Kyra Norman in response to Annie Hanauer's workshop - January 2023
Reflecting on a Gather Up workshop with Annie Hanauer
at Arnolfini, Bristol, UK, January 2023
Kyra Norman
After taking some time to arrive in the theatre space at Arnolfini, settling in and rolling around on the floor, twenty dancers gathered in a circle to be greeted by Katherine, as Gather Up host for the session, to smile around at one another, and to begin.
In her opening few words, Annie said something about boundaries being alive, and that’s where this writing really begins, too:
Boundaries are alive
There’s so much wrapped up in these words, for me: a shorthand for a whole host of ideas and approaches to dancing together that feel important and timely, personally and from what I see happening in dance training and in professional movement-led practices and making processes: so much so, that I’m already using this form of words as a kind of mantra in my own teaching and making (thanks Annie).
On a personal level, as a dancer now in my 40s, I’m really conscious of the mental and physical undoing and deprogramming and refiguring and reconnecting that I’ve had to do, and keep on doing, in order to be able to show up as, and for, myself in a dance space, or indeed anywhere else. What’s possible on any given day, especially in relation to previously seemingly clear divides between possible and impossible, continues to surprise me, and the more I experience life as like that, the more it feels like actually being alive.
So, I really appreciated this proposal to start from a shared recognition that, firstly, individual boundaries are always present (and indeed welcome, not something to ignore/ force our way through) when we meet and move; and, secondly, drawing our attention to the way that we can experience our own boundaries not as rigid, permanent positions but as responsive, shifting conditions.
It’s also something about where ‘I’ end and others begin…
Having gone on a bit of a journey with these three words, it’s worth saying that I’m always acutely aware of the power of words and their potential to live on in unanticipated ways in the minds of those we interact with. It really matters how we frame what we do. This workshop with Annie was in my preferred mode of being these days: less talk, more action. In fact, it reminded me of being in a workshop with Laila Diallo (now also one-third of Gather Up), a few years back, when she said something about ‘letting the moving be the thinking’. (Another good mantra right there.)
And because of this care and economy with words, what was actually said, by Annie and others, had more power for me, and I left feeling recharged and invigorated, rather than exhausted and head-full, even though it felt like we covered a lot of ground on many levels.
So, I want to highlight that the words I’m using here are mostly thoughts that I had during or on the way home from the workshop: the words in bold are things that were actually said out loud by people during the day. I’m sharing some of what bubbled up for me, personally, rather than any kind of overview of the event.
…I’m interested in these “bespoke techniques”…
In the first part of the workshop, Annie invited us, together, to play with the form of a ‘technique class’ [as in the series of exercises that would be a typical start-of-the-day in a conventional Western contemporary dance training environment].
What do we actually need from a plie, we wonder? The bending, the mobilising, the repeating, the grounding, the building vigour… and where in the body might that happen? A physical testing, refining, trying something else…
Pairing up, folding together, drawing energy from one another… different body parts, different dancers, different approaches, loosely shared purpose… keeping going with your movement idea “until you can taste what it is”.
When we put all of our chosen, bespoke bends in the space together at once, someone said: “it’s like an abstract workout video!” And it really was.
Then a brief moment of set material: a locomoting, learning, remembering. Very nearly but not quite colliding, phew. And then on the left! Transferring the weight, building energy, really getting us moving through the space.
Crossing over, travelling further… Lower half motor, upper half motor, choose your own body part as motor… What a joy to fly-fall across that always-unexpectedly smooth black wooden floor again, and to see others doing so in their own way. It’s been such a very long time since I last danced here….
We worked with shifting between senses, and with shifting our place in the room.
Moving between doing and observing.
Both states being ones of noticing and tasting.
A morning list: what did you perceive?
I noticed:
people seeking connection.
Softening.
In the light.
Steady experimentation, no rush – methodical, somehow.
It seems to me that moving in this attentive, open way in a large group of mostly new-to- each-other people can feel like healing, can seem almost transcendent at times somehow, can be very moving to observe: and for me, because of how powerful this is, it seems important to be clear that the workmanlike, task-based approach is exactly what supports this – keeping this work in the realm of practicalities, of problem solving, rather than being about, or actively seeking, personal repair in this situation. I love that repair just often comes with the territory….
Testing the space.
In the middle, on the edge.
Hands proposing new names*.
*earlier on, when we introducing ourselves, Annie had told us about being given a BSL (British Sign Language) name-gesture by a D/deaf dancer: how you don’t choose, you are given. Later, people’s gestures reminded me of this, and I imagined the gestures as a series of possible new names; as offers to one another – look, this is who you are, to me.
I noticed that while the prompts/ tasks/ invitations in this workshop are about space and sensation, the experience – of following them through - is social: it’s between and about people. This is my favourite way to work, not prescribing interactions, letting them emerge.
Inside/ outside.
Eyes closed being visible.
Movement not settling into a pattern.
Lunch.
An afternoon list: from the collective pot
After lunch, we put some words and images from the morning’s dancing into a collective
‘pot’ and the ones I noted were:
Heroic pose
Compelled to echo
Negotiation, disruption
Listening to my body allowed me to be much less in my head
Is it ending
Is this too much
Distance
Permission, squeak, saliva
Moved by different things
Fighting my own body
The weight of hair
An invitation, for you the reader
I know that some of these phrases are going to be popping up in my dancing for a while to come and so! in the spirit of how these workshops always ripple outward into the wider communities of us as participants, here’s the small participatory part of this writing, and an invitation:
Take two of these phrases. Let them move you.
_ _ _
A photo of the workshop with Annie Hannauer taken by Laila Diallo. 14 dancers are split into two groups in a black auditorium studio space. They are dancing in contact with each other and their touching dances are lightly reflected in the floor.
Seeing these words listed on the page, above, is like looking back at some slightly blurry photos of a great night out – just a few landmarks from an afternoon of dancing together, in pairs, small groups, and as a whole group to create landscapes of activity and rest. Annie created a space that was lively and funny, and meaningful in lots of ways. One comment from Annie about climbing the others in the group, led us to think about how climbers actually negotiate space – you’re allowed to stop and look around and consider, ‘where next?’ – it doesn’t have to look effortless, or pre-planned. This seemed important at the time, and made for a really enjoyable group clamber. At one point we also felt like a slightly giddy constellation spiralling happily out of control. What’s happening? I particularly enjoyed that moment.
This was a day for dancing together with a roomful of people who mostly hadn’t met before, and who by the end felt like friends, thanks to Annie’s trust and facilitation, and the care that team Gather Up take to be clear, calm, and supportive hosts. A day for being physical and kind and soft and quick; for letting roving action lead to wide-ranging thought, rather than going in with a fixed idea or question. For moving a lot, laughing a lot, enjoying being that group of people in that space a lot, sensing my edges and feeling them softly blur. Just what I needed. Thanks.
A photo of Kyra Norman in project Distant Dances by Hannah Jamieson. Kyra wearing a blue top which matches the skies hue above them and black trousers. They are dancing amongst a coastal rock and pebble landscape with their arms lifted to the sky.
Kyra Norman is a dancer, mover and maker based in Cornwall, UK. Information about my work is here: https://www.kyranorman.co.uk
Together with Winona Guy and Claud Tonietto, Kyra is part of HowNow, a dance artist-led collective based in Cornwall, UK:
https://www.hownowcollective.co.uk
Annie Hanauer - Dance Artist