In and out of time

In and out of time is the culmination of my MA (research) project, which examined the role of repetition in relation to the notion ‘being present’; it was a merging of two practices; an improvisation practice and a set or learned movement practice.

The improvisation practice, the practice that instigated this research begins with the introduction of a ‘score’; a word, set of words, or phrases which enable the dancer to follow the process of the dancing, as it is unfolding, in the present. This is then taken through the journey of a repeatable four-part structure. The structural element of this practice, which has (for the most part) remained the same, comprises of various spatial and temporal frameworks in which we dance and watch, talk and listen, both as individuals and as a group.

The set movement practice, a practice of repetition, emerged as another facet of my ‘making sense’ of practice. It began with physically interpreting and analysing video footage of Trisha Brown’s Accumulation (1971), which like my improvisation practice, is repetitive in its structure. In setting out to generate our own accumulation, we began by using Brown’s choreography, and the continued by adding our own movements to make one long accumulation. In introducing this set movement practice alongside my improvisation practice, I asked, how does knowing the movements to come affect how I notice the present? While it was not immediately perceivable, what became apparent was that the way in which I noticed the present in the accumulation, was similar to that of my dance improvisation practice. In coming to understand the similarities in my noticing between these two practices, I questioned whether these two practices could coexist as one.

In and out of time was the first meeting of these two practices, and the first time an audience viewed them simultaneously - it was an experiment. In attempting to intertwine these two practices, I was aiming to investigate whether I could maintain my noticing of the present in this same way, while staying true to the structural constraints which had been put in place.