photo: from still of video by Andy Hamilton

Improvisation + Moving Sound

An evening of meditations, musings and machinations on improvisation both improvised and not, with a bow to movement and sound together and apart.

with movement artists and sound makers: Olivier Besson, Liz Roncka, Grant Smith, Jane Wang.

Saturday, April 7, 2007

8pm

admission free: suggested donation $5-$10

OLIVIER BESSON - (improvisational movement artist) "So, what I'm going to write about will be an attempt at describing where some of my interests lie at the present time.  Right now, what matters to me most in dance is identifying and expressing myself with emotional honesty - period !- More and more, I feel the need to bring my life and my art together. It had become obvious to me that I increasingly operated on two separate levels. On the "life" side I'd sometimes hesitated, waited, struggled, doubted etc... and on the "art" side I'd invariably searched for existential answers, an idealized sense of self and a desire for connection thru dance. The notion of membrane - that which separates and unites - intrigues me both physically and  spiritually. What I have begun to understand has changed my relationship to my(space)self, the working space and the audience space (when there is one). It holds a key to an ongoing point of interest : to observe and experience the things that appear to be in opposition, in contradiction or simply different. The answers define the questions. Being unique, appreciating the differences, being connected. These thoughts and feelings are affecting my teaching of improvisation and contact improvisation and my interests in performance. One project I'm presently introducing in France is my ongoing collaboration with musician/composer Mike Vargas. Our project called "large Open House" blends artistic, ritual and contemplative practices in a collaborative improvisational context. It is based on the premise that art and life merge when participants enter an agreement to collaborate over a "longer than expected period of time". We arbitrarely chose that time to be 6 1/2  hours. In that time, we feel differences in the way we are attentive, as we experience basic human needs such as hunger, fatigue etc...Questions arise in this experimental hybrid form. The work is designed to investigate proportions and quantities of art and non-art, of action and stilllness, and of public and private practice. The public can come and go whenever they want. The artists don't rely on the public's constant presence to initiate or maintain the quality and focus of their creative output. We have done this work in Boston (loft 211) and in Western Massachussetts ( Earthdance Retreat Center). This year, we are gathering a group of european and american dancers for a March 21 - 25 event in Paris (Micadanses / Canaldanse co-production). Other than that, I continue to research duet work as it deals with issues of dependance/independance and connection - physical and otherwise. Last but not least, solo work is a constant staple. It allows me to reflect and  expose or reveal my own sense of self. It helps me find some answers to the ever present question of what is home."

LIZ RONCKA:

“In thinking about this piece for the Studio  Soto,I realized it made sense for me to start by thinking about why I improvise in the first place and what I understand improvisation to be.

The main reason I improvise is simply because I like To improvise.  I enjoy how my brain and body function in an improvisatory state.  What does that mean? For me, an improvisatory state is one in which my senses are highly tuned and I am as neutral as possible…in a ready state.  I feel like a conductor of the energy around me.  To pick up what is there, let it pass through me and into/onto someone/thing else.  Ideally, it is a state of non-judgement. When I achieve this, I feel a sense of freedom.  I no longer feel trapped by expectations or definitions.  This is a way I seldom feel in "real life" despite wishing to feel this way all the time.  In some ways there is a relief to submitting to just being in the given situation...to letting something happen or noting what is already happening rather than trying to make something happen.

BUT then....what about composition? Yes, I do believe that improvisation does involve composition.  How do I maintain the state described above and compose at the same time?  Intuition.  Artistic sensibility. Improvising: composing without imposing.  A delicate balance, especially when put in front of an audience.

I remind myself that the art of improvisation is to maintain a ready state and to express the intuitive sensibility of composition.  This is my definition of "good improvisation".  If the audience has another expectation, that is theirs, not mine.  Again, a challenge to keep this boundary as a performer:  not to take on the audience's definition or expectation as one's own. However, at the same time staying true to oneself without alienating oneself as the performer or alienating the audience.

So...that is what this piece is about for me.  It is the same thing for every improvised piece for me.  There may be different scores, different settings, different costumes but each time it is about freedom. It is about intuition. It is about submitting to the present, connecting to one's surroundings  and holding one's own at the same time.

Those are my thoughts about this piece at this time.”

GRANT SMITH:

" Improv plan for Soto floor plan  

ad-lib, extempore, impromptu for 4 persons: 2 trained movers,  2 trained sounders utilizing  full group, subsets and solos may trade rolls

Make it up, play it by ear, fake it, feel it, be real, don't think about it, just play, work it, use your mistakes, be open, react, act, oppose, flock, morph, free, create, structure, repeat, no expectations, let go, hereandnow, get gone, in the flow, non-linear, thoughtless, awareness, subconscious, non verbal dialogue   improv what happens making other plans   So To Pop!   Just Intuition   If the Inuit human beings have more words for improv let's use them. I improvise in so many different contexts it gets confusing. But they all have parameters, and, i think,  different usages of intuition and technique.   Perhaps one goal of improvisation is to create. The first music was probably improvised. In case you are wondering I improvised this sentence.   But not this one.   I guess for me, coming from a musicians world,  this project is about being able to move as well as make sound. I don't have to sit in chair, in a corner or under ground, unless i want to. And of course it's more than that.   It's the mystery of the unknown interaction of these four performers in the Soto space in the presence of observers. The moments of moving from before to now to after. "

JANE WANG: "It is funny that both Liz and Olivier were able to write seemingly easily about improvisation while Grant and I are struggling to come up with words to express our own thoughts on improvisation.  Perhaps this is because, speaking for myself and other musicians I have collaborated with, musicians don't often actually talk about the process or review what they did after performing or rehearsing improvised music.  In a sense, it almost seems like a point of honor, not to speak about it other than to say, "Yeah, that's the SHIT, man" or just smile and shake their heads in wonder and mutual admiration (or disgust as the case may be although luckily I've never actually seen that happen).  Contrarily, movement artists who I have worked with almost always spend the time to verbally process their improvisations.

Hopefully what follows here won't be too incoherent - perhaps I should just include a video clip, just kidding - being as it were, just some ramblings and muttering about my thoughts on improvisation.

I have recently noticed a slight shift in what interests me both as an audience member and as a performer. when it comes to the world of improvisation. I have always enjoyed collaborating with other media and jumping in sometimes literally.  I don't consider myself a movement artist by any stretch of the imagination but I do believe the saying: "if you can walk, you can dance, if you can talk, you can sing" (actually even if you can't walk, and you can't talk - but that's a whole 'nother topic).

Liz, Olivier, Grant and I have worked together in various combinations for the past several years.  One outcome of these collaborations has been the notion of "moving sound" where in simple terms, musicians move and movements artists make sounds.  We could call this entire performance at Studio Soto a Moving Sound piece perhaps but I had thoughts of not really labelling this particular evening that because we might even decide to throw in some kind of riff or lecture, improvised or not, on the actual process of improvisation.

I used to be more concerned with actually improvising myself, with or without collaborators, rather than watching or listening to other groups of performers improvise.  With that former need to perform came a need to veer towards chaotic moments somewhat akin to what children do when they run and scream gleefully, or when they throw themselves into a tantrum, an episode of unabashed rage.  It's not that I no longer ever want those seemingly out of control moments to occur, but I perhaps have more of an awareness and desire to create an entire sensory environment which an audience can experience as they wish.  I almost feel that what I'm interested in as an improvisor is architectural, as one would experience walking into a building if one's senses were in a state of total awareness and if what was in the building was constantly shifting if such a thing were possible. What would happen if not only the sound and movement within the space changed but if the space itself changed and could be improvised as it were?

I can't say that we will definitely attempt this feat on April 7th, but it is a little amuse-bouche for thought."

BIOS:

OLIVIER BESSON is a improvisational movement artist who hails from France and is based in Boston (USA).

(TRAINING)  From 1980 until the early 90's, Olivier studied contact improvisation with Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson and Andrew Harwood, and improvisation with Daniel Lepkoff and Julyen Hamilton. During that time, he also trained and performed Bugaku (japanese court dance) with Arawana Hayashi.

(PERFORMANCE)  Most notably, Olivier’s work has been presented: *in the US - at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Judson Church (NYC), New York Improvisation festival, Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Boston Dance Umbrella, Florida Dance Festival, Dance Place  (Washington DC), Radford University (virginia),

*and internationally - at the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), Die Pratze (Tokyo, Japan), Art of Movement Festival (Yaroslav, Russia), Studio 303 (Montreal, Canada) and with Cie Vertige (Nice, France).

He has collaborated with many individuals including Chris Aiken, Lisa Schmidt (formerly of Trisha Brown co.), Debra Bluth, Liz Roncka, Min Shen Ku, Pamela Newell (formerly of Marie Chouinard co.), Toshiko Oiwa (formerly of Bill T. Jones co. and Angelin Preljocaj co.) and musicians Mike Vargas, Peter Jones, Jane Wang and Grant Smith.

His current and upcoming performance projects involve collaborations with Liz Roncka and musicians Jane Wang and Grant Smith in Boston, musician Mike vargas in Paris, Emmanuelle Pepin in Nice and Jane Shockley in Minneapolis.

(TEACHING)  Olivier is currently on faculty at the Boston Conservatory (dance division) and teaches regularly at Canal Danse (Paris) and the  french national circus school (C.N.A.C).  He has been on faculty at Emerson College, Boston University and Bates Dance Festival. He has taught residencies at the National Institute of the Arts (taipei, Taiwan), the Centre Choregraphique de Danse/Cie Daniel Larieu (Tours, France), the University of Minnesota, and Radford University (Virginia) among other places.

LIZ RONCKA has been dancing professionally since 1998.  She was a member of the Dance Collective of Boston from 1998-2005.  Liz has had the pleasure of performing modern dance and improvisational work under the direction of:  Ramelle Adams, Emily Beattie, Ruth Benson-Levin, Debra Bluth, Alissa Cardone, Sean Curran, Andrew Harwood, Dawn Kramer, Light Motion, and Micki Taylor-Pinney. 

She has collaborated extensively with musicians Jane Wang and Grant Smith to present improvisational work in Boston, NYC and Budapest  and with movement artist Olivier Besson in Boston, NYC and Paris.  Liz just returned from the Large Open House, an international improvisation project in Paris.

Upcoming events include a duet with Jane Wang at ArtRages and performing the modern dance choreography of Emily Beattie and Mila Thigpen in Tens the Limit.  Liz is also a practicing physical therapist and owner of Axis Pilates, LLC in Brookline.

GRANT SMITH,  Sounds and movement www.grantleysmith.com

Grant Smith studied drumset with Alan Dawson, Arabic drums with Jamie Haddad, tabla with Kazi Jalal, Afro-Cuban percussion with Enrique Pla, and Handance with Glen Velez. The Boston Globe calls him a "brilliant improviser." The Boston Phoenix has noted his topflight "cross-genre " abilities. Others note his sunny disposition. Grant has toured extensively, including Thailand, Australia, and both Europes.

Grant Smith is involved in many world music, jazz, classical, and dance projects in Boston and New York. His theatre credits include the American Repertory's "The King Stag", and "Shlemiel The First", as well as Joel Grey's "Borscht Capades". He is also a contributor to Trish Cibree's "Lounge Life". Mr. Smith has toured globally from Crakow to Thailand and New Zealand. He has performed with Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Don Byron, the Violent Femmes, Garrison Keillor,and Jane Wang.

JANE WANG, composer/musician, was born in Oxford, England and is a dual citizen. She has performed and/or recorded with Sabir Mateen in several of his groups,  The Balvanyos Ensemble of Hungary, the Aadvark Orchestra,  Sawari, ear candy, the Lydian Peoples Front, F. Vattel Cherry, Butch Morris's Phantomstation and Band Big! Conductions, Nikola Radan’s Balmus Ensemble, performance artist Jed Speare, Haitian Singer/Songwriter Gifrants, Mariachi artist Veronica Robles and a salsa/merengue group led by Julio Bare. She has toured in Budapest, Haiti, Sweden, Yugoslavia, Japan, Canada and throughout the U.S.

Jane composed and performed several solo bass pieces for the artist Hanne Tierney which were presented at the Wanas Exhibition in Sweden, the International Festival of Puppet Theatre, BAM Next Wave Festival, the Sculpture Center and  five myles in New York City, the Beograd International Theatre Festival in Yugoslavia, and Ms. Tierney’s Obie-award winning Salome (with Sabir Mateen) at five myles and the International Festival of Puppet Theatre. In Fall 2001, Jane composed and performed music for Hanne Tierney’s  How Wang-Fo Was Saved and Spring 2005 Ms. Tierney’s Man, the Flower of All Flesh which had a rave REVIEW IN The New York Times - May 6th 2005. Jane and the entire design team on that production were nominated for the 2005 Henry Hewes Design Award.

"Tierney and her collaborators-especially wonder-making musician Jane Wang- have created a work of incandescent and unworldly beauty."  - Village Voice

She also created music for Renita Martin’s one woman show Five Bottles In a Six Pack performed at Theater Offensive in Boston and directed by Daniel Alexander Jones, the Cherry Lane Theater in NYC and JumpStart in San Antonio, Texas, directed by Laurie Carlos, the new music group Human Connection including "For Mike and Me" featuring bassist Mike Bullock . She is currently a member of the electronic composers consortium ~chromatik_d_zabu.tmp.

Jane often works with movement artists including Liz Roncka, Olivier Besson, Anika Tromholt Kristensen, Shakti Smith, Rick Roberts, Melanie Hedlund, Gene Broadway, Su Eaton, and presented the multimedia Moving Sound for the 2001 Boston Asian American Jazz Festival, 2002 Autumn Uprising and thru a Artslink 2002 grant, the Ludwig Museum and Mu Theater in Budapest, Hungary in collaboration with the Balvanyos Ensemble (Judit Balvanyos and Zsolt Varga) and at PASSIC 2003 in Louisville, KY with guests Matthew Taylor and Anastasia. Current regular members of Moving Sound are multipercussionist Grant Smith and movement artist Liz Roncka (Jo Tanc). Jane and Grant performed for the Living Art Workshop series developed by Judy Cohen for the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Jane studied with Cecil McBee, Dave Zox, Michael Willens, Joe Maneri and Bob Gullotti.

“Moving Sound's performances are marked by an intimacy and playfulness that transcends the often music-dance duality into an artistic whole that unifies musician, dancers and audience in a primal and singular experience of community.”

                - James Coleman, Artistic Director Autumn Uprising 6

Today we attended a meeting called by Lincoln Properties to inform those individuals that submitted comment letters on the project of the proposed changes to address the comments. The parameters of our tentative agreement with Lincoln have changed significantly in this new proposal setting us back in our negotiations for a space in Fort Point.

INTERNATIONAL NOISE AWARENESS DAY

April 16, 2008

HEAR FOR THE FUTURE

Beginning at 2 pm on Wednesday, April 16th:

•In-Store hearing tests administered on an audiometer (Jed Speare)

•International Minute of Silence 2:15 – 2:16 local time•8 pm Concert – Brendan Murray, Asher, Jed Speare The concert at 8pm will feature an investigation into the earliest known recording, from 1860, predating Edison’s by 28 years. A recent article in the NY Times on Edourard-Leon Scott de Martinville’s phonautogram included the sound file of this recently played-back recording. (To read the article and listen to the sound file, go here.) Brendan Murray, Asher, and Jed Speare will exclusively source this recording as the form-building basis for their concert, signaling a clear degree of intent to transform. While juxtaposed within the confines of Twisted Village’s aeons and multitudes of recorded sound, this pause for reflection, of 148 years, beckons brings forth new sonic awareness, here for the future.

(from the League of the Hard of Hearing)

Recipe for A Quiet Diet

Take these few, simple steps to preserve the peace and quiet in your life:

ALL DAY:

Pay attention to the noises you make and respect your neighbor's right to peace and quiet.

Turn down the volume two notches on your radios and personal stereo systems with headphones.

Turn down the volume one notch on your television.

Do NOT honk your horn, except in the case of imminent danger.

Do NOT tip cab drivers who honk their horns illegally.

Avoid noisy sports events, restaurants, rock concerts and nightclubs unless you use hearing protection.

Replace noisy activities with quiet ones such as taking a walk, visits to libraries and museums.

Ask your health club instructor to lower the music.

Ask the movie theater manager to turn down the volume.

Wear adequate hearing protection if you must be in a noisy environment (the subway, mowing the lawn)

Turn off the television during dinner and have a quiet conversation instead.

Get a free hearing screening.

Organize a town meeting to review (or develop) a local, enforceable noise ordinance.

Participate in the Noise Center's letter writing campaign to reestablish the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Noise Abatement & Control.

Spread the word about the danger of noise,

and remember... OBSERVE ONE MINUTE OF NO NOISE FROM 2:15-2:16 P.M (regardless of location)

Jed Speare

Director

  Jed Speare is an artist and arts manager working in a variety of media and settings. Initially trained in music composition, he has presented performance, sound, video, installation, conceptual, and community-based works locally, nationally, and internationally in festivals and locales such as San Francisco, Amsterdam, Canada, Taiwan, Croatia, Czech Republic, Poland, Belarus, Bulgaria, France, and Italy. He has received numerous awards, commissions, and residencies for his work from diverse entities such as the Secretary of the Smithsonian (for his work on Smithsonian Folkways Records), Wyspa Institute of Art (Gdansk, Poland), and the Experimental Television Center, to name a few.   In Boston, Jed has been known primarily as a member of the Mobius Artists Group since 1995 and as the Co- Director and Director of Mobius from 1996 through 2004. There, in addition to programming and managing a gallery and performance space in conjunction with the Mobius Artists Group, he also developed and implemented  with the Artists Group and its  collaborative partners three international cultural exchanges with artists from Croatia and Poland. In Fort Point, he was the primary coordinator of the two-year Fort Point Cultural Coalition Public Art Series, from 2000-2002, heightening the visibility of the community and increasing live/work studio housing alternatives for artists. He was also on the Fort Point Working Group for the City of Boston's Fort Point Channel Watersheet Activation Plan and has served on the Artist Review Board for the City of Boston's Artist Space Initiative since its inception.

Jed has written about performance art in P-Form magazine and Art New England (2001-2003),  and has also worked in collaboration with and as the international coordinator for choreographer/performer Rob List/Company OZU, based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. In January of 2008, Family Vineyard Records released a special, archival double-CD of his music, Sound Works, 1982 - 1987. Sound Works, 1982 - 1987. He is featured in the March issue, #289 of Wire magazine's Cross Platform section (print edition). And as a compliment to the article, section, with some examples of his work appear on the Wiretheir web page.

 Jed plans to continue and develop Studio Soto's international, local, and community programming focus with an emphasis on artist talks, presentations, readings, forums, screenings, and live events. He can be reached at jed@studiosoto.com .