MAIN DISCUSSION POINTS:
▪ Degrees of Freedom (Lecture text)
▪ The Scientific Method
▪ Jack Kerouac: BELIEF & TECHNIQUE FOR MODERN PROSE
▪ Resistance, Freedom
▪ Martha Graham: movement, energy, motivation
▪ Motion, movement, momentum, motivation
▪ Bill T. Jones: "labor, work and action"
▪ Concerning the Spiritual in Art, by Wassily Kandinsky
▪ William Forsythe: structure & visualization
▪ Michelangelo’s "Unfinished" Slaves
▪ Yvonne Rainer: The Mind is a Muscle
▪ Wallace Stevens: Anecdote of the Jar
▪ Trisha Brown: moves, measures
▪ Kenneth Koch: One Train May Hide Another
▪ Emily Coates @ Yale: Dance and academia
▪ Antony Gormley: body as instrument
▪ Anne Carson: The Physicality of Poetry
▪ Robin Rhode: mind in motion
▪ Soft Sculpture [PDF]
▪ Gravity
▪ 'Joe Sent Me' & the Hidden Language of the Body
▪ Vanessa Daou's Essentials for the Artist
Resistance, FreedomWherever there's freedom, there's resistance.
re·sist
–verb (used with object)
1. to withstand, strive against, or oppose: to resist infection; to resist temptation.
2. to withstand the action or effect of: to resist spoilage.
3. to refrain or abstain from, esp. with difficulty or reluctance: They couldn't resist the chocolates.
–verb (used without object)
4. to make a stand or make efforts in opposition; act in opposition; offer resistance.
Origin:
1325–75; ME resisten (v.) < L resistere to remain standing, equiv. to re- re- + sistere to cause to stand, akin to stāre to stand
Resistance & Freedom are themes heavily explored in both Dance & Sculpture due to the inherent FLEXIBILITY & PLASTICITY of materials
I want to talk today about resistance.
The root word comes from the Latin, to remain standing.
To remain standing is a physical act, but beyond that, it's a symbolic one.
To take a stand - to make a stand - is to take a position for or against something: often, it's a moral act.
To remain standing is both the starting point and the end point for the Dancer.
Whereas gravity is the constant, to remain standing is the variable.
Every Dancer - when engaged in the physical act of dancing - flirts at the precipice, at the edge of Physics and Mystery, of Imagination and Materiality
How many of you here have studied Dance?
Dance is the only art that uses the body as the primary vehicle of communication
It merges principles of Physics, Psychology & Philosophy
There are many reasons why it's the least studied of all the arts, and that's a topic for another conversation
And I hope that after today some of you will be intrigued by the possibilities of studying Dance as a way of broadening the language of your sculpture making
We all understand the concept of 'freedom' in making our art, and today I'm more interested in 'resistance'
For the dancer, the starting and end goal is to remain standing
It's a physical act, and beyond that, it can be a symbolic one
At its core it's a form of protest
It's sometimes a defiant act
Standing requires balance, and where there is balance, there is equilibrium
Whereas balance is an external attribute, which can be measured and discerned, as a scale does, equilibrium is internal, an inner state of being which is felt and cannot be measured
To master equilibrium is something the dancer does on and off stage
There's a constant awareness of the physical capacity of the body - an understanding of its thresholds
On stage, there's an awareness of space, of place, of purpose - an awareness of architecture as it relates to self
This deep rooted understanding gives the dancer a unique and heightened perspective
For the Dancer, the movement of the body is inextricably tied to that of the mind
