Covering Letter Lisa Ullmann
Travelling Scholarship
Gabriele Reuter - The
project (20. November 2004
– 5. February 2005)
- a 10 week-long stay
with dance artist Marina Caron at Estudio Novadanca, Av 13 Maio, in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
During a year-long dance
training course at the London
Contemporary Dance
School in 2002/2003
Marina and myself developed a very close working
partnership in the field of improvisation in performance. We jointly
choreographed a number of pieces for stage and site-specific and discovered
very strong similarities both physically in our dancing and in our
understanding of the art form.
Having decided to continue
to work to together, my travel to Sao
Paulo aimed to establish a long-term basis for our collaboration, I also wanted to develop an understanding of Marina´s professional life as a dance artist, to inform my
own.
A big part this learning
and observation process was attending and assisting Marina´s
teaching work as well as gather an understanding of the contemporary dance scene
in Sao Paulo by
taking classes and workshops of other choreographers related to her work.
Later on in the planning
process we were given the opportunity to jointly teach one of the summer school
intensive courses as Estudio Novadanca in Sao
Paulo. This highly positive experience has developed
into the core of our entire project. The two weeks of studio research we did
together around the same time concentrated on working methodologies and
outcomes of the workshop in which we introduced a set of core basics of our
understanding of technique, both in improvisation and set material. A written
documentation of the workshop and our research time in English and Portuguese
is the beginning of a body of research work we aim to develop. As a future
working format we decided to meet in regular intervals in either a European
country or in Brazil
to teach an intensive workshop linked with about two weeks of research time.
The bilingual written documentation of this and an ongoing email exchange will
be the backbone of this collaboration. Our time together and especially our
teaching time has left both of us confident that we
will be able to realistically continue an exciting partnership across the two
continents for the rest of our professional lives.
A more personal highlight
for me was to understand Marina´s life as a dance artist as well as the rich
Brazilian culture it is situated in. It has been hugely inspiring to my work in
the UK,
most importantly to my teaching. Discovering the difference and the
similarities in the way contemporary dance exists in Brazil and the break from
the dance scene in London has also helped me to set priorities in terms of who
and what I am dancing for, and somehow rediscover a focus and enjoyment that
too often gets lost in the daily struggle for survival.
My advice for awardees:
Planning is important
but as most of the Lisa Ullmann Awardees set out to experience something
entirely new and different from their everday routines, welcome and expect
change. Things are very likely to turn out a little or a lot different than
initially planned. It is usually for the better.
Report
Part One:
Weeks 1-4
- Observation and
Assistance
Upon
arrival in Sao Paulo I was warmly welcomed and
given accommodation by Marina
and her family. Due to my then very weak Portuguese and the sheer immensity and
inaccessibility of this huge city I spent a good part of the first month
accompanying Marina
to her teaching activities, rehearsals and performances. I was also introduced
to the Estudio Novadanca,
which would be the main base of our joint activities in Sao Paulo.
Estudio Novadanca
is situated in the central part of Sao
Paulo, in the district Belavista.
It is a dance school and home of two dance companies, Companhia
(Cia.) 4, and Cia.
8, which are directed by two of the three partners, Lu
Favoreto, Tica Lemos and Christiane Paoli Quito running the School with a strong
focus on improvisation technique. Nearly all company members including
the directors are teaching regular classes and performance projects there,
mainly release based contemporary dance technique, improvisation and contact
improvisation as well as ballet, acting and singing classes. The studio has a
very good reputation in the dance scene of Sao Paulo and a substantial student body,
many of them aspiring to a professional career in dance. During term-time
classes and company rehearsals are running Mo-Sat all day in three studios,
with frequent weekend performances or showings in the studio. The end of term
student showings are among the most ambitious semi-professional productions I
have attended, showing a number of evening groups working very closely and
extremely hard together in a company format, producing work of very high
standard.
Technically
many classes use exercises developed after the model of the movement researcher
and analyst Marie-Madeleine Béziers, who has been quite substantially
influencing the French and Portuguese-speaking dance world but is hardly known
in the UK.
Béziers mainly worked in Belgium,
France and Portugal and influential members of the new
dance scene in Sao Paulo, such as Lu Favoreto,
have studied with her in Paris.
roof terrace at Estudio Novadanca
Estudio Novadanca-
Marina
was teaching two classes in the previous term, a ballet class for adults and an
adult contemporary dance group. Both classes were based on the Béziers
principles of movement (patterns according to spirals in body), which was
especially interesting within the ballet context. Marina has developed a very informed way of
teaching ballet technique, focussing on the same principles of body awareness
she prioritises in her contemporary technique. At the point I entered Marinas contemporary
dance group they were just working on set material and an improvisation score
for their end of year showing. It was a large and very dynamic group with a
number of very skilled individuals. In this class Marina used more of the information and some
exercises we have both learned at LCDS. Our very much present mutual
understanding of improvisation technique enabled me to give valued feedback and
join the class with ease.
Escola Viva –
Marina
also regularly teaches varying groups at a primary school, all in
improvisation. During the last term she taught a private lesson to a blind
girl, a group of 8-9 year old girls and another group of their mothers. What
impressed me most about these classes was the
sophisticated exercises that Marina
taught to the very young students. The experience I have of the dance
curriculum for children in primary schools in the UK is mainly related to very simple
animated games and mime/character exercises. The exercises Marina was working with both children and
mothers could equally be used on a group of university students or
professionals, which proved for me the universal relevance of good
improvisation teaching across all age groups and levels.
University of
Sao Paulo – Performing
Arts Department
The
experience I had assisting the Ballet class at University of Sao Paulo
was very interesting. Initially we had planned to introduce me to both of the
two student classes (BA students, year 1 and 3), joining class, followed by a
Q&A session about the dance scene in London,
in which both groups had expressed their interest. It turned out that the
bureaucracy at the University would not allow any guests into the faculty.
After much discussion I was able to attend one of the classes (1st
years) but for the other one Marina
was not able to get permission from the head of department.
The
student feedback I had after the first Q&A session was highly positive with
students showing a very keen interest for information from Europe.
The students were so excited about this event and the ignorance of their
department heads that they organised a delegation to speak in front of the
department head to complain. The head ended up giving in and inviting me, which
sadly was too late for the 3rd year group, as their term had already
ended.
- Attending Rehearsals -
feedback
An
important part of this introductory period was attending a number of rehearsals
at Estudio Novadanca. I was
admitted to one of the rehearsals of Cia.
8, directed by Lu Favoreto for their latest piece “Trapiche”. The piece researched a very percussive
social dance which is dying out together with the Indian population on a small
island in the State Sao Paulo. For this piece Marina is choreographic assistant. Group
dynamic and atmosphere of the company were hard-working, very relaxed, positive
and playful, which was beautiful to watch.
Cia. Oito Novadanca at Rehearsals
As
an off spin of Cia. 8,
Marina Caron collaborates with dancer Anderson Gouvea
and photographer José Romero on a duet called ”Trio de Dois”
(A trio of two), dealing with the failed relationship of a man and a woman. My
feedback and artistic involvement was very valued in this piece, which I
enjoyed greatly. For Marina it was very
important to have my opinion as an outsider to the rest of the company but an
“insider” to her work in London.
- Taking classes &
watching performance
I
took part in the advanced evening class of Lu Favoreto over several weeks.
Favoreto teaches informed and clear, is a demanding observer and extremely
committed to her students. The standard of the group-work was very impressive,
much higher that most of the semi- professional improvisation work I have seen
in the UK.
Also
an important part of my introduction to the dance scene was watching a variety
of dance and theatre performances. The improvisation event “Vias
expressivas” of Cia.
4 held at Estudio Novadanca,
as well as the end of term performances of the Estudio.
I also had the chance to see the end of year performance of the degree students
at the Universidade Morumbi,
choreographed by Lu Favoreto. The companhia Cena 11 is based in the south of Brazil,
Florianopolis and
performed at one of the Cultural Centres SECS in Vila Madalena. Overall I was fascinated to see how different
the dancers were to those in Europe. Although
from a viewpoint of traditional dance training, the general standard of the
contemporary dancers was probably not able to compete with the larger European
cities, a lot of the performers seemed to inherit a sense of enjoyment, freedom
and confidence in their performance that was a pleasure to watch informed my
sense of priority as well as my understanding of the definition of the term
“technique”.
Christmas/New
Year:
The
Christmas/summer break lasted for about two and a half weeks. During this time,
the Estudio Novadanca was
completely shut down as well as most other arts organisations in Sao Paulo. It turned out
that this period of rest and reflection for me and the workshop and project
planning time I had with Marina,
were very helpful for the second part of the project to follow in January. I
was also still struggling with the language. The time off therefore helped to
catch up with language skills and digest the large amount of new information.
- Planning
and Evaluating with Marina
Thematically, we were looking to find one single way
of applying technical information within the body for both set and improvised
dance. As a working objective for all our future projects, we want to dedicate
our research towards a way of finding equal clarity in both.
In our understanding technique is a means of analysis
of what we are doing in dance, performance and everyday life alike. Analysis
and, in more detail, being able to analyse and process what we are doing in the
exact moment we are doing it is a tool for greater perception. Improving
perception is key to our ability to change, and key in
performance.
Developing
this understanding in daily practice can only happen through individual
research and exchange, but very importantly also through the exchange with
other dancers. In the workshop we would therefore not aim to give definite
answers or tried and tested conclusions, it would rather serve to provide a new
set of questions and tasks to each participants daily
training and research. This first attempt to teach a workshop as a joint
research project would inform our approach for the future.
Part Two
Weeks
7-10:
- Workshop
at Novadanca (17. – 20. January 2005) - Contemporary Dance
This workshop was one of the best attended workshops
of the summer programme with 18 students from all over Brazil.
Training levels varied within the group, with some professional dancers,
choreographers or dance students, some semi-professionals and some actors.
At the time of the workshop, my Portuguese was good
enough to follow conversations in class and give some simple feedback, but not
to actually teach. We therefore decided on a format where we taught jointly, I
would lead the exercises in English, with Marina
interpreting and adding as necessary. The fact that she is a very experienced
teacher and workshop leader proved invaluable at this point, enabling us to
work smoothly as a team.
We gave the students three days of new information,
experimented with basic principles of movement and implementing these into both
a set sequence and an improvisation score each day. On the fourth day we
recapped on all of the information given and build them into a longer
improvisation score.
Apart from the students being very motivated and eager
to learn about new methods and techniques, for me the
most impressive strengths of the group were the discussions. Sometimes critical
and always very analytical, these students absorbed information both physically
and mentally with such a positive attitude that it really was a pleasure to
teach, and learn with them. My experience in teaching workshops of such high
level in improvisation is very limited, so this motivated me greatly to
continue my work.
The manager of the school was greatly supportive
throughout both the logistic preparation of the workshop and the course itself.
She was so interested in the work that she ended up joining the course for the
full week. She further expressed her excitement and gratitude for our work
again to me, linked with an offer to return to teach at Novadanca.
- 2
weeks research and development
The following final two weeks of my stay Marina and myself were able to work in one of the studios at Novadanca for a few hours every day. Together we went
through the exercises of the workshop, finding more answers and lot more
questions, as well as ways of formulating things in written word. Our main aim
was to translate these exercises into an improvisation score that would bring
us forward in our analysis and research, but also be interesting enough to show
to a non-specific audience. We took short films of the improvisations to
document our progress.
I had initially hoped for this research period to be
full working days, and to culminate in a showing for invited guests on the last
day of my stay. However things turn out differently. In early January Marina had received one
of the two only production and touring scholarships awarded by the British
Council Brazil, a very prestigious and also one of the only production awards
for Contemporary Dance. She was therefore contracted to spent
half days rehearsing at the British Council, leaving only the evenings for our
work. The second week of our research time was already the beginning of the new
term, so we had difficulties to book a space and time for our showing. It also
appeared that work in progress-showings are not really used to invite funders or promoters to introduce work as they are in the UK. We decided
to show our results in form of an improvisation score as part of Marina´s first lesson of the new term to her contemporary
dance students and a few guests of the Cias. 8 and 4. It became very clear to me that the planning I had
done previous to the project in the UK, had been
very much informed by the way things are done in Europe.
So of course, although I understood the circumstances and was very happy to see
Marina so
successful with her work, I was a little disappointed. Letting go of these
ambitions was probably one of the hardest things of my stay. I really learned
to understand the importance of being flexible and tolerant within project work
abroad. I also realised that being in the same situation in with my hectic
everyday life in London, I would not have been
able to free up so much time more Marina
unless it was paid work. We therefore both came to the conclusion that we would
need a different work format for future projects. They would need to be shorter,
not longer than three weeks, and preferably at a location home to neither of
us, so to leave us the space to work undisturbed. However, it was also clear
that we needed this initial stay to find all of this
out and be able to plan realistically. The chance to understand Marina’s life
and culture as a dancer, to make deeper connections to her environment and also
to grasp a fair bit of the Portuguese language, I would never have had during a
three week-long stay.
However, although time in the last few weeks was
precious it seemed that the two months we had then already spent together as
well as the positive experience of the workshop had created a very productive
and trustful atmosphere between us, which had extremely fruitful working
outcomes.
Sadly, during the last week of my stay in Sao Paulo, there was a
sudden and very tragic death in Marina´s family and
all work-related matters were put on hold. Marina had to leave the city to help organise
the funeral and the showing was therefore cancelled. These unforeseen
developments were of course a difficult ending for the project and my stay on Brazil.
However, we were still able to use the research time to round up and articulate
our findings from the workshop which essentially successfully concluded the
core of the project.
A positive outcome of the freer time-schedule for me
meant that I was able to take more summer courses and workshops. I was able to
take part in a new dance workshop by choreographer Adriana Grechi,
held at dance studio MOVE in the district Vila Madalena
and a Body-Mind Centering Course lead by Patricia
Franco at the Estudio Novadanca.
Both of these workshops were very interesting, in particular the New Dance
Workshop, which was dealing with very relevant information, relating to
improvisation technique and the use of Marie Beziérs
work. It also improved my Portuguese, as all classes were held in Portuguese
and I needed to get to grips also with the technical vocabulary.
On several Sundays I joined a Capoeira community
project held in the deprived area of Santa
Cruz (Zona Sul). The main focus of the project was to involve young
kids from poor families to occupy them and keep them off the streets. But as it
was outside and on a Sunday, the entire families as well as renowned Capoeira
teachers visiting from other cities joined in the “Rodas”.
Seeing Capoeira as what it initially always has been, a very traditional
activity, including and involving all parts of the community, was very
refreshing for me.
As the country was warming up for Carnaval
throughout January I was able to attend a few rehearsals of Samba groups in Sao Paulo and Rio
de Janeiro. This was of course only a small insight
into this substantial part of national culture, but exploring the rich dance
culture the country itself has to offer, will be a definite objective for my
future visits.
There are a number of other activities that have
directly come out of my stay in Brazil.
I am in email contact with a number of young Brazilian dancers interested to
come to the UK
to study. I will serve as their initial point of contact, advice and encouragement
should they decide to come to Europe.
I am very interested to introduce our work to students
and academics in the context of higher education. I have already made some
initial contact with my former University in Leicester (De Montfort)
and will further pursue any possibilities as soon as the writing of our first
research document is completed. Another
stage of planning is of course our next workshop and research project and to
find the funding for it. It is also my aim to work the documents towards a
publication in the future, this will not happen in the nearer future.
I have also entered dialogue
with Patricia Rianne, one of the Ballet Technique
teachers a London Contemporary Dance
School, to jointly translate and
understand the work of Marie-Madeleine Beziérs,
together with the online aid of Marina.
Mrs Rianne has shown great interest in Beziérs´ studies for her own teaching work. Together we
hope to understand the writings and find ways of translating them into
exercises for class.
In
general, it is my aim to present our work whenever possible or wanted, in order
to encourage transatlantic exchange in dance. A lot more interest and support
could be gathered for these kind of activities, as
they in my opinion greatly enrich the landscape of dance in Europe
The
nearly three months I spent in Brazil
were a successful experience for me at every level. I feel I grew substantially,
as much professionally as personally, and I am grateful that I have been given
this opportunity through the Lisa Ullmann Scholarship. Apart from the financial
support, the fact that the Foundation showed their belief in our collaboration
was of great value for mine and Marina´s future work
together. Thank you.