DANCING IN THE YURT

DANCING IN THE YURT

Santa Fe, the home of the Pueblo Indians is also the home of Ruth Zaporah. She has a lovely house situated at the end of a dusty dirt road with huge pot holes. Driving very slowly is a necessity but there is usually a young Mexican child zipping around the potholes on a mini motor cycle with several friends chasing and laughing in the warm sunlight. I had expected cooler weather but wore tee shirts the four days I was there.
Several years ago Ruth built a Yurt that she uses as a dance studio. A Yurt is circular, domed, portable tent used by nomadic peoples of central Asia. It was in this environment that I taught a weekend workshop to eight women of varying ages. Seeing these ladies open up to the idea of impulsive play as an experiential learning device was the highlight for me in this particular workshop.

Cammie Meets the Older generation

Of course there were other people attending the New York workshop besides Ruth Grauert. It was a very small but very good bunch of old friends. There were five of my dance buddies from the 1960's two of whom I hadn't seen for 40 years. Susan Crietz, Virginia Laidlaw, Bob Beswick, Ruth Grauert and Jeanette Stoner, (who just watched the last Sunday session), made this a very nostalgic event. They were joined by Pamela Knowles who first did a few weekend workshops with me in Sydney several years ago and the lovely young Cammie Kelly both of whom are now living in New York. I had Pamela who is a very good jazz singer do a vocal accompaniment to a solo movement piece of mine. She was absolutely magnificent.

It was with great delight that I watched Cammie, who I believe is still in her twenties, dance along side these much older improv people. It stimulated me into doing a rolling duet with her, something I thought was totally beyond my soon to be 66 year old body. Then there was the trio she did with Ruth and Virginia, the three of them doing a silent dance piece totally connected in their use of time, space, shape and motion (Nikolais words) primary movers, basic articulaters, facings and spacings (my words). I loved seeing my two worlds (student & teacher) mesh so easily.

In the next two weeks I get to be with the two women who were so influential in helping me evolve my teaching style, Ruth zaporah and Terry Sendgraff. I'll teach weekend workshops in Santa Fe and Berkeley. Stay tuned.

A Most Amazing Woman

She turned ninety years old in March. She was the technical director of Henry Street Playhouse when I started dancing at the age of eighteen. Taught me everything I know about lighting design during my eight years of training with Alwin Nikolais. She is always direct and clear in her communication. Occasionally I would perceive her to be a bit abrasive, but there was always this underlying hint of humour and a continuing desire to share her knowledge with me. On Sunday, the 4th of October she attended my class of improvised movement theatre and participated for the whole of the four hour class. Physically she was the equal of the four of us who were in our sixties the only thing she couldn’t match was the flexibility of the woman in her twenties. Creatively she was adventurous, equally strong as an initiator and responder to the evolving improvisations. She was a bit of a naughty student quite often interrupting my flow of instructions with her own thoughts and questions and I had great fun feigning frustration at having to deal with this mischievous individual. She made my day, my weekend, in fact the whole of my journey so far a more than Wunderful experience. I did not expect her to participate as much as she did, nor did I suspect that she would add such quality to the improvs. Seeing her took me back to my early days as an aspiring dancer at Nikolais’ studio and reminded me of how much his teaching influenced what I am doing today. She also was a blessing to my present having wanting for years to show some of my original teachers how I had evolved seeking their approval and hoping that in some way I would come to the belief that I would also receive affirmation from Nik if he were still alive today. Ooops, that brought a tear to my eye. If you haven’t noticed I am waxing lyrical about this 90 year old woman whose name is Ruth Grauert.

Teaching six straight days of 6 hour long classes has addled my brain a little bit. It has been great and the people here in London are very good at this improvisation thing. If your ever in the vicinity contact Kate Hilder katejhilder@gmail.com and she can point you in the right direction for some classes, performances and practice groups. This has been my best teaching of an international workshop ever. I must be maturing well. Saturday night I performed in London's equivalent of Conundrum. Andrew Morrish and Ruth Zaporah's Action Theater influence has the improv scene positively hopping. I have one more 2 hour master class to go tonight (that will make it seven continuous days of teaching) and take off for NYC tomorrow where I will catch up with my son who I haven't seen in 19 months, some old dance friends who I haven't seen in 39 years and my nieces and nephew. I will also teach a weekend workshop, just for the fun of it.

In the beginning

This will be a place for me, my friends and unknown colleages to talk about our experiences of improvised performance theatre.

There will be insights about classes, performances, favourite moments, influential teachers and various things that each of us find valuable in the doing and watching of improvised theatre.

Back in the 70's I told one of my students that it would take many years and many people working diligently for improvisation to develop into a viable performance art form. In fact I said I would probably be dead before improvisation moved from a fringe happening to acceptance as a main stream theatrical event.

We are now into the naughties of the twenty-first century and thankfully my prophetic sense of time has proved wrong. Ruth Zaporah first my student, then my colleage, then my teacher during the 1970's, has taken improvised performance all over the world with great success in both the fringe and mainstream performing arenas. Her own teaching has inspired and developed a following of performers and teachers of what she calls Action Theater, further stimulating the growth of this form of totally improvised performance.

The Urban Dream Capsule a group of four men; Andrew Morrish, David Wells, Nick Papas and Neil Thomas who performed for 16 days 24 hours a day in the Meyer department store window won the Melbourne Arts Festival best theatrical performance for main stream theatre in 1996. They have traveled the globe doing their thing in many cities including Chicago, Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai and Sao Paulo.

I would love this blog to be an open meeting place for insights and ideas arising from peoples experiences with improvised performance. Tomorrow I leave for my fourth around the world teaching tour stoping off in London, New York, Santa Fe, Berkele7 and Auckland teaching a lot and performing a little bit. It is just my way of going forth and multiplying.

So stay tuned and tune in.

Al Wunder