Erica visits and we dance again!

CI and contemporary dance in southern India

This past year I traveled to INDIA three times to teach, study, live, and experience the sounds
and sights of this extraordinary country. In BANGALORE, a city of some 8.5 million people
in the state of KARNATAKA, there is an artist revolution rumbling under the surface…ancient
stimuli inspiring new expressions. I find myself with the dance anarchists of Bangalore—
Kha, a collective contemporary dance group (Sanskrit for “Space”). They exude pride for their
various cultures and possess passion for more—alive and interacting with imagination and

brilliance. They are associated with Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, the premier dance
conservatory in southern India for classical and contemporary dance.

Attakkalari’s artistic director, Jayachandran Palazhy (Jay), explained his vision: “Our attempt
is to deconstruct some of the [Indian] folk traditions to understand the impulse that inspired the
forms. I am working with the principles and concepts rather than outer form—trying to imagine
the source.” When I asked him how he sees traditional influences within his contemporary work,
his response revealed an understanding of tradition as an evolving form rather than a constant to
be observed. “Remember…contemporary IS Indian.…India is a mosaic—a lot of give and take.
The idea of tradition is an artificial construct. Some people are afraid of change. But the only
constant is change. What kind of orientation do we want to have? How do we gravitate? Can we
evolve to a contemporary Indian confident enough to explore?”

I am in Bangalore to teach yoga and to conduct CI workshops for diploma students at Attakkalari
and to work with Kha, who arranged for me to teach a weeklong CI workshop for them and other
professional dancers at Kalari Academy of Performing Arts.

It is truly a cultural exchange. My interest in teaching CI in India is not to impose an aesthetic or
style of movement but to support an appetite for contemporary possibilities. I am fascinated to
see what happens with CI here, spiced by the local life and individual sensibilities.

In the studio with the professional dancers, trained in traditional classical dance and modern
forms, I feel the fertile rub between ancient and new. Many of us traveled far to participate.
One dancer traveled 5 hours by bus, another, who sells bananas on a cart in the day and dances
at night, traveled 10 hours via train. The intense interest is exciting and leads to dancing with
intelligent intrigue. Some have experience with CI, but others have never touched the opposite
sex outside of privacy. I assure them that they can dance man-to-man/woman-to-woman if less
distracting. But they want to try.

After my time in Bangalore, I went to CHENNAI, the capital city of 9 million people in the
state of TAMIL NADU. Chennai prides itself as a traditional society—nearly all women wear
saris, and many men dress in wrap skirts and bare feet. And yet again, I mingled and intertwined
in dance with the contemporary scene. Chandralekha’s legacy as a physically and verbally
articulate dance revolutionary is felt all over India. She utilized classical movements along
with yoga and Kalari (a South Indian martial art) to express nontraditional themes—eroticism,
feminism, abstract expression of energy. Before she died, she established a campus called
Spaces, and this is where I am teaching. Located near the beach, it is a haven for movement arts
in Chennai.

Local dancer and activist Andrea Jacob is committed to the cultural exchange and support of
contemporary dance in Chennai. She arranged my workshop at Chandralekha’s Spaces and an
interview with curator Sadanand Menon—a handsome man with a deep voice that vibrated
through me with every word. His love and respect for Chandralekha was clear. We sat on
marvelous house swings, reminiscing about her work and her continued influence and relevance
today. It was then that I learned Jay had been in Chandralekha’s company. I felt my dance travels
coming full circle—Chandralekha to Jay to Attakkalari to Kha.

Regardless of where on the globe or when, history tells the tales of revolutionaries. So often,
even artists become followers—CI dancers are not exempt from this—learning “the moves” and

perfecting them into the dance dialogue. Yet with new options and raw openings exposed, new
forms of expression, communication, and knowledge can blossom.

As a dancer, choreographer, and yogini, I have found my time in India to be incredibly
stimulating. I have traveled quite extensively in the world but am uniquely captivated by India’s
juxtaposing cultures of ancient and new, finding myself propelled into a wealth of interest and
ideas.

Not bound by past convention, I respect what has inspired traditions and embrace this as a source
of current investigation. What is tradition? It seems to me that even a culture such as India,
which theoretically embraces the fact of constant change in the material world, falls into the trap
of yearning for absolute answers and familiarities. It is part of the human domain to want to hold
on to traditions, treating them as though they have always been there. It is the creative mind that
disrupts habits of following. I find myself part of the wave of disruption, supported by love and
respect rather then revolt and denial.

And so, among the cows and chickens, mixed with bikes, motorcycles, rickshaws, pedestrians,
and incessant honking, I watch, listen, smell, taste, and feel my way into my next dance—
leaning, pressing, falling into the momentum of change.

-Erica Kaufman
Few pictures from the workshop (out on the streets)!

CQ Contact Improvisation Newsletter
Winter/Spring 2013 vol.38 no.1

Guest Editor: Dey Summer

CQ Newsletter Editor: Nancy Stark Smith

Instants with Angela Stoecklin

cultural exchange project: improvisation and Instant Composition music/dance with artists from different cultural backgrounds 

Arts are means of communication. Dance and music as non-verbal communication forms bear potential for inter-cultural exchange. Through the playful way of improvisation we use our individual experience to enrich and be enriched in unique moments of sharing art.

In my research series „instants“ dancers and musicians from different cultural backgrounds are brought together to mutually experience moments of instant creation. My interest lies in exploring and getting to know other approaches to dance, music and improvisation, and trying to find connections within. How is non-verbal communication different in various cultures, where is it close, where do we understand / misunderstand each other. How can we bring our individualities together to create pieces instantaneously. 

Improvisation is probably the most original and primary form of art. It combines technical skill with playfulness, asks for letting go of what is familiar and known to joyfully open up to the impulses of the moment. Exploration of communication between music and dance within related thematics through improvisation is the working process which culminates in a performance of Instant Composition.

I am curious to find out how the individual cultural background stains communication between the arts. 

Eventually, when having done this exploration in several countries, I will want to compare and try to find 

a consensus for the approach to Instant Composition that can work throughout the different cultures.

Instant 3, India 2012

I had the possibility through the Kha Foundation in Bangalore and Murielle Ikareth and her Saaram Center in Kottayam to conduct my exploration on Instant Composition music / dance with both contemporary and traditional local artists from Nov 28th till Dec 14th 2012 in India. In each place I could work with the artists five times. In Bangalore we concluded the research time in a studio showing, the one in Kottayam in a performance in the outside space of OED Gallery in Cotchi at its opening night during the Biennale for contemporary arts. In Bangalore I also taught a workshop on „time and musicality in dance improvisation“ for dancers and dance students.

Indians impressed me with their open heartedness, and as a communicative and very friendly people. In the midst of their hustle there seems to be no time pressure, no mounting impatience or anger. I perceived them as quite direct in reacting, sometimes almost childlike, always ready for a good laugh, and with the talent to see the pleasant side of any situation, which I eagerly tried to take up in my own In both groups my approach to improvisation was new to the artists. The contemporary trained artists in Bangalore, a percussionist playing on instruments he himself makes from waste material and a flute and dijeridoo player, and six semi – to professional dancers very eagerly entered into the reflecting of the process, and seemed to be able to connect to my inputs easily. It’s a group of people who put a lot of effort in building a contemporary art scene , in finding and making space for their interests.
In Kottayam I worked with traditional classical artists, a singer, a female tabla-player, and a semi professional guitar and dijeridoo player with improvisation background, a Kathakali and a semi-classical dancer, and my French host who had studied traditional Indian and some contemporary dance. Here the challenge was to find a common ground when both language and approach were very different. The traditional forms are very strictly coded and structured, playing in cycles within which a certain amount of modulation is possible. The artists’ curiosity and openness towards working of tools and finding new ways of interaction by looking at seperate aspects of it was very touching, and performing together was a joyful 

experience with both groups.

What I found parallelled in their spoken and their artistic language is an ongoing rolling flow of outlet, there seems to be hardly any stops or breaks, and it was not easy for them to try to integrate and then keep these. So as common experience with both groups the track of making and giving space, also to individual voices, became prior, and I didn’t introduce all the topics I had planned with an equally strong I will call this research „atelier“ from now on. It might make it clearer that it’s not a workshop but a field for mutual exploration. It helped already to formulate my approach in the beginnig more clearly, as taking apart of exploration and working on tools, and the making use of it in making pieces.

Then I tried to get a feeling for the pulse of South India. The hustle of congested Bangalore and the tropical business of Cotchi, being calmed by the quiet of the resort Saaram and an afternoon on the backwaters. The many sensory impressions, the neverending sounds of horning, chanting and bell- and cymbal-sounding of some nearby temple, the air filled with fumes, incense, curry-smells and foulness of standing water, the coulourfulness of the many people on the streets, the wonderfully bright Saris, the blue, pink and gold of the temples, the ritual-flowers and the surprising amount of green in both places. I was housed with one of the dancers in Bangalore which allowed me to be very close to her everyday life. Saaram Center in Kottayam was a restful place to concentrate on the work, and Cotchi then again let me plunge into India’s full liveliness.

I was met by very open and hearty people and felt welcomed by them immediately.

 Angela Stoecklin, December 2012

Moving in Winds of Change

In April of 2012, Mirra Arun, Meera Murthy Dhage and Pia Bunglowalla carried out a 10 day workshop at the school Winds of Change for the children. It was an enriching and exciting process for them all, as Mirra reports. 

Winds of Change is a school for special needs children. There were 7 children with varying learning disabilities and specific needs. Movement and music with props was our way to build a relationship with these children. We designed sessions that we would do in a normal class and observed that it worked wonders with any child.

The children were mesmerized in the Light, Water and Music session. We engaged them in a specific activity where we had them look into a cup of water in a semi lit room with candles. They were then asked to move without spilling the water and to place their cups in a floral formation in front of the candles. The one and a half hour session was charged with the children's intensity and patience. There was complete silence through the session as they moved to music with their water cups and settled down in front of the candles, watching the flame dance. 

Another session that worked magic was Exploring Paper Mountain – where we filled the room with strips of paper. We ourselves danced, jumped, twirled to the music on the paper, making mountains and breaking them. Initially, all the kids did was watching us and slowly one by one started joining and had a wonderful time immersing themselves in the paper. 

It was a complete process oriented workshop without the pressure of putting up a performance. Hence we could work according to the children's pace and interest. Some days we fit in a lot of activities and some days we stuck with just one. We listened to the kids rather than stick to a rigid plan. My experience at Winds of Change brings home to me again how beautiful it would be to follow a completely process oriented program for both the students and the teachers.

-Mirra Arun

Falling and Flying: CI with Erica Kaufman

In March of 2012, Origins continued its foray into contact improvisation with a 4 day workshop facilitated by Erica Kaufman, a dancer, choreographer, yogini, creative expressionist and contact improviser from the US. The workshop was conducted from the 12^th to the 15^th of March in KAPA, Brigade Road and it proved to be a wonderful experience for all involved.

We began on the floor, finding what Steve Paxton, one of the originators of CI, called “the small dance”. Reacquainting ourselves with the ebb and flow of our own breath and the minutest movements within our body was like stepping into an inner, mysterious world, for on the outside all one could see were still bodies. Slowly we established a relationship with the ground, from which we rose and fell back to with increasing ease.

The pace picked up in the following days as we tumbled through the basics of CI and began to work in tandem with other participants. Partner work came into play and the experience was very much like a great playground where all were welcome and accepted. We were cautioned against trying to execute certain movements that were laboured, like lifts, and instead to create opportunities for these movements to occur. This can be essentially trying for dancers who are eager to expand into daring movements, but the gentle pace with which we began made it easier for us to connect to each other and soon things were effortless.

All along, we got to interact with Erica everyday on a growing personal level, sharing our experiences and thoughts on CI and contemporary culture and dance in India. The final day was a culmination of the process we had undergone with the added element of live music. Bangalore band Thaalavattam graciously agreed to an improvised contact jam and provided a surreal soundscape to the explosion of energy from the dancers.

“It was truly a transformative experience, I felt,” shared one of the participants. Another spoke with passion of the surge of energy he had felt during the jam and how he felt CI was his language of choice. Some of the participants revealed that they had initially felt reluctant about CI, given it’s nature of full body contact, but the workshop had given them a glimpse into the depth of the work and changed their opinion.

If you missed out on this event, don’t be dismayed.  Erica plans to return and is looking to collaborate with a larger group of dancers to create a production in the near future. We’ll keep you posted with the information.

Erica Kaufman, MFA, E-RYT500+ is a dancer, choreographer, founder of the Lîla Yoga Institute, creative expressionist and contact improviser. From her childhood in Israel she moved to the USA for graduate studies, then toured as a teacher/dancer in festivals and performances in the U.S., Germany, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia Hungary, and Israel.  Erica Kaufman's dance and choreography is committed to movement experimentation and contact improvisation as a vehicle of discovery, creativity, and expression. Her dances are characterized by the weaving together of abstract somatics with literal, cerebral word play. Since joining academia in 1989, Erica has been a faculty member at Point Park College Dance Conservatory, Visiting Professor at University of Marburg in Germany, Adjunct Professor at the University of Denver and currently on faculty at Pennsylvania State University.

To learn more about the artists who collaborated on this project, please visit

Erica - http://lilayogastudios.com/

Thaalavattam - https://www.facebook.com/thaalavattam

Photos courtesy of Saajan Thomas and Avinash Shetty https://www.facebook.com/avinash.shetty.96?fref=ts

Kalari Academy of Performing Arts http://www.kalaripayattu.org/academy.htm

Instances from the Public Performance Lab

Following instructions that are out of the ordinary

Slowing down the traffic in Jaynagar

Presence in a public space

Expanding into New Possibilities with Elizabeth Erber

2012 is set to be an interesting year for Origins, with the chance to connect with dancers and artists in our backyard and from across the world. It started off with a wonderful workshop, led by Elizabeth Erber, in contact improvisation.

CI is, to quote wiki, "a dance technique in which points of physical contact provide the starting point for exploration through movement improvisation". Created by Steve Paxton in 1972, this dance technique has evolved with each individual that experiences it. Although it has a concrete basis in the principles of movement, every person has something new to offer in terms of their own personal exploration and what possibilities they can create with their bodies and that of their partners'.

On January 15th, 2012, Origins facilitated a workshop led by Elizabeth Erber, who's been involved in CI for over a decade. It was aptly called "Expanding Into New Possibilities" and was hosted at KAPA, the Kalari Academy for Performing Arts (http://www.kalaripayattu.org/academy.htm). 

The participants were dancers, choreographers and actors among others, who were introduced to this exciting and challenging form in the simplest and most serene manner. Quoting Elizabeth, "We begin with our bellies, connecting with our partner, allowing energy to flow into our center, the solar plexus to relax and open, the nerves and muscles around our center to release. We breath, we soften, we open, making it possible to receive, respond, share, create."

From here, the participants worked with each other to explore moving in tandem and creating connections through the body. From simple movements that involved sliding along the floor to allowing one’s partner to balance on one’s body, the workshop gave everyone the chance to experience a different kind of movement and rhythm, creating their own, unique dance duets whilst working within a group. 

Liz Erber (GER/USA) has been practicing, teaching and performing CI for over a decade. She was mostly influenced by such teachers as, Karl Frost, Keith Hennessey, and Tonya Lockyer, while living in Seattle on the West Coast of the USA. From 2006-2008 Liz danced with the Cyrus Khambatta Dance Theater Company, and also taught regularly for the company. In 2008 she moved to Berlin, where she established her family and from where she has been choreographing, teaching and performing ever since. Liz was an artist in residence at K77 Studio in Berlin in 2011, presenting two full evenings of performance in May and June. Also in 2011, she began a 2-year certification program in Bartenieff Fundamentals and Laban Movement Analysis. Once a month she holds an artists salon in her home.

For more info please visit www.lerber.com

Parading Oneself in Public – The Public Performance Lab

The Public Performance Lab was a 7 day workshop laboratory held at Natyalaya in Jaynagar, Bangalore, in which the Austrian choreographers and performers Georg Hobmeier and Mirjam Klebel offered a platform for knowledge exchange and research with strong focus on dance and performance for public spaces. This research was based around their previous works, a series called area.

http://www.openarea.at/

http://vimeo.com/channels/165152

area is a platform for the temporary transformation of public space. Projects connected to area are performative and/or choreographic actions, which emphasize and put into question the given social, architectural and political codes of a place. An area project may take the form of a specific performance, a set of choreographic actions before a (un)knowing public, or a mode of research carried out on a particular geographic zone. These actions are neither theater works that simply happen to take place in public, nor are they spontaneous events. area projects traverse the border between visible and invisible, directly and thoughtfully working to transform a given place. The result of such a project is a fluid and temporary space, in which the definitions between viewer and performer, between city and stageare continuously re-defined.

The workshop featured daily 4 hour sessions that began with a contemporary dance warmup led by Mirjam Klebel. Although most of the participants had prior experience in dance, we were challenged by her energy and strong technique that left us breathing hard but completely energized and rooting for more. Mirjam is a wonderful teacher and an extremely talented dancer, and it was a great pleasure to attend her classes. As one of the participants said, “This is one of the best sessions I’ve ever attended and it’s great to be able to be in a group and pursue this form.”

Short excerpt of the technique class with Mirjam

The next part of the session was the core work on public performance, led by Georg Hobmeier. Towering over all the participants, Georg soon put everyone at ease with his amazing sense of humour. The activities were focused on trying out physical scores, devising choreography, exercises in connection with physicality and presence in public space and discussions. These sessions were extremely hands on and took participants out of their comfort zones in the studio and into the streets of Jaynagar, Bangalore. They involved exercises on walking and presence, site specific compositions, and following a series of pre-recorded instructions that were used in area.

Excerpt of a group piece in studio where participants followed recorded instructions audible to them through mp3 players and an external score was played for the audience.

More than one innocent by-stander was startled to see a participant run up and down the same street, wave at windows, and engage in a slow, meditative walk. Another session, involving site specific compositions, really engaged the public, with several people walking up to the participants and demanding to know more about what they were doing. One of this author’s favorite sessions was held in Lalbagh, where participants explored theatrics and performance in a completely different environment.

“This kind of work really puts you out there in a community and you can learn so much about the place that you’re in. A lot of the myths one tends to hold, about a city and its people, get debunked. Its extremely challenging as well, to put yourself out there,” reflected one of the participants.

A small glimpse into the Public Performance Lab is available at http://vimeo.com/36511735

For more information on performance art, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_art

Georg Hobmeier was born in Innsbruck, Austria. He works as a freelance performance artist Since 2000 he created numerous interdisciplinary projects bringing together artists from dance, digital music, architecture, theatre and visual art. His recent projects have been presented at ICA London, Cynetart Festival Dresden, Mellkweg Amsterdam and others. He currently travels through Europe, while giving lectures, working on projects and teaching workshops, all in the realms of dance, performance and realtime media. He was a visiting director, lecturer and teacher at various reknowned institutions such as the RSAMD Glasgow, Folkwanghochschule Essen, Kunstakademie Nürnberg and others. His recent media project, the computer game „Frontiers“ has received extensive coverage in international media and is being exhibited in the ZKM in Karlsruhe. He is an active member of the artist groups Gold Extra and works for several artists, companies and festivals as an advisor and dramaturg.

Mirjam Klebel is an Austrian freelance performer/choreographer, dancer and teacher who works throughout Europe and the US. Coming from a background in dance, music and sports, Mirjam is also a member of the organizations TANZ_HOUSE Salzburg and SPIDER Collective where she is active in developing new agendas for contemporary dance with qualitative performative work as well as through different out-reach programmes and events that includes the audience in expanding ways. For example through the interface "Markier Dein Revier" and the Online Competition “MOVE AGAINST IT”. Since 2004 she is teaching at the University MOZARTEUM Salzburg for the dance- and acting department. Furthermore she is a teacher for professional training and workshops in Sweden, Austria, Polen and at the New Mexico University in USA. She has also worked for : Milli Bitterli, Lawiné Torren, Zoe Kights, Anna Tenta ,Matej Kejzar(SLO), VRUM Collective (HR), Mia Lawrence (USA), Martin Sonderkamp (G), LISA Collective (NL), Marina Rosenfeld (USA), Markus Hank (G), Simone Klebel-Pergmann (A) and Ori Flomin (USA).Adi Salant, Stephen Rappaport

and Georg Hobmeier