I'm going to leave that open for now. But I will say that I've had some conversations where I feel there may be some illusionary divisions between us.
(I'll throw in my experiences after others have been posted or if we're stuck. My hope is that we can clear through some garbage and sterotypes - and any of my biases :) - and share beautiful experiences and eventually find perfect matches and harmony. ... and lucious discussions)
peace, love and arting,
Lynn
(I'll throw in my experiences after others have been posted or if we're stuck. My hope is that we can clear through some garbage and sterotypes - and any of my biases :) - and share beautiful experiences and eventually find perfect matches and harmony. ... and lucious discussions)
peace, love and arting,
Lynn
posted by:
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Wisconsin
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Re: What's your experience of each other?
Sun, August 6, 2006 - 6:14 PMHello Lynn,
Thank you for starting this tribe and this thread.
I've been involved with historic dance for many years, both as a musician and a dancer. It has been my experience that the biggest challenge is to communicate with both sides using a common language. Although I am primarily a musician, I find that by knowing the dances (primarily 16th court dance and 17th century English country dance) I am better able to perform for the dancers, and the same goes for understanding the nature of the music.
I've had the pleasure of presenting a theatre piece based on a 16th century dance manual which allowed me to explore ideas about blocking, staging and choreography. This was a great challenge because everyone (dancers and musicians) were suddenly actors as well.
I am very interested in hearing ideas from others in how best to confront the challenges of working with three seemingly seperate performance arts from a musicians point of view. Wishfull thinking? :)
Thank you again for the tribe and topic and I look forward to hearing some ideas.
Hejdå
Michael H. Gartner
Karlskoga, Sweden
www.wolgemut.net -
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Unsu...
Re: What's your experience of each other?
Mon, August 7, 2006 - 11:20 AMwell, in my experience, a lot of times the musicians are trying to get it on with the dancers, which is ok, but not all the time...
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Re: What's your experience of each other?
Tue, August 8, 2006 - 12:27 PMthat's funny, I'm always trying to pick up a musician... :)
the main reason I brought this up was because of the language thing (mentioned above). In my dance training the piano player always tried to tell us not to "follow the music", but he would follow us. Most musicians I worked with always followed the dancers and most dancers either followed the music, or choreographed to it by count, or just didn't even pay note. As mostly an improvisor, I began finding it fuller to work with improv musicians and didn't even work with other dancers much - I found I had a sterotype that dancers couldn't improv when I found that most of the msucians I worked with had that same sterotype because they were amazed to be able to work with me and we agreed that my dancer language is the same language that musicians use.
But I'm not sure about all that - that it's that clearcut. Do you find these specific sterotypes? - expecting that the other side just can't do what we want them to? Is it about language? I want to believe that we all speak the same words but use different instruments. Or is the language difference our training? Can a traditional ballet dancer work with a jazz musician in their own trainings - or do we really only come together as improvisors? I guess that's my main question... hope that's not too all over the place.
THANKS! :) -
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Re: What's your experience of each other?
Wed, August 16, 2006 - 8:16 AMI think I get what you're saying and have an opinion...
someone needs to be the ground for the interplay of drum & dance
Like some drummers enjoy drumming with me b/c I keep the steady beat while they play around with beats
If you have a steady beat, I find dancers can be the players... but with trained dancers of any kind, there is some allowance for drummers to play too.
now, this can swift back and forth if you have good communication... but what I often see in large open jams is the drummers getting distracted by dancers b/c they weren't strong & steady drummers in the first place or dancers who weren't very flexible with their play wanting the same beat played forever which bores the drummer.
Luckily, I play with a regular group now that picks a rhythm, from different styles, and plays it consistently. We have one designated high-end player who often does play off the dancers but the rest of the group keeps the ground solid. We have been trying to incorporate more than just basic drums including shakers, etc. to create a more expansive sound too.
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