LOOP OF WE

Description

For a trio or quintet. All performers face the same direction, which can shift over time. The person in the center is the source of the content from which the group strives to create a  verbal, physical, vocal and emotional unison. Loop of We is mainly used as an exercise but can be shaped as a performed score.

Goals/Impulse

This is an exercise in listening and commitment. The flankers do not offer a watered-down version of the source content, but instead strive to embrace a fully committed version of the content. The source takes in the influence and support of the others; aiming to find the “we” impulse, without losing track of their own desires. I’m interested in the experience of mob mentality as one of the edges of this exercise.

Process

This attempt at physical, vocal and emotional unison is an impossible task that is alight with the energy of the attempt. Although the source is offering sound and movement material, the thing that they go after in the unison feels more emotional than formal. After a particularly intense session, one of the performers referred to it as emotional mapping. There is a clear leader, but this leader must remain porous, never using the exercise as an amplification of their interior but finding the resonant place of “we” and prodding that forward. The center person is generating the sounds, emotions, actions from that resonant place; those flanking her aim to become her by embodying everything they can perceive. This means they are all looking in the same direction, searching to see the same things. This practice is defined by a kind of hyper-committed guesswork.

Discoveries

This work distills the temperaments/tendencies/expressive outlets of each person. Each version is deeply affected by the chemistry of the group performing it, so that the same center person flanked by a different group produces a different event. The strong impulses of the source person often pull the flankers outside of their comfort zone. This calls to the surface a working difference between sympathy and empathy. The goal is move toward empathy, to strive to become one. But the impulsive, committed guessing results in three very distinct and unique interpretations of each moment, each emotion.

Technique

Jean-Rene’s work with the group assisted our embodiment of this practice and played an important part in shifting this from an exercise in listening to a performance score to be wrestled with. Jean-Rene’s work connects us to our primal instincts, asks us to “Dare to try.” He pushed the ensemble to a playful and vulnerable place that became marked in their memory; I could reference that intensity and call them back to it. Working with Jean-Rene deepened the bond of the ensemble, and this helped me pull the dancers further into possibilities of Loop of We than I might have been able to do without that priming, shared experience.

Questions

What is the role of language in this? The more powerful versions tended to hover in movement and vocal exploration with very few forays into language. Would the seeing and naming work be accessible in this score, or is language not the focus of this exercise? How would unison speech unfold?