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In this 2-part workshop we consider the ‘threshold’ as both a personal or subjective borderlands, a malleable space between that-which-is and that-which-is-not. In part through repertoire born out of my in-process performance project 'Make the Brutal Tender', we will attempt to explore the qualifiers 'tender' and 'brutal' corporeally, and their distinct or possibly resonant thresholds. 

We will learn directly from the body using what is immediately available to us:

          Non-human Surface: Floor, Wall
          Body: Ours and other’s
          [Metabolic] Energy: Ours and other’s

Accompanied by sound artist Hanna Elliot (HOGG, Goad Deimos), who will be interpreting the tender/brutal binary sonically, I will lead us through simple and greatly variable exercises that will allow us to cultivate miniature, sensual dialogues around comfort and discomfort, pain, impulse, effort, nurture and hopefully, fear. 

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March 18: ---> T E N D E R 
___what is a tender movement? can tenderness be qualified solely on physical terms, or do we need to feel tender in order to act tenderly? how do we communicate the edge of tenderness without resorting to cruelty, or brutality? is tenderness specific to sentient beings? what are physical qualifiers of tenderness?

March 25: ---> B R U T A L
___how is 'brutality' different from violence? etymologically, 'brutal' can refer to a kind of cruelty, but it also refers to the 'animal', a quality of heaviness, nonsense, the crude and exposed structure. beyond the narrative of violence, can we meld the other qualities together into a combined movement quality, or move distinctly from one part into the other? can we communicate 'brutality' without actually being brutal, or ride the edge of the brutal and not-brutal?

 

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Everyone is welcome! These workshops are about exploring your own threshold(s). The focus is on exploring difference, or the known/unknown of our unique physicalities. 

Please wear comfortable clothing. We will work barefoot. 

*Alternative tasks can always be provided for those who wish to work alone during partnering exercises.

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Some  V o c a b u l a r y  we will embody :

          The Threshold:
               The brink of being a thing (border, barely)
               The limit of a thing (capacity, furthest)

          MA間 : 
               Space between objects
               Silence between sounds = ‘palpable absence’, ‘pregnancy’, ‘potential’
               Stillness between movements

          Sillage: 
               Lingering scent
               Impression left in a sheet or pillow

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