​Today's studio session

Set aside one uninterrupted hour.
This lesson has been designed to accompany you through that hour because, for many artists, this is where the process becomes difficult.
Research is exciting.
Collecting material is exciting.
Choosing becomes harder.
Transforming material into form is often the hardest part.
The objective today is not to make a finished performance. The objective is to begin building a relationship with your material. Stay with it. Listen to it. Allow it to change through repetition.

​Your materials

​Everything you need is already there.
Your answers from Lesson 4 are no longer answers.
They are compositional materials.
Every answer can become one layer of your solo.
For example:
  • a texture can influence movement, costume, or scenography.
  • a gesture can become movement vocabulary.
  • an object can become a prop, a partner, or a task.
  • a color can influence light, costume, or atmosphere.
  • a temperature can influence muscular tone, breathing, or presence.
  • a landscape can organize space.
  • an animal can influence physicality.
  • a rhythm can organize time.
  • a material can influence movement quality.
  • an architecture can organize spatial composition.
  • a sound can become sound design, silence, or movement rhythm.
  • one body part can become the physical center of the choreography.
  • a speed can organize duration.
  • a social situation can organize relationships.
  • a rule can become the score of the performance.
You decide what each answer becomes.
There is no correct translation.

​How to work

​Divide your hour into four studio sessions of 15 minutes.
For each session, choose one compositional material from your previous lesson.
Do not try to use everything.
Choose only four (eg. the gesture, the object, the body part, the rule).
Before you begin:
  • prepare the space you want to work in.
  • gather your objects before starting (if any).
  • prepare your music if you need any (if any).
  • silence your phone or put it in airplane mode.
  • set a timer for 15 minutes.
Once the timer starts, stay with the work until it rings.
Do not interrupt yourself.
Do not search for new inspiration.
Do not open another something.
Do not change material halfway through because another idea suddenly seems more interesting.
Stay.
If another idea arrives, quickly write one word on a piece of paper if necessary, then return immediately to your current material.
The studio rewards continuity more than constant novelty.
When you become bored, stay.
When you think nothing is happening, stay.
When you believe you have exhausted the material, stay a little longer.
The first idea often belongs to habit.
Interesting work usually appears after the obvious solutions begin to disappear.

    ​Exercise 1

    ​Time: 15 minutes
    Focus: One compositional material
    Choose one answer from your previous lesson.
    For example:
    • the object
    • the animal
    • the rhythm
    • the body part
    • the landscape
    • the architecture
    • the rule
    • the movement translation
    Before moving, write no more than three instructions for yourself.
    • Write them in the imperative or in a question format.
    • Keep them short.
    • Keep them concrete.
    • Make sure they describe an action rather than an interpretation.
    Good instructions tell you what to do, not what to feel.
    For example, if your material is the coat, your 3 instructions could be:
    • Find 100 ways of wearing the coat without using your hands.
    • Make the coat impossible to remove.
    • Become the coat.
    Or if your material is the pelvis:
    • Find the smallest movement the pelvis can generate.
    • Let the pelvis lead the rest of the body.
    • Keep the pelvis still while everything else moves.
    Or if your material is the rule, your instructions could be:
    • Repeat the rule until it changes you.
    • Find the limits of the rule.
    • Break the rule only once.
    Once your three instructions are written, put the paper somewhere visible.
    For the next fifteen minutes, work only with these instructions.
    Repeat them.
    Alternate between them.
    Combine them.
    Perform two at the same time.
    Try all three together.
    Slow them down.
    Speed them up.
    Reduce them until almost nothing remains.
    Expand them.
    Notice what changes through repetition.
    Do not invent new material too quickly.
    First ask yourself:
    What else can these same three instructions produce?
    Only during the last two or three minutes, if it feels necessary, allow yourself to change one instruction, add one instruction, or deliberately break one of your own rules.
    Observe what changes.

    Exercise 2

    ​Repeat the same process with a different compositional material.
    Choose a new material.
    Write a new score of no more than three instructions.
    Stay with it for fifteen minutes.

    ​Exercise 3

    ​Repeat the process once again with a third material.

    Exercise 4

    ​Repeat the process with your fourth and final material.
    By now, you may begin noticing relationships between different explorations.
    Do not force them.
    Simply notice.