TERPSICHOREAN SONICS

Workshop on the Relations of music and dance

Are you a subservient to some aspect of sound or movement

unwittingly? How might you open your insights to music from a
perspective of a dancer? Regardless dance or music genre, what could
musicality, in your perception, be?

Terpsichorean Sonics draws on the fundamentals of music (described

in the theory of western music culture) and the fundamentals of dance
(informed from the perspectives of Laban Movement Analysis,
bodywork and Judson Dance Theater legacy) to create the conditions
for experiential and analytical processes.

Participants will experience, analyze and observe improvisation tasks

and scores. These will give fine tools on dance making and
improvisation in relation to music and will deepen participants'
physical attunement to self, other and environment, and sensitize their
awareness of preferential routines.

How will this be implemented?

The beginning (15 min) "Tuning in Dance", bringing in 'the day' and
setting the ground for self-observation in relation to con-temporality,
will continue with (90 min) of "Tuning to the body of self and the
other" in duet/ group bodywork dealing with individual's relation to
indulgence/ resistance to gravity, and to articulation of body, and so
developing student's body connectivity, and his/her tactile relation to
space and co-dancers.

These will be followed by (150 min) session-by-session examinations

of a particular element of music (based on the parameters of sound:
'duration, amplitude, pitch and timbre') through scored individual/
group dance practice, facilitated with (self-)analytical and critically
reflective discussions on the observed/ sensed/ felt/ thought.

Sessions: (1) "Individual Maps of Music and Dance": Developing

student's com-prehasion and understanding of a 'unit' as the basis for
the about-ness in any communication, and treating the ear-eye
relation. (2) "Accent": Broadening modes for 'sub-dividing an event',
opening an inquiry on zooming in/ out, repetitiveness/ variability/
similarity/ contrast, and foreground/ background. (3) "Articulation":
Furthering the idea of an 'accent', extending it in space/ time,
distinguishing approaches of articulation in music/ dance,
contributing to the concept of connectivity within one's body/ in space
with others. (4) "Dynamics": Emphasizing the treatment of (a) diverse
forces (their appearance/ sustention/ disappearance), and (b) the
'heterogeneity of homogenic structure' (advancing the practice of
instant composition). (5) "Melody": Treating a singular movement-
sound event in music/ dance in one's body/ in space with others. (6)
"Harmony": Treating plurality of 'units', introducing concepts of
musical texture (monophony/ homophony/ polyphony), within once
body/ in space with others. (6) "Instrumentation": Discussing the
choosing of instruments (body parts/ individuals/ spaces/ sounds). (7
and 8) "Rhythm": Approaching to (a) periodicity within metric
structures, and (b) dramaturgy of totality. (9) "Poetry"; focusing on
vocal music (the words beyond their apparent meaning), and operating
in the realm of language. (10) "Texture": dealing with modes of
combining melodic/ rhythmic/ harmonic materials in a composition
and determining the overall quality of the sound/ movement in a
piece. (11) "Ambiance": Approaching the 'temper' of composition. (12)
"Introduction to Form": Looking at the possible modes of treating the
form on the level of motif work, as depicted in the 'Fundamentals of
Musical Composition' by Arnold Schoenberg.

The two hours will continue with (app. 45 min) improvisation(s) on the
session's theme, aiming towards instant choreography.

Note: The workshop will use prerecorded music (as well as life music,
played by me on the piano, if there is one) of different music time
areas (from 'early' to 'contemporary' music), different genres
(improvised/ set), and different functions (folk/ urban/ art). Doing so,
it will unveil the meaning of 'not representation of certain aesthetics'
and will so speak to the students on plural levels of understanding the
vastness of the relations of music and dance. It will support verbal
discussion and feedback. Students will receive 'workshop notes', for
possible future recollections.

Why is this relevant?

Dancers, choreographers, humans are affected by sound, whether they

notice it or not. Our obedience to it has a profound effect on the
choices we make. Music education in dance training is rarely to the
level of specificity it could be to equip dance artists with the auditory
skills in choreographic practice, improvisation performance and
spontaneous composition. These skills may be there as a by-product
of intensive training of course. But it is relevant, and crucial for dance
art, to systematically demystify the material properties of sound and
movement as an act of democratizing knowledge, giving space for
huge creative and physical capacity through skills, tools and embodied
practice. The workshop places great importance on the group
experience in turning up the volume on these nuances of practice and
thus, enhances interaction between dancers and musicians.

"Ears have no eyelids." (Quignard, P. La Leçon de musique, 1987)