There is a bit of white between my heart and my stomach. the space

TITLE
There is a bit of white between my heart and my stomach.
the space issue
by Cristina Mendanha | FBAUP /i2ADS|DEA
Nov. 2013
e.mail: [email protected]
KEYWORDS
writing, dance, space, temporality, memory
________________________________________________________________________________________________
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The project – Guelra |Choreographic Transcreation Laboratory, integrates the research processes
used in an ongoing doctoral thesis focuses on creative process of writing and dance, driven by the
achievement of writings on choreographic movements and produced by a group of artists and
performers co-creators. The thesis develops around two axes: i) analysis and reflection on how
writing can interfere in the creative and dance training, ii) exploring the impossibility of translation of
choreographic act to writing.
Guelra - integrates the processes of this research, focused on the problem of writing in
RELATIONSHIP with a dancing body. This project aims to approach the interdisciplinary character of
interaction and artistic interconnection which has the poetic creation, transfiguration and
experimentation the multiplicity and the intangibility experience and memory of a city.
RESHEARCH QUESTIONS
There is a bit of white between my heart and my stomach. An empty space and utouchable,
where there is no pain. It is smooth, light and heavy at the same time. Sometimes I get it. I
go with the slowness equal to the flow of believers at the end of a Sunday prays. How
should I call this place under my heart and above my stomach? How to explain to others this
space between myself and I? How can I say it?
During these thoughts my dog1 went back to talk to me, again.
1 I have the habit of speaking by my dog. Give her voice gives me pleasure. It's one against two. It a world, I
-Do you think these things just because you want to get out of that chair! but ...
while you are finding a certain excitement to the writing. You want to explore the
secrets that your senses can never serve. There are limits in our world, you
know ?- asked me my dog
-And I answered with more questions-Do you think it's really a limit? We can
always differentiate "outside" and "inside", no?
-I do not know. - He replied - My world is just what my senses tell me ... and
more I do not tell you now.
I did not and could not answer, however, remained within my white space (between the heart
and stomach) one floating phrase.
” If a thing can be conceived as non-existing, its essence does
not involve existence.”2
The disorganization of the sign, context, consciousness and the body, that Gil (2001) and my
dog point, opened up the possibility of thinking one dance project laboratory, where are
experimented processes of creating movements in relation with a performatic writing. The
body evoked here is one that dance, which is constructed in the present experience, which
"breaks down the paradox, separates its elements and recombining them, overlap them,
plays with them proliferate making sense" (Gil, 2001, p 237). Thus, arose the requirement of
a writing and looking for a space within the space (my own and academic) that allowed me
to experience the construction of a performative writing and experiencing it in the others and
in myself.
In the context of RELATIONSHIP, some issues will be developed:
-What is a Body | writing?
-How writing can interfere with the creative process of dance?
-The speech and writing may act as mechanisms of activation of a reflective thinking
intimidatory for artists?
in another. The voice is a bridge that connects us. Or rather, it connects me to the world. I found in him a body
that says things.
2“Quicquid ut non existens potest concipi, ejus essentia non involvit existentiam”(pag. 14)
“Se uma coisa pode ser concebida como inexistente, sua essência não envolve a existência” (pag.15)
Spinoza, B. de ,(1632-1677 ), Ética/spinoza ; |tradução e notas de Tomaz Tadeu| - 3 ed. - Belo Horizonte:
autêntica Editora, 2010 , Título original: EthicaORDINEEdição bilíngue: latim /português
ISBN: 978-85-7526-249-8, http://pt.scribd.com/doc/60291513/Spinoza-Ethica
Nota de autor: ” If a thing can be conceived as non—existing, its essence does not involve existence.”
OBJECTIVES
In order to challenge naturalized forms to access
knowledge production in the field of
interpreter training in dance, this study consists in fusion of practice and theory, reinforcing
the belief that the actions of choreographic tinking and writing thought may be the result of
the same gestation3. Holistically this study reinforces the idea of a framework of
contemporary knowledge4, in which I situate myself in this moment of writing. Thus,
the key goals are focused on two points: i) develop transdisciplinary activity in the creative
act in dance and writing, ii) build and encourage bridges between experience and city
memory.
METHODS
There is a bit of white between my heart and my stomach. This phrase was the starting point
in this writing. The project I experienced, and now translate into words, was directed by the
choreographer Maria Ines Villasmil5. During a week it was researched the connection
3 Farguell, R. W. M. (1995) Nietzsche, pp.331-433, in Figuras da Dança, tradução Paulo Osório de Castro,
Edição da Fundação Calouste Gulbemkian, 2001.
4 Adorno, T.W. (....) O ensaio como forma, in Notas de Leitura I, Livraria Duas Cidades, Editora 34, p. 15-45
Adorno, T.W ; Horkheimer,M.; Hullot-Kentor,R. (1992) Odysseurs or Myth and Enlightenment, Source: New
German Critique, No.56, Special Issue on Theodor W. Adorno (sprig- Summer, 1992), New German Critique,
pp. 109-141, http://www.jstor.org/stable/488331 , acedido em 30-12-2009.
Agamben , G. (2006). “O que é o contemporâneo?” in Agamben , G. (2009) O que é o contemporâneo e
outros ensaios, tradução de Vinícius Nicastro Honesko. ARGOS: Associação das Editoras Universitárias,
Chapecó, pp. 55- 73. ISBN978-85-7897-005-5.
Barthes, R. (1970) S/Z, Edições70,1999.
Barthes, R. (1973) O Prazer do Texto, Editorial Perspectiva, 1987
Barthes, R. (1957) Mitologias, tradução e prefácio: José Augusto Seabra, Edições70, 2012
Barthes, R. (1953) O Grau zero da escrita, Edições70, 2006.
Deleuze, G. (1987) O Acto de Criação, Edição brasileira: Falha de São Paulo, 27/06/1999, Tradução: José
Marcos Macedo
Deleuze, G. (1968) Diferença e Repetição, Relógio D'Água Editores, 2000.
Deleuze, G.,; Guattari,F. (1976) Rizoma,Texto extraído de Mil Plat™s (Capitalismo e Esquizofrenia) Vol.
Editora 34, 1» Ed. (1995) (Esgotado), Tradução de Aurélio Guerra Neto e Célia Pinto Costa http://
historiacultural.mpbnet.com.br./pos-modernismo/Rizoma , acedido em 7-13-2013.
Derrida, J. (1972) A Farmácia de Platão, Tradução Rogério da Costa, Biblioteca Pólen, Iluminuras, 3ª edição
revista, 2005.
Gil, J. (1980), Metamorfoses do corpo, A Regra do Jogo Ed Ltd.
Gil, J. (2000), Prefácio – O Alfabeto do Pensamento, in Deleuze, G. (2000) Diferença e Repetição, Relógio
D'Água Editores.
Gil, J. ( 2001) Movimento total – O Corpo e a Dança. Tradução de Miguel Serras Pereira. Lisboa: Relógio
D’Água Editore.
Gil, J. (2010), A Arte como Linguagem- A “Última Lição”, Lisboa, Relógio D’água.
Nancy, J.L. (2000) Corpus. New York: Fordham University Press, 2008, (Rand. A. Richard,
trad.)
Ó, Jorge R. do (2010), Para uma critica das artes da existência e da ideia de consciência na modernidade: a
problematização foucaultiana, Editora Cultura Acadêmica,http:77hdl.handle.net/10451/6292 Acedido em
20-10-2012
5 Maria Ines Villasmil
Was born in Venezuela and became Dutch citizen in 2004. After a career as a young sociologist and
having developed a parallel dance career following dance studies in her native Venezuela and in New York,
she moves to Holland in 1996, where in 1999, holds a BA from the School for New Dance Development
between four main points: space, memory, body and writing, with a map of the city as a
starting point and its displacement to a pre-defined artistic intervention area. Centred on
exploration of empirical knowledge, focused on participants subjectivity and diversity, the
project was included in the curriculum of Arte Total dance students from the academic year
of 2012/2013.
The work proposed under my guidelines consisted in a choreographic interpretation of city
invisibilities and his transcreation into GNRation6 space (old guard barracks).
During the process the main focus was the intersection of four major points: architectural
(public space), choreography, body and writing. Taking as start point the craft methodology
developed by the sociologist Richard Sennett (2008)7, as a way to incubate ideas, Maria
Ines Villasmil guided issues related to exploration of urban space, keeping in mind the city
map - Use it Braga8 - and its displacement to artistic intervention areas in GNRation.
EXPECTED OUTCOMES
probably a bit of white ... even postponed
A body | written, in action, was happening by approximation and intermittently. Their
impossibility to embodiment emerges as a gap where it is possible its execution. Ie: as a
possibility, ie: as a piece of white between the heart and the stomach. Thus, relates and
(SNDO) of the Amsterdam Hogeschool voor de Kunsten. In July 2004, Maria received her master degree in
Choreography and New Media - Dance Unlimited- at the Amsterdam Hoogeschool voor de Kunsten.
Besides her career as a dancer and choreographer, her interest in teaching started already in her
native Venezuela where she co-founded the Dance Workshop at the Universidad Catolica Andres Bello while
studying Social Sciences. Her interest in transferring knowledge is a reflection of her own interest in keep
developing her own view trough the act of teaching and also the challenge that any student and context
brought in any process of learning.
After being teaching in diverse environments –from the post war Kosovo, to Montevideo, Caracas
Moscow and Amsterdam- her vision about the relevance of this encounters and the relation between human
behaviors and society’s start to be more a constant inspiration. Since then Maria travels quite often in order to
deep even more in this act of transferring as a way of a personal research and artistic inspiration.
Topics like memory, identities, nomadism, collective and individualism have being around her artistic
ideas and a clear inspiration in her choreographic work and teaching experience.
Since 2002 is part of the staff teachers of the Amsterdam Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in the areas of
choreography, choreography for the camera, improvisation and contemporary dance technique. Besides being
a dance writer and a free lance artist, is a founder member of Dual Dance Project together with her colleague
Manuel Perez Torres DDP is a platform created by both in 1998 to develop their own interest and
multidisciplinary work. At the moment Maria is doing a Master in Cultural Management and Creative Industries
in the University of Salamanca, Spain.
6 http://www.gnration.pt
7 http://www.richardsennett.com/site/SENN/Templates/Home.aspx?pageid=1
8 http://www.braga.use-it.travel
considers. A body | written manufactures affections and perceptions that may be turned into
concepts, making visible a reality that attempts to unveil. From a body | writing it is believed
that arises either creation as research with directions.
In this project, writing space experimentation was taken as a drug and with all that "(...) |the|
charm | the | virtue of fascination, | he | power spell can be - alternately or simultaneously beneficent and maleficent. (...) "(Derrida, 1972, p.14)9. The phármakon is a product that
belongs to dance, if we consider it as mediate bridges to rhizomatics margins. But,
simultaneously, it is a product "(...) that is not yours (dance) which comes from the outside,
but also from below, who is awaiting judgment condescending to be consecrated in being
and value." (Derrida, 1972, p.22)10.
And so, there remains an piece of white between my heart and my stomach. I do not know
how this place is called. I do not know how to explain to others. I do not know. But it exists. I
saw it. All participants saw.
“In all cases, I believe that the anxiety of our era has to do
fundamentally with space, much more than with time.”
(Foucault, 1967, p.2)
9 Direct translation from the text in Portuguese
10 Direct translation from the text in Portuguese
references
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Adorno, T.W.(1966) Dialética Negativa. Trad: Marco Antonio Casanova. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar Ed., 2009.
Bakhtin, M. M. (1929)(Volochinov). Marxismo e filosofia da linguagem. Tradução de Michel Lahud e Yara
Frateschi Vieira. 12 ed. São Paulo: Hucitec, 2006.
Barthes, R. (1970) S/Z, Edições70,1999.
Deleuze, G. (1968) Diferença e Repetição, Relógio D'Água Editores, 2000.
Deleuze, G. (1987) O Acto de Criação, Edição brasileira: Falha de São Paulo, 27/06/1999, Tradução: José
Marcos Macedo,http://historiacultural.mpbnet.com.br/pos-modernismo/Rizoma Deleuze_Guattari.pdf, acedido
em 7-13-2013.
Deleuze, G. & Guattari, F.(1991) O que é a filosofia?, Editorial Presença, Biblioteca de Textos Universitários,
Agosto 1992.
Derrida, J. (1972) A Farmácia de Platão, Tradução Rogério da Costa, Biblioteca Pólen, Iluminuras, 3ª edição
revista, 2005.
Foucault, M. (1967)De Outros Espaços,Conferﾐncia proferida por Michel Foucault no Cercle d'Études
Architecturales, em 14 de Março de 1967. (publicado igualmente em Architecture, Movement, Continuité, 5, de
1984) Traduzido por Pedro Moura publicação original: 1998 (index3) versão revista: 11 de Fevereiro de 2005 ,
http://www.virose.pt/vector/periferia/foucault_pt.html
Nancy, J.L. (2000) Corpus. New York: Fordham University Press, 2008, (Rand. A. Richard, trad.)
Richard Sennett (2008) The Craftman, first published in Great Britain by Allen Lane, Penguin Books (2009 ),
ISNB: 978-0-141-02209-3
Schon, D.A. (1983) The reflexictive practiotioner, Avebury Books