Tere O’Connor

Tere O’Connor

Tere O’connor (1958) is known for his “forward” moving work, meaning that he looks into where the dance is moving to (Wellman, et al., 2012, p. 32). He is currently working with his company, Tere O’Connor Dance and is a professor at the University of Illinois (Wellman, et al., 2012, p. 32). O’Connor says that his “belief system” is one that “the movements [he researches] stems from the results of [his] empirical research in choreography,” meaning that the movements that are created in the moment are the strength of his work (Wellman, et al., 2012, p. 32). In addition, O’Connor said that his movements are “about letting go of nomenclature, political stances, and any other certainties that may register as important topical knowledge in other areas,” in other words dance technique and the mainstream (Wellman, et al., 2012, p. 32). Some of O’Connor’s dances may not be accepted by most audiences, but his movement does not require a new lens, but an open mind to “keep looking” as he stated (Hedstermas, 2013).

In Tere O’Connor Dance’s website, information about the company and O’Connor are provided. Click HERE to visit the website. O’Connor describes dance to have its own properties, which could include ideas like exploration of memory and consciousness. O’Connor’s approach to choreographic exploration is done through observation of the environment and the individual dancers. O’Connor has received 3 major awards: (1) 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, (2) 2009 United States Artist Rockefeller Fellow, and (3) 1993) Guggenheim Fellow.

One of O’Connor’s work is called Wrought Iron Frog, which does not have a “meaning” (story/theme), but just “delicious movements” (Hildebrand, 2010). There is subtle humor in movement in the performance that captured the audience’s attention (Hildebrand, 2010). The music with this piece is a musical score by James Baker which includes text from the novel How It Is by Samuel Beckett, every day noises such as traffic and bells, and music (Hildebrand, 2010). Want to hear O’Connor’s own words on Wrought Iron Frog? Click HERE!

Another of O’Connor’s work is called Rammed Earth, which means an architectural technique which includes dirt, sand, and cement placed into wooden frames that take years to build due to weather (Dohse, 2008). The performance is described to be theatrical and has a “fervid, fertile wit” to it (Dohse, 2008). The interesting part of this work was that the audience was placed at random on the stage then the dancers moved the audience to sit at a more “traditional” way of sitting when watching a performance (Dohse, 2008). The music for this work was also composed by James Baker and the music was described to be what would be shown in a “Cold-War horror movie” (Dohse, 2008).

The most known work by O’Connor is called BLEED which was performed at BAM’s Next Wave festival in December 2013. This work was done with writer and performance scholar Jenn Joy. BLEED consists of 3 dances that have been combined into one work; all of the previous works were done by him (Hedstermas, 2013). The previous 3 works are named (1) Secret Mary, where the dancer’s improvisations were analyzed and used the common sources of meaning from the improvisations for the work, (2) Poem, which used poetics and embraced formality, and (3) Sister, where O’Connor explored “vast differences in sameness” (Hedstermas, 2013). O’Connor named the work BLEED because the previous 3 works cannot be redone in this work, but are only the ghosts of the work, so they bleed the history (Hedstermas, 2013).  [Dance is moving forward and new histories are being created.]

*Click on titles of previous works to see videos of the dances. There was no video for Sister available.*

Click the following image to proceed to the BLEED process blog.

Click on image to link to BLEED process blog.

 

References

Dohse, C. (2008, January). Tere O’Connor Dance Rammed Earth. Dance Magazine, 82(1), 220-221.

Hedstermas, C. (2013, December). Tere O’Conner, Dance Magazine, 87(12), 22.

Hildebrand, K. (2010, February). Tere O’Conner Dance, Dance Magazine, 84(2), 86.

Tere O’Conner Dance (2013, December). A Process Blog: BLEED. [Web log comment]. Retrieved from bleedtereoconnor.org

Tere O’Conner Dance (2015). About the company & Company Biographies. Accessed on 23 March 2015. Retrieved from tereoconnordance.org/about/

Wellman, M., Foreman, R., Hay, D., Malina, J., Monk, M., Whitehead, G., O’Connor, T., Maleczech, R., Hammer, B., & Rainer, Y. (2012). BELIEF. A Journal of Performance & Art, 34(1), 15-33.

 

Tutti Festival Critical Response

The first part of our Tutti Festival at Denison University experience was having guests in our Composition Investigations class. First we had Miwa M. come in and explain her visual arts and how she went about it with music. Miwa said that most of her work progressed with the que of music since she can’t really see the screens. I find her tight choreography and movements with the visuals amazing. It seems like a lot of time and dedication is spent on exactness in her work.

The second part of Tutti Festival for me was being able to do dance work with Ethel in the class. It was improvisational movement and improvisational music. We, the dancers, had to respond to movement coming from the music then the musicians had to respond to our own movement. It was a great experience to have physical interaction with the musician providing the music. It was also very interesting to be able to move to a whole different style of music improvisation since I was used to dancing to Denison’s Dance Department Musician in Residency, John Osborn. Great choreographic exploration.

The third part of the Tutti Festival experience was being Sandra Mathern-Smith’s choreographic work. Her first work was done in a performance space and had fans in the space. The dancers did abstract movements that represented elements of being at the beach, for example a bird and the feeling of the ocean. The second part of her performance was a cite based work with live musicians in the space. The dancers moved up and down hallways being very involved with the audience. The dancers also danced at the edge of a platform that represented the cliffs at the beach. In addition, there was a section where the dancers performed on sand and made beautiful figures in the sand.

Over all, for the purposes of this class, I was able to retain that there are multiple ways to approach choreographing and different interpretations of music. Everyone has different ideas of what movement should be like and look like. Also, differences on how to approach music in creating it and moving to it. It was a very fun and artistic experience overall and I am glad I was able to see and be part of all these events.

Duet Exploration

Doing a duet was the hardest work for me so far since I have only ever choreographed for myself. Explaining movement for a different body is difficult for me since many of my movements are very internal. and involve a lot of personal internal emotion.

Since a lot of this emotion is very internal, I used a lot of facial expressions to help my partner understand the internal feeling I was having. It was a fun way to be able to share what I was feeling inside with her. In addition, I was able to learn how I should explain my movements with another body. This is good practice for when the trio work comes into play.

The duet consists a lot of silliness and quirky-ness to the movement. My choreography was described to be very silly and the seriousness of it made it seem funnier.

 

[A video of the final duet will be edited in soon]

Judson Dance Theater

Judson Dance Theater, 7th of March 1965

The Judson Dance Theater  was found in 1960s by a group of dance students who wanted to showcase choreography they had been working on taught by Robert Dunn, who worked with John Cage’s music (Banes, 1982, p. 167). Here is a list of the “founders” of the Judson Dance Theater:

Bill Davis, Judith Dunn, Robert Dunn, Ruth Emerson, Deborah Hay, Fred Herko, Richard Goldberg, David Gordon, Gretchen Maclane, John Herbert McDowell, Steve Paxton, Rudy Perez, Yvonne Rainer, Carol Scothorn, Elaine Summers, and Jennifer Tipton. 17 total participants.

The name of the group came from the location where the group did their first performance Judson Memorial Church (Banes, 1982, p.169). The first performance was done on the 6th of July in 1962 with the performance titled “A Concert of Dance [#1]” (Banes, 1982, p.168). The performance included a bit of everything known in the post-modern time. I will include a quote found in Banes’ (1982) article on page 174.

“‘A Concert of Dance’ was arranged with a slightly asymmetrical balance of solo and group dances, solos by men and by women, dances with and without music, with live and recorded music, talking and singing, slow and fast and variable tempi, simple and complex choreographic structures, plain and fancy costumes. The twenty-three items on the program were divided into fifteen units.”

To study the approach on the music for this piece is a bit overwhelming since there are 23 different works, but the music that they included were by Erik Satie, John Cage, and Marc-Antoine Charpentier.

(Incase you are curious, there were concerts #1-#16.)

After the first concert, many known modern choreographers began working with participants of the Judson Dance group. For example, the Dunns listed above, Merce Cunningham, Ruth Emerson, and Trisha Brown became involved in teaching Judson Workshops (Banes, 80). Not everyone was required to participate on all of these workshops; the students decided which they wanted to attend to (Banes, 1983, p. 80). In addition, there was no set “leader of the group” because everyone contributed to what was being made (Banes, 1893, p.81).

In addition, there was collaboration done with James Waring, who traditionally worked with ballet dance, became a great interest on collaboration with writing and movement in the 60s (Banes, 2003, p.57).

This video is not of the company in particular, but of recent students following the same path as the Judson Dance Theater. The video is to show something similar to what could have been done in the 1962 concert (also to see the Judson Church space).

References:

Banes, S. (1983). Democracy’s Body: Judson Dance Theater. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press.

Banes, S. (1982) The birth of the Judson Dance Theatre: “A Concert of Dance” at Judson Church, July 6, 1962. Dance Chronicle, 5(2), 167-212.

Banes, S. (2003). Reinventing dance in the 1960s. Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press.

3rd of March: Reading Summary #6

Readings:

Fogelsanger, A. (2005). On the edges of music: Trisha Brown’s Set and Reset and Twelve Ton Rose. Sound Moves Conference, 39-46.

Jowitt, D. (1999, August 10). Dance: Meet the composer: Trisha Brown dialogues with music. The Village Voice, 44, 153.

 

Summary:

Brown’s dances are known to have an “electric relationship” with music by approaching the music with a linear perspective or a vertical perspective making the dance either “coextensive” or “contrasted or unrelated”(Fogelsanger, 2005). In addition, Brown’s dance is described to be like a broken eggshell by having “bigger” sections, “shorter sections,” and all of the in betweens, and the music relates to the style of dance she approaches (Fogelsanger, 2005).

The “linear” idea is that the music creates an expected goal where as “vertical” means that the music is mostly used to listen to the sound and not try to see the goal intended (Fogelsanger, 2005). Leaonard Myers describes that most music is linear due to the use of text in the music (Fogelsanger, 2005). Brown uses both styles in her dances and either makes the movement coexist or contrast( Fogelsanger, 2005).

An important quote that stood out to me is “To call such music a decorative element is not to be disrespectful of it, but to recognize how it functions with dance, when the audience’s attention is directed to the visual,” because it shows that even if the music is not used exactly what it is meant for, the composer of the sound should not feel forgotten in a dance performance (Fogelsanger, 2005).

MFA: Watch From Here Part II

Critical Response

Unfortunately, I had a feeling for a panic attack going to happen on the way to the performance. I had to take a medication named Hydroxyzine Pam (50mg)which basically is an inhibitory to my central nervous system. In other words, I was basically acting as if I were to be intoxicated. Not fun to try to watch a performance while having that feeling (everything went loopy). I will do my best to respond.

The first piece was Silt by Rachel Barker. It was an interesting solo because it dealt with a very organic environment and movement. The long pieces of paper on the stage was crumbled and was used as a screen to show images from a projector. The soloist’s movement was very internal and giving to the audience. The movement seemed to be very explorative. As soon as the paper started falling form only one side I became very confused on the focus of her movement. The projection of her dancing in a purple dress at the beach was very distracting from her movement. It was hard for me to stay focused on her movement because her interest of this exploration she had in the beginning faded away at the end. The soloist could have had a stronger “buildup” to the ending.

The second piece was Laminated Glass by Mihwa Koo which is a six member piece and began with running in the room, no sound. It was very interesting to observe how they were using the performance space and the sound of their body.. This piece was hard for me to really remember because there was a lot of back and forth of the body a lot of the times. There were a couple duets that I was able to really hear the breath of the dancers and see the intention of the movement. For the rest of the piece, it seemed to be “clean chaotic” type of movement. There was a flow to the movement, but it was hard for me to focus on it. But over all, I was a bit confused on some movement decisions and wonder how their approach to the movement was.

The last piece was a trio called Les Fouves by Tammy Carrasco which included very neon colored costumes. There were shifts between silence and sound that was very interesting with the movement (sometimes the contrast made us laugh). There was some scores used in the work, but I am unsure of how many. I am certain about one, flocking, at the beginning of the piece. I also appreciated the use of the space (there was a part they slammed into a door on the wall and began moving horizontally with a male doing a combination on the floor over and over again. AMAZING!). I just wish there was a bit more chaos in this piece because there was too much cleanness in the piece. There was this desire of total chaos to occur since there was this sense of “under the table silliness.”