Lo Score: un algoritmo per investigare la Body Knowledge

Abstract

Both inside and outside theatre, body work is the first and principle aspect of work on the ‘self’. It is the first inescapable step in the path toward the aware action which in theatre is the “action in perception”, i.e. thinking-in-movement. This aware thought involves the whole background of the person. It is an action that arises only when the person is present and at the same time dynamically involved entirely in the environment: it is the perceptual consciousness that integrates the planning of the action with the execution of the same action. “Thinking-in-movement” is a dynamic process that is not possible to be codified: it is a language that asks to be experienced in order to be able to be understood and learned. Therefore, what is the Score? Is it a concept, a method of movement, or a digital tool? Perhaps it is each one of these things. The Score is an indispensable algorithm to read the dance that the human writes in order to obtain information, transfer them and so continue in the evolution of the body knowledge. The Score is the medium in which the human being structured tensions are shaped: i.e., an alternative site to understand the potential instigation of the human body and the organization of his residual actions. In this article I will read the score like a crystal: metaphor of the shaped dynamism innate in the expressive movement. I will explain how this crystal is the necessary channel to make sure the choreographic counterpoint can show up during the live performance. I will explore what this means for the choreographers involved in Motion Bank - William Forsythe, Deborah Hay, Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargion - analyzing the somatic connections between their dance-making and the score-creation.