAkoQ6GO_blog.html

          Paxton was deeply invested in this process and with fellow members of Cunningham's company gathered to explore and expand upon ways of choreographing. This collective group became known as  The Judson Dance Theatre, named after the church they gathered in. This group expanded upon Cunningham's initial challenge and rejection of his modern dance predecessors. Their work was characterized by repetition, disconnect with or no music at all, pedestrian movement, verbal noises, props, and lack of emotion.

        After Judson, Paxton focused his work on contact improvisation in which two or more people share each other's weight in a continuous effort acting and reacting to movement. Collaborator, Nancy Stark Smith, has continued on Paxton's legacy by providing spaces and events where dancers can experience contact improvisation. A video titled "Fall After Newton"documents Paxton and Stark Smith's collaboration over 11 years with videos from these contact improvisation performances and jams.