And What If...?

Abstract

This piece offers the audience the opportunity to guide the content of an improvised performance by a dancer (Giorgio De Carolis) and a musician (Jon Aveyard). The development of the piece took place in February 2016 in the Ludus Dance Studio, Lancaster and the UCLan Media Factory, Preston in early 2016. It was performed at The Storey, Lancaster (4th March, 2016) and the UCLan Media Factory, Preston (14th May, 2016).

“What if we could learn to not grasp in how we see? Not trying to hold onto that beautiful moment? But to be able to notice it and let it go… So that we are not so hungry for getting something but rather, but rather noticing with a very very light touch… to celebrate the endless possibilities.”
(Deborah Hay, Up until now, 2010)

“Play is a way of working and work is a way of playing. Our best times are when working and playing are the same.”
(Kent and Steward, Learning by Heart, Allworth Press, 2008)

A number of one-page scores were presented at each performance from which the audience were invited to make a selection for the dancer and musician to respond to.

The piece provides an opportunity for audience participation and provides stimulus for the performers in the large number of combinations of scores available. Its originality lies in the method by which the stimuli for the improvisations are selected and the way in which the performers interact with the audience which, whilst taking place in a theatre/gallery/concert hall, generates an environment that is casual, playful and pressure-free for audience and performers alike.