teachback Vienna 2014

Invitation letter by Jennifer Lacey and Alice Chauchat to Valentina Desideri, Alix Eynaudi, Keith Hennessy, Anne Juren, Mark Lorimer, Raimundas Malasauskas, Philippe Riera, Mårten Spångberg

Dear colleagues,

this is the 2014 invitation letter for Teachback, an experimental space of exchange and undoing for dance artists who teach. A six day gathering, Teachback continues the TTT project initiated by Jennifer Lacey and danceWEB. These programs are meant as a moment to rethink how to continue to nourish ourselves as we nourish others, they are meant to take seriously the desire to spend a life in art as a vocation not an accomplishment, they are meant to disrupt the point of view that that which is known is mastered and fixed, they are meant to give the more experienced artist the joy of feeling inexperienced.

Each year a question or a thought is proposed in the invitation, as an activator for these days to fly off into whatever direction that hopefully couldn't be expected before it happens.

So here it is: what would be the consequences of thinking of the dance class as a group piece? We guess it might help us pay attention to the multiple directions that are active within the class: thoughts, movements, proximities, complicity, enthusiasm or doubt, etc., all traveling across space and bodies. 

What, other than information, choreographs the class? Beyond the determined role of the teacher, is the group an authoring entity? Can decrypting the score that is a situation be an access to teaching? To studying? How is the arcane and complex function of an individual body addressed in this dynamic of "group"? How is specific body knowledge be transmitted in this situation?

This proposition arises from a phenomenon already in evidence. In our art landscape, there seem to be many who are currently using the workshop and class as a performance form. What necessities bring about such a tendency and what art is it producing? And eventually, which practices can we observe at the moment, which seem to make pieces as classes or workshops?

So as usual, lots of questions. They can all go away or stay once we get together.

We'd  love to count you in. We plan to spend 6 days in and around a studio in the arsenal, between 10am and 6pm.  As a principle we encourage the idiorrythmic, but given the short time we have together we will propose a minimal 6 hour commitment with around 4 hours a day to be spent together as a full group. We are still trying to formulate a schedule and hope to do it with you. We suspect that we will propose a few 90 minutes sessions each day, using a conventional temporal class frame to give us some structure if we need it.

Alice & Jennifer

Berlin, March 2014

Teachback Vienna 2014:

July 21-26, within ImPulsTanz

With & by: Alice Chauchat, Valentina Desideri, Alix Eynaudi, Keith Hennessy, Anne Juren, Jennifer Lacey, Mark Lorimer, Raimundas Malasauska, Philippe Riera, Mårten Spångberg