1995-2005
I spearheaded MAGPIE in Amsterdam in 1995 with dancers Eileen Stanley, Vincent Cacialono, Martin Sonderkamp, Sharon Smith and Masako Naguchi, light designer Ellen Knops and (music director) Michael Vatcher. Later we added dancer Michael Schumacher and changed the music director to Mary Oliver. MAGPIE was formed in direct response to a need for artists to re-consider and re-present Improvised performance within a contemporary context in Amsterdam and, as the work developed, internationally.
Several of the founding group members were lecturers or former students at the school for new dance development (SNDO). The School had a rich history in the study and practice of improvisation with specific connections to the American Judson Church movement. The work was isolated within a community of dancers specialising in contact improvisation and improvisation methods. Improvised performance, as an explicit choreographic approach, was underdeveloped. The founding members of MAGPIE began to meet in studios, with an aim to re-look at improvised performance as a fundamental choreographic approach to a live event. The artists practiced privately in rehearsal studios, and then placed their experiment in a “last Sunday of the month” performance series.
The monthly series was held at the Fijnhout Theatre, Melkweg theatre, and OT301 cultural centre. MAGPIE began to tour nationally and internationally in festivals, exposing the work to a broad range of cultures, and contexts. Every performance combined different artists from the MAGPIE collective of artists with Ellen Knops as light designer in each situation.
From 2000-2005 MAGPIE received public funding around themes related to collectivity, site specific performance, and public interaction: Fingers in the pie, PI-PIED, and Magnamedia. In 2005 MAGPIE celebrated their 10 year of performing in a festival (Blink). The festival was placed the Bimhuis and OT301 cultural centre, Amsterdam. They gathered together all MAGPIE artists, guests and friends, alongside other key practitioners in the field of improvisation.
The original MAGPIE (1995-2005) used methodologies in rehearsals that supported how they could execute a performance with musicians, dancers, and text artists improvised that appeared to be set. As the MAGPIE company became more efficient in how they could do every performance “as if it were not improvised”, the critical aim seemed to have been accomplished. MAGPIE folded in 2005 as a performance company. Katie transformed (Stichting) MAGPIE into an umbrella company to continue the educational wing, and support the younger artists who participated in their apprentice program.
Posters MAGPIE by Isabelle Vieger
