Kate (Agent Lynx) Alsterlund: archive to performance
Kate (Agent Lynx) Alsterlund
(choreographer-interpreter)
(Montreal)
Beginning:
A video archive of previous choreographies.
Desires:
To identify themes in her work.
To create work for a stage environment
To maintain the energy and dynamic of her b-cypher dancing in a pre-set choreography
To test her work in a group of artists outside her known networks
Challenges:
How to recover previous dancing from video?
How to recognize and then embody the complexity of the actions/dance?
How to perform set work with the vital energy of self-surprise that exists in improvisation?
Development/skill building:
Kate practised 3 ways of working:
Relearn the outer form of the material, memorize and practice until it is repeatable. With practice re-find the original essence.
Identify the fragment of the dance, watching the video closely to: 1. find the impulse of the movement or the energy or dynamic of the whole fragment; 2. work to embody, ie. dance with, that source that you identified; 3. once you can do it then try it with the form (actually movements) from the video; 4. experiment with new form that still is in the spirit of the original fragment.
Discovery:
Taking unfinished experiments and exposing the material/self to group feedback sessions, helped to break “perfectionist” tendencies
Performing and receiving group response assisted during the evolution of the work in a less self-centred way; i.e. kept the work from closing in on itself and kept development possible.
To practice:
Improvise. Rest. Remember what you did- in ALL its facets- energy, form, intention, etc., try it from those “keys”.
Observations:
Kate originally said she was going to “revisit and resuscitate” her past dance material.
Perhaps we can consider that recovering a dance from a video-document is not only a mechanical procedure, but actually bringing it back to physical life i.e. breathing life into its very source.
Next steps:
Within her masterful dancing, being conscious of the ways she makes decisions and what she chooses and the way she chooses to dance will lead to greater control and visceral understanding of the material so that she can craft, manipulate, construct, bend, smash, massage, etc etc. her dancing into both masterful performance and solid set choreography. Also this will likely lead her to clarity re: the themes of her work, that is: “what” she is dancing “about” or “what” she’s dancing “for”.
ABOUT: KATE ASTERLUND (AGENT LYNX) (2016) renowned B-girl- since 1998 with her crew Ellementale 5 and her current b-girl crew Legendary. Graduating with a BFA with Distinction in Contemporary Dance, Concordia University, Lynx has danced for companies: House of Pride, Destins Croises and Bboyizm. Her own work has been presented at Festivals in Los Angeles, NewYork, Toronto, Montreal. Teaching since 2002, Lynx created a curriculum to teach b-boy/b-girl technique to university-level dance students within the UQAM Dance Department. She teaches students of all ages & abilities in Montreal & across Canada, has worked with Blueprint for Life Social Work through Hip Hop with First Nations & Inuit youth in remote northern communities, & RAD, ‘No Excuses, No Limits’. Lynx has won 16 major competitions across North America, most recently the 2015 International Ladies of Hip Hop B-girl battle in NYC. Other honours include Absolute Canadian B-girl Award, B-Girl Representing Montreal Award, Cypher B-girl award at Floorlords Anniversary, Boston and the elite RedBull Beatriders Street Dance Camp 2006. In 2015 she received the Under Pressure 20th anniversary Tribute Award 'In recognition of her ongoing dedication and contributions to the Hip Hop Community'. In 2016 she continues on her artistic journey of self-expression with the goal of uplifting herself and others through dance and creativity. Through her company T.A.T. she strives to share the message of Trash á Tresôr ‘make things better’.
