TANZTHEATER WUPPERTAL PINA BAUSCH (Eddie Martinez)




02|01|20

I realise I haven’t written many blog entries about our time with Eddie Martinez, but to be frank, there hasn’t been a huge amount to write about day to day. Maybe this is a matter of timing with the drag show (which I may also write about a little), but I think it has more to do with how we worked. This wasn’t a masterclass, or a workshop, or a lesson – it was two weeks of us simply working and making, and it’s harder to find concrete, tangible takeaways so immediately following its conclusion. I have no doubt that as soon as I begin with Guillaume tomorrow, I will really understand so much more of what we’ve been doing, but for now, here’s what I got.
First of all, and as I stated in a previous entry, this way of working is very unfamiliar to me, and often I resist any sort of abstract material devising in favour of structured, intentional creation. It scares me, let alone the recording of said material for viewing later on! Horrific. Ultimately, this is probably the most significant and beneficial outcome of working with Eddie for me: finding the comfort, and even the pleasure, in making material for material’s sake. I think when I make work I will stress so intensely over making each and every aspect of the piece having its place before I even make it, but now I have a library of filmed material I can draw upon and build a piece out of. Then it becomes a matter of composition, of building the understanding and structure for myself. Eddie often said that he is always more interested in how and why things are happening on stage, than what is happening on stage. I think I really agree – for all the amazing dancing and theatre you can see on the stage today, the most engaging (for me) are the ones where you can see the performer working on a level higher than just “I am here performing for you”. Maybe as an exercise for myself, I should really aim to let go a little more in my making process of what I am doing, and invest in how and why I am doing it. That might be exactly what the audience sees.

Speaking of the audience, one thing I noticed was the balance between giving the audience all the information versus withholding some things. What I saw was that when people performed pieces they had devised that were exactly what they were, where there was no sense of something unseen, then my interest waned. Eddie highlighted this at one point, and also stressed numerous times that you need to always be working towards how to keep the audience interested – and I think the sense of something hidden is a potential way to do this. I noticed this as well when watching Pina last night – almost every sequence in the film had a sense of something more. I realise this is so abstract and difficult to define, but as an example: one such sequence that featured Eddie in the film had him dancing in a glass house with another man who was not dancing. Every so often, he would cry out a name, before leaping into the non-dancing man’s arms. It’s clear there’s some sort of relationship here, but it’s not defined so easily for the audience – the audience ideally remains engaged because they are trying to dissect the puzzle of what they are seeing, they must make sense of it.
In some ways I also find this relieving, as it reminds me that I don’t need to necessarily make sense of everything myself at first. I can leave things to mystery and maybe discover along with the audience what sense they make. The small pieces we created with Eddie are a great example of this – there was a sense behind it from the questions we were given, but that falls to the wayside when the piece is performed later on. It contributes to the notion of the performer knowing what’s going on, there’s a how and a why this is being performed, but the audience may need to work to decipher their own conclusions.

I also thought recently a lot on why the ‘marking it’ concept suddenly makes movement seem more interesting, and I think it has something to do with reifying an abstract movement into the realm of daily life. What I mean is that a lot of dance can easily be very overwrought with leaps and explosions, expression and expression and more expression – by performing at 20% energy, this movement then is brought back into a daily life level of energy, and it breaks down the notion of performance a little bit. It’s almost like how a big dramatic retelling of Macbeth could be a lot of fun and very valid, yet a piece that pulls down and has the actors play the parts much more naturalistically could be even more engaging, as the audience begins to see it less sensationalised. Maybe. Either way, this is now something I am really keen to explore in my solo, and finding the dichotomy between the daily life and expressive modalities.

Ultimately, I think while we didn’t necessarily learn concrete skills or techniques with Eddie, just by engaging so fully in a simple process changed so much about how I think about making. I can’t speak for everyone else, but I think we could all see each other change a lot in these 2 weeks. I’m excited to see how this resonates with our work going forward.


While I’m here, I think it’s also worth speaking about the drag experience, as it ran concurrently with Eddie’s time here (which is maybe a shame, but who’s to know). I think drag was great for me, on a very simple level, because it forced me to be bigger on stage. The last time I performed solo was in 2nd year of my undergrad, and that was a very small space, doing a very small piece. I think I can say that the drag show is one of the bigger shows I have been a part of, and a nice reminder that art doesn’t have to be nitty gritty, or contemplative – it can just be loud and proud and fun.


20|12|19

AND HE’S SICK.
I thought I had it gone, but alas, I’m down for the count, somewhat. I managed to only take an afternoon and following morning off from Eddie’s sessions, but given the format that we’re working in, I haven’t missed much.
Being sick has also given the tasks a very different flavour – now that looking after myself so I recover ASAP has become the primary concern of my day, each response I make is made from a much simpler and forgiving mindset. The pressure of trying to develop something really neat, or creative, or developing something at all fades away, and I become very pragmatic. In this pragmatic state there’s no judgement, and creating becomes much easier – somewhat like a repetitive task you take on to pass the time, like sewing, or making tea. Funnily enough, I was drinking tea all day yesterday, and that also added to the relaxed atmosphere. Maybe I’ll drink tea in rehearsals more often…
This relaxed process then feeds into the work itself, and really aligns itself with Eddie’s minimal energy aesthetic, so really, it’s all working out great.


This way of working is almost exactly what I need right now for my Solo – I’ve created a frame alongside various creative elements, but what’s missing is the actual meat and substance of the piece. It’s interesting to see that even though we might be creating a very logical response to these questions (like, spell FANTASY with your body), the word’s meaning does somehow find its way into the work. It’s almost unavoidable when you’re creating from that source.  



17|12|19


ANOTHER WEEK, ANOTHER (WORLD RENOWNED AND CELEBRATED) COMPANY.
I’m starting to realise that the first few days of a new artist’s block with us is the primetime for cross-comparing working methods and artistic values. The most striking between SITI and Tanztheater Wuppertal is that the former employs a relatively regimented and precise schedule for training and devising, whereas Eddie barely spoke a word before throwing us into task responding.

The immediate insight here is on how the Tanztheater Wuppertal operates – Eddie actually made the point to highlight this is the same way that Pina would run the room in her process, and that he and the company would approach her with their material as we now are approaching Eddie. This is really important to me, because I’m often uncomfortable with making material without a frame or performance in mind, but maybe this is a difference between being a company dancer and Pina herself. I’m curious as to what degree Pina (or in this case Eddie) has an idea for a performance. For myself making a solo, maybe I need to investigate how I can turn off my director brain to make abstract material, and then switch it back on later to curate and edit the material into the performance. I’m already feeling quite content with the work I’ve made so far, enough so that I might even see if it has a place in my solo piece.

The most common feedback I hear in the room when we show Eddie our material is based around the quality of our performance. He even brought out the famous Pina quote: “I’m not interested in how people move; I’m interested in what makes them move” to drive home the point. It’s one of those methodological choices that also brings with it a very clear aesthetic – there are no characters or fictions, it’s all about you being in it. Eddie doesn’t want to see you perform a character or routine, he wants to see you in the movement.
One way of getting here – which I think is insanely easy and potentially useful – is to perform the material at 20%. It worked wonders on Markus, who initially “performed” his routine quite theatrically, but when operating at 20%, you could see him in the work and it became remarkably watchable.
On the flip side, I think it’s good to remember this is only a certain perspective, and there is a lot else out there that encourages and celebrates the “performance” of work.