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dance is a messy business

The first and only time I met Meg Stuart was at a workshop in New York City in November 2001. I was floored by the clarity of her thinking and improvisation practices, and loved what seemed to become available to the people in the group through her provocations.

This conversation with Catherine Sullivan from 2008 is old news really, but it’s filled with insightful questions and ideas about the state of dance, dancing and choreography.

I particularly like this bits (both spoken by Meg):

Dance is a messy business because our bodies and movement are influenced and sometimes contaminated, even by the quality of our daily life, emotions, memories, and experiences. I often describe the body as a container that receives and transmits signals, energy, and identities. Movement is one way of filtering and processing the accumulated input. There now seems to be a shift in the field, a renewed interest in physicality, movement research, dance vocabulary, and its origins. I find this exciting.

And this:

…when I collaborate with someone, it’s not to connect — it’s a rupture; I’m trying to disrupt flow in movement. I’m also disrupting my process and that keeps it vital.

Up next the para-academic Yesterday I had the great pleasure of being back working with students in the classroom-studio at Roehampton Dance. Their questions were fantastic, colin simon and i silence Colin Poole and I are presenting some ideas as part of Of Two Minds at Lilian Baylis on Thursday 30 October, 2pm to 6pm. This is a
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