Lug Writing: Debriefing the Dance

• In Event: 61.058 - Toward an Understanding of Performative Research as Embodied Inquiry

Abstract

With a floor length overcoat, a large hat, and a bulky leather suitcase, my Beckettesque character tells stories through a poetic narrative with dance as the vehicle. A narrative that fragments meaning and blasts chronology, logic and sequencing into space. This research character is called Lug.

In the case of my work with Lugs through Embodied Poetic Narrative, I work/play with a mindfulness toward kinaesthetic astuteness weaving the tools of improvisation with an attentiveness to each moment. Stephen Nachmanovitch (1990) refers to this astuteness as “the power of free play sloshing against the power of limits” (p. 33). In this form of play, memories may be provoked, feelings may be triggered and insights revealed within the framework of our lived experiences. All of these references are calling attention to an invitation to witness compassionately and to become available to this provocation where a reciprocity, within a suspended poetic narrative, is collectively created. A deep listening to what may surface within a dynamic interplay of body/movement and environment is invited.

Availability is the key factor for both the dancer/researcher and the audience-availability to allow an excavation from the variegated strata of our memories, images and emotional states in relation to identity and place. This availability is contingent on the courage to enter in to a state of vulnerability which is in turn contingent on the cultivation of a sense of dialogue with those who witness. Julie Salverson (1996) writes of the complexity of this role in theatre as one who pays attention to what is said and what is unsaid. And the importance of the witness allowing the story to take form honouring the speaker but allowing it to take its place and to occupy a public space:
…take a shape that is of sufficient complexity and nuance so as to not belittle the whole experience of the teller, and find a public place that somehow marks and anchors the experience in the moment. This is a possibility for popular theatre. With its curious combination of private and public space. (p. 39)

Schechner speaks about the craft of the performer metaphorically as a circular printing press where the performer has the skill base to return to the beginning point of a performance time and time again. In the case of Lugs, the choices I make are recursive. I will begin with a move that returns throughout the piece, that is, a goose step or a gibberish prayer or a silent scream. It is what I refer to as building the historicity of the performance whereby each moment constructs a lineage of choices, a legacy of impulses.

This historicity is also constructed with the audience by their immediate responses which invariable opens up a pandora’s box of interpretations based on individualized narratives which in turn cultivates a fertile ground of collective meaning making. This panelist will discuss, with video examples, the spiral of creation and debriefing of three Lug performance, making explicit the performer/audience relationship.

Author

• Kathryn Ann Ricketts, University of Regina