Spacetaker’s recap on the SPEAKeasy

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Dance, text, type, watch: This month’s Artist SPEAKeasy recap
Submitted by Spacetaker on Mon, Aug 23rd at 3:30 pm

This month’s Artist SPEAKeasy was a real treat. For those of you who couldn’t make it, here’s a brief recap including where you can catch more of our two artist presenter’s work.

Ms. Lydia Hance, dancer/choreographer and director of Frame Dance Productions, kicked off the evening by using the Speakeasy forum as a Fieldwork workshop with a new twist: live immediate feedback to a live work-in-progress dance performance.

Everyone pulled out their cell phones, a few hopped on to computers around the room, and roughly half of the audience chose to either text, tweet or type their feelings and responses to a three-person live dance performance happening in front of their eyes by Lydia and two other dancers, Kristen Frankiewicz and Alex Soares. The other half of the audience chose the non-tech route and waited until the end of the performance to offer their feedback.

Lydia is interested in the differences and similarities between live instant feedback and feedback at the end of a body of work. She uses both sets of feedback to influence her choreography — in fact she plans to use our SPEAKeasy audience feedback to help her finish choreographing the piece.

Before the performance began, Lydia explained the type of feedback that is most helpful and critical in the Fieldwork model. Rather than offering subjective opinion-based feedback such as “I liked…” or “You shouldn’t do…” or “This was good…,” the more helpful type of feedback is experiential in nature, like this:

“When you did your work, I saw…”
“I was most involved by…”
“The work you did reminded me of…”
“When you did your work, I thought you were trying to…”

Most people stuck to this feedback method and the comments texted and tweeted in were projected on our screen behind the dancers. Things like:

“i feel impending doom…like something bad is going to happen…worried”
“i feel like flying, like i want to take off..but i cannot…its frustrating”
“It reminds me of snow capped mountains”
“i find myself trying to create a story”
“there is a fine line between extreme anger and extreme joy”
“I thought you were trying to put a club beat to the end of your movements”

At the end, one audience member commented about how she felt like she had to make a conscious choice between three things: watching the dancers, figuring out what to type on her phone, and then reading the feedback on the screen that other people were submitting. Some people found the instant feedback a distraction from enjoying the performance, some found that they were more engaged in the performance because they knew they were expected to comment on it.

You can catch the finished piece by Lydia Hance along with a short film that will accompany it during the CAMH’s Dance with Camera Exhibition, Points and Coordinates, on Sept. 16 at 7 pm. (It’ll be interesting to see if we can see how her choreography changes based on our SPEAKeasy audience feedback!)

Check out Frame Dance Production’s blog for updates and more about what Lydia and her crew are up to! This post in particular is fabulous as we learn that visual artist Donne E. Perkins is collaborating with Lydia and drawing new work based on the lines she sees in her choreography.

Many thanks to our friend and Spacetaker board member Ed Schipul for snapping some great photos and posting them to his Spacetaker album on Flickr. (photos above by Ed Schipul)

Tomorrow we’ll tell you about the 2nd artist presenter, Mr. Pablo Gimenez-Zapiola.

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Real Time Responses from the Speakeasy

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Hello! Happy Monday!

I have the live responses listed below from the Spacetaker Speakeasy.
In a later post I will dive into some specifics with these–what they’ve made me think about in regards to the piece, how they are influencing the creation of the piece…

I ask you:
Those of you who attended: do you have any further comments, or questions about the piece or the dialogue below?

Those of you who weren’t at Spacetaker: what are your reactions to this dialogue? What do these comments make you think of? In other words, how do you imagine the piece considering these pieces of information and reflections?

Piece Begins.

Emergency…I am low on beer… Web 19:19:21
i always wonder when movement becomes dance Web 19:22:21
the sounds and movement reminds me of waking up on the beach, after being…. Web 19:22:46
I wasn’t expecting the sound of the canvas Text (US) 19:22:57
Ooh she’s getting her feet dirty Text (US) 19:23:03
Body print smear writhe Twitter 19:23:16
I feel relaxed Text (US) 19:23:28
i am feeling tired, like i want to go to sleep relaxed, calm Web 19:23:35
i feel impending doom…like something bad is going to happen…worried Web 19:24:14
if I tweet what I’m thinking the group will thinlk I’m shallow, which is insecure of me Text (US) 19:24:20
the crayons catch the gestures! Twitter 19:24:32
i feel like i need to say good morning Web 19:24:41
how choreographed are the lines? Text (US) 19:25:14
trying to fix something.. Move something.. Text (US) 9:25:18
feels like boats Twitter 19:25:30
i miss finger painting…think i need to get my set out Web 19:25:34
I felt symmentry/centralization with the center point on the single canvas.Text (US) 19:25:53
the drumming is hypnotic…something is wrong Web 19:25:56
hello back Web 19:26:13
wait, she just crossed a barrier and hit/touched the other canvas. Why? Now off! Text (US) 19:26:30
breaking out of the box…expanding Web 19:27:02
clicks and whirrs and tweets Twitter 19:27:24
i wonder what the cello/strings symbolize…wisdom, calmness, truth Web 19:27:26
This is the training of the multiple tasking viewer Text (US) 19:27:47
i feel like flying, like i want to take off..but i cannot…its frustrating Web 19:27:51
what motivated leaving the canvas? Text (US) 19:28:48
angular movement can be joyous…i feel joy, innocence Web 19:28:58
is that gunpowder? Will it explode from friction on the floor? #scrape #scrape Text (US) Wed, 19:29:14
Mindfulness & crayons. Force Text (US) 19:29:26
I feel sad that I haunt seen the move I helped create yet 🙂 Text (US) 19:29:30
feeling joyous, angular movement can be freeing Web 19:29:32
is that gunpowder? Will it explode from friction on the floor? #scrape #scrape Text (US) 19:30:04
i find myself wanting to find animals in the movements, but i can’t so i imagine them Web 19:30:10
I feel inspired to stretch and see what my body can do Text (US) 19:30:25
I am interested in the gestures Text (US) 19:30:55
it reminds me of snow capped mountains Text (US) 19:31:03
the dancers transformed into the line particles n shades they started from.Text (US) 19:31:22
sometimes you don’t think people would move like that– but what else could?Twitter 19:31:26
i find myself trying to create a story Web 19:31:31
there is a fine line between extreme anger and extreme joy Web 19:32:01
we are here for each other Text (US) 19:32:36
I thought you were trying to put a club beat to the end of your movements Text (US) 19:32:43
i am feeling selfish, this is about me, not you Web 19:32:45
finding I don’t want to text, I want to watch. And still worried about the gunpowder Text (US) 19:33:37
supermodify walk twirl Twitter 19:33:50
its like jazz, in dance, with trains Text (US) 19:35:27
do they see eachother? Text (US) 19:35:31
silence is beautiful…but i feel scared Web 19:35:57
rt “do they see each other?” Text (US) 19:37:02
glad this wasn’t interrupted with a train whistle solo. Twitter 19:37:29
conflict. Desire to watch. As “part” of the performance now group obligation comes up. Good/bad both. #obligations Text (US) 19:39:53