PRESENTATION

PERFORMANCES:

- album

- the beloved

- the breast piece

- dance

- fortsetzung folgt / ohne worte

- ohne worte

- sensation & imagination: a study

- the stage and myself

CALENDAR

PRESS

PRATICABLE: presentation

praticable I adj 1. (chemin, gué) passable; (terrain de sport) playable 2. (exécutable: opération, projet) practicable; (moyen) practical 3. ARCHIT, THEAT (fenêtre, décor) practicable II m 1. THEAT prop 2. CINE, TV dolly
(from HYPERLINK "http://dictionary.cambridge.org/bilingual/french/"Dictionnaire Cambridge Klett Compact)


We call « bodypractices » the physical activities based on a conception of the moving body and that define a set of exercices whose aim is to concretely realise this conception. The focus is thus to work more on the functionning of the body than on its image or a preconceived representation (for ex., a particular style).
If one could observe in the past years a particular attachment to body representations and conventions of representation in many a dance performance, it is useful and productive to directly question body practices, inasmuch as they often infer a specific conception of the body and work on it to make it fit that conception.
How does a particular body practice infer a particular form of representation and how does it determine a form and a method of choreographic writing? How far does a body practice convey a social and political thinking ? How can methods, frame and modes of organisation in the creation work find a coherence with the body practice, and which form of representation do they infer ?
These questions ground Praticable, a collaborative project bringing together various artists around body practices, choreographic writing and representation.


Praticable proposes itself as a horizontal work structure, which brings into relation research, creation, transmission and production structure. This structure is the basis for the creation of many performances that will be signed by one or more participants in the project. These performances are grounded, in one way or another, in the exploration of body practices to approach representation.
Concretely, the form of Praticable is periods of common research of /on physical practices which will be the soil for the various creations. The creation periods will be part of the research periods. Thus, each specific project implies the involvement of all participants in the practice, the research and the elaboration of the practice from which the piece will ensue.

Thus, the transmission and circulation of our practices, knowledge and questions grounds our performance projects. The practices considered rest upon a non-hierarchical model for the transmission of knowledge.
Moreover, during each creation, time can also be devoted to the exploration of new possibilities for works to come.
Finally, in order to keep these questions open and to offer a multiplicity of perspectives, each performance of the pieces made within Praticable will be preceded by a first part, during between 10 and 20 minutes. This first part can be either an excerpt from another piece, a short piece or a work in progress, in all cases a part of Praticable. We reserve the choice for this part, as a mean to highlight Praticable as a coherent collaborative structure.




In other words: some questions and answers

1. With 'Praticable' you propose a specific model of 'working together' between artists in the field of dance and choreography: "a horizontal work structure, which brings into relation research, creation, transmission and production structure". Can you describe how that model functions practically?

There are 3 planes of horizontal distribution:

1. research / production
The work periods are all organized as practice residencies. This implies that time is used to develop and research body practices, whether for the sake of research and practice as such, or for specific performance projects, focusing on the practices used for that project. In both cases we all share the development of a common practice, which aims at exploring and developing approaches to movement and the body, and at creating opportunities for a specific approach to choreography. The rehearsal periods for a piece are organized in the same way as work periods that don't focus on a particular project.

2. money / support for the work
All money obtained, both for the general project “Praticable” and for individual projects within it, is used for work sessions as described above. This means that the production budget for the piece of e.g. 2 persons is used by all 5, and thus supports as well the development of the common research and potentially of other projects within Praticable.

3. public appearance / distribution of the performances
Each performance of a project ensuing from Praticable is preceded by a 1st part, whose duration goes up to 20 minutes, and which we program ourselves. This gives us the opportunity to contextualize each work by showing more approaches to the notion of body practice as a choreographic tool, to inform the audience about the organization of the whole project, to use our networks to share the opportunities of each of us and to distribute proposals that are either in-progress or shorter than the usual formats promoted on the performance market.



2. All of you work individually as choreographers and within other groups and contexts. What was the motivation to found Praticable as a common working structure?

The motivation came from a common desire to share time in order to investigate the body and our body practices. Sharing the practice within a group of people rather than on one's own provides support and stimulation as well as a multiplication of possibilities and approaches towards the work.
The project expresses as well the desire for collaboration over a longer period of time (at least 3 years).
It made sense for us to give structure and visibility to something that had been happening anyways already in a self-organized way, spending time practicing together without necessarily in the first place having a specific goal in mind. We also wanted the project to create relationships between our practices, creation processes and financing strategies.
Praticable offers us a sense of solidarity and community, still allowing for artistic independence.



3. How do you think this working structure has an impact on the individual productions and performances ensuing from Praticable?

This working structure allows each project to ensue from a real time of exploration, in which no aim is pre-defined. This is a chance to come up with proposals that differ from our usual way of making performances: developing a physical approach in order to embody a pre-conceptualised idea. Reversing this process affects the way of constructing the performance, and thus, its shape.
Proposing a first part before the programmed performances is a chance to work on different formats (short formats).