Riga, Latvia 9th may - 13th may - CAPE NETWORK

Really eye-opening and exciting CAPE Network project took place in Riga, Latvia. As part of our dance composition class in Tallinn University we got the opportunity to go to Riga, Latvian Academy of Culture and work with the 1st year dance students there.  Each of us, master students prepared creative exercises and movement sequences which all focused on certain topic or idea. During that one week with Latvian studen
ts we learnt a lot - we worked with them daily and tried to also figure out within our MA group how to put all of our ideas into something that we could call "complete performance". 

9th May. Our first day with the group started out with an introduction to break the ice and get a feel of how the students are there and also to start to introduce our material one by one, we were extremely pleased to find out how talented, skilled and hard working people we were getting to work with this week. The time schedule was tight and there were days that each of us only had 20-minutes to work with the group, but we were focused and made it work. It almost felt like all these students were so perfectly hand-picked by the teachers, they were like a puzzle, each student had its place and all of them were so different, but so interesting in their own way. 

10th May. Tuesday was the challenging one, we had only very little time to work with the group and we could all just repeat the sequences we taught the day before. Later that day we had a great opportunity to join the contact improvisation class, this was definitely one of the highlights of the week for me. The teacher was super knowledgeable, had great tasks and did not interrupt during tasks, you could tell she was a great teacher. We worked in small groups and it really helped us to feel even more united as a group and it felt great to move and feel the good vibe of the class.

11th May-12th May. We really kept ourselves focused and tried to keep them as well, since you could tell that they were getting tired as it was end of the school year and they had a lot going on. They were such troopers and still kept pushing even if you only saw two red tired eyes looking at you. 

13th May. Was the last day of the week and it was our time to put this thing together and also add last touches with sound as well. We had a nice showing and later we discussed how we and them felt during this week, it felt great to hear that they enjoyed it as much as we did. Big thanks to Renee Nõmmik, Tiina Ollesk, David Yoken and Olga Zitluhina. Hope to see the group in Tallinn in the future!

Sandra Põld

Tallinn University, MA

NORDPLUS music & choreography workshop June 9-15. 2019, Copenhagen

Monday, 10th of June

Our first day of the program started out with Latvian and Lithuanian students at Kim Helweg´s lecture which was a brief introduction to Choreomusicology and Choreomusical Practice. Kim gave us an overview of all the possible ways of using music and choreography together - strategies, illustration, symbiosis, complementarity, impulse and the main focus was on “Chance” operation which we focused during the whole week. I found out that my favourite way of making choreography is to use illustration which is also Jiri Kylians (my favourite choreographer) way of making choreography for stage. Small ideas can make big pieces, even if you just 8-clap which for example was used by Keersmaeker. After the lecture Kim gave us a little tour of the Danish National School of Performing Arts.

Tuesday, 11th of June

Tuesday was the first day of the workshops- first class of the day was the technique class inspired by Cunningham´s original class, which was taught by Daniel Roberts who was a member of Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Now all the students were taking the class together, students from USA, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The technique focuses on clarity of form and legwork, coordination of upper body and legwork, rhythmic punctuality, virtuosity and spacial awareness. We also practiced a few phrases of Cunningham´s work that we did across the floor. It felt like a ballet class with a twist, I really enjoyed it.

The second part of the day was focused on baroque music and transposing rhythmic structures, it started out as an improvisation (do what you want was the theme) it felt great to focus on your own movement and musicality. The second part of the class was to prepare Scarlatti assignment. As we got the assignment a week beforehand we prepared the piece before the start of the program, so Estonian team just worked on repetition and cleanliness of the piece. Then we performed the piece to different music compositions that were prepared by the musicians, there were drums, saxophone, piano and singing. It turned out really amazing. 

Wednesday, 12th of June

The day started out with Ann Sofie Clemmensen who taught contemporary/floor-work class. We went through different exercises as well as combinations which were accompanied by musicians - it was very interesting but challenging class as we went through very many combinations and exercises. It was a great class. After the lunch we had another improvisation jam and then we were put into mixed groups and worked on minimalism and repetition, we put together a little piece to show. Our piece was to saxophone and had crescendos and decrescendos in it. Our piece was also chosen to perform again on the last day!

Thursday, 13th of June

We had a Tiziana Fracchiolla technique class, which focuses on connecting to one´s own physical structure, mobility and pathways to move your body. Then we coupled up and used each other to move and use our core and points in opposition, later we were put to groups and we did the same thing, it was super cool to be able to work in groups and it felt like a contact improvisation but with a guided structure. After the lunch we got to improvise again to jazz music, Daniel let the musicians improvise as they wished, later we grouped up again and got an assignment to work in groups and individually at the same time - so we worked with the saxophone again and we had a structure that when he stopped playing we moved really fast and big and when he started playing then we went into slow motion, that was our structure and later each person from one group performed it and later they picked out the most interesting ones to show again. 

Friday, 14th of June

The last day of the program started out with Ann Sofie Clemmens workshop again, which was structed as the first one, but we spent more time on doing the exercises, it was again a challenge but a great class! Musicians were improvising with David Yoken and it felt great. Then we had a little lecture about Cunningham and were shown some video examples which also included the videos where Daniel Roberts was dancing in, it was really amusing to see! After the lunch we got practice "Chance" technique, we made 6 short pieces and numbered them, later we wrote them down and put them into different order to mix them up and try to remember the order. Then we grouped up and chose one of us as the choreographer and others the dancers, the choreographer could do whatever they wanted(they could use our pieces, and/or put them into random order) then we performed it to each other with different musicians, first we had a saxophone, it felt like it was meant to be even though we did not rehearse not even once with the musicians. Later we showed it again with the drummer, but this time it didn´t fit that well with the music. It was a great, productive week and I learnt a lot!

Sandra Põld

Tallinn University

Photos: Sandra Põld