Feldenkrais
Movement; organisation; function. Habitual and automatic forms of movement in response to notation - are they a use or a hindrance? Do they allow me better control or less control? Practising Feldenkrais provides me with an awareness of these habits, revealing a gap between my body and mind; my unconscious and conscious. How can I access a process that was established through habit many movements ago?
Technique
Sound production; gesture; embodiment. Do I embody the sound I produce? Does this embodiment enhance the sound I’m producing, or does it distract a listener from my ‘poor’ sound production? An attempt to define this distinction creates further questions: Is embodiment a fundamental feature of sound production? Does embodiment have to be visible? Is embodiment gendered? Is embodiment physically ‘healthy’ ? Is embodiment a waste of energy? Is embodiment unique to each individual….?
Collaboration
Material; meaning; one’s history:
James Redelinghuys (gender; historic convention; practiSe!)
Neil Luck (sound +/- visual; interstitial movement; inverse gesture)
Monica Pearce (‘tiny’ technique; restrain and release; etudes)
Ed Cooper - liminality; states of in-between; meditation; attention diary
Mark Dyer - playing a memory; metaphor; isolating touch
Federico Pozzer
I have been working with Federico since 2019. His focus on the breath as musical material has allowed me to explore a less practised aspect of my playing. As collaborators, we use the breath to reveal how easy I find something to do:
“We change our breathing when we hesitate, become interested, startled, afraid, doubtful, make an effort, or try to do something.” (Feldenkrais, 1972)
How may we manipulate the breath?
Is this manipulation within or outside of my conscious awareness?
What effect would this have on my movements, my functioning, and my sound?
What effect would this have on our composition?
Moving Objects (2020) for pianist explores the bodily adaption and functioning required in a series of indeterminate tasks. Organised into three sections, these tasks require the breath as blowing which moves ping pong balls and marbles inside the piano. The intensity of these tasks vary, producing changes in the movements and the sound.
This piece was created with Federico Pozzer throughout 2020.
Breathing, Moving, Playing (2020) for pianist involves a series of chords repeated 8 times. Each repetition uses a different breath control that pushes the pianist to the limit of her lung capacity. The breaths fits with the pianist’s movements across the keys, removing her decision of when to play.
This piece was created with Federico Pozzer throughout 2020.
Federico and myself presented this video at the Vibrant Practices symposium at the University of Leeds, 16-17 April 2021 online.
Ray Evanoff
This collaboration has brought me closer to how I make sound and what this means for how I move. As artistic partners, we prioritise a fullness and necessity of detail, “increasingly a meticulous, sprawling examination and expression of the work between composer and performer” (Ledger and Evanoff, 2021). Our practice forces our product to spill out of a musical score + definitive performance. It has created practice videos, diaries, writings and presentations, as well as a score but one that carries numerous potential performances. We use our collaboration to create a space in which.to infinitely perfect and improve as artists. We will never finish this work; it will accompany us as we continue to age and grow as friends and musicians.