In general, I accept the notion that dance is a performance art, and if it is not for someone else who is in the room, it is a film. So the idea of online dance performances that are neither documents nor films is conceptually alarming to me to say the least. The most terrifying thing, however, about watching a performance online was realizing that one could skip the boring parts.
Confession: I have been bored before in a (live, in- person) performance (I assume I was in some way part of the problem), but, in that context, I had no thought other than to remain at least physically present. It is part of the social context I uphold in the theatre.
But, I was startled to realize that, when no one can see HOW one interacts with the performance, one becomes free to respond more authentically. For example, no one knows if one skips ahead. No one knows if one does something else at the same time. No one knows whether one is really paying attention.
This realization was deeply unsettling for me. It challenges my very notion of what I seek for performance to be: a communication entered into with integrity by both parties. The assumption that I can trust my audience to attend in good faith is fundamental to my practice as a performer/creator.
I am still processing what it means that one's engagement can be so different in the "solitary" context of attending virtually.
Wow i enjoyed reading this, Jessica. Thank you so much. "My behaviour contravened my very notion of what performance is. It is meant to be (I believe) a communication entered into with integrity by both parties."
When I come to the parts that I find less interesting, I know there is a lot going on in me and in the performance that I need to attend to. This is the moment when I can notice something that I have not seen before or do not recognize, if I sit with the bored feeling, there is a potential to widen my perspective on what I am seeing, to notice aspects of the performance that are not as easy to consume, and to develop focus at challenging times. But when I am not held by the in-person-togetherness/AFK (away from keyboard) contract, I might miss those sweet gifts.
At the same time, in this stay-at-home to do everything time, I have been seeing all kinds of performances all the time. I am seeing a wider breadth of artists that I would not have the time, energy, or the money to go see. And I am stretching, doing exercises or cooking during some of these performances so I am watching from a flow-of-life mind frame, so I am receiving from a different perceptive state but i am still perceiving, thinking through, witnessing, being with feeling and caring about the artist's offering. So for me, these gifts are different but i would say equally respectful and loving and delightful.
But yes also I have heard people say they are not going to see something because they don't have the energy or focus that day to fully witness a work. I always admired people for that clarity of mind to say, no, if I cannot give this work my full focus I will not attend. At the same time, for me, in my neuro-diverse way, full focus is hard to discern and to achieve, so I have to just go with the best intention. Sometimes when I think I don't have energy to witness something I do and I am so thankful I went. Sometimes I am only able to fully witness 10 minutes of something and at other times I witness only my challenges of mental distraction, but for me it is all in the name of practicing attending to that which I feel has meaning inherently by virtue of the care the artist took to create the work.
Thank you again, Jessica for writing your post. It has given me the opportunity to reflect on my own experience. I will be thinking much more about what you have written. I hope you are well!
The end of a session is a shock. It's so 'final'. There's no slow dissipation of energy as people chat, pack up there things, and leave the studio... It's like a slow emptying of energy within the space vs. a sudden disappearance... For me it's like "oh, ok. I guess we're done here"... feels unsatisfying to disengage abruptly (given the reality of these platforms). I suppose I want these virtual platforms to do things they can't do at this point in time, with current technology ie: physical/personal connection... could be my resistance rearing it's head.
Changes in flow of work time: I intentionally ask everyone to start close to their camera so we can "check-in" at the beginning of a session. (in studio people may be all over the room warming up, some chatting with each other, and I'd go up to each one to say hello). I can't sense when people are tired (mentally or physically) so I now pre-schedule breaks into my plan and I remind people to ask if they need a break (sometimes the pre-scheduled in not at a good time). The end of the session is always a shock. Even after a year and a half I have not gotten used to the sudden black screen and immediately being alone in my own room. (from Conversations 2021)
a practical response: It is very useful to be able to see people at a distance and switch to closeup (e.g. on zoom- gallery view, speaker view, pin several to see just a few simultaneously. This is similar to standing in the front/back of a room/theatre to get a wide view, walking close to someone for details, and narrowing my focus to see just a few at a time (or dividing them into groups). however the closeup is different online- I can see detail without intruding on the person's personal space. (from Conversations 2021)
It's so different from the way I usually work in close contact with others. It’s in my body but out of our bodies; very intellectual, very demanding. Developing trust on the screen process is a big part of it, and trust with the collaborators that are on screen with me and with the director’s approach. It takes time which we don't always have so in the future I hope to be in processes that allow for that time. (from Conversations 2021)
I wonder whether the screen itself demands the intellectualization? or... could it be the way the choreographer-director (c-d) is setting up the work? (which yes circular realities, may be because c-d is drawn to those directions because of c-d's perceptions through the screen etc. etc.), or something to do with expectations of yourself as interpreter...or?
As a dancer on Zoom it’s all been tasked-base, and experiment based in given time to walk away from Zoom; think about something and what I’m going to bring back to offer... in a four hour rehearsal there’s tasks that are delivered; they either happen very shortly after the task is delivered, or I’m given time to go away in that 4-hour chunk – I turn my camera off; go and turn my home into a playground – the things that happen in the different rooms are amazing memories and them bring that back to share – everyone of those collaborators delivers their project in real time on Zoom
Rehearsing online> The necessity to work at this time was to stay engaged with the ideas but also not lose our connection to each other, to our way of dancing-thinking thinking-dancing. It was not about what we are losing but about staying connected. The first bit of every rehearsal was always about checking in and seeing where people are at and not rushing. Anything I had planned or anything we were going to be doing that day, the priority was being with what everyone was doing and what they were coming into the rehearsal with because everyone’s experience during this time have been vastly different, all very challenging and all very different. (from Conversations 2021)
Oh I love this post too... I did 60-100 online "creative practice" sessions during the pandemic with both professional artists and non-artists. We also found that checking-in in human time, allowing for the slowness of connection times, the "she's frozen" moments, the doubling of voices and then pauses, seeing the eyes looking for the mic icon, the ubiquitous "we can't hear you"/"can you hear me?" and centring the feeling into the fact that we are all here together in the same space and time, let's take time to honour that - all of this allowed for sensation and energy to flow between us. Gave us time to feel our back bodies, to accept this interface as a possibility rather than an impediment, and to smile, to see each other's face in close up - gave us an appreciation to be together in new ways.
for me live is when you are performing in the moment the camera is on and what the audience sees is that unedited version. we are all together in the moment of anything-can-happen. if you see the documentation of a live performance, that is lovely, but you have missed sharing the moment the performer was in. I don't value one over the other, but i feel there is an extra charge of togetherness and an extra charge of independence in being able to witness the documentation of the live event at my own time, without being seen, without being a consideration in the live moment.
@maxine togetherness: live, seeing one another in co-presence, responding to one another in the moment, in co-relation / independence: watching someone's performance when it is only push media and i'm not on camera, i can respond however i want and it won't disrupt the performance. many live performances are in the webcast format wherein audience are not seen online. in these moments i can be sitting watching or i can be moving along with the performers - which is a new kind of license, in the theatre i'm not able to move in response to the performers, i just sit still. these situations offer different possibilities for different people.
What is or isn’t “live”? Audience with performers in shared real time? Director with interpreter in shared real time? Must people be sharing the same screen at the same time for it to be live? Must physical proximity exist for performance to be live? (from Conversations 2021)
Liveness is a BIG topic ! There has been a lot written about liveness or the perception of liveness in the digital age. Most of what I have come across in my cursory research has related to music. The "traditional performance paradigm" as researcher Paul Sanden notes, is " performers communicating musically in a with an audience in a shared time and place". I believe we could insert dance here as well. The necessity of online performances this past year has, for me, really expanded my notions of "shared time and place". (I'm basically rephrasing what Max is asking in her questions above). So beyond the traditional performance paradigm, we have many shades of liveness.
Here is a quote from Paul Sanden's article "Rethinking Liveness in the Digital Age" that has me mulling...
"liveness functions as an index of humanness; as a recognition of human creativity and production, and of our human selves, within the context of our constant negotiation with the technologies we create and employ."
In general, I accept the notion that dance is a performance art, and if it is not for someone else who is in the room, it is a film. So the idea of online dance performances that are neither documents nor films is conceptually alarming to me to say the least. The most terrifying thing, however, about watching a performance online was realizing that one could skip the boring parts.
Confession: I have been bored before in a (live, in- person) performance (I assume I was in some way part of the problem), but, in that context, I had no thought other than to remain at least physically present. It is part of the social context I uphold in the theatre.
But, I was startled to realize that, when no one can see HOW one interacts with the performance, one becomes free to respond more authentically. For example, no one knows if one skips ahead. No one knows if one does something else at the same time. No one knows whether one is really paying attention.
This realization was deeply unsettling for me. It challenges my very notion of what I seek for performance to be: a communication entered into with integrity by both parties. The assumption that I can trust my audience to attend in good faith is fundamental to my practice as a performer/creator.
I am still processing what it means that one's engagement can be so different in the "solitary" context of attending virtually.
The end of a session is a shock. It's so 'final'. There's no slow dissipation of energy as people chat, pack up there things, and leave the studio... It's like a slow emptying of energy within the space vs. a sudden disappearance... For me it's like "oh, ok. I guess we're done here"... feels unsatisfying to disengage abruptly (given the reality of these platforms). I suppose I want these virtual platforms to do things they can't do at this point in time, with current technology ie: physical/personal connection... could be my resistance rearing it's head.
Changes in flow of work time: I intentionally ask everyone to start close to their camera so we can "check-in" at the beginning of a session. (in studio people may be all over the room warming up, some chatting with each other, and I'd go up to each one to say hello). I can't sense when people are tired (mentally or physically) so I now pre-schedule breaks into my plan and I remind people to ask if they need a break (sometimes the pre-scheduled in not at a good time). The end of the session is always a shock. Even after a year and a half I have not gotten used to the sudden black screen and immediately being alone in my own room. (from Conversations 2021)
a practical response: It is very useful to be able to see people at a distance and switch to closeup (e.g. on zoom- gallery view, speaker view, pin several to see just a few simultaneously. This is similar to standing in the front/back of a room/theatre to get a wide view, walking close to someone for details, and narrowing my focus to see just a few at a time (or dividing them into groups). however the closeup is different online- I can see detail without intruding on the person's personal space. (from Conversations 2021)
It's so different from the way I usually work in close contact with others. It’s in my body but out of our bodies; very intellectual, very demanding. Developing trust on the screen process is a big part of it, and trust with the collaborators that are on screen with me and with the director’s approach. It takes time which we don't always have so in the future I hope to be in processes that allow for that time. (from Conversations 2021)
As a dancer on Zoom it’s all been tasked-base, and experiment based in given time to walk away from Zoom; think about something and what I’m going to bring back to offer... in a four hour rehearsal there’s tasks that are delivered; they either happen very shortly after the task is delivered, or I’m given time to go away in that 4-hour chunk – I turn my camera off; go and turn my home into a playground – the things that happen in the different rooms are amazing memories and them bring that back to share – everyone of those collaborators delivers their project in real time on Zoom
(from Conversations 2021)
Rehearsing online> The necessity to work at this time was to stay engaged with the ideas but also not lose our connection to each other, to our way of dancing-thinking thinking-dancing. It was not about what we are losing but about staying connected. The first bit of every rehearsal was always about checking in and seeing where people are at and not rushing. Anything I had planned or anything we were going to be doing that day, the priority was being with what everyone was doing and what they were coming into the rehearsal with because everyone’s experience during this time have been vastly different, all very challenging and all very different. (from Conversations 2021)
for me live is when you are performing in the moment the camera is on and what the audience sees is that unedited version. we are all together in the moment of anything-can-happen. if you see the documentation of a live performance, that is lovely, but you have missed sharing the moment the performer was in. I don't value one over the other, but i feel there is an extra charge of togetherness and an extra charge of independence in being able to witness the documentation of the live event at my own time, without being seen, without being a consideration in the live moment.
Digital places ARE performance places.
What is or isn’t “live”? Audience with performers in shared real time? Director with interpreter in shared real time? Must people be sharing the same screen at the same time for it to be live? Must physical proximity exist for performance to be live? (from Conversations 2021)