Sounds For Dancers
Workshop / artistic research project
Bétonsalon Centre D’art and Recherche, Paris, France.
November 27 - December 1, 2023
Facilitators: Christopher Willes, Ellen Furey and Brendan Jensen
Sounds For Dancers was an intensive six-day research workshop with artist and dramaturge Christopher Willes, co-facilitated with dance artists Ellen Furey and Brendan Jensen. The intensive invited five participants working in dance into a collective investigation of sonic-somatic practice.
The first half of each session explored ways in which movement and sound-making could be approached as a unified practice that centers collective care, sensitivity, and awareness of others. The facilitators guided the group through aspects of their individual practices, with movement scores, listening exercises, reflection and dialogue. Brendan shared exercises informed by his studies in Alexander Technique, a practice of body awareness and thinking in activity to promote wellbeing. Ellen led a daily movement score that explored the connections between individual improvisation and collectively generated choreography. And Christopher offered variety of sound-making exercises, using musical instruments and everyday objects, to develop group listening skills.
These practices then informed participants as they each developed interpretations of a score for “guided listenings” — a one-on-one performance scenario in which individual audience members were led into direct, tactile experiences of sounds. Through a carefully guided process, the performers constructed a sound piece for one listener at a time, using objects with high sensory potential, eye masks, lighting equipment, along with custom-made tactile speakers which played electronic music compositions from Christopher (designed to be experienced via touch).
These explorations were repeated each day, examined and refined together, and eventually shared in a concluding performance. The performance took place over several hours and viewers were invited to cycle in and out of the space. Members of the public could witness the work from afar, and also to experience it directly. Participating directly, the internalized experience of each viewer became the location of a surprisingly multi-sensory performance, which called into question perceptual processes. From the outside, a choreography of sounds, objects, and movements played out, as the group staged an intentionally provisional and embodied form of music making together.
Hosted as part of “Un·Tuning Together”, Sounds for Dancers reflected on the shared lineage of thinking and practice between North American avant-garde traditions of contemporary dance and experimental music. And the project’s title was borrowed from a note found in the Pauline Oliveros archives which appears to be the beginnings of a syllabus for a class entitled “Sound for Dancers 1”.
Credits
Part of the creation phase for RADIANCE. Project by Christopher Willes, created in collaboration with Ellen Furey (performer), Brendan Jensen (performer), Winnie Ho (performer), Anni Spadafora (objects), and Germaine Liu (consultant).
Participants and contributing artists: Basile Herrmann Philippe, Daniela Carler, Félicia Dotsé, Grace Nitoumbi, Simon Chatelain, and Simon Labbé.
Produced in collaboration with the Musée d’art de Joliette, Quebec, and developed with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, Studio 303, Of-The-Now and Public Recordings. Photographs by Susie Richard
Part of Un·Tuning Together. Practicing listening with Pauline Oliveros, presented by Bétonsalon Centre D’art et Recherche, Paris, France, September 20th to December 2nd 2023.
Curators: Maud Jacquin and Émilie Renard. With No Anger, Julia E Dyck, Célin Jiang, Konstantinos Kyriakopoulos, Anna Holveck, Violaine Lochu, Emily Mast, Lauren Tortil and Christopher Willes with Ellen Furey and Brendan Jensen, with works by Pauline Oliveros and contributions from IONE and Deep Listeners Ximena Alarcón, Sylvie Decaux, Lisa Barnard Kelley.
Photographs by Susie Richard.
See exhibition journal for more information.