Improvisation as an Aspect of Community's topics - tribe.net

RAY CHUNG intensive workshop, first call

Rossella — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:14:25 GMT

International projects 2008 \ Caravajal15 residenza dinamica
ORVIETO - ITALY

25 October – 1 November
Contact Improvisation Intensive Workshop
"Dialects of Momentum: Improvising Contact"
with
RAY CHUNG

Orvieto
25 October-1 November
Dialects of Momentum: Improvising Contact
Using Contact Improvisation as a foundation, we will create ways to improvise dancing in duo, trio, and ensemble.
A detailed survey of CI essentials, with a focus on efficient, effortless use of technical skills, will develop a facility for, and availability to, changing physical states and levels of touch and weight.
We will work with strategies for improvising improvising or, expanding our range of choices—how we improvise the way we improvise, as well as ways of embodying our imagination in movement.
Come prepared for focused playfulness within committed practice.

Ray Chung
Is a performer, teacher, engineer, and artist who has worked with Contact Improvisation and improvisation since 1979.
He uses Contact Improvisation as part of improvisational performance practice and integrates other movement forms into his work, including martial arts, bodywork and Authentic Movement. He regularly collaborates with dancers, musicians, and other artists and has worked with Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson, Steve Paxton, Peter Bingham, and others.
Ray's work has been shown in various festivals and venues throughout Europe, Japan, South America, Canada, and the U.S.

Program
From the 25th October to the 1st November
A 7 days of intensive training in Contact Improvisation, for 6 hours every day.

Is possible to get free lodging in the residency \ Meals ands food are prepared by our residency’s cook.

Timetable:
morning 10-13 \\ afternoon: 15,30-18,30
Wednesday 29 October: day off

1 November evening: final presentation of Improvising Contact
2 November Jam: open also to participants not enrolled in the workshop

Cost:
350 euros, 42 hours consisting of 6 hours a day for 7 days.

Sleeping and eating:
Our structure offers free beds, in a collective situation, with special mattresses in the workshop premises (160 square meters), a beautiful studio 9 meters high and very spacious (15x12 meters), full of frescoes.
This hospitality is available free to participants, who are requested to keep the place clean, providing an orderly area for living together.
For those who do not wish to share sleeping space, we can reserve a room at a bed and breakfast or a hotel.

Meals: a cook available will prepare dinner and supper for the group.
The cost is 12 euros a day (6 euros per meal).
For breakfast there is an additional fee of 3 euros.
The total cost is 15 euros a day for all three meals (dinner, supper, breakfast).
Participants are free to choose whether they wish to include all meals (dinner, supper, breakfast) or individual meals, communicating in advance what they plan to do so that the cook can buy whatever is necessary.

Info and reservation:
Caravajal15 residenza dinamica
Via Malabranca 15
05018 Orvieto (TR) - Italy
tel +39 0763.341479
fax +39 0763.340669
info@contactfestival.it

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Ad-hoc gatherings

Shibek — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:40:49 GMT

In 2003 and 2004 in Portland there were a longer and shorter series of ad-hoc improvisation sessions which were open to the public. The first of these was held at the old 411 collective space in the near southeast, and spanned most of the year. This featured dining, drinking and socializing, followed by solo or collective improvisations between largely non-idiomatic sound artists, movement improvisors, and the just plain curious. At some point we began putting names into a hat and rolling dice to select the number of performers. There was a supply of instruments available, which really helped further our capacity to do interesting things. People also brought different sound devices they'd purchased or built. This ended in later 2003 when the collective had to leave the warehouse.
The second series of ad-hocs that I'm aware of happened at the Hi-Ih lamp shop on NE Alberta street. I think it was the following summer. This was less advertised, the space was smaller, and no instruments were provided, so aside from a few memorable moments, the series didn't last as long. I'm still glad that the owner opened up the space in that manner.
Now I'm curious if any of these are still happening in Portland. I'm interested in free jazz, non-idiomatic improvisation, found sound, improvisational movement and contact improv, and the different varieties of noise and electronica. Perhaps we can set something up later this summer. Unfortunately I cannot host as my bedroom is smaller than some peoples' bathrooms!

cheers, mems shibek

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Zipfest OrvietoContactfestival is a CI36 Satellite Event, JOIN US!

Rossella — Sun, 18 May 2008 18:33:16 GMT

June 21–29\2008
Orvieto \ Italy
www.contactfestival.it

Registration is still up ... last call for entries!!

Celebrating the Summer Solstice, Zip opens to the Orient ...
Contact, Jams, Tai Chi Chuan, Meditation, Free Climbing and Satellite Events.

The annual Contact Improvisation festival in Italy, Zipfest, is a Satellite Event of CI36, and invites you to join for the Celebration of Contact Improvisation and for the Summer Solstice.

The festival opens its ninth edition with a weekend of International Summer Solstice Jam, starting Saturday June 21st through Sunday June 22nd, in a White Night Jam-contact day ... A 25 Hours of Movement Art and Contact ...

The festival will go on until June 29th: sixteen guest artists from various countries will animate the city from early morning to late at night, taking turns in a dense calendar of jams, performances and concerts, intensive workshops, encounters and laboratories centered around the theme of Contact Improvisation, improvisation dance and the performing arts.

INFO AND CONTACT
PHONE: +39 0763341479
EMAIL: info@contactfestival.it
WEBSITE: www.contactfestival.it

Zipfest is a lively kermis with internationally famous guest artists invited to the Umbrian residence from various countries to collaborate in the creative production of events, promoting the identification of a trans-cultural art. The festival is an event of art and culture speaking the language of today, questioning itself on the processes or artistic interaction, creating contacts and occasions for cooperation among the guest artists, who bare their experience, affinities and cultural and generational differences in Orvieto, to create the festival together.

International scene 2008
Nita Little (www.nitalittle. com), American pioneer of Contact Improvisation, an internationally acclaimed artist, invited to Italy for the first time in April in the residenza dinamica of Palazzo Caravajal, for the project Restless Peace, and once more present in June as part of the Zipfest guest artists. Keith Hennessy, a Canadian performer with countless awards, for the first time in Italy, will present an interesting workshop in which improvisation dance, performance and shamanism will be put in relation to each other. Giorgio Convertito, an eclectic Italian dancer who has been living in Helsinki for six years, and is today an artist on the Finnish scene, Jacky Miredin the virtuoso French performer previously invited to Zipfest07 and the young Italian choreographer Sara Simeoni, currently dancing with Carolyn Carlson. The artistic director of the festival, Rossella Fiumi, takes part with her installation titled I'm All Ears, a forum on the theme of listening and communication in contemporary creativity.Jens Biedermann, a Swiss acrobatic dancer and accordion player, Adalisa Menghini, Italian choreographer who has been living in Berlin for years, Alessia Scala a young Neapolitan dancer, Isabelle Uski, Contact improviser from Grenoble, Gionatan Surrenti Italian dancer, improvisor and pedagogue, previously invited to several Zipfest editions, Yanaël Plumet French performer and traveler currently living in Istanbul, the musician and performer Michele Rabbia virtuoso percussionist invited to the preceding editions of the festival and particularly beloved by the Zip public, Marko Timlin Finnish sound artist proposing new modes in the field of electronic sound, composing and improvising on solar panels and Barnaby O'Rorke Tree, a versatile Scotch performer, improviser-cellist, composer and vocalist.

21-22 June White Night Jam-Contact day
Inauguration- meeting point Residenza dinamica of Palazzo Caravajal, headquarters of the international Summer Solstice Jam, at 9 p.m. on 21 June, throughout the sleepless summer night up to 10 p.m. on 22 June, in the studios-houses- ateliers of artists-cultural- associations- creative- persons-columnis ts-others who work-look for a Contemporary idiom in Orvieto.

24-28 June Performances, concerts, forum
One of the most eagerly awaited events in Zipfest calendar, the improvisation performances: instant compositions, proposed then and here by the guest artists, in a type of performance called Real Time Composition.

Heart-felt curves
It is a great honor to present and pay homage to Luigi Mario, known also as Engaku Taino, a Zen master who has been living in the hinterland of Orvieto for many years. He is a fascinating figure with proficiencies and preparation of alpine skiing and rock climbing, as well as a Tai Chi Chuan guru, but above all a person to meet and know to practice meditation. Luigi Mario has been invited to the festival for two reasons: the first is to lead, aided by assistants, a free climbing session on the rocks of Ferentillo, a splendid zone in Umbria-Valnerina, on June 23rd. It is a unique occasion for those who practice Contact as well as others, because it gives one a chance to find out what it's like trying one's hand at a height of 30 meters, using one's strength, resistance, balance, gravity, weight, feeling of the void, and any number of other emotions to explore. The second reason is purely contemplative: three meetings of Tai Chi Chuan and meditation.

Festival residence and organizing
Caravajal15 residenza dinamica \ Compagnia ALEF
Via Malabranca 15 Orvieto, Italy
tel +39 0763341479
fax +39 0763340669
info@contactfestival.it

Project and artistic direction
Rossella Fiumi
rossella@contactfestival.it

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Musings on the art of the moment

carnaljazz — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 05:42:17 GMT

"He who binds himself to a joy
Doth the winged life destroy
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in Eternity's sun rise"
William Blake

posted in Improvisation as an Aspect of Community - 5 replies

Scanning the brains of jazz musicians

carnaljazz — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 23:45:37 GMT

Scanning the brains of jazz musicians

Posted by David Pescovitz, March 7, 2008 9:15 AM | permalink
According to new research, jazz musicians unconsciously switch off regions of the brain involved in self-censorship and firing up the area linked to self-expression. The scientists from Johns Hopkins University and the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorders used fMRI to scan the brains of jazz musicians as they played a specially-designed piano keyboard. From a press release:

The scientists found that a region of the brain known as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a broad portion of the front of the brain that extends to the sides, showed a slowdown in activity during improvisation. This area has been linked to planned actions and self-censoring, such as carefully deciding what words you might say at a job interview. Shutting down this area could lead to lowered inhibitions, Limb suggests.

The researchers also saw increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, which sits in the center of the brain’s frontal lobe. This area has been linked with self-expression and activities that convey individuality, such as telling a story about yourself.

“Jazz is often described as being an extremely individualistic art form. You can figure out which jazz musician is playing because one person’s improvisation sounds only like him or her,” says (professor Charles) Limb. “What we think is happening is when you’re telling your own musical story, you’re shutting down impulses that might impede the flow of novel ideas.”

Link to press release, Link to scientific paper in Public Library of Science (PLoS) ONE (via Michael Leddy's Orange Crate Art)
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0001679;jsessionid=D663D4BED4616006324374A358254A02

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The Discipline of Improvisation - Stephen Nachmanovitch

carnaljazz — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 05:52:52 GMT

For participants in the Academy - A program of Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute
January 2007

Improvisation is the oldest and most pervasive form of music-making. Every human being improvises. We all have dozens of conversations per day – we don’t write down what we’re going to say before we say it, yet we are able to have coherent, meaningful interchanges of information, feeling and imagination. For people who are able to express themselves on a musical instrument, improvisation can be both the easiest and most profound way to communicate. We read about the fantastic keyboard improvisations of Bach, Beethoven, or Chopin, who wrote things down as the only way to record and communicate their work. We wonder what might have happened if cultural evolution had proceeded a little differently, if recording technology had evolved prior to the technology of writing.

In the conservatory world, some people equate improvisation with jazz. Improvisation is not jazz. Jazz is one of the world’s beautiful semi-improvised forms of music-making, structurally very similar to Indian raga-playing. In both traditions, the musician sticks to a rough template or framework derived from tradition and defined by a scale, a rhythm, a mood, and then threads a personal path within the boundaries of that framework. In free improvisation, there is no template or prior agreement. We listen to each other very intensely and support each other, and from that atmosphere of listening and support, the structure and character of each piece emerges.

Improv brings equality for the human beings who are playing, and a closer feeling with the audience. When I have been coaching a chamber group and they play a totally improvised piece for an audience for the first time, something magical and startling happens. Suddenly, there is no music stand (or the virtual music stand of a memorized score or chart), no barrier between you and the audience, between you and your fellow players. You communicate directly. There is that wonderful moment when you realize that you can communicate in this way, and produce interesting, coherent music without relying on any external sources.

Those of you who play viola or bassoon know that the written repertoire for your instrument is not as large as the repertoire for violin or piano. You have developed a personal love for the sound-world of your instrument, but the possibilities seem fewer than for some other musicians. But with improvisation, the repertoire of every instrument is equal, and infinite.

A common emotion that students feel when they are about to walk into a session labeled “improvisation” is fear that they are not creative, that they will not come up with ideas, and so forth. We begin to toss sound around the room, in a safe environment. A little bit into the session, when I feel that it is OK to make comments on the pieces, almost the only thing I have to say is “play less.” Just as in chamber music, we learn to step back, support the other players – the less each of us plays, the more refined and clearly the structure emerges out of our interaction. What does this tell us? We suddenly realize that every one of us is bubbling with infinitely many ideas. Creativity is simply a non-issue. The issue is learning to let our ideas out of the gate at a controlled rate so they can be heard clearly.

My favorite statement about musical improvisation is from Del Close, one of the gurus of improvisational theater. He said, “Your job as an improviser is not to come up with clever lines. Your job as an improviser is to make your partner’s sh**ty lines sound good.” For me, improvisation is all about human relationship. It is about listening, responding, connecting, and about generosity. When a group of free improvisers gets together and plays a coherent and interesting piece of music without a prior plan or template, it is like watching separate beings become integrated into a single nervous system and become, for a time, whole. It is a partnership, with each other and with the audience, in the deepest sense of the word. Mysteriously, I even get this feeling when I am playing or hearing a solo improvisation.

If you are going to teach, you will plunge into encounters with people who come from different cultural backgrounds, with different tastes, different personalities, different priorities. Your capacity to improvise is one way into these encounters: the art of listening and responding to other human beings.

Each tone and gesture can be seen as an invitation to deepen the information and feelings that are unfolding. The discipline of improvisation is to learn to accept these invitations, to say yes, and to support each other. This is not only a recipe for making wonderful music, it makes for a happier life.

© 2007 by Stephen Nachmanovitch, all rights reserved.

Dr. Stephen Nachmanovitch has been an improviser on violin, viola, and electric violin, and an improvisation guide, for 30 years, and is the author of Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art (Penguin). He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.

www.freeplay.com

www.dharmaviolin.com

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Nita Little \\ first call

Rossella — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 13:19:29 GMT

Caravajal15 residenza dinamica
International Projects 2008

Orvieto \ Italy
April 25–May 2 / 2008

Nita Little
Restless Peace
A mind in motion and Contact Improvisation experience
Residential project for experienced movers

The American performer Nita Little will be the special guest of our association, first time in Italy as guest artist, for giving the project “Restless Peace”. The intensive workshop with Nita Little is in the calendar of our Residential Projects 2008, and will be from April 25 to May 2, 2008 in the beautiful Etruscan city of Orvieto, in middle Italy.

After the end of the workshop, on May 3rd and 4th, the association will plan also two days with the International Springfest Jam.

The intensive workshop and the Jam will be held both at the headquarters of the cultural Association Caravajal15 residenza dinamica, in the prestigious sixteenth century rooms of the Palazzo Caravajal-Simoncelli, in Orvieto.

Application for registration in the project with Nita Little is open from January 7th. For information and more details write to: info@contactfestival.it, or telephone to +39 0763.341479.

Nita Little
Restless Peace
The urge to move, to go where we have never been, is the soul of our practice in this workshop.
Developing a "home base", a place of personal and creative safety is as important as the journey; how wonderful to be free when you have a home! We learn, how like nomads, we may carry our home with us, even as we track paths in and out of unfamiliar territory.
We focus on developing the mental, emotional, and physical skills that enable dancers to travel creatively. Utilizing a full dance vocabulary, we integrate gestured movement improvisation with contact improvisation and build the skills to consciously weave these two forms.

We investigate “states” of mind / “states” of body as a means to develop and direct creative work in our improvisations. Developing the ability to describe and craft subtle levels of action and experience, we boost our physical potential while increasing our readability. Moving in solo, duet and group forms, we gain compositional tools for structural orientation; like torches, they light the way.

This workshop is developed for experienced movers who wish to pass beyond the threshold of old patterns. The restless human drive that takes us out of comfort, urges us to meet the unfamiliar, to move into, through and with the unknown, is a dance artist’s call. Here, we harness that drive and discover how, moving at the speed of our restless calling, we can find peace.

This class culminates in a creative work for performance at the workshop and at Zipfest08.

Things we will do:
Go deep into the physical philosophy behind contact improvisation.
Learn underlying CI principles that manifest as pathways of action.
Build the tools for safe physical and creative relationships
Discover different spatial orientations: vertical/hierarchical and horizontal/diffuse.
Learn about our temporal orientation and develop tools that modulate time.
Develop the skills to be able to move freely between states of mind.
Deepen our agreements to open to life, to the dance.
Honor peace.

about Nita Little
www.nitalittle.com
Nita Little has been developing, choreographing, performing and teaching improvisational dance for the past thirty-six years, notably Contact Improvisation, which she helped evolve from its inception with Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith and others.
She collaborated in numerous performing companies introducing Contact Improvisation throughout the United States. She is a master teacher with former students all over the world, who are themselves now master dancers and teachers: Gretchen Spiro, Andrew Harwood, Frey Faust, Scott Wells, Julie Oak, Peter Bingham to name just a few. Through CI she discovered her abiding interest in the evolution of consciousness and the mind body relationship. Since 1981 she has been developing an evolving curriculum called The Mind in Motion, which explores the range of experiential states along the mind-body continuum and reveals principles that define Contact Improvisation as well as other movement forms. This work is informed by her investigation of the mind through work such as hypnotherapy and NeuroLinguistic Programming.

As a performing artist her current work is a mix of both formal and improvisational choreography and scores. While anchored in process, it frequently explores character, story, and concept.

Nita received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in choreography and was on the California Arts Council Touring Program.
The latter award was to her solo dance company, NITA LITTLE DANCE THEATRE, which she began in 1984, continued through 1990, and reinstated as a pickup company in 2000. In 2002 Nita created Playing God, an hour-long dance opera that received funding through the Dance USA /National Endowment for the Arts.

Over the years Nita has been both faculty and guest artist at numerous colleges and universities including New York University, California Institute for the Arts, Texas Christian University, Temple University, Tufts University, Scripps College and UC Santa Barbara.

Nita teaches and performs yearly at national and international dance festivals including ImPulsTanz, Vienna, The Side Step Festival, Helsinki, Kontakt Budapest International Improvisation Festival, the International Contact Festival Freiburg, Germany,the Seattle Festival of Alternative Dance and Improvisation and the West Coast Contact Improvisation Festival, Berkeley California.
She also teaches locally and nationally throughout the year. She lives with her son in Santa Cruz Mountains in California.

As she has pioneered a path in the understanding of the mind/body/spirit relationship, Nita's mission, conscious evolution, has been the backbone of her passion and her practice. Her goal is to see, feel and reveal grace in all its forms and as it exists in the actions of the mind and the body.

Info and reservation
Caravajal15 residenza dinamica
Via Malabranca 15
05018 Orvieto (TR) - Italy
tel +39 0763.341479
fax +39 0763.340669
info@contactfestival.it
www.contactfestival.it

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Winter Solstice Jam \ last call

Rossella — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 20:31:57 GMT

Caravajal15 residenza dinamica
Orvieto - Italy
presents
Four Seasons Jams

International Winter Solstice Jam
21\22\23 December 2007

Palazzo Caravajal-Simoncelli
Orvieto - Italy
info@contactfestival.it

Last days for the registration in the Jam!!
With Christmas just around the corner…we’re dancing Contact !

Second encounter with Four Seasons Jams, a project of art and culture that continues to call attention to the city of Orvieto in Italy, with regards to Contact Improvisation, the Performing Art and dance of Improvisation.

The next appointment is the International Winter Solstice Jam on the 21, 22 and 23 of December, to greet the arrival of winter, and to celebrate Christmas time and a week from the end of the year, dancing Contact together.
Second Jam in a series of four, every three months, at every change of season.

The jam will be held at the headquarters of the cultural Association Caravajal15 residenza dinamica, in the prestigious sixteenth century rooms of the Palazzo Caravajal-Simoncelli.

The dance studio in our dynamic residence is welcoming and serene; in addition to dancing together, time and space are dedicated to personal requirements, to being together, to visiting the splendid Etruscan city of Orvieto.

We’ll dance together and we’ll warm ourselves in front of the fire in the fireplace in the frescoed Room of the Four Seasons, during the three days of the jam.

It is open to all, with three days of improvisation dance in the residence, including hospitality, reception and meals.

The fee is 100 euros, which includes also hospitality, reception and meals.

For information write to: info@contactfestival.it, or telephone to +39 0763.341479.

Info and reservation
Caravajal15 residenza dinamica
Via Malabranca 15 Orvieto (TR) Italy
tel +39 0763341479
fax +39 0763340669
mobile +39 3391017492
info@contactfestival.it
www.contactfestival.it

Lodging in the residence
We can host up to 20\24 people, comfortably.
We are organized with mattresses that the participants can use, scattered here and there in the 150 square meters of the studio.
You have to bring your own sleeping bag and a blanket, or sheets\pillow and blanket, as you prefer.
There’s a room in residence equipped for preparing breakfast and meals, in addition to dressing rooms and showers.
One person will cook for us during the three days of the jam.
Lunch will be light (fruit, rice, vegetables and/or cheese, cookies, honey, tea, coffee, etc.).
Evenings a dinner will be offered.

Artistic project and organization
Caravajal15 residenza dinamica

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Die down your daily mind in Himalaya!

rhizomelee — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 09:08:01 GMT

Die down your daily mind in Himalaya!

Welcome to Himalaya!

If you want to live as a facilitater of body communication worlshop, you can learn the whole method here.
If you want to become an unique butoh dancer, also you can learn whole creation method here.
If you want to meet your whole self, you can learn how to contact your whole here.

School Guide 2008

One year course: March 17-December 8
Half year course: Available to start flexiblly
Three months course: Available to start flexiblly

●Spring term（Three months course ）: March 17- June 6, 2008

●Summer term（Three months course）: June 16- September 5, 2008

●Autum term（Three months course）: September 15- Decmber 5, 2008

Monday to Friday
AM 10:00 - PM 4:30

Anybody, any age, any sex, any handicaped people; OK!
(But here is the highland of 1800m sea level, on the foot of Himalaya mountains. Regrettably, you can not use wheelchair.)

One year(Three terms): 1300 US$
Half year(Two terms): 1000 US$
One term(Three months): 570 US$

International Subbody Butoh School
(Jogibara, Dharamsala. Himachal Pradesh, India)

Ten　students only (In order of application. Long term student are given priority.)

Send e-mail with your personal information and hope.

to: subbody@hotmail.com

more info.: www.subbody.net

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Simone Forti "Logomotion Writing Workshop" \ project in residence

Rossella — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 00:32:15 GMT

Caravajal15 residenza dinamica
Orvieto \ Italy
International Projects 2008

Hello!
We are happy to announce that Simone Forti will be again the guest artist of our residence, for giving her intensive residential workshop “Logomotion Writing Workshop”.
The intensive workshop with Simone Forti is in the ambit of our international projects 2008, and will be from March 8 to 15 2008 in the beautiful Etruscan city of Orvieto, in mid Italy.
The workshop is limited to 16 participants.
The intensive workshop will be held at the headquarters of the cultural Association Caravajal15 residenza dinamica, in the prestigious sixteenth century rooms of the Palazzo Caravajal-Simoncelli.
The fee is 400 euros, which includes also hospitality, reception and meals.
Application for registration is open from October 15th.
For information write to: info@contactfestival.it, or telephone to +39 0763.341479.
Info and texts below.

Simone Forti \ Logomotion Writing Workshop
Intensive residential workshop
8-15 March 2008
maximum 16 participants
7-day workshop, plus one day pause
fee 400 euros (including meals and lodging)
pre-registration: 150 euros

Logomotion Writing Workshop
Sometimes our words don't have access to what we know in our bones.
In this workshop we will be improvising moving and speaking, and we will be writing.
While our writing will stimulate our imagination and support our improvisations, our improvisations will enrich our writing with a kinesthetic timing to phrasing and windows on sudden thoughts and memories.
Our activities will include studio sessions of improvisational moving and speaking, spontaneous writing, walks in town, with partners, for conversations about matters large and small, and private times to write and to craft our writings and to read them to each other.
We will borrow from the writing practice of Natalie Goldberg as found in her books “Writing Down the Bones” and “Wild Mind”, discovering the associations that gather spontaneously around a chosen point of departure.
As our movement work will include many activities in partners and in groups, some of our writing will include more than one voice, focusing on the relationships between the thoughts of different people.
A goal will be to write with wild mind and intention, and with awareness of world.

Jennifer Dunning writes in her 1991 New York Times review: “Simone Forti presented her first dance program in 1960 and has since then had a steadily increasing influence on post-modernist choreographers interested in exploring ‘natural’ or non-formalist movement and dance”.

Info and reservation
Caravajal15 residenza dinamica
Via Malabranca 15
05018 Orvieto (TR) - Italy
tel +39 0763341479
fax +39 0763340669
info@contactfestival.it
www.contactfestival.it

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out of control with "no touch" policy in schools

Lynn — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 14:44:48 GMT

Touching is an essential part to healthy human development and expression. However, in attempt to keep safety and order officials at Kilmer Middle School in Vienna, VA have made all touching against the rules. This is extremely detrimental to normal psychological development. In addition, it is avoidance of common adolescence problems, and is miseducating the students on what is appropriate. Help convince the school officials to find a better way to educate and support their students!

I have developed a petition via the care2.com petition site so we can help this school board discover better options. I am so grateful for all the work our public schools do, but feel they need our help sometimes, too. I hope this petition will become a catalyst for other public schools that informally have this as a policy.

Please read, sign, and pass on (at least pass on to those who may be interested). Thank you!
petition - http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/help-revoke-the-quotno-touchingquot-policy-at-kilmer-middle-school-in-vienna-va
news article about Kilmer school - http://www.npr.org/blogs/news/2007/06/dealing_with_va_schools_total_1.html

Peace,
Lynn

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public improv, los angeles, week of may 21st

mishek — Tue, 15 May 2007 12:51:19 GMT

hello, i am experimenting with how we use public space, would be interested to meet up with other improvisers in the los angeles area while i am in town for the week,
here is the project i am working on, either come and join in or let's just meet and talk sometime.....

Improvising Democracy

Finding a Voice....
Listening to the Body, Re-inventing Public Space.

There are times when what needs to be spoken cannot be done with words. Finding a voice is a process...meanwhile we do have these bodies that often speak for us...
Call it body language or maybe, "starting a movement", there's an immediate ability through movement to communicate with and even change our surroundings, our worlds...
Whether or not you're an improviser, artist or some kind of social creative, you're invited to this series of investigations and experiments in how we communicate, move in and otherwise use Public Space....

Downtown Los Angeles will be the place, during the week of 21st May, for some research and re-discovery of space, place and maybe, the democratic muse?
We start with a warm up and then simply build with whatever improvisational movement/dance and other inspirations come to us (maybe sound, text, theatre...interaction with other creative citizen passers-by?) in a re-creation of public space in the City.
Our first public space exploration begins 4pm, Monday the 21st of May in front of City Hall (W. Temple and Nth Spring st. end of the building). Follow up events/actions/performances will be arranged and announced during the week as we continue to develop our ideas.
If you have some thoughts about public improvisation that you'd like to propose or collaborate in some other way, please contact me at mishek@gmail.com. For those interested some studio time and space can also hopefully be arranged to explore our group collaborations and ideas in a more contained venue.
---------------------------------------------

Room to Move and Play....

How and where do we make room for who and what we need to be in this world? How do we create Space for ourselves? Places to be heard? Places we might claim for a time? Space to take action? What is within our power to change? Where should we be drawing the line between Public and Personal?
How conscious (and unconscious) are we of the public spaces that we continually pass through each and every day of our lives? Are they simply thoroughfares, or the potential for much more?
What's the purpose of a public square, a park, a lobby, foyer, atrium or other gathering place if we do not only gather, but do not SEE each other? If we are not using the space to it's full potential to bring out our social imagination, to 'speak what is important' to us...to re-create ourselves and expand the potential of the social mind?
It's time to re-imagine the use of Public Space.
....It may begin with a movement, some physical contact, a sound, maybe vocal expression, maybe a conversation or dialogue...
....we move, change and evolve the space as we are moved and others move us...

Michael Dobbie, May 2nd.

PS: You can also ask me for a few pictures of recent actions and experiments in London and Berlin.

posted in Improvisation as an Aspect of Community - 0 replies

Poto Festival Jun 29-Jul 8

adrian — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 04:27:31 GMT

fun times in grass valley. we improvise music and watch experimental films. we could use more dancers!
bring a work to work on, lots of room for all. carpools from the bay area.

[warning: academic language follows]

"We are emerging artists, many of whom were shaped in the departments of music, visual arts, and literature of the University of California at San Diego, and who share a commitment to the renewal of the contemporary arts. Poto will be a forum for our work and for other work spiritually akin to it. It will bring together creative projects and criticism in different media--music, film, dance, painting, literature, theater; it will open dialogues among these arts and explore their relations with tradition and cultural context; it will seek to maintain a healthy independence from theoretical fashion in favor of more idiosyncratic and personally relevant points of departure.

"Our name is a tribute to Jean-Pierre Gorin, whose work as filmmaker and teacher exemplifies the eccentric courage and commitment we value. "Poto" alludes to his film Poto and Cabengo, in which he articulates themes of communication, exile, and society with continual invention and a refreshing modesty of scale. In its formal, intellectual, and emotional complexity such work stands against too much contemporary art, which so often gets caught between an impoverished conceptualism and an equally impoverished conventionalism, whether "popular" or academic. Form is not a neutral vehicle or an inadmissible lure, but "an extension of content." It may be an intricate artifice (Verdi's Falstaff) or something nearly inherent in a given material (the "antiform" work of Eva Hesse or Robert Morris) or both: the fusion of extreme organization and chaotic proliferation which Adorno discerned in Berg's orchestral pieces also animates Finnegans Wake and Atlas Eclipticalis. All allow ample opportunities for attention and discovery."

it's at the Kissler Ranch, we eat great food and hang out in this great big lodge with a river for swimming.
and we argue about art. and we improvise.

it costs 180 or 25/night for drop-ins.

Eric says:
"In any case, we’ll send out more information as things develop; but the
sooner you can contact us with your questions, proposals, or desires,
the better.

"Hope we’ll see you this summer, if not sooner, and best wishes to all,
Erik and Marcia

email eulman at earthlink.net if you want to come

posted in Improvisation as an Aspect of Community - 0 replies

International Contact festival in Italy \ second call

Rossella — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 20:46:41 GMT

Zipfest07
International scene of improvisation live performing arts

Orvieto - Italy
19-24 June 2007
eighth edition
www.contactfestival .it

International project of Art and Culture on the Poetics of Performance and Improvisation Dance.
The festival will be held in Orvieto in Italy, from 19 to 24 June 2007.

Registration are still going on from March 15th.
Our website has all the information on Zipfest07 calendar.
www.contactfestival .it
Please visit it !!

Guest performers and teachers Zipfest07:
K.J. Holmes (USA),
Oleg Soulimenko (Austria\Russia) ,
Charlie Morrissey (United Kingdom),
Patricia Kuypers (Belgium),
Rossella Fiumi (Italy),
Keith Biesack (USA),
Jacky Miredin (France),
Adrian Russi (Switzerland) ,
Bettina Helmrich (Germany),
Laura Moro (Italy),
Ruby Worth (Scotland),
Manuela Bondavalli (Italy),
Barbara Lucarini (Italy)

Special guest for Music
the group of songs and dances of Salento
Officina Zoè

Focus zoom
Project 2007 also plans for a special appointment addressed to all the participants
registered in the festival, who are invited to present an original performance.
We request the participants who register for the festival to spontaneously
propose their creations.
It is an interesting occasion offered to those who wish to share and highlight
their own performances for an international audience.

See you soon at Zipfest07
...
Zipfest team

Caravajal 15 residenza dinamica
Via Malabranca 15 Orvieto (TR) Italy
tel +39 0763 341479
fax +39 0763 340669
info@contactfestiva l.it
www.contactfestival .it

posted in Improvisation as an Aspect of Community - 1 reply

Zipfestival's video 2005 on line

Rossella — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 19:56:58 GMT

Dear Friends
As they say, better late than never!
We have published a few video extracts from Zipfestival 2005 on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/
We shall shortly send you the websites (URL) so you can see and download the video extracts.
Or you can easily find it on the festival website’s page
http://www.contactfestival.it/2007/ITA_2006/zip_video.html
In the meanwhile we are working on the 2006 video and in June 2007 (19-24) we remind you the next festival is just around the corner!
Have fun watching and let us know what you think!
Till then
Zipfest

http://www.contactfestival.it/2007/ITA_2006/zip_video.html

OR check one by one on these links:

Documentario Zip 2005 – track 1
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roqpVM-nKRA

Documentario Zip 2005 – track 2
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05ADwTz58GY

Documentario Zip 2005 – track 3
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EoUY1KECUU

Documentario Zip 2005 – track 4
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FFfvZe9Qkw

Performance Real Time track 1
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T3NWzqGmG4

Performance Real Time track 2
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHlJotx0U0E

Performance Real Time track 3
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QepglIvIEM

Performance Last Minute track 1
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS2TI6x83gk

Performance Last Minute track 2
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5PVVHJh_ao

Performance Solo in Motion
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uGTf0oA8go

Duo Piano concerto Bollani-Salis
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SefO-o4d29k

Trio concerto Salis-Rabbia-Bellatalla
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ch9i-Q1Bfz8

posted in Improvisation as an Aspect of Community - 0 replies

Scott Kelman 1937-2007

carnaljazz — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 11:26:50 GMT

My mentor and a very close friend has passed over just a month ago.
He was integral in opening me to 'the magic of the present'.
Therefore, his ever-presence is significant here.
Please share any memories you may have.

I found this obituary from LA Weekly (below).
In honor of him, appreciate the moment and dig the skin you're in.

http://www.laweekly.com/stage/theater/moment-after-moment-after-moment-an-era-fades/15818/

Moment After Moment After Moment, an Era Fades
Scott Kelman, 1937–2007

By STEVEN LEIGH MORRIS
Thursday, March 1, 2007 - 12:00 pm

(Photo by by filmmaker Ace Wonderstar and graphic artist Ernest W. Neal) The King of Boyd Street is dead, and an era in local performance history passes with him. Through the 1980s, impresario Scott Kelman’s Pipeline Inc. ran three theaters in Los Angeles — Factory Place Theater, Boyd Street Theater and the Wallenboyd. Highly respected by critics and a small but devoted following of artists and students, Kelman’s excursions into nontraditional and noninstitutional theater were part of a national art movement that’s been squeezed by economics and cultural penchants that favor personal fame over personal exploration. Kelman succumbed to pneumonia last Thursday, February 22, in Portland, Oregon, where he had moved and formed another theater company (Drunken Monkeys of Brooklyn Bay) after leaving Los Angeles more than a dozen years earlier. And though the era that Kelman represented is passing, reports of its death may be premature. There are local companies using acting ensembles to create new works that could be said to be part of Kelman’s legacy: Ghost Road Company, Olga Petrakova’s ARTEL troupe, Ron Sossi’s KOAN Ensemble and the Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD). There’s also a British organization, The Kelman Group, specifically organized around Kelman’s teachings. It’s not easy to stifle a man, or a movement, that’s driven by conviction. Kelman defied his doctor’s prediction that he would live no more than two years after his first heart attack at 37. While smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, he survived more heart attacks and quadruple-bypass surgery, and he continued to work through excruciating pain from spinal stenosis. As determined as he was stubborn, Kelman died at 70.

A child of the Beat generation, Kelman found his passion in the 1960s experimental theater scene in New York after returning from a two-year conscription in the Army and working for his father in the jewelry business. Inspired by Joseph Chaikin’s Open Theater, and Judith Malina and Julien Beck’s Living Theatre, Kelman founded the Off-Off-Broadway Association while directing and performing at such venues as La Mama, Theater Genesis and the Museum of Modern Art. During this time, he was developing a philosophy that tried to steer theatrical activity away from the artifice and venues of traditional theater and into art galleries, correctional facilities and nursing homes, to better capture the spontaneous, lunatic rhythms of life.
Keep Reading

Feeling underappreciated, underfunded and part of New York’s waning experimental theater movement, Kelman came to Los Angeles in 1981, hoping that the artistic climate here would be more receptive to his interest in Eastern mysticism and a brand of performance that valued the processes of creation over its products. To some degree, his hopes were met. He was a successful teacher, director and performer, he shared stages with other local luminaries of that time (including Jan Munroe and Kedric Wolfe), and he received this publication’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Kelman’s sister, Pepi Kelman, remembers her brother’s wild imagination. “As a kid, I had to pay attention when he was speaking to what part was fiction and what part was real. Blurring that line was part of his humor and his passionate curiosity.”

Audiences were scared to come downtown to Kelman’s theaters, Pepi recalls, so he hired the homeless to park cars and watch over them. “Then he discovered that there were great actors among the homeless, so he put them on the stage. The life became the art and the art changed the life.”

Ron Sossi, artistic director of Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, remembers a woman telling Kelman about her idea for a one-woman show based on St. Teresa of Avila. “It was an impassioned pitch,” Sossi recalls. “Scott thought about it for a moment and said, ‘Well, I’m not interested in Teresa of Avila, but I’d like to work on a piece about your interest in Teresa of Avila.’ He was always dealing with the moment.”

“His thing was moment-to-moment reality,” adds performer Strawn Bovee, who developed projects with Kelman and served on Pipeline Inc.’s board of directors. “His early passion for politics shifted more to those of a personal, spiritual journey. Scott was the most authentic teacher and a director of process I have ever known. His techniques for endlessly unpeeling a moment in time created a theater of continuous discovery and surprise. He was cantankerous, generous, passionate, obsessive and a great friend. And like his theater, Scott was never dull.”

By the early ’90s, Kelman was having the same problems in L.A. that he’d had in New York. Audiences were dwindling and grants were no longer coming in. Had he the temperament or the interest, he could have paid his way by managing the careers of talent — such as Whoopi Goldberg — he introduced on his stages. Instead, Kelman sought out yet another Greenwich Village in Portland’s soggy climes. Shortly before his death, Kelman was developing Liars’ Club, a series ofsolo shows spun from lies, and a folk musical with and about folk musicians Steve Einhorn and Kate Power. His most popular work may have been a piece also developed in Portland, Tao Soup.

The production recently came south to Venice’s Electric Lodge. The L.A. Weekly’s Steven Mikulan had this to say about it:

“The show is a funny, pensive evening that tickles and provokes. In six chapters, five barefoot performers march, swoop and wander across a naked apron, repeating sounds and mantras in unison, or issuing aphoristic imperatives (‘Learn to see emptiness’); a whorl of pain and laughter is probed while examining conformity, eroticism and even the dangers of pursuing personal growth to extremes.”

In Portland and L.A., the show sold out, prompting Kelman to remark that he must be doing something wrong. “My God, this is practically a commercial show,” his sister remembers him saying with amazement and apprehension.

When Kelman was planning to move to Portland, he met his second wife, dancer Anet Kelman-Ris. (He was also married briefly in his 20s.) Kelman-Ris was with him to the end.

“He wasn’t easy, but he was real,” she remembers. “He spoke his mind, he followed his vision. Everyone can tell you about his cantankerous side — he could drive us crazy. But the fact that so many people loved him so much, even with that, is a tribute to how much we all learned from his relentless pursuit of a way to live and to create, being mindfully present, moment after moment after moment.”

posted in Improvisation as an Aspect of Community - 1 reply

Pubic -- er, I mean Public -- Works.

magdalen — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 07:25:47 GMT

hello, scott & Improvasanaspect people of Portlandia and beyond! you may enjoy these upcoming free wednesdays of live new raw unedited in-process and some improvised arts/performance/stuff:

2GQ presents

PUBLIC WORKS

Six weeks of live, raw works-in-progress
being of a literary, performative, musical, & artistic nature

Wednesdays, April 4 through May 9
5:30-7:00 pm
Free, at Someday Lounge

Works Corps:

TIFFANY LEE BROWN
CLARE CARPENTER
LILY GAEL
LEANNE GRABEL
NORA ROBERTSON
EMILY STONE

Guest Artists:

PECOS B. (April 4)
ERIC HAUSMANN (April 18)
JEMIAH JEFFERSON (April 25)
JULIAN TULIP (May 2)
SARAH DOUGHER (May 9)
JOSHUA BERGER (May 9)

Details & other froth: www.2GQ.org
Tribe contact: magdalen / tiffany

Someday Lounge
125 NW 5th Avenue
in Portland's Old Town
phone 503 248 1030
www.somedaylounge.com

posted in Improvisation as an Aspect of Community - 0 replies

Zipfest07 \ 19-24 June 2007 , Orvieto in Italy \ registration open

Rossella — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 15:08:59 GMT

Zipfest07
International Improvisation festival live performing arts
www.contactfestival.it

What:
one week with international guest artists and intensive workshops on Contact Improvisation and Improvisation, laboratories around the themes of physicality, jams, performances and concerts.

When:
June 19 - 24 / 2007

Where:
Orvieto – Italy

Whit:
K.J. Holmes, Oleg Soulimenko, Charlie Morrissey, Patricia Kuypers, Rossella Fiumi, Keith Biesack,
Jacky Miredin, Adrian Russi, Bettina Helmrich, Laura Moro, Ruby Worth,
Manuela Bondavalli, Barbara Lucarini and the guest group for music concert Officina Zoè

Cost:
Zipfest all included registration 250 Euros

Contact/registration:
more info details write to info@contactfestival.it or visit www.contactfestival.it

posted in Improvisation as an Aspect of Community - 0 replies

Ecstatic dance workshop in DC, Sat. 3/10

sefirah — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 06:11:58 GMT

Dancing the Sacred Self
An Exploration of Radical Movement
with Sefirah and Tiggrr (Freek Factory, NYC)

I am offering a two-hour ecstatic dance workshop in Washington DC next weekend, Sat. 3/10, from 4-6pm. The class is open to anyone interested in changing consciousness and creating space for revelation and renewal. No prior dance training is needed; ecstatic dance has been used for millenia to help access our power to heal and to celebrate the sacred. This is a chance for all of you who have asked if I could teach you how to dance, to journey inside and find new ways to express your personal truth through movement. You will move with more attention and beauty both on the dance floor and in daily life.

This workshop is a collaboration with Mz. Imani, facilitator of SoulFire Inside in DC and SoulFire at CoSM in NYC, and Mz. Tiggrr, my fearless partner in Free(k) dance. The class can be taken on its own or in conjunction with the March 10 SoulFire. Come with an intention. Bring your badass self. The workshop includes an introduction to contact improvisational dance with Tiggrr. Radical movement led by me. Recorded music provided by Freek Factory. Live drumming by Imani and friends.

For further information and registration contact Mz. Imani:
mzimani@gmail.com or 301-461-3214

Sat. March 10 4-6 pm
@ SoulFire Inside
276 Carroll St., NW
Washington, DC
$20 class
$10 SoulFire *or*
$25 class and SoulFire

Sefirah and Tiggrr are the lead dancers for Freek Factory, a New York City-based artist collective and production team whose events showcase national and international talent in the electronic music underground. contact: sefirahfierce@gmail.com

www.consciouscollaborations.com
people.tribe.net/sefirah
people.tribe.net/tiggrrr

posted in Improvisation as an Aspect of Community - 0 replies

Come Play With us at Silver Gate Club this Sunday!

Noah — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 22:40:19 GMT

Hey there.

For all the other lists, I'm just sending out this show announcement - Sunday, 9-midnight, Tres Gone playing an extended free improv at Someday Lounge.

But, since this is the first installment of our ongoing open free improv night, and I want all the great players in town to come play with us every Sunday that they are able; I'm inviting the many spectacular improvisors on the Improv As An Aspect of Community tribe to come and play. Bring an instrument, throw down for however long you want, and contribute to the birth of this scene.

And now, the regular announcement as it will be seen by the general populace:

SUNDAY 10/15:
The Silver Gate Club
A jazz club for the 21st century, offering hours of uninterrupted
improvisation from the underground's most inventive players, each
Sunday like church. Featuring a rotating core group of players,
with an open invitation to the entire Club – look for your invite
in the mail, all you free thinkers. Our first band of guiding
voices will be Tres Gone, a trio of two guitarists and a drummer
with ties to Portland's great improv houses (Smegma, Rasbliutto,
36 Invisibles, Pan-Zen, etc.) and a monastic fixation on the
unfolding moment.
9pm-1am
$5

Tres Gone-
The spontaneous interaction between Tres Gone and the audience brings the listener to the edge of a creative discovery, often presented with a choice of focusing on one artist, or absorbing the collective ensemble.
Mike Mahaffay - Drums
Mike Mahaffay's artistic resume began as a percussionist with the Portland Youth Philharmonic, followed by the Oregon Symphony. From there, he expanded to V.P. of Free Life Communications and played alongside Dave Liebman, Badal Roy and Armen Halburien. He was the drummer on the U.S. tour of Jesus Christ Superstar, and the Open Eye Theater. Throughout his extensive career, Mike has performed in the cities of New York, Baltimore, Cleveland, Athens, Paris and Seattle, to name a few.
Scott Steele - Guitar
Scott Steele studied music at Los Angeles Valley College, Mt. Hood Community College, and studied guitar with Max Rees. He has played with drummer Mel Brown, organist George Mitchell, Paulette Davis, and guitarist Dan Perz. He also accompanied the 50's Doo Wop group, the Diamonds. In addition, Scott has played with Liquid Blues, Boogie Country, The Dukes of Juke, Catch 22, Brainiac Five, Kings on Straw Mats, and The Gone Orchestra. He has lead his own groups The Upsetters, and The Scott Steele Band.
Eric Hausmann - Guitar Synth, Chapman Stick
Eric Hausmann has played guitar, Chapman Stick, trumpet, drums and cello with The Gone Orchestra, The Lions of Batucada, Kings on Straw Mats, Brainwarmer, Spilling Static Orchestra, Ancient Chinese Secret, Locust Pudding and Amscray Amok. He also runs his own record company (Spilling Audio) which produces his solo and collaborative CD releases. Additionally, Eric produces short films and plans to release a compilation DVD of his video work early next year.

posted in Improvisation as an Aspect of Community - 0 replies

MOE!KESTRA!

Noah — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 08:44:22 GMT

Hey gang.

I'm recruiting heavy for the next Moe!lestra! (a large conducted improv ensemble led by bay area scrap percussionist Moe! Staiano of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum).

I need as many as possible of the following:

Clarinets (all types)
Violins
Cellos
Violas
Contrabasses
Tuned Percussion

We already have enough guitars, drums, and electronics; though you could probably come and do those too.

Alas, for this particular Moe!kestra!, there are no other instruments being used.

Please contact me at noah@somedaylounge.com if you're interested.

5000. - N.

posted in Improvisation as an Aspect of Community - 0 replies

Teaching Improvisation

sarajin — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 08:07:51 GMT

I have been belly dancing for 8 years now with improvisation being my forte. I very recently began teaching at my university. This quarter, I will begin teaching a continuation of the first class and want to go deeper into improvisation. In my last class, the only improvisation was done in partnering or by those with the courage to choose to go into the center of the circle.

I will tell them to rid of their doubts and know that their bodies will know the movement without them needing to think about it. I will tell them that they must accept the movements, that nothing they do will be wrong or silly, all of it is meaningful and right. I will turn down the lights, turn their attention to the music, and tell them not to watch my movement as I do these exercises with them:

1) Beginning: Using curiosity to explore the space around you, starting with certain parts of the body, moving into the whole

2) Inspiration: Allowing your feelings to move you and helping expressions flow by finding how desires and atmospheres influence you. I will give them situations to try out such as: Dance as if you are around a fire with friends and live music, or dance for someone you miss.

Other exercises may come to me. It can be hard to get people to open up and trust themselves, but this is the way to truly know dance. Any suggestions? I'll tell the tribe how the class goes....

posted in Improvisation as an Aspect of Community - 5 replies

Quote RE: Music/Women

carnaljazz — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 23:39:38 GMT

The improvised music scene seems to be dominated by men, not exclusive, but there does seem to be a lack of 'support' or gender comraderie for women experimenting/exploring these realms.

Here improvisor Joelle Landre touches on this. Her words do not necessarily reflect the views of this poster but empathically may mirror his own. This hopes to incite more diaogue.

From Joelle Leandre (paris - double bass) on
music/women :

You guys, among yourselves, share fraternity.
We should have something
like a 'sorority', but that doesn't exist among
us.. . guys support
eachother, convince one another, get the gigs
thanks to this fraternity;
they don't try to be great or anything, they just
do it - call each other,
chat each other up, create a gig. For centuries,
men have done things among
themselves. They start bt playing marbles
together and end up at the bar
together. For historical reasons, women have been
less apt at structuring
things, organizing things, defining themselves. .
. In the musical realm,
they've been relegated to the harp, or flute, or
guitar, or voice. . . and
the centuries go on like that. . . so there are
no precendents, my examples,
my models have been guys. . . Women don't work
enough or nor in the field,
that's a man's world. . . so it's up to the guys
too to open a few doors, to
ask themselves some questions and say, "hey,
let's try something else, let's
see, why don't we call. . . why don't we play
with this or that woman?" . .
. but, it just doesn't happen, the guys don't
take that initiative. . .And a
lot of women are too shy, because our social
structure is that way. You've
always got to be the best, the biggest, the
coolest and those are masculine
terms - be up front, number one, have the power,
have a lot of dough. . .
that's not a feminine thing. . . We're not
interested in power. . . But, I
do believe however that in improvisation, it is
possible to meet, precisely
because there's no set hierarchy. . .

editor's note : Her approach to the issue is
factual and workable - it isn't
based on ideaologies, but on the contrary on the
everyday working situation
of the musician.

editor's note : Her approach to the issue is
factual and workable - it isn't
based on ideaologies, but on the contrary on the
everyday working situation
of the musician.

more from Joelle's Discography book :
The first Canaille festival took place in
Frankfurt in 1985. It developed
out of the work of the Feminist Improvising Group
(1979-1981), a pool of
players from Great Britain, Holland and
Switzerland whose stylistic approach
encompassed free jazz, performance art, women's
music (OVA) and experimental
rock (Henry Cow). The FIG/Canaille group included
the English
bassoonist/composer Lindsay Cooper, who is know
for her participation in
Henry Cow and a number of other avant-rock
projects, as well as composing
music for feminist filmmaker Sally Potter's The
Golddiggers and Rags. Other
FIG/Canaille members were Irene Schweizer, Swiss
pianist, drummer and
founderof the European Women Improvising Group
(EWIG); the English singer
Maggie Nicols; and Anne-Marie Roelofs, a Dutch
trombonist and violinist. The
group was not only committed to radical musical
experimentation, but also
trying to articulate feminist aesthetics in music
and to exploring ways of
working together in a free and collaborative
musical environment. They were
later joined by a number of other women,
including French double bassist
Joelle Leandre, and Swiss saxophonist Co Streiff.
It was this group of women
(minus Lindsay Cooper, unfortunately) that
participated in the Montreal
Canaille. The ensuing concert was a passionate
example of how these ideals
can work to make excited and committed music.
Watching the interaction of
the palyers in this totally improvisatory and yet
democratic musical
environment, their mutual respect and sense of
solidarity was as obvious as
the high level of musicianship. They communicated
to the audience and to
each other with imagination and a sense of humor.
In addition to their
musical committment, it was clear from Maggie
Nicols' plea to the audience
to help stop the recent anti-gay bill being
launched in Britain that music
is part of their daily life and struggles as
feminists and political
activists, not held apart on some rarefied
artistic plane.
- Susan Sturman, Fuse

posted in Improvisation as an Aspect of Community - 1 reply

●Teaching　about resonance

rhizomelee — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 13:59:23 GMT

●School for your metamorphosis

Subbody School is a place for metamorfosis to start a new life

through learning subbody resonance method.

Beginner’s course: 1 month
(To meet your whole self, and to create your own subbody dance by

learning subbody method)

Creator’s course: 3 months
(To study subbody method for starting a life as an original

creator)

Resonator’s course: 1 year
(To study whole of subbody resonance method for changing your way

of life as a resonator)

Facilitator’s course: 3 years
(To become a facilitator who can support others to connect with

their own subbody and to create subbody dance)

School should be a place for secret metamorfosis for you.

Please visit our site: http://subbody.net/

You can find some novel hints for changing way of life.

You can apply now June to November course!

Contact: Rhizome Lee

Application: subbody@hotmail.com

posted in Improvisation as an Aspect of Community - 0 replies

Butoh School Photo Journal

rhizomelee — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 15:01:35 GMT

Butoh School Photo Journal
We started Weekly Photo Journal of Subbody Butoh School Himalaya.
FInding the ugliest qualia from the darkness of body, and open it with the best Jo-Ha-Kyu timing, this is the deepest butoh method.
See the miracle of subbody method.
Please visit our site: http://subbody.net/

posted in Improvisation as an Aspect of Community - 0 replies

New Theatre Group in L.A.

JoeBorfo — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 02:04:22 GMT

We are a new theatre group based in Los Angeles.

Our Mission: To develop a dynamic & provocative space where energies come together to create theatre.

Our Vision: TBA

Membership: We believe that anyone who is passionate about doing theatre in an ensemble should be able to join and can remain a member if she or he has; a. Introduced themselves on the message list, b. Met with us (see Calendar for meetings), and c. Put in their share of effort to achieve our goals.

We request that we all express ideas freely while respecting each other in this forum. We request that you contribute by always pursuing your passion

Join at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/boardsnpassion/

posted in Improvisation as an Aspect of Community - 1 reply

guide to the deepest butoh method

rhizomelee — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 19:08:08 GMT

Hi! friends

Subbody Butoh School has started.

I start weekly journal about what I teach at my butoh school on my

website.

Why butoh dance is deep?

How can you connect to the depth of you.

What is Jo-ha-Kyu?

What is Riken?

I teach the deepest subbody butoh method here.

Now You can learn it in the Subbody Butoh School Himalaya India

There is beginner's one month course to Facilitator's three years

course.

If you are interesting in,
please visit the site;

Subbody Butoh Himalaya; www.subbody.net/　

Rhizome Lee

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Starting Butoh school in Himalaya India

rhizomelee — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 16:19:35 GMT

Hi! Improv friends

I am going to start Butoh School in Himalaya India.
I teach Subbody Butoh Method.
I will guide you to sink into the darkness of body, and serach your own butoh dance which connect to the depth of your whole self.
If you have an interst in this teaching, please visit my site;
Subbody Butoh Himalaya;http://subbody.net/　

Rhizome Lee

posted in Improvisation as an Aspect of Community - 0 replies

Rare event - Blixa, Jarboe, Soriah - Tickets onsale now!

llewyn — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 19:37:21 GMT

Thursday, February 2 doors at 7:30pm, show at 8:00pm
The Old Church 1422 SW 11th Ave
$15 in advance at OZONE 701 E Burnside or visit www.2gyrlz.org/calendar for online options
$18 at the door
VERY LIMITED SEATING
All ages welcome

2 Gyrlz is co-presenting the PDX destination of Mobilization Records'
HOW TO DESTROY THE UNIVERSE #5
Festival ov Extreme Music/Performance/Art

2 Gyrlz is hosting this manifestation as two balancing principles ov Destruction...
The second night explodes internally, in this intimate trinity…

BLIXA BARGELD(Einstuzende Neubaten, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds), The LIVING JARBOE (Swans) on her new CD tour, and pipe organ and tuvian-inspired vocalization from SORIAH (with Scott Jenerik and his crashing Thor) celebrating the Beta-Lactam CD release of SORIAH's"Chao Organica in A minor"

For information on this event
and the first night with "The Led Zeppelin of Noise" F-SPACE (rare full fire performance), SIXTEENS, SYNCHRONICITY FREQUENCY(with flammable guests), WALDTEUFEL (with Markus Wolff of CRASH WORSHIP), RED BIRD, Scot Arford, and MurkVisuals
visit www.2gyrlz.org

posted in Improvisation as an Aspect of Community - 0 replies

I'm new to this tribe :)

Jenn — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 16:02:48 GMT

I use improvisation all the time in my dance classes. I especially love when I'm in my own random groove and someone else feels my energy and then the connection becomes so outrageous, its hard to explain but its awesome. Anyway, I'm glad to be a new member of you tribe :)

Peace and love *JB

posted in Improvisation as an Aspect of Community - 1 reply

Derek Bailey

carnaljazz — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 01:57:49 GMT

December 30, 2005
Derek Bailey, 75, Guitarist and Master of Improvisation, Dies
By BEN RATLIFF

Derek Bailey, the English guitarist who helped to form a fractured style and a cohesive philosophy for European free improvisation, died at his home in London on Sunday. He was 75.

The cause was complications of a motor neuron disease, said Martin Davidson, a record producer and friend.

Mr. Bailey explained his art unpretentiously, often simply as a matter of personal choice, but his style of playing guitar was a kind of reaction against all systems in music. By the 1970's it had become a system unto itself - a virtuosic, physical one, of clicks and chimes and harmonics and aggressive bursts of volume, arrhythmic and nonlinear but still coherent and powerful.

Despite his roots in jazz and his professional relationships with many jazz musicians - he played with the drummers Tony Williams and Paul Motian, the saxophonist Steve Lacy and the guitarist Pat Metheny - Mr. Bailey was not playing jazz, nor pretending to. He often referred to his work as "nonidiomatic improvising," meaning that it did not refer to any particular idiom or style. Over time it became its own idiom, and he sought to perform with artists from nonimprovising traditions, like the drum-and-bass producer DJ Ninj and the Chinese pipa player Min Xiao-Fen, and even with nonmusicians, like the Butoh dancer Min Tanaka and the tap dancer Will Gaines.

Born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, Mr. Bailey grew up in a working-class family, the son of a barber. An admirer of the jazz guitarists Charlie Christian and Oscar Moore, he started guitar lessons as a boy, inspired partly by an uncle who played guitar and worked in a music shop.

In 1950, after brief service in the British Navy, he began work as a professional musician, playing jazz in pubs and restaurants in Sheffield. He often worked in dance halls, and one of his jobs was in the pit band for Morecambe and Wise, the popular English comedy team. More and more, he said later in interviews, he would begin to practice his own ideas on the bandstand, quietly, so the rest of the band could not hear.

By the mid-1960's, having become successful enough as a commercial musician to buy a house in Manchester, Mr. Bailey had met the bassist Gavin Bryars and the drummer Tony Oxley. Together they formed the Joseph Holbrooke Trio, named after a British composer who had died a few years earlier. They began playing a freer kind of jazz, sometimes basing it on the music of John Coltrane's quartet and Bill Evans's trio but also trying to upend jazz conventions.

Mr. Bailey at the time was heavily influenced by Anton Webern and wrote pieces for solo guitar in Webern's style. He soon abandoned composition and began practicing smaller units of sounds and notes, which he would fold into improvisations.

After about 1967, Mr. Bailey did not compose in the traditional sense; he only improvised from scratch, using all the tiny bits and phrases that he had been working on. He became involved in an improvising group, the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, but after that his music became more concentrated and personal. He performed and recorded continuously, making more than 100 albums, alone, in duets or in the various assemblages of musicians that he finally organized into a regular event, Company, held in various cities from 1976 to 2002.

In 1970 he helped start a record label, Incus, with the saxophonist Evan Parker, one of his frequent musical colleagues until the mid-1980's. Between Incus, which released 30 of his own recordings and still functions, and his regular Company performances, Mr. Bailey kept busy through the 1990's, playing with seemingly every major and minor figure in the world of experimental improvised music.

In 1980 he wrote an influential book, "Improvisation: Its Nature and Practice in Music," exploring improvisation in Indian music, flamenco, jazz, rock and Baroque music. The book was adapted as a television series for England's Channel Four in 1992.

Several years ago Mr. Bailey and his wife, Karen Brookman, began living part time in Barcelona, Spain. They moved after Mr. Bailey started having problems with his hands, a development he made public earlier this year with his final record, "Carpal Tunnel."

He is survived by Ms. Brookman, of London and Barcelona, and a son, Simon Bailey, of San Diego.

Some of Mr. Bailey's most celebrated albums were made in the last decade for Avant and Tzadik, the New York saxophonist John Zorn's labels. One of them was entirely counterintuitive for a musician who became famous for playing no written music: called "Ballads," it consisted entirely of ballads favored by jazz musicians, played in bursts of suggestion, in his craggy, unsentimental, highly personal style.

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How to Plan for the Worst Case

carnaljazz — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 22:49:51 GMT

How to Plan for the Worst Case

by Tom Djll

There have been some in this scene who, in years past -- back when the testosterone levels weren't perpetually spiking in the DUI range -- who asserted that improvisation is a method, not a style (I was one of those who said so). I think that's really the whole point of Derek Bailey's book -- he's saying, look at all this improvisation in different styles, but there are commonalities in the method, independent of style. Okay, it's not the whole point of the book, but it's a biggie.

That's the ideal, but in practice it turns out that some players have been able to turn the method into a style, mostly made up of its own special grab-bag of cliches. I won't say who. As usual, it isn't meekness or niceness that prevents me from naming names, but simply good sense -- these, after all, are just my opinions: who's "good" and who's "bad." Why stomp on somebody who's working their shit out? Why invite pointless arguments about improvisor A versus B? (In other words, why add more manure to the same tiresome poop-pile that now shadows the local dialog? Besides, I'd be pointing the critical finger at myself, much of the tie.)

However, I'm more than ready to name some of the gambits that have helped turn certain kinds of improvisation into style[s].

Gambit 1: Play only with those who you are certain share your particular esthetic.

This is the opening gambit. Assures you of "esthetic consistency" and "agreement" and, ultimately, screens out a rich source of spontaneity (a key energizer of improvisation). This gambit partially depends on Gambit 5 (below), identifying yourself/your music with a certain "school." Free jazzers don't play with noise boys. New-classicals don't play with rockers. Glitch-hoppers don't play with lower-casers. Boys, by and large, don't play with girls. And so (yawn) on.

Gambit 2: Don't talk about it!

After all, the argument goes, one can't really talk about music in a meaningful way! "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture." I used to buy that line, myself. I don't anymore. Talking about what you've just played can be a powerful tonic in the aftermath of something that hasn't quite worked out, and for a practicing ensemble, it's essential to ensure that progress is actually achieved in finding a group voice and a group self-awareness. Talking also has the uncomfortable effect of identifying cliches, favored fingerings and other non-spontaneous glitches in one's playing. And these are not allowed, so even though they're often there, we just won't talk about them. Better yet, let's don't talk about anything (except all the names we can drop.) Anyway, talking about what you're about to play is -- gasp! -- the same as composition! And we can't have that.

Gambit 3: Extend that technique!

This is a hard one for me to pick apart, as it's something in which I'm personally heavily invested. But, to extend the self-critique, I've realized that lately I've been limiting myself needlessly by ignoring things like tone, phrasing, dynamics, in favor of how much sheer sonic hell I could generate with a new embouchure. The exploration of new sounds and techniques seems an inextricable part of music's progress, and there will always be someone there to do it, but a singleminded focus on this one aspect of music -- especially on the bandstand, where it's tantamount to practice and not performance -- is numbing. I see people indulging in this at practically every show I attend.

Gambit 4: Surround yourself with mystical mumbo-jumbo.

I've already alienated some friends with this one, but I stand my ground. The problem is not that you've had, as a performer, an experience of the divine onstage. (That's between you and your idea of whatever "higher" power or entity you believe in.) The problem is, threefold: First, you might very well be the only one up there having the experience. Everybody else is looking at you as if you're a divine wanker, while you go on, listening to your muse and nobody else. Second, how do you bring it back down to Earth? How do you tell people about what you've seen, without either trivializing the event or coming off like a UFO abductee? Third, are you using mysticism as a convenient way to avoid self-analysis? Mystical experiences are hard to explain or describe or deconstruct, so this gambit becomes really a subset of Gambit 2: Don't talk about it, but rhapsodize instead about the "transmission through my Self of divine inspiration." Shit, you can't criticize Heaven, can you? The Gods are always right! I won't deny that there's something extraterrestrial about a really great performance, but I don't think that's a good excuse to shun analysis and reflection on it. Sincerity is the cheapest of virtues, meaning: It's easy to believe mindlessly; It's much harder to believe and present a robust critique.

I will mention only in passing that there's already a style of music closely related to freely improvised musics that has a heavy mystical element to it (called, variously, "ecstatic" or "energy" music, or, closer to the source, "free jazz"), thanks mainly to the long, deep shadow of John Coltrane (Ohnedaruth), whose memory now has its own church devoted to it.

Gambit 5: Proclaim yourself part of a "school" or "tradition."

That way, you don't have to think or talk, ever! You can just quote liner notes about this-and-such or so-and-so.

Gambit 6: If it sounds good, do it again! (and again and again and again...)

This is the tiredest cliche in the book. I know, because I do it all the time. And I hear others doing it all the time. Yecch.

Gambit 666: DON'T EVER REPEAT ANYTHING.

This is the second-tiredest cliche. To dig a little deeper into the deadly dyad of Gambits 6/666, let's look at how and why repetition is utilized in improvised music. There are times when a repeated phrase or sound acts as a defining structural element. Matt Ingall's recent solo performance at the Skronkathon BBQ provides a good example, where, after running through a little Mozartmuzik, the clarinettist gradually broke down the harmonic/melodic elements into an unending circular-breath workout (that had its own kind of "ecstatic" energy). Another is Roscoe Mitchell's opening solo improvisation on the album Nonaah, wherein he mechanically repeats an off-kilter phrase from the same-named composition for several minutes, until the audience is screaming at him. Finally the tension breaks, the notes change, and by the end the audience is cheering wildly. This perverse gambit turns an otherwise static, pedantic improvisation into a truly extraordinary, unforgettable exercise in tension and release, and asymmetrical form.

There are likewise moments in improvisation where repetition is a spontaneous discovery that is non-repetitive on a "meta" level. Sonny Rollins blasts into hyperdrive during his well-known (studio) solo on St. Thomas, by the use of a simple repeated six-note figure, wedged into an otherwise dense and baroquely filigreed bebop excursion. The repetition sounds non-repetitive simply because the event in toto is such a contrast to the harmonic/melodic maze that surrounds it. Again, the tension-and-release model gets a workout, too.

Another type of repetition is employed by lesser talents. This involves a brand of narccisistic onanism where the player executes a phrase s/he likes ("Ooh! That's a keeper!"), and gratuitously repeats it, with or without variations, simply for the pleasure of hearing it some more and reinforcing the positive feedback loop. This is the essence of Gambit 6. It almost never adds to the sound, structure, or momentum of the music.

What I call gambit 666 is simply the ossification of an unwritten rule of the "non-idiomatic" school of free improvisation. Always being different, goood. Repetition, baad. Virtually every "idiomatic" music uses repetition, so, logically, "non-idiomatic" music must eschew it. What a shock it must have been to the Euro-improv establishment when a group like Alterations started inserting bits of pop songs, Reggae rhythms, and funk riffs into its otherwise approved non-idiomatic improvisations!

Obviously, repetition is an important factor in music. It helps our memory piece together a pattern in the musical fabric (as Feldman expressed it). Since a piece of music unfolds over time and can't be apprehended "at a glance" -- unlike the surface of a painting -- virtually every piece of music must address repetition in some way. Unconditional avoidance doesn't make it any less important. It just results in a different kind of pattern, since our brains can't help but find patterns -- even when there are none.

So, in the pre-programmed flight from repetition and pattern, the "free improvisor" becomes quite a bit less free, and paradoxically makes the music more patterned and predictable. I might add that this gambit is probably the most virulent strain of stylization that afflicts freely improvised music.

Gambit 7: Canonize your heroes.

-- and try to play like them. And argue endlessly about who's better, and who's suffered more for their art, and who's more influential, ad nauseum. You don't ever have to question what they've done, i.e., improve upon it or go deeper.

Gambit 8: Gig more, rehearse less.

After all, if what we're doing is spontaneous, shouldn't what we do on the bandstand be untested, totally new? Then why rehearse? That'd kill the spontaneity!

Gambit 9: Keep churning.

Don't stop the flow. The flow must go on. I have seen Very Famous Improvisors (is that an oxymoron?) commit this crime, to the point of extreme annoyance -- they just go and go and keep churning out sound. To stop might sound like we're lost, or we don't know what to do next. To stop might allow something different to happen rather than the highly virtuosic show of technique and listening which has been honed over years and years of playing. We're professionals, this attitude screams. You will be impressed. Okay. But is something truly unexpected and fresh going on? This is where professionalism becomes tyranny. Watching really impressive technique can be like watching an expensive Hollywood movie, where one becomes more conscious of the money being exploded all over the screen than the plot or characters, because, after all, the "FX" is the product really being sold.

Epilogue, and a final Gambit.

It's tragic when something that prides itself on spontaneity, freshness, and the constant skewering of expectations becomes quite the opposite. But it's probably inevitable. Everything changes -- even that which is supposed to be always changing.

It's not impossible to overcome these deadly gambits. Free improvisation must always base its practice first and foremost upon listening. Listening is the one thing -- call it a method if you like, but I think it's woven deeper into the fabric -- that remains fresh, because it's about dealing with what's right in front of you, the player, right now. And, of course, this rule creates its own exceptions -- and traps. Great music need not be a slave to the listening gambit!

posted in Improvisation as an Aspect of Community - 1 reply

LANGUAGE OF DESTRUKTION tomorrow 11/26: Nequaquam Vacuum and more

Noah — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 05:27:54 GMT

http://www.2gyrlz.org/calendar/ELfest05/26NOV.htm

Tomorrow night, Saturday the 26th, is The Language of Destruktion, with The Red King, Nequaquam Vacuum, Synchronicity Frequency, Cliche Au Lait, Hail and Kiss the Goat, Sati Fyre, The TV Smasher, and The Blender of Death.

Nequaquam Vacuum, playing our last Portland show for a few months, invites all attendees to bring along any items you might like to have destroyed in a musical/performance context. Anything at all, so long as you don't need us to get it back to you. Just bring your destroyables along to the show and hand them over to a member of the NV crew, and we guarantee their absolute destruction during our closing set.

Saturday 26 November
Language of Destruktion
Sabala's 4811 SE Hawthorne

Show @ 9 pm
$5 - $15 | Full Bar 21+
Mobility Device Accessible

Indeed.

In this, the penultimate evening of the Fourth Annual EnterActive Language Festival; an avenging mob of musicians, performance artists, and mechanical engineers let slip their long-suppressed nihilist urges in an explosive evening of harrowing destruction. Those of you who have pondered the deeper meaning of "EnterActive" are well-advised to attend. And to bring goggles, as there may be a bit of a mess.
FEATURING Music By:
THE RED KING, NEQUAQUAM VACUUM, and SYNCHRONICITY FREQUENCY
Performances By:
MICAH PERRY, HAIL & KISS THE GOAT, and SATI FIRE
And Engines of Destruction:
ALEX LILY'S TV SMASHER
and JONAS NASH'S BLENDER OF DEATH

The Red King is the neo-classical/black metal performance project of Johann Cleereman, also known for his participation in the highly mysterious nomadic clan Corpus Corax. The Red King combines a composer's musical precision with a deep ritual commitment to his alchemic stage process, which often leads to acts of self-mutilation and the consumption of dangerous chemicals during the course of performing his soul-bearing song cycles. My friend Scott drank a goblet of his blood once, and he couldn't stand or speak for about sixteen hours.
Nequaquam Vacuum is a free post-asiatic ensemble who usually build instruments out of scrap metal and found objects. I say "usually" because tonight they will instead be destroying scrap metal and found objects, but still musically. The Vacuum is elated to have founding member Tyler Armstrong back in the fold, having performed their last few shows with the Golden Age trio of Armstrong/McAlister/Mickens as well as members of the rotating cast who have played with the latter two since the literal disappearance of the former (it turned out he was in Turkey). Tonight's guests include Nolon Ashley, Rale Sidebottom, and multi-instrumentalist "Infamous Dangerous Psychopath".
Synchronicity Frequency is the industrial solo effort of Ryan Olsen, who this evening will be creatively DJ-ing the heaviest of metal.
CLICHE AU LAIT (PDX) is a performance Art group operated by JO CASE AND Micah Perry. Since its inception in 2000. One of their intentions is to allow viewers a transcendent experience with art not signified by static objects alone. CLICHE AU LAIT offers opportunities to intervene, predict, or participate. The resulting cooperative creation process affords participants entrance into the actual realm of the art, RATHER THAN OBSERVING SOMEONE ELSES EXPERIENCE OF ART.
Hail and Kiss the Goat present: War Pigs, excerpts from an unfinished musical.
Hail and Kiss the Goat is at the cross roads of Butoh, German industrial improv, Heavy Metal and political satire.
Short and sweet, this performance version of War Pigs is as poignant as the day Black Sabbath penned it.
Sati Fire are a ritual dance troupe headed by Tamara Yeskel and Zenia Brar, who have performed together since 2002 as part of the Pan-Zen Konspiracy Nettwyrk.
Alex Lily's TV Smasher is a large and dangerous machine designed to destroy television sets.
Jonas Nash's Blender of Death is an immense and even-more-dangerous machine built from lawnmower blades and a Volkswagen engine, dedicated to the destruction of works of art.
Ka-Boom, y'all.
5000. - N.

posted in Improvisation as an Aspect of Community - 0 replies

Language of Pan-Zen, feat. MICRO-RITMIA (Mexican improv maestrae)

Noah — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 22:29:08 GMT

LANGUAGE OF PAN-ZEN
Friday 18 November
Holocene 1001 SE Morrison
Door @ 8:30, Show @ 9 pm
$5 - $15 admission
with DJ DONNA SUMMER, MICRO-RITMIA, TRY MY CABBAGE, RUDEMENT, SOMETHING'S BURNING, DIRTY PANDA, SYNCHRONICITY FREQUENCY, TO-KA-GE, and MURK VISUALS

Each year, the EnterActive Language Festival sets aside one night to invite the most creative electronic musicians in our community and beyond to help us shake the hardness off our asses in an evening of wild, sweaty dance music (in an experimental vein, of course).
This year's guests of honor are:
WFMU's legendary Jason Forrest (aka DJ DONNA SUMMER), returning from an extended stay in Germany to show off his East Coast inspiration;
and, from Mexico, Zorn collaborators and electronic maestrae MICRO-RITMIA performing a live set along with Bay area pianist Thollem Mcdonas.
On the local tip, further dance party action and ambient backroom swirls will be provided by the steadfast soldiers of the Pan-Zen Konspiracy Nettwyrk, including the world premiere of Billy Neenos' new solo project SOMETHING'S BURNING.

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Horn Jam (fwd)

Shibek — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 08:24:03 GMT

JUNE HORN JAM
June, 10th 2005
7:00 to late
@ the Nest
6125 NE Mallory
Portland, OR

-------------------------
Hello all -

Sorry for the Short notification time, but I wanted to remind you all that this
upcoming incarnation of the horn Jam is next Friday - June 10th. As always,
anyone is welcome and encouraged to attend. Things will be going on from 7:00
until people get tired and have to leave (a couple of hours at least.) We'll
probably take things to the park over on Ainsworth again for a while if the
weather's good.

See the fliyer at http://photos10.flickr.com/17477714_171208f7fe_o.jpg

Sarah and I picked up a bunch of conch shells when we were in Florida fox a
wedding earlier this month - Hopefully we can do a conch mega-jam.

We Hope to see you there, and feel free to pass this on to anyone you know who
might be interested. (anybody that got this indirectly - email us at
hornjam[at]meaningliberation[dot] org) if you want to be on the mailing list
for future months.

-Michael Hamilton
-----------------------------

About the Horn Jam:

Basically, we have been trying to get together as many horn players as we can
on the 2nd Friday of every month to hang out and play together. Anyone who
likes making sounds on any sort of breath controlled instrument is welcome. We
tend to have people at a wide range of skill levels and
experience.

We have a bunch of horns (and whistles, melodicas, etc..) around the house and
people have brought in some cool things (crumhorns!) and there is often some
instrument passing around. It's a good opportunity for anyone who fantasizes
about playing the tuba.

posted in Improvisation as an Aspect of Community - 0 replies

Our Cirkus needs Your Vote for the BORG2 Grant!

Noah — Thu, 05 May 2005 04:52:00 GMT

www.borg2.org
999eyes.tribe.net

From the 999 Eyes Ov Endless Dream National Affairs Desk

Greetings, my friends! We, The 999 Eyes Ov Endless Dream travelling cirkus and freakshow, have applied for a grant from the BORG2 organization, funding independent art at burning man this year - the grant money is being handed out on an electoral basis, making this a VERY IMPORTANT popularity contest for us.

It costs nothing to vote for us, but it means a nice chunk o change to us if we win, or even get close. All you have to do to sign up is go to the following website and sign up for the borg2 "BUllhorn" emailing list. Then you get your password, and keep up on the voting process which will take place before the end of the month!

It's kind of complicated - don't hesitate to ask for my guidance if you get confused.

Time is running out and we need your help on this one... to bring back the carnival sideshow and freakshow to life!!!

www.borg2.org

999eyes.tribe.net/

Thanks so much! Every vote counts!!!! It really does this time!!!

cheers,
dylan mcpuke, accordiuonist and siudeshow promoter
noah mickens, ringmaster and bon vivant
samantha x, museum curator and freak mother

posted in Improvisation as an Aspect of Community - 0 replies

Improvisation as an Aspect of Community's topics - tribe.net

RAY CHUNG intensive workshop, first call

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The Discipline of Improvisation - Stephen Nachmanovitch

Nita Little \\ first call

Winter Solstice Jam \ last call

Die down your daily mind in Himalaya!

Simone Forti "Logomotion Writing Workshop" \ project in residence

out of control with "no touch" policy in schools

public improv, los angeles, week of may 21st

Poto Festival Jun 29-Jul 8

International Contact festival in Italy \ second call

Zipfestival's video 2005 on line

Scott Kelman 1937-2007

Pubic -- er, I mean *Public* -- Works.

Zipfest07 \ 19-24 June 2007 , Orvieto in Italy \ registration open

Ecstatic dance workshop in DC, Sat. 3/10

Come Play With us at Silver Gate Club this Sunday!

MOE!KESTRA!

Teaching Improvisation

Quote RE: Music/Women

●Teaching about resonance

Butoh School Photo Journal

New Theatre Group in L.A.

guide to the deepest butoh method

Starting Butoh school in Himalaya India

Rare event - Blixa, Jarboe, Soriah - Tickets onsale now!

I'm new to this tribe :)

Derek Bailey

How to Plan for the Worst Case

LANGUAGE OF DESTRUKTION tomorrow 11/26: Nequaquam Vacuum and more

Language of Pan-Zen, feat. MICRO-RITMIA (Mexican improv maestrae)

Horn Jam (fwd)

Our Cirkus needs Your Vote for the BORG2 Grant!

Pubic -- er, I mean Public -- Works.

●Teaching　about resonance