London
26th May 2005
Rachel, Rory and I found a marvellous square a couple of minutes from Old Street underground exit 6. "The Fireman's" pub was a few yards away. Customers from another pub sat at seats and benches at one side, and other passer's- by watched from seats along the opposite side. The other two sides of the square featured a large leafy tree and a tall dried up drinking fountain with four basins, one on each of its sides- one of which provided us with a storage area for our bags and coats. The square-shaped square was surfaced with smooth, chalk-inviting flagstones. It was a fine sunny lunchtime.
Rory had been on the night shift so Rachel and I began without him. We did some physical and voice loosening-up exercises, followed by Sandra Johnston's slow motion warm up. In this exercise you take at least ten minutes to move from lying down to standing up. The movement is imperceptibly slow requiring and creating heightened awareness and focus in the performer. Rachel preferred to go from standing up to lying down. So I reckon our warm-up acquired performative qualities. Even if we had both been moving in the same direction (up or down) the slow movement would be interesting to watch - but the complementary processes taking place in different parts of the square added a certain dynamic tension. Following this we took it in turns to do five minutes of authentic movement whilst the other watched. In this activity the aim is to move spontaneously, eyes closed, in response to kinesthetic awareness and impulses. The movement is an authentic response to physical, sensory and emotional awareness.
My movements included several episodes of covering my ears crouching and curled up inresponse to the noise of traffic and ambulance or police sirens. When Rory arrived we repeated the slow motion stand-up /sit down routine. Rory and I began lying down and Rachel started with standing. We were several yards apart. When we each had completed our process we continued the slow movements , moving towards and in relation to each other. I find it interesting that such slow movement actually facilitates spontaneity and improvised responses to each other. Our next score was Mover/ Speak-sounder/ Chalker. We took turns ine ach of these roles, remaining in the same frame, responding to each other. We maintained each of the roles for extended periods of time, unlike the overtly similar Action Theater score: Speak/Sound/ Move.
In our score the Speak-Sounder could speak or make vocal noises; the Chalker could write or draw.
Some of the phrases written were: IT ALL TURNS TO NUMBERS; THE SONG OF DEATH: YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE; DO YOU LIKE MY DRESS? HA HA; PISSING IN THE SEA IS FORBIDDEN; HOW MANY BABIES YOU WANT?
These were extracted by the Chalker from streams of conciousness verbalisations. Sometimes the speakers words (particularly Rory's) would flow elegeantly; sometimes the speaker, particularly me would would continuously repeat a word or short phrase, gradually transforming it into something else. Rachel favoured chalking. Eventually we all reverted to chalk. We began with a written conversation, taking turns to write in response to the previous scribe. Finally we decided upon a theme of affirmations and filled the squares in the square with phrases beginning with "YES TO....." Rory emblazoned the perimeter in huge letters , saying: BECOMING YES.
Here is some of what we wrote: A PLANET IS BORN (in response to an ingrained shape on the concrete flagstone); BY CAESARIAN SECTION; A MOON IS MOLLIFIED; DIAGONAL THINKING (Along a diagonal cross cut in a flagstone); SPARKLE IN THE DIRT(Beside a shining glass splinter emedded in dirt grouting the flagstones) ; THINKING BEYOND THE BOX, (beside a drawn square not co-inciding with the outline of a flagstone); ATROPHY PREVENTION AND REVERSAL.
Some of the YES words were: YES TO BOUNDARIES; YES TO MESS; YES TO KNOWING WHEN ITS TIME TO LEAF (beside the leaf of a tree). YES TO BALANCE ( beside the symmetry of a small manhole); YES TO PATTERNS (beside some natural cracks in the pavement) . Today was fun. Rory and I reminised (recalling the South Bank) about the experience of seeing the world upside down during some of the slow movement passages. There was a wonderful sense of freedom in London, and the space was a perfect size for our work, with interesting features and an approving audience.
