Here are some examples that we hope give insight into the ways we learn about each other, why we are here, what is important, how we do things…etc.
Click on a CDI member below to view their own Creative Process.
Luke
Siobhán
Ruairí
Lisa
Luke
Reflections on Process
The conversation is always changing, for me I pay attention to moments when we take a tangible step towards or away from something. A step towards action can be followed by a step away from the compulsion to act, finding a safe terrain between different artists with different needs can sometimes be confusing, or contradictory. The constant is an effort to listen, to understand, respond and to support. The process has been slow because this is a careful process and needs time.
Creatively I found transposing the work of figuring out our structure as an organisation or community into some form of theatrical, movement or shared audience experience very satisfying. The ‘piece’ of In It For the Long Run vs the work of delving into what Cork Dance Initiative is, isn’t, could be or wants to be. The development of work for performance sits at the centre of my practice and I found this allowed me to bring my mind and my imagination into the space collaboratively in a way that to that point I’d found it difficult to integrate.
Thoughtful and rich conversations on what each collaborator/co-creator/member of CDI wished to bring forward, explore and represent inside the work gave me a fuller understanding of not just the artists I was working with, but also a more three dimensional and tangible understanding of the values and principles we’d been discussing. Creating a four part presentation, made up of four different aesthetics, practices and approaches to dance and performance made sense in a way that no amount of ratifying of words on paper ever could.
The creative process of finding a performance form we all related to, understood and believed in has for me become the foundation of finding that form as a working group, or an organisation or a community. The invitation to our audience reflects our invitation to artists; each contributor sharing their thoughts followed by a coming together in a shared space. We all do this a little differently. As a tool in the foundation of a grassroot artist led collective, the process of transferring a set of values and ambitions to a performative language has been incredibly rewarding and effective. Finding a way to communicate concepts through each artist’s individual approach to dance and performance but in collaborative conversation with the wider group brought each person through a kind of prism to understand each other and our different perspectives from the inside. I like to be active and for me this process animated our conversations in action in a way that I felt deep, personal and truthful.
Siobhán
Circle/Square Check-In: A Useful Tool.
I remember the first day of rehearsals for In It For The Long Run, Ruairí brings a check-in technique that comes from Mari Kennedy and Grace Dyas. It is called circle and square. I remember it as this:
- You have a set amount of time to express what needs to be said without any expectation of being met with solutions, comments or queries.
- Circle check-in is personal, you share how you are today, your mood or anything that has happened in your day so far that might impact your presence at this session. You might share something that is still with you from a previous CDI session. Circle check-in is concerned with creativity.
- Square check-in is all about the practical and the logistics. You might share an action that needs to be completed or a practical consideration that you are concerned about, for example, when is the deadline for handing in that application form.
- I like this check-in because though I don’t get any solutions in the moment of speaking, a solution often comes later on in the session. This check-in often sows the seeds and sets the tone for future actions, discussions and tasks.
Ruairí
January 2021 – In It For The Long Run – Write your dream piece
It starts in a butterfly house, or an anatomy lecture hall. The one I have in mind is the one in Artis in Amsterdam or the one in Summerhall in Edinburgh. I wonder if we will take this to Edinburgh – I’m going to pick one idea for the purposes of this writing exercise.
Its in a museum – its in Fitzy’s in the museum and its very early in the morning – we have created the effect of it being very early in the morning. I am met by someone who works at the museum and they open the locked side door for me. This piece is about history, its about hirstory, Siobhan, Lisa, Luke and Ruairí’s story. So the caretaker person opens up this locked museum and lets me in. There is a phone and a headset and some sanitiser wipes on a small desk when i walk in. There are beautiful printed instructions on the table for me. Its dark in the space and the only light is a small desk lamp on the table with the headphones and phone. I’m instructed to put them on so i do, i press play and there is some music. The music is warm and matrixial it puts me at ease. A whisper tells me to look under the table where i find a flashlamp. I can use this lamp to navigate the darkened space.
I’m referencing a piece i saw in Tel Aviv a few years ago but i think that’s okay – i’m borrowing the form for our purposes – imitation is the highest form of flattery right? It could be anywhere really. The tape playing in my ears is like a friend. It directs me around the space, orientating me. It speaks about the building and about some objects in the first cabinet.
WE HAVE TO CLEAR THE AIR
There is a box of matches – and some other objects. I complete something very secret and magical and important. Its a private moment. I’m remembering something – a group of people. Kids training in cold halls, boys going to ballet classes, people trying to make a living teaching.
I’m also remembering stories I only really know the half off – I’m getting an analytical objective kind of run down of everything that happened – and its from everyone’s perspective and no one is offended by it because the intention is that we are releasing something – we are letting go of old quarrels and outstanding debts and missed opportunities. We are welcoming people home, there is a place for them because we have lit the candle or done whatever it was we were to do.
The tape guides me around the space, transposes the practices and techniques and names of our elders and lineages over war of independence heroes and pictures of folks from the bronze age.
In the back room at the back of the museum there is a chair – its a really luxurious armchair, in leather, or in velvet, it looks old but well kept. I am invited to sit down. The chair is in front of glass that looks out over the back of the museum, the weird hanging garden, the riverside, the grass. There are four figures there, they are moving slowly. They are dancing a quartet. There is push and pull in it. I can see that they make space for each other. Its simple and direct. Its not showy in a bad way but it is understandable, relatable. There is soft music. They are dancing barefoot in the morning dew. I am protected because of the sheet of glass between us.
Risk is an essential need of the soul – Simone Weil.
There is a monologue or a cacophony of all the phrases, all the go to ideas, all the quotes and supports, all the names of philosophers and painters and movies that have made an impact.
Something funny happens – That part is like a black box – we can’t know what happens until the rest is made. I just used the metaphor of a plane crash to describe this work.
I’m directed upstairs
I meet Siobhan
Siobhan gives me the instructions on how to sustain a body towards a good life
I’m directed into a back office
I meet Lisa
Lisa gives me the instructions on how to teach without knowing all the answers
I’m directed into a cafe
I meet Ruairí
Ruairí gives me the score for an impossible dance while making me a sandwich
I’m directed outside into the lawn
I meet Luke
Luke explains how a hive mind works while an ensemble of bears dance the rite of spring
That’s a good moment for a crescendo for an ending – an ensemble of bears have danced the rite of spring on the lawn in Fitzy’s. I think its over and I do that awkward thing where i clap too hard at the wrong moment and one of the bears/dancers breaks and looks directly at me as if to say
WE ARE NOT DEAD BEHIND THE EYES
WE COME ALIVE AT NIGHT TIME
WE ARE HERE WITH YOU
I am told to stroll over the shaky bridge – I am told to take off all my clothes (If i want!)
Sure there’s always nudity in these things!
I strip down to my boxers.
There are two young fellas standing on the metal supports of the bridge with thick Cork accents. They tell me how to jump – I jump with them.
I swim back to shore on the south side and they to the north. When i get out my clothes are waiting for me and capitalism is over, postmodernism is over, cancel culture is over, bad dance is over, all the problems and challenges of how to share space, how to build something, how to invest in each other and the future all seem a little lighter as I walk out of the parked waved on to my day by two Cork Midsummer / Dance Ireland/ Uilinn / Ionad Chultúrtha is irl. stewards.
People are dying all around us
Move to open space – to orientate ourselves in external and internal space
TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY TO MOVE OUT OF COMPETITION AND INTO COMMUNITY
Lisa
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