Dance Techniques 2010

Gill Clarke — Minding Motion
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There is no particular gender aspect in Minding Motion.
The relation to aspects of space is manifold and crucial
in Gill Clarke’s work. While in a general sense Minding
Motion is about inhabiting space in relation to a shifting
plumb line and multidirectionality, there are important
particularities in how it animates what can be called the
internal and the external space as a framework for movement
realisation.
This movement exploration, even and especially in the
hands–on work described in later chapters, places a real
emphasis on the internal space without, however, letting
this become isolated from the relationship to external
space. Minding Motion retains an emphasis on the performance
aspect—which is always hovering in the studio
like a shadow—through attention to seeing and being
seen. An important aspect of the work therefore is to establish
a visual and perceptual relationship between the
internal experiential space and the outward kinetic space.
The concept of volume supports a connecting of movement
sensed from the inside to the outward shape that
inhabits external space.
Addressing volume implies identifying
the various connections and spaces between
spine and skull, spine and shoulder
girdle, spine and pelvis, spine and rib cage,
between the bowl of the pelvis and the
dome of the diaphragm, and also between
the skull and the rib cage, the arches of
the feet and the organisation of the pelvis,
etc. These volumes and spaces are evoked,
physically explored, and made conscious
by various sensing methods such as hands–
on work, partnering, visualization, and
breath.
Whereas movement focused on line and
shape is seen as activating external space,
the movement flow created by the volumetric
approach creates a different quality.
This quality can be identified as ‘sensed’:
The space that the movement inhabits expands
through the individual patterns / reactions
that emerge from the activation of inner volumes.
Sensing and sensed–volume work together to give movement
a certain truthfulness and freedom.
The attention to the expansion of inner volume enables
dancers to extend their image of the body beyond the aspect
of contour to the sensory realization of movement.
This is enhanced or indeed, even made possible, by the
foundation of such movement in visualized and embodied
anatomical understanding. However, the forms of this
movement will remain within a certain range governed by
the reality of anatomical conditions—it is applied anatomy,
so to speak.
Minding Motion embraces sonorous and musical elements
such as timing, rhythm, breath, and voice / language.
In that sense, musicality is always present, even though
not often explicitly emphasized. Music is not used as an
accompaniment, rather, the need to modulate timing or
quality at any moment, in a way, excludes the use of music
as it would inject too much of a fixed and regular structure.
Gill Clarke’s use of voice has therefore become the
most important means to structure and modulate temporal
and energetic / rhythmical delivery.
An enjoyment of rhythm and phrasing underlie Gill
Clarke’s own movement and movement–making, with
dance seen as the animation of, or play with gravity, that
arises from moving subtly in and out of balance. 10 These
elements of timing and phrasing are manifested by the attention
that is drawn to the breath in earlier phases of a
class, through Gill’s use of voice, and by her adoption and
encouragement of irregular, syncopated, playful timing
within the more complex sequences.
For this reason, musical accompaniment for these
sequences is frequently asymmetrical in timing or polyphonic,
either contemporary classical, experimental
genres, or traditional folk music from around the world—
all of which offer many layers with which the movement
can be in dialogue. Even though driven by an attention
to the theme of the day, more complex movement material
is usually devised whilst listening to a particular piece
of music. This is not to nail down the timing but to provoke
a particular rhythmic quality or provide a sound
field from which the movement can emerge. The choice
of music is one way of trying to ensure that the movement
sequence is not a dry technical exercise to be accurately
memorized and executed but rather a movement puzzle to
be explored, and a dancing experience, with a particular
quality, to engage with as a performer.