I have been teaching since I began to perform professionally in the mid 70’s. For me, teaching, alongside ones professional practice, is one and the same process. I do, therefore I teach.
I have not formulated my teaching material into a frozen body of knowledge. I do not believe that the accumulation of knowledge is how I became a teacher. I believe that It is out of my practice, and the practice I witness with a student, that knowledge becomes clarified in the lessons I am leading. I use my recourses spontaneously in guidance to what each individual person in the workshop reveals.
I teach in a multidisciplinary platform for real time performances. Because that is who I am as an artist. I accept artists without prejudice concerning technical skills or aesthetic boundaries.
Multidisciplinary Workshop
For musicians / actors / singers / dancers / text artists / performance artist
Body Body Body
In my multidisciplinary world, the body is the glue that brings all time arts together. We need to be reminded that the joy of moving is based on how we continue to be curious about the simple actions we do day to day. “Why did we learn to walk and why did we forgot to keep learning to walk”? As a baby we taught ourselves to move. But not in any specific order or at any specific age. We are and have always been diverse in how we move. Our aim is to rekindle a curiosity for what motivates us to move. My body work has evolved from studying baby’s.
I have developed exercises based on:
-Roll, sit, stand and walk.
–Increasing the use of the eyes and ears as part of our physicality (“there is a difference in how we look, watch or see. In how we hear or listen“).
-Increasing our agility with spacial orientation (“is the wall coming towards us or are we are going towards the wall? Is the music coming towards us or are we going towards the music?).
These are simple exercises accessible for artists from all time art disciplines to study. We finish the exercises towards an improvisation; We “play”.
“The chemical rush we receive to the brain enhances the mind to rekindle the use of our visceral memory. That memory is what we used when we first experienced creativity with our bodies. As we become adults, our memories increase, our emotions develop, our bodies get lost in the day to day forward actions. Our visceral memory is hidden somewhere in the joy of the” body body body”
(Break)
Real-time Multidisciplinary Composition
Pause, Flow, Exit is introduced as the three choices that provide a frame for a composition to take place in real-time. The study of these three elements take up most of the workshop material, in so much, each of these elements have many layers that need to be articulated. Flow is our common understanding; to play music, to do dance, to say text, to sing. Pause is less common. It is the moment of choice when we exit flow to discover pause (in music rest. ). It is not done, it is applied. And then, we exit to discover flow.
It is these three choices, chosen in real-time, that can create tension in the space and a readable composition, considering all of the diverse disciplines involved. Everyone in the workshop can choose. Our composition area is chance. The dice is each other. “It is not interesting that you know where you are, it is interesting that you know where everyone else is”.
I set a fictional front for the improvisation/composition sessions. I set a time frame for each session, with the aim to be able to do a one hour composition. Choice is introduced to the workshop group as a composition reality. It also allows for individuals to elect to participate in the performative or as a viewer and yet remain involved in the process and study. The option is for the individuals in the group to shift, drop or lift the space at will. The raw materials, integrated with the fact that everyone in the workshop can make a choice, places a demand on each individual to develop their presence, be it in music, text, movement or vocals.
The aim is that everyone recognises that, in a creative composition process, time is passing in different perceived speeds and that space is shifting in several dimensions at once. This awake fullness promotes presence, composition alertness, and an appetite for creativity. With all that is involved in the study of real-time, multidisciplinary composition, we include misunderstanding, coincidence, interactivity, messiness, emotions, intuition, and inspiration as basic in a creative process.
There are many layers to study in this platform. I can centre on one area of study in lectures, practice, feedback and reflection each day. Individuals need to ask questions. This allows for me to choose the direction to centre on in our daily practice.
Ongoing teaching projects held in my base Amsterdam.
Xmas Workshop OT301 – December 29, 30, 31 yearly
Improvisation Summer Course – Late August yearly
Multidisciplinary workshops Attic Studio Amsterdam Sundays 11:00-18:00 – announced monthly
Body Body Body Classes Attic Studio Thursdays and Fridays 16:00-18:00 – announced monthly
To keep up to date with my monthly classes and workshops in my Attic Studio Amsterdam, join my mailing list – katieduckmail@katieduck.com