Sunday, May 2, 2010

PHRASE 3.0


Through a casual meeting on May 1st inside a kitchen located in xberg Berlin, 5 dancers decided to get "organized". The result being a look into the potential of performing simply a dance phrase, constructed and performed by its contributors. The phrase being our unanimous form of expression. Like a phrase in speech the dance is left incomplete, unmanaged by the rules of composition and form. Through its live performance the phrase becomes a gesture towards an understanding of a greater meaning.


We recognize some of the many social implications of performing a group dance but chose not to stress them as they are not the point of departure.


Why?


We say why not? Can we perform a group dance today without the burdening historical context that has made us all skeptical of actually coming together? Can we empower the dance while performing ourselves without seeming hegemonic? Can this dance leave space for each individual without leaving traces of individual egos?


Performing a dance phrase which has become somewhat taboo in the recent contemporary dance practice enables us to reconfigure the way we look at group dance, group choreography, and dancing in general. We embrace this taboo not merely to revisit it, but instead to initiate once again a communal engagement that acknowledges all its parts and individual investments while subordinating ourselves to the larger structure being the phrase we produce.




Conditions for Phrase 3.0:


1) find a space, record a phrase


2) upload it to vimeo.com


3) add it to this channel


4) once we have enough we'll perform them