Touch Compass remixed by THROW

I was recently involved in a professional development process called Improv-E with Touch Compass, a mixed ability dance company based in Auckland New Zealand. The focus was to build a consistent and formalized practice of performance improvisation. It began with a four day workshop taught by Janice Florence and Martin Hughes (State of Flux, Melbourne)which was designed to develop the company’s improvisational skills. The information Martin & Janice presented in the workshop had a generalized focus ie; looking for ways to support the main action in an ensemble performance improvisation. Martin's teaching was flavored with the positive feedback model used by Al Wunder in Australia. There was a lot of improvising in groups followed by analysis and feedback. The feedback was specifically pitched in an uncritical and positive fashion for example: what worked or what was liked and enjoyed in that situation. Working in this way nurtures recognition and instinct but more importantly generosity and enthusiasm. This is particularly healthy for the culture of contemporary dance here in NZ. I am not convinced of its effectiveness in creating sharp critical and intelligent thinking in a devising situation however. I felt that the workshop was without a clear technical framework to improvise from and many fundamentals were not addressed. In spite of the positive feedback in the social setting of the workshop there was communication 'behind the scenes' as it were about the groups limited skill base. So in the subsequent sessions leading up to the performances at Auckland's Tempo Festival I decided to teach a skill base could be practiced, that allowed for an abstract movement composition to happen, in real tine, in front of an audience. In those sessions I taught theoretical and practical information that was designed to enable the performer to improvise and understand situation in an ensemble. This included practical processes such as understanding time space in a movement composition / performance sense, recognition of structure as it occurred, physical vocabulary skills, dynamics, reading and listening skills, performance states, exits and entrances, sensitizing the eye, ear & skin to the physical conditions, working with repetition and ongoing critical analysis and discussion. There probably needed to be considerably more time given to the process of rehearsal for Touch Compass. Rehearsal is not antithetical to improvisation; it is in fact vital because it is skill based. So the lead up to the Tempo performance could have been more dense, comprehensive and consistent in order to filter directly into the stage work of the company. Having said that, the learning rate of the group in terms of their ability to read, compose, and generally improvise was rapid and beautifully understood. The first Tempo performance was calm, clear, and there were abundant instances of individuals reading each other superbly and making creative and sincere gestures to each other. This is profoundly important because what makes the company work so well is their collective spirit and their abilities as performers is of an extremely high standard. The second performance was less coherent and this is where the group’s relative lack of experience with the skill set began to show. The group was more diffident and performers had less of a sense of the whole composition. Touch Compass has only begun to work in a technically detailed way in their improvising. Time and practice in front of an audience as well as consistent studio time is really the only way to address this. In the follow up discussions there was articulate and concise discussion. Watching the videos of the performances provided new perspective despite the fact that video tends to distort the information to a degree. Out of this discussion several things came up. But the most prevalent was the need for individual and group practice. More specifically identifying what those practices needed to be for each individual. This included defining and understanding the word ‘technique’ in the context of a physical practice, a practice that facilitated creative response that could be used in an improvisational performance situation. A practice that invoked and addressed limitation in such a way that each artist could find new ways of understanding and making use of their physical limitations as well as an expanded movement range. Touch Compass are a group of remarkable artists with an extraordinary range of skills that is underpinned by a deep and humorous sense of humanity that makes them a remarkable and unique entity in New Zealand contemporary dance. It's been a pleasure and an honour as always, to play with them.