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  • You start to have kind of an implicit knowledge, you know this might do this but this might

  • take you off there but that's the kind of strangeness that you might want. It is, it

  • is, a bit knowing and a bit not knowing and it will require some time, yeah.

  • I know in my own choreographic practice the things that are the most difficult, the things

  • where you feel that you've come to the end of something with, the things that if you

  • push them hard enough are the things that yield you the most expert, interesting, and

  • rich newness. I really felt that with the Becoming process.

  • This piece, Becoming, has a creature-like form that decides how to modify its body and

  • then plays out the consequences of that modification. So it has bones, it has nodes, it has muscles

  • and it responds to gravity, so it will under the circumstances, tend to fall down because

  • gravity pulled it down. It knows about the edge of the screen and in fact the edge of

  • the screen has friction so in certain circumstances it will actually jam itself against the edge

  • of the screen and kind of get stuck there. We've moved away from providing a tool for

  • Wayne or his dancers to use and instead provided, in a sense, something like an eleventh dancer.

  • It doesn't take orders very well but a presence in the studio that will be there whenever,

  • ambiently that Wayne and the dancers can respond to.

  • So we've tried to make an object in Becoming that actually elicits a kinaesthetic response

  • that is something compelling to be with, that compels you not just aesthetically but actually

  • kinaesthetically as well. If it works, it should work by making you move or at least

  • being aware of a desire to move, a desire to respond because it is like a body in a

  • space. Even just the fact that the screen has a kind

  • of like, bodily dimensions and it's actually in a space where you feel it is another body

  • and that's something we've worked a lot with James Leach in trying to understand what is

  • a body and what could a body be and how could we, ehm, make sure that the transaction of

  • energy actually works with bodies in that space and I think the Becoming instrument

  • is really allowing us to do that. It's also a phenomenon you can actually see it in 3D

  • and so all of a sudden, now you have a relation like you can with a dancer in the studio,

  • of a relation of this dancer that in some way extrudes backwards and forwards and you

  • feel connected to it energetically and dynamically. And what I have understood through my research

  • around the company and with the choreographer is that he is working with this kind of kinaesthetic

  • intelligence with the way those bodies elicit a response from other bodies. That there is

  • an inevitable responsiveness to a body in a space with another body. If we could capture

  • just something of that in a choreographic object, then we would in fact be revealing

  • something, not about the techniques of making movement but about the substance, about the

  • material that the choreographer is working with when he has these techniques in play.

  • I think the first time I experienced working with Becoming, it was more of an intuitive,

  • so it was just like a play, which was great because I think it's something kind of just

  • new as a presence, something that is moving, it has colour, it's 3D, we're wearing glasses.

  • So there's a lot of information, it's very rich and stimulating which is great. I thought

  • it was good just to start with - ok, let's see what happens; we're just playing with

  • it. What I do notice, it makes me physically want

  • to move differently. And I know myself when I've done some improvisations with it I'm

  • inventing things that I wouldn't normally invent because I'm seeing things kinetically

  • expressed that I've never seen before in a real human being.

  • And perhaps also because it's 3 dimensional and it operates with colours and layers and

  • so that gives you a feeling that it exists as an object in a space and it moves as an

  • object in a space so it has a sense of being a live creature.

  • It provides in some way a mirror to the work and to their own body but also, at the same

  • time, it reflects back something that is totally alien and it's the alien aspect of it that

  • I think is going to be super resourceful as we move forward.

You start to have kind of an implicit knowledge, you know this might do this but this might

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