Self-documentation

 Sandra Parker’s article, “ The Dancer as Documentor: An Emergent dancer-led approach to choreographic documentation,’ strikes a chord with my current exploration. In particular, her endeavour to align documentation practices with the creative processes “where the bodies no longer mute in side the frame.” As a practitioner who is often working as both the performer and choreographer simultaneously, I face the problem of engaging the skills of self-documentation, reflection, and performance at one time.

In the process of wrangling with this conundrum, I remembered a piece by Bill T. Jones which I have only ever seen on YouTube, called “Floating the Tongue.” This piece demonstrates a virtuosity of a dancer as documentor and data transmitter.

It has become a touchstone and muse for me in this project. With documentation as a primary subject matter, I have felt free to consult works that I have never experienced live. Whereas, in the past, I have always felt it is important for me to use references that I have first hand knowledge of and experience with.

Originally made and performed in 1976, I have seen two different video documentations of “Floating the Tongue.” The first is a 1999 performance by Jones himself and the second is performed by Leah Cox in 2010. Jones has said that he made the piece in order to show that the dancer is a thinking artist. In this he succeeds, demonstrating a virtuosic practice of articulating and linking, thought, language, and dance on the spot infant of audiences.

The two performances and dancers are radically different, however, the form remains the same. First the performer arrives and supposedly develops the “phrase.” Second, he/she performs the phrase. Third, the performer performs th phrase and simultaneously articulates the phrase with words as if he were teaching the phrase. Fourth, he/she performs the phrase and at the same time speaks whatever he/she is thinking or feeling “without censorship.” Fifth, he/she allows what is said to affect what is being done.