How does what you know-and-do-well serve you online?
How/what do you prepare-practice for the online room?
What is fascinating?
What is just necessary?
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© 2008 by Maxine Heppner
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF TRADITIONAL LANDS
Maxine Heppner and Across Oceans Arts is based in T'karonto Canada, sacred land that has been home to human cultural activity for over 15,000 years. We honour and acknowledge the original caretakers of this land: the Mississaugas of New Credit, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Anishinaabe and the Huron/Wendat, and all peoples and living beings, named and unnamed, born into and newcomers, who live on this earth with respect and grace.
GRATITUDE
The Choreographic Marathon is grateful for the generosity of participating artists, the partnership with Pia Bouman Studios & the support of The City of Toronto through Toronto Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, & Across Oceans Angels.
web design: christos alex. giotis
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For live-stream performing/teaching I practice how I frame myself in the screen, and in relation to the actual room I am in.
necessary to relate to the directionality of the frame. i can draw a line along the edge, from edge to edge. i can direct the viewer's gaze. the frame can be mobile. the audience can receive close-ups. i can approach one audience member in a live situation but only that person sees the detail. in the online space everyone can receive that. so it changes the grammar a bit. somethings don't need to be repeated to be seen. other things need to be repeated to be seen - when people are in the room, i can feel if what i have done has been received. I hear or feel their response. online i'm in my own bubble so i may need to repeat something for it to be seen.
my improvisational skills are helping me to dive in, but my improvisational skills are not necessarily helping me be clear because i actually know only what has happened since March 2020 in terms of what i do and what that looks like and how it is received. live improvisation skills have been developed over 40 years. so skills help but everything is in a new frame and so i have beginners mind and i also have beginners luck or mistaken judgement... !
A skill I am using a lot is describing while I am moving. It helps the dancers know about what they can't see through the screen. I so this when creating in-studio also but I think that that is as much for myself to clarify to myself what and how I am searching for the movement we are creating. Describing while moving (when online) is more for the dancers. It doesn't seem to be so difficult for them to pick up on the body shapes and directions. The describing seems to be bringing us to the same realm for interpretation. For example: My hands are on my shoulders. I slowly reach my arms sideways away from each other. While doing this I say: my breath is pulsing in my upper back. that energizes my shoulders to widen, my elbows to unfold, my skin stretches over bones, fingers reach outwards".
As dancers, we’re so good at imagining and interpreting. We’re always adapting and bringing in story – if we can do that in the studio, can we just shift the skills to online? It seems like the answer would be yes. But I don't know how yet. Any ideas from anyone else? (from Conversations 2021)