Sophomore Composition; Partnering Improvisation; Creative Process
Amy Chavasse (SMTD)
This is a working examination of processes by which ideas emerge and are given body/shape/life in movement and physical expression; In this course, we will investigate, practice and analyze methods for gaining proficiency in contemporary partnering through improvisation. Beth Graczyk is a New York based dance artist and scientist whose research bridges the worlds of dance and science through inquiry into the creative process and its ramifications on societal issues and outcomes.She has contributed ten science publications in the field of cancer research, including a first author paper in Analytical Biochemistry. Working in and across two disciplines, science and dance making, institutionally and historically resistant to giving women equal support or visibility, Beth’s artistic and scientific questions center around how research in art and science is considered, conducted and disseminated. These factors remain a critical determiner of how issues and images of women are viewed. Discussions around how failure leads to more specific experimentation, and promotes a rich reiterative process insists that we ask how our actions activate the space we inhabit. This pushes us as artists and researchers to create new rituals for each situation built from observation, essentializing elements of inquiry. How do pluralities thrive in any moment? How do we allow questions, discord and dissonance to ignite and enliven the process?