'field'
'Nature is not a gentle force' - Alan Sonfist
presented by
Coriolis Dance Company
Michael Baker and Fiona Gillespie
with
Ian McDonald – Kupu/Words
DJ SG1 aka Grayham Forscutt - Soundscapes
and
Patrick Schroeder – Live Camera feed
(Paula Cunniffe - Camera assist )
Contents
1 Statement of Intent
2 'Other Ways to Fall'
4 'Absolute'
6 'Other, Private Winds'
8 'The Fear'
9 Cellular Improvisation
11 Artists' Profiles
12 Coriolis Dance Company
13 Bibliography and References
14 Coriolis Dance Company Performance History
1. Statement of Intent - 'Physical States rather than
Steps'[1]
'field' is a multi-media installation realised through Contact
Improvisation dance, Authentic Movement, sound and
poetry.
As an event, 'field' was performed in July/August 2003. As a group
of artists assembling apparently disparate intelligences in the
installation space, we nevertheless planned to risk the possibility of
harmony - still, dissonance was also good. We sought to forge
complementary alliances - although solo excursions were welcomed.
We aspired to listen attentively to one another – and gave ourselves
permission to ignore each other with equal care. This was the
essence of the improvisation we tried not to plan … which was
unashamedly altered in real time, by the needs of each moment.
This non-structure informed our joint and separate responses in the
media of our choices - wherever we were led by our predilections.
Dance was one medium. We intended to omplement the physical
installation by inhabiting the space, allowing a 'state' of motion to
emerge.
We wanted to engage the audience with dynamics which are unique
to a live experiential event: Real urgency. Commitment to the
moment. The wrong trousers. Risk. Fear. Wonder. For both of us
dancing, 'field' as a physical space, with its attendant and related
themes, centred on our personal experiences of the contradictory
elements of 'home' and diasporic displacement.
Throughout the week the ongoing investigation of these issues was
pivotal to the manifestation of 'field'. This enquiry was realised
through explorative approaches based upon an amalgamation of
soloing, dueting, stillness, observation, drawing, silence, writing and
reflecting. Through this approach we hoped to facilitate the
emergence not of formulaic steps, but a state of sentient presencein-the-moment. Thus equipped, our aim was to navigate our way
through terrain which lay outside our existing set rhythms and
patterning.
“Improvised performance doesn't unfold over time. It unfolds, but while it does it also
feeds back on itself and therefore is like a three-dimensional image rather than like a
sentence, which you understand the more you listen to over time.”
Philipp Gehmacher – choreographer [2]
During this process of discovery we suspended time and space,
(relatively speaking) focussing on subjective experience and
physical interaction - on a dynamic involvement with and in the
moment of experience. To the viewer, the movement we articulated
may not have obviously or easily described or explained what we
were 'doing'. While physical mumbling was not necessarily desirable
(although a distinct possibility), ambiguity ensured that there was
room left for interpretation, flights-of-fancy and questioning.
For you, as the audience, we did not anticipate or necessarily wish
that you saw what we saw, feel what we felt or understand all of
our movements, but rather, appreciated the ongoing performance
process for what it said about other, yet strangely familiar land and
soundscapes and peopled intimate distances …
Ref : 1 & 2 'Not whole, but holes' by Martin Margreaves. Inteveiw with Philipp
Gehmacher, Dance Theatre Journal Vol 18, No 1 2002. Fiona Gillespie and
Michael Baker 22.7.03
2. 'field' … other postures, hidden places … other
ways to fall
Not only being upright …
'When we started this project … we wanted to include every
astonishing thing we had seen throughout the years spent watching
these inhabitants of the grasses, all the times we had abandoned
our dignified postures as bipeds to return to the habits of our
childhood, dropping down on all fours to explore a corner of a
meadow. The first thing we learned was immobility. Our outsized
bodies gradually became concentrated into the tiny area of our
eyes. We were nothing more than what lay before us. For as far as
the eye could see, there was nothing but wild grasses, a dull bluegreen light, a maze of supple and long strips of leaves … golden
clouds of pollen and flights of feathered seeds …'[1]
field … other languages, other scores
Sometimes in our human processes of thought and movement
we may chance upon or even go searching actively for an encounter
with a strange land, recognising and acknowledging signs of
intimacy with hidden places and their inhabitants, on the edges of
the spaces we like to call 'our world'
field
The sensation of such contact can be memorable and may have
a profound and lasting effect upon the child or individual who
cherishes such peripheral endeavours – cultivating not necessarily
the desire for study but simply perhaps, a state of immersion in a
liminal space on the borders of sight, sound and feeling. This is a
place of 'open score', well known and inhabited frequently by
artists, a place entered by some in a spirit of genuine enquiry but
with judgement suspended – coloured simply by the desire to
explore through improvisation and to explore improvisation itself –
to dance in a space of reassuring uncertainty, revelling in an 'other'
language. We find out how to be more by reducing ourselves – we
seek to deconstruct our description of the world and our patterns of
doing, to progress from merely an upright posture to one which
fosters a view of more elastic horizons; to lean, to connect, to invert
and roll, to slide, to lie, to be still, to fly and to fall, to arrive – in
short, to witness ourselves eventually in a new land, tucked in with
the locals
fieldt
The external trappings of our day usually draw us back and
away, child or not, although once visited, this other place and its
inhabitants, temporary companions, are no longer lost in an
inaccessible land with a foreign language – we have traversed a
little way, enough to see – there they wait. If we allow them - allow
ourselves enough time to arrive, these spaces and their contents
may fill our lives with questions. A key to the universe resides
within each glimpse.
These spaces and their tenants occupy worlds parallel to our own
and filled with equal import. We can occasionally reach them
through fragile passageways. The world of countless small entities
is one of the most remote of these non-human worlds. It lies
somewhere at the edge of our perception. We can choose to enter
these worlds but must be prepared to set aside our most firmly
defended postures and beliefs
3.
feald 'Proper posture is a way of blending with gravity …'[2]
Through discovery of these entities, different eyes and time
spent in-situ, we can begin to sense physical forces which lie
beyond our understanding. On a human scale, gravity is the ruling
force – (def: Gravity; 'Attractive force by which bodies tend to
centre of earth …')[3]
It is gravity which aligns our bodies with the earth`s centre,
dictates the volume of our muscles, guides our movements and
endeavours to truncate our aspirations toward a longing for flight …
we tend to reach for the space – and fall
fealdd
When an insect-mass falls from a sky height, it lands as if on the
softest of down beds. Even when flight is relinquished, falling occurs
with consummate grace and only a passing nod to gravity. Size
does matter … Oh, to be like this! To be indigenous to a world
where flight is a right - not a fleeting, ephemeral rite-of-passage
within a dream! Run to the edge of the horizon and cast yourself
off, into the void. You could do it! 'In a sky full of people only some
want to fly … isn`t that crazy?'[4]
Sometimes you can enter a far-off place, carried by its aroma
borne up on an errant breeze … the only way to travel
Dragonfly – def; Order, Odonata. Neuropterous insect with long
slender body and large wings usually spread when resting' '…
having four membranous wings with reticulate neuration …'
Chimaera – def; 'Monster with lions head, goats body and serpents
tail …' [5] 'Compared to those of other insects, the techniques used
by dragonflies to overcome the tyranny of gravity seem outdated.
The first questionable point in their flight technique is that their
wings do not beat in unison, which is a rather offhanded approach
to the laws of aerodynamics …(one set of wings moves up while the
other moves down – phi centred).”[6]
350 million years ago, there lived a Dragonfly called Meganuera,
nearly 75 centimetres across – seagull size. Today, dragonflies are
much smaller, yet almost identical – a success story yet a paradox;
the imago, a beautiful glittering airborne jewel, attaining speeds of
up to 50 kilometres an hour, with the freedom to fly in any direction
or to simply occupy a stillness in space – has a dark side … the
nymph, aglide in a very different medium, insouciant in a world of
slowly waving weeds, waits with a secret – brown in the brown ooze
for now, feasting on unwary polliwogs.
As children, we could never capture an adult in our fields, in flight
or at rest – after a while, we gave up wanting to. Surely, to catch
only fleeting glimpses should be enough? Our glass jars always
remained empty; a small, clear space reserved for a wish a little
more earthbound, a little less glittering. We could perhaps
momentarily leave the ground behind - Once this was accomplished,
we would have to find other ways to fall …
Ref:
1 Microcosmos, Claude Nuridsany & Mrie Perennou
2 Dan Millman, The Way of the Peaceful Warrior,
3 The Concise Oxford dictionary,
4 Seal
5 The Concise Oxford dictionary,
6 Microcosmos, Claude Nuridsany & Marie Perennou Michael Baker , Fiona
Gillespie, Nelson, NZ 15.7.03
4. Absolute …
When I was a child (about 3) I remember roaming fields* with my
brothers and our neighbours. I have strong associations with those
times as being a part of a strong and unified 'family' group: intense
and absolute belonging - with no query.
*Fields of long grass fenced in by immense oak trees which seemed
to me as large as Gods. I remember horses whispering warm breath
on my small cold hands, climbing lichen & moss covered fences and
gates to cross seemingly endless vistas of grass.”
In a new home years later these childhood meanderings developed
into solitary excursions. Rather than 'safe explorations' buoyed by
my extended family, they became a search for 'haven', escapism
from the mundane repetition of everyday routines and a recapturing
of the state of being previously taken for 'absolute' - sense of
belonging. Now our whanau has dispersed & fractured, each alone.
Seeking hope and a place to belong (even Turangawaewae) I ran
through the long grasses and delved into observing the
neighbouring fields and the lives played out in them. Thousands of
hours I spent lying perfectly still on my back (trying not to scratch
at the itchiness of the grass) watching the clouds skid across the
sky, drinking in the 'bigness' and seeking answers to the question I
had: were others feeling this same sense of aloneness?
… Diaspora.
Can you see that I am alive?
Beauty before me, beauty behind me, beauty above me, beauty
below me, beauty within me, beauty all around me – can you see
that I am alive…
… this is where I find the dance.
A quick trip across the back fence into the limitless horizons,
no expectation or routine, freed from responsibility. An entire field
to hold my aloneness so my wholeness could fill the sky,
with no thing to impede it…
Fiona Gillespie, Nelson, NZ - Aotearoa. 6 July 2003.
5.
Our planet composed as it is of carbons and fertilised by oxygen, is
floating in the carrier ocean of hydrogen gas that fills all space.
“All natural movement arises out of a state of imbalance, of nonequilibrium. Non-equilibrium is a pre-requisite for movement and
evolution in all its forms, and a state of equilibrium is therefore
impossible in Nature.”
Ilya Prigogine
1917 - 2013
6.
'Other, Private Winds'[1]
When I was a boy younger than I am now, 'home' was with my family
Now I am a man older than I was then, home is with my family
in Devon, England. Sunnyridge was a rather beautiful, happyrambling
in a rather beautiful Devonian-cobbed, Chinese-eved sunny house
house and garden on Dunsford Hill, on the edge of Exeter
on the edge of Nelson in the midland of New Zealand
with lawns, a lustrous copper beech and over the hedge, the 'field'
on a steep grass-clad hillside, the field on the doorstep
Lift my eyes and I could just make out the outlying smudges of Dartmoor
Look up and I see the hills shoulders jostled by the south-westerly
wind
High, tawny brackened boundaries under a tumultuous sky
elastic, grassy incline moving up into the layer above the world, on the move
Come back closer and the seas of grass at my feet became my world
This field, a world away from my boyish blinking romance
'field' was apparently endless - a rich, mythic culture curving
with nature then, still stirs me - causes me to run with my son
away and down to the little village of Ide, in the valley far below
hoping, determined to allow our home in his life to have a simple voice
'field' would always accommodate farmer Wykes and his sons
farmers and their sons I do not see here - still wind though,
In the afternoon sun they would toil and then sit and eat bread and drink tea
from
restlessly seeking mischievous, beguiling paths through my new hillfield
flasks or sometimes from cracked cups and an old teapot, up against our shared
hedge
or in strange fields on drives`south, making me want to leap from the road
and with soft speech, terriers in tow, walk home over the rim under late red
skies…
and run …
As I gaze out, the sou`wester advances across this field
(so it seems to me now)
and the bay beyond in ordered cadence, perpetrator
the winters`stubble-crisp
still of a coursing horripilation - vistas of panic,
spring and autumn were filled with wind …
despite the desire to continue to enter in …
wind on the hill, wind in the grasses, at the least minutely
This wind on this hill still works, still beckons
atremble, at most, abandoned in swarming groundswell rhythms,
exhaling, arms akimbo,
criss-crossing gusts compelling me to run, throw myself through
inviting me to remember my bare-legged running, my swollen, streaming eyes
this air which was alive, until a great longing would pluck at me …
This 'other' place of fugitive yearning remains
7.
unspeakable, almost synaesthesic - part-sense, part-sight, part-taste,
elusive, shapeless despite its enormity, its potency,
(the shape of things to come …) cellular recollections of my Amah`s arms
its power to hold me enthralled and sometimes wretched
somewhere else, as big, as motion-filled as the curving rim of my field
somewhere else – home in a romany way, perhaps …
moving, moving under a sea of wind
We live at the bottom of an ocean of air …
Awash in a medium unseen
oblivious rummaging through layers of life
indifferent until a stray zephyr touches,
abruptly immersing our perception in ten thousand miles
of solid air one hundred miles high …
'Other, private winds …[2]
There is a whirlwind in southern Morocco, the aajej,
against which the fellahin defend themselves with knives…
The harmattan blows across the Sahara filled with red dust,
dust as fire, as flour… Mariners called this wind the 'sea of darkness'
Red sand fogs were deposited as far north as Cornwall and Devon,
producing showers of mud so great this was also mistaken for blood…
There were some tribes who held up their open palm against the
beginning of wind…' [3] I remember walking as a child shaman
into the middle of a green stillness and with a keen sense of anticipation,
wetting my forefinger and holding it up
Sometimes I thought I could make the air move, cool around my finger.
Sometimes nothing at all would happen …
Michael Baker, Nelson, NZ. 27.6.03 Ref:1, 2 and 3 The English Patient, Michael
Ondaatje
8. 'The fear'
Come closer, breathe - but don`t breathe in … Lift your gaze into
the swaying distance, but don`t rub your eyes … Run, run to the
middle, but don`t scratch your legs …
'Hay fever is an allergy, a particularly violent type of immune
reaction that is mistakenly directed against a harmless item such as
pollen, dust, or food.
Allergic reactions affect only certain people and they are different
from other immune reactions in many ways, but in one respect they
are the same – they depend on the body specifically recognizing
particular antigens. In this case, however, the antigens are often
referred to as allergens, to emphasize the fact that they help to
cause allergies.
Hay fever is, in effect, an attack on pollen by the body`s defensive
system, or immune system, whose proper role is to protect the
body from infection. To the immune system, a small particle that
lands in the nose and immediately discharges proteins from its
surface could very well be a living invader, such as a bacterium,
intent on penetrating the body. The pollen`s behaviour is actually
quite harmless, but it could seem suspicious like that of a parasitic
intruder and so trigger a violent immune relation … pollen was
disregarded by the immune system of most human beings before
1800 and hay fever has become common only during the 20th
century.
For a plant that needed to dispense with insect pollinators, there
was only onerealistic possibility – the wind …
Many flowering plants gradually evolved in this direction, noteably
the grasses, which are all wind-pollinated. In time they lost the
showy, colourful petals that had been used to attract insects. They
also stopped producing nectar to feed the insects and sweet scents
to beguile them.
Several cereal crops are among the self-pollinators, including
wheat, barley, oats and rice. Since these are all grasses (like all
cereal crops) those who are allergic to grass pollen might expect to
react badly to fields of these crops. They can relax however, in the
knowledge that self-pollinators release very little pollen unless there
is substantial disturbance to the plants, which can break open the
flowers …'[1]
Even without wind … small, running legs do 'substantially disturb'
grasses enough to turn the air into a suddenly -solid wall of pollen
…
… airsaturatedwithfearisnotairatall …
1 Hayfever: the complete guide - Jonathon Brostoff and Linda Gamlin, Healing Art
Press 2002
Michael Baker 24. 7.03
9. 'Cellular Improvisation' - solo and as a
collaborative interaction
Cellular improvisation - pursuit of movement (substitute
'painting', or 'poetry' or 'sound') scores based on the 'small dance'
ie: somatic responses to a given situation, manifested through
movement, therefore dancing from internal imperatives, thoughts,
memories, the desire to explore without a plan, to be led by the
organism on a cellular level, Body-Mind Centering*, amoeboid
deliberations, glandular pulses, the breath, the lymph system, the
chi system, joint extension, fractals of breathing from the skin into
the skin of the land - the connective tissues and tenacious energy
versus muscular striving.
Movement arising from within a deep state of awareness and
embodiment of the self
– a listening state. Engaging trance.
Cellular improvisation can also inform and become visible
through the inter-relationships and collaborations of individuals
within a synchronous group intent, movement, mentality, empathy,
vision. (Each person a 'cell' which may temporarily blend with
another. Equally, however, the individual 'cells' may not arrive
together, they may be deflected by another intent, internal or
external to them) It can influence individual enquiry or group
exploration from an individual perspective, which brings solo
qualities and idiosyncracies to the collaborative process. However,
we do not seek to illustrate, explain or hijack another artists
statement with our own response. Instead, there may be
identifiable overlaps, empathies or echoes with a mutual
strengthening of the direction chosen by the parties involved.
To demystify this, in the dance we listen to and become aware of
our own and our partner`s shifting intent, weight, velocity and
momentum, which creates an ever-changing dialogue between us.
However, we do not intrude into our partner`s personal space by
trying to emulate or plagiarise them. Each has their own voice.
Sometimes we harmonize or we might just miss …
Cellular improvisation is a way to lead the body into new movement
...
Sometimes it is dissonance or anomaly which is sought after. Either
is good, depending on the context. It is all worthwhile within the
celebration of conundrum. It is possible to operate in a similar
fashion when working in or with other media. Coda specific to
certain conceptual approaches and within media-use sometimes
bring varying demands to bear on the artist working alone as much
as do people impacting upon people functioning within a group.
Listening for 'weight', 'velocity', or 'momentum' and thus achieving
awareness can be translated into the appropriate language of any
artist mindful of a vocabulary which underpins their intent and their
working visual syntax.
Learning to listen, think, speak, write, draw, see, move from
the tissues.
For the dance, from the horizontal to the vertical all over again how little effort is required to accomplish this movement with only
desire and intent as a muscle?
'Take a whole day to roll over …' Ref: Body, Space, Image
10.
* 'Speaking the unspoken. The principles of Body-Mind Centering
were not developed verbally nor are they easily transmitted into
words. The name Body-Mind Centering illustrates this dilemma. In
order to speak of a totality of being which does not dichotomize
body and mind, one ends up using two words which 'do'. Not only
that, the word centering usually implies a single arrangement of
periphery around a center. However, instead of emphasizing a
single, stationary center, BMC cultivates a dynamic flow of balance
around a constantly shifting focus. So reading around the words is
essential in approaching this work.
'BMC is a study. Its subject is movement. By watching the
movement of the body, we can see the movement of the mind. The
'mind' of a physical form is the moving quality of that form, its
inherent intelligence down to a cellular level.
'For me the most precious aspect of BMC is the
uncompromising belief that consciousness pervades all of
the body. This leads one to a very intimate, almost
microscopic, experience of the body.'
'The Mind watching itself…'
Ref: Sensing, Feeling and Action – from the forewordby Susan Aposhyan
Coriolis Dance Company
Artistic Directors: Michael Baker and Fiona Gillespie
18.7.03
11. Artist's profiles
Michael Baker's background lies in martial arts training since the
age of seven, mostly orientated around the 'soft' arts of Japan and
China - Judo, Aikido, Budo and for the last twenty-seven years, T`ai
Chi Ch`uan which (like all martial arts forms) in its advanced
practice recognises improvisation and 'form no form' as the highest
level of accomplishment. Those teachers who have directly informed
his movement learning, (apart from senseis` and sifus`), include
Stephanie Challis, (London Contemporary Dance), Catherine
Chappell, Nancy Stark-Smith, Martin Keogh and Otto Ramstad and
Olive Bieringa of BodyCartography Project. His background is also in
the visual arts. He has tutored full-time and exhibited in this area
for many years and currently teaches among other disciplines,
installation / performance on the Bachelor in Visual Arts programme
at NMIT in Nelson. As well as weekly CI Dance classes, he has been
teaching T`ai Chi Ch`uan classes for 18 years and sees these two
approaches to movement, on certain levels, inextricably linked.
Fiona Gillespie cannot remember a time when she did not dance.
Although her 'formal' training ended in her teenage years with
injured knees she remained in Performing Arts field discovering
Street Theatre, Improvised Theatre and Improvised Music.
Travelling the country with a 'low rent' Roving Theatre Company,
she developed work using recycled and found objects as the
inspiration for the company's performances. In 2000 Fiona
redefined her dance through improvised music and then discovered
Contact Improvisation Dance classes taught by Michael Baker in
Nelson. Since then she has danced with Nancy Stark-Smith, Otto
Ramstad and Olive Bieringa (BodyCartography Project) and
Wilhemeena Gordon (aka Ivy Granite). Her theatrical training was
with Kim Merry of Still life Productions.
Ian McDonald Trained as a composer at Victoria Univercity,
Wellington, under Douglas Liburn, David Farquar and Jenny
mcLeod. His many works for orchestra, theatre, dance, radio, film
and television have been performed, recorded and broadcast in New
Zealand and overseas. He has lectured and run workshops in
composition and creativity throughout New Zealand, and
receivedawards, residencies and fellowships. Given several lives,
Ian would spend each one on a different art activity – literature,
painting, dance, drama, film, and so on. He can only present a
small reflection of what he would do of he were immortal.
A publication of Ian McDonalds 'Words' for 'field' is avaliable for
purchase, enquiries to Coriolis Dance Company –
nomads.hat@snap.net.nz or (03) 5450175
DJ SG1 aka Grayham Forscutt – Soundscape Artist Grayham has
worked with improvisational music/soundscapes for the past
twenty-five years. The exacting nature of Fibonacci`s 'phi-based'
fractals, together with related scientific and artistic disciplines have
informed his enquiry and delivery as a 'musician'.
“My interests revolve around nature, the laws that govern her and
their interface with people. Over the years this has lead me into
many areas of research including; harmonics, geometry, brain
states, chemistry, cosmology, astronomical cycles, soul
development and magic.
At a most practical level the work I have been involved in seeks to
explore the interface between sound and enviroment, just as an
interior decorator creates spaces to enhance certain moods, I am
interested in creating opportunities for people to explore altered
states through audio and visual enhancement. It is very exciting for
me to be involved in this current project, which I hope will include
real time feedback from those attending the Installation.“
contact Grayham at: blueagle@ihug.net.nz or on (03) 525 7906
Patrick Schroeder. Patrick is currently in his final year of the
Bachelor of Visual Arts Degree at Nelson Marlborough Institute of
Technology and has worked with Coriolis Dance Company on
several installation performances as 'camera live-feed' artist.
12. Coriolis Dance Company
In 2001 Michael Baker created the Contact Improvisation (CI) dance
company called 'LET' CI Dance Co, based in Nelson. 'LET' had a very
positive debut year with a variety of dancers joining the company
and a busy two years` performing. At the end of 2002 a number of
dancers had moved away from Nelson and he and his partner Fiona
Gillespie decided that after two seasons, with a clear direction
identified for the company they would change the name to 'Coriolis'
Dance Company and concentrate on their involvement with
'authentic movement' approaches within dance, which had been
steadily increasing together with their curiosity about the possible
relationship of these forms to CI Dance.
Our philosophy is based on the premise that 'dance' should be
within reach and accessible to all and we choose to provide Comtact
Improvisation Dance and 'Authentic Movement' as exemplars of
movement forms which, together with their underlying pedagogies
and contextual histories, perhaps best lend themselves to
exploration for dancers who may not have had mainstream dance
training.
This belief underpins the following aims.
Coriolis Dance Company Aims:

To increase the profile and acceptance of Contact
Improvisation Dance and 'Authentic Movement' modes as
legitimate dance forms in the local Nelson and national arts
communities. (We also seek to achieve this through the
regular running of the Nelson Lakes Mountain Jam CI dance
retreat, in Nelson each January. After three years we took a
break in January 2004, to work on our next project. We will
be resuming the NLMJ dance retreat in January 2005)

To provide a vehicle for the development and realisation of
our own concepts through enquiry into and involvement with
new dance movement, digital film, physical installationin sitespecific spaces.

To bring CI Dance and related movement approaches to the
local community through the delivery of regular, weekly
classes. These have been running in Nelson for four years.
Coriolis Dance Company:
Artistic Directors:
Michael Baker and Fiona Gillespie
76 Tresillian Avenue
Atawhai
Nelson
Aotearoa / New Zealand
nomads.hat@snap.net.nz
(03) 5450175 or 021 049 0722
13. Bibliography and References:
Books:
Microcosmos, Claude Nuridsany & Marie Perennou
The Way of the Peaceful Warrior, Dan Millman
The Concise Oxford Dictionary New Edition, Oxford Clarendon Press
The English Patient Michael Ondaatjie, Picador
Body, Space, Image Miranda Tuffnell, Chris Crickmay,
The Second jungle Book, Rudyard Kipling, Macmillan & Co, Ltd, London
Living Energies Callum Coats, Gateway Books, Bath, UK
Making an Entrance, Theory and Practice for Disabled and Non-disabled Dancers
Adam Benjamin, Routledge
Transplant, Living Vegetation in Contemporary Art
Barbara Nemitz, Hatje Cantz Publishers
Sensing, Feeling and Action Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Contact Editions,
Northampton, MA
The Landscapes of Andrew Wyeth – Unknown Terrain, Venn Weinberg
Ann Hamilton Joan Simon, Abrams 2002
Art Performs Life Cunningham/Monk/Jones, Walker Art Center
Merce Cunningham 50 years, Aperture, David Vaughn, Phillip Morris Companies
Inc
Contact Improvisation Dance Kaltenbrunner, Meyer & Meyer, Germany
The Songlines Bruce Chatwin, Vintage 1998
Periodicals:
Contact Quarterly Nancy Stark-Smith, Bi-annual journal of dance and
Improvisation
Parachute Autofictions
Dance Theatre Journal - the voice of dance EHV Printers London
Proximity Melbourne, Australia
Phtotcopied References:
Movement and Meaning in Contact Improvisation
Sharing the Dance, Contact Improvisation and American Culture
Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin
Working (In) the In-between David Williams, Writings in Dance
Contact Quarterly Nancy Stark-Smith, Bi-annual journal of dance and
Improvisation
14 Coriolis Dance Company Performance History
29 July – 3 August 2003
The Suter Te Aratoi o Whakatû
'field' – 'Nature is not a gentle force' Alan Sonfist
Multi-Media Dance Installation/Performance
18 June 2003
Careers Expo
Trafalgar Centre, Nelson
Performance as moving models for a figure-drawing class
17 – 30 March
Wharepapa Tour, Nelson – Golden Bay Tour
Workshops, Performances and Screenings
18 - 27 January 2003
'Wharepapa' with The Body Cartography Project,
Wharepapa/Mt Arthur
Filmed on location in the Kahurangi National Park, Nelson, NZ
Directed by Otto Ramstad and Olive Bieringa of:
The BodyCartography Project, USA/NZ
(screened in the New Zealand Film Festival 2003)
9 - 16 January 2003
Nelson Lakes Mountain Jam 2003
Rotoiti Lodge, Nelson Lakes National Park
Annual Dance Retreat run by Coriolis Dance Company with International
Teachers: Otto Ramstad and Olive Bieringa of 'Body Cartography' USA/NZ;
Catherine Chapell of 'Touch Compass Dance Trust', NZ; Zjamal Xanitha,
Australia; Wilhemeena Gordon (aka Ivy Granite), NZ/USA
13 September 2002
'Carnivale' Trafalgar Street Nelson
30 Minute 'Roving'set with Julian Yates
5 – 16 August 2002
Fishbowl Gallery, NMIT Nelson 'Momento'… 13 days of Memory Fall … MultiMedia Dance Installation/Performance a collaboration with Wilhemeena Gordon
(aka Ivy Granite), NZ/USA
14 August 2002
Performance by Invitation The Suter Te Aratoi o Whakatû Interaction
within the combined exhibition by:
Jim Allen (Untitled …) and Kathleen Peacock (Suspended Sentences …)
14 - 15 June 2002
Celebrating Performance Art Week
The Suter Te Aratoi o Whakatû
Two Performances: 'Sublind' , and '… Starless and Bible black …'
May 1 - 8 2002
Artists Books' Fish Bowl Gallery NMIT, Nelson
An exhibition of works from ten artists Michael Bakers' 'Book' - 'Corner'
featured an edited version of the digital film 'Into the Light' by Coriolis Dance
Company
15 - 28 April 2002
International Dance Day, Dance Expo 2002, Trafalgar Center, Nelson
'Blue' Contact Improvisation dance performance duet
17 April 2002
Nelson City Church, Front Window, Hardy Street, Nelson
Installation / Dance Performance: 'Window Dressers Dream Too' with Levity
Beet and Julian Yates
3 April 2002
Mike Baker and Fiona Gillespie formed Coriolis Dance Company,
(replacing the previous group Let Contact Improvisation Dance Co)
taking on the co-responsibility of Artistic Directors.
15 March 2002
Nelson City Church Front Window Installation / Dance Performance: 'Into the
Light' with Andy Clover, Angela McAlpine, Paula Cunniffe and Amy Hoedemakers
(Fundraising in conjunction with five mural painters, for World Vision and
Mongolian children living beneath the city streets)
1, 2 & 3 March 2002
Festival of Opportunities Founders Park, Nelson
3 Performances with Julian Yates, Levity Beet and K-Nui
9 – 13 February 2002
Wellington, NZ
BodyCartography workshop, 5 Day intensive Body-Mind Centering Workshop
11 -18 January 2002
Nelson Lakes Mountain Jam 2002, Rotoiti Lodge,Nelson Lakes National
Park
Annual Dance Retreat run by Coriolis Dance Company with International
Teachers: Otto Ramstad and Olive Bieringa of 'Body Cartography' USA/NZ;
Wilhemeena Gordon (aka Ivy Granite), NZ/USA: Juliet Shelley, NZ and Lisa Mills,
NZ
New Year 2001/2002
'Visionz' 2001/2002, Pakawae, Golden Bay
Live Stage Performance with Julian Yates
1 December 2001
Montgomery Carpark Nelson
Multi-Media 'Surrealist' Performance event Yaza Café 'Wave of Dreams 2' a
collaboration with John Heighes Performances By: DJ`s: Bertrand Rathbourne,
Pearl and SG1, Live sound Artist: Mr Boinkin, Performances 'Consciousness',
'Kipper' and 'Christina' by: Let Dance Co with Ian McDonald, Julian Yates and
Emily Rose-Woof ; Performances also by: Delaray, VJ`s: Zeist and Ali
16 - 29 September 2001
Yaza Café Montgomery Carpark Nelson
Multi-Media 'Surrealist' Performance event 'Wave of Dreams ' a collaboration with
John Heighes Performances By: DJ`s: Bertrand Rathbourne, Pearl, Danny
Marshall and SG1, Live sound Artist:Bluey, Mr Boinkin and Delarays, Live VJ
Zeist, Performances 'Erewhon' and 'Witness for 3' By: Let Dance Co with
Julian Yates.
21 July 2001
Te Kapowai Studio, Mapua, Nelson
'Whispers - What did they say?' Performance By Let Dance Co and Guitarist
Jared White
March 2001
International Dance Day, Trafalgar Centre, Nelson
2001 Dance Expo ' Walking and Falling', 6 dancers, Julian Yates, Paula Suckling,
Hiske Buddingh, Keryn Squires, Fiona Gillespie and Mike Baker
Dec / Jan 2000 / 2001
The Gathering 2001, Canaan Downs, Takaka Hil
LET CI dance company performance at with members: Mike Baker, Julian Yates,
Keryn Squires. 'White Noise' Choreographed multi-media video: 'Heads and
Hands'
8 – 12 January 2001
Nelson Lakes Mountain Jam, Rotoiti Lodge,Nelson Lakes National Park
Annual Dance Retreat run by Michael Baker with International Teachers: Otto
Ramstad and Olive Bieringa of 'Body Cartography' USA/NZ; Catherine Chapell of
'Touch Compass Dance Trust', NZ; Juliet Shelley, NZ
28 July 2000
Fishbowl Gallery NMIT Nelson Debut of LET CI Dance Co
Produced, directed and choreographed by Mike Baker 'A Series of Indiscreet
Encounters in the Front Room' In collaboration with Kathleen Peacock
10 - 20 November 2000
Both Michael Baker and Fiona Gillespie attended 'Deepening the Form' with
co-founder of Contact Improvisation Dance, Nancy Stark - Smith Contact
Improvisation Dance workshop in Melbourne - 10 day workshop with State of Flux
Contact Improvisation dance company and 28 dancers from Australia and NZ
Easter 2000
Michael Baker attended and danced / participated in 4 day Contact Improvisation
Teachers Conference 'This Moment' with Martin Keogh, at Unitec Performing
Arts, Auckland, NZ.
21 May 2000
Michael Baker opened Nelson`s first Contact Improvisation Dance class at
Bodyflex Yoga Centre. Received endorsement for this from Catherine Chappell
and Martin Keogh.
February 2000
Michael Baker attended a Contact Improvisation Dance class with Catherine
Chappell at Unitec Performing Arts, Auckland. NZ
November 1999
Mike Baker applied for and received a Nelson Arts Council grant to bring
Catherine Chappell and members of 'Touch Compass Dance Trust', Mixed Ability
Dance Company from Auckland to Nelson, November 1999 to run a two day
workshop (mixed-ability and able-bodied). Danced in the public performance at
the end of the workshop, Methodist Church Hall, Nelson, NZ
Biography
Michael Baker's background lies in martial arts training since the
age of seven, mostly orientated around the 'soft' arts of Japan and
China - Judo, Aikido, Budo and for the last twenty-seven years, T`ai
Chi Ch`uan which (like all martial arts forms) in its advanced
practice recognises improvisation and 'form no form' as the highest
level of accomplishment. Those teachers who have directly informed
his movement learning, (apart from senseis` and sifus`), include
Stephanie Challis, (London Contemporary Dance, NZ), Catherine
Chappell (Touch Compass Dance Trust NZ), Nancy Stark-Smith
(USA), Martin Keogh (USA) and Otto Ramstad and Olive Bieringa
(BodyCartography Project, USA/NZ). His background is also in the
visual arts. He has tutored full-time and exhibited in this area for
many years and currently teaches - among other disciplines installation / performance on the Bachelor in Visual Arts programme
at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology in Nelson. As well as
weekly Contact Improvisation Dance classes, he has been teaching
T`ai Chi Ch`uan classes for 18 years and sees these two
approaches to movement, on certain levels, inextricably linked.
Fiona Gillespie cannot remember a time when she did not
dance. Although her 'formal' training ended in her teenage
years with injured knees she remained in the Performing
Arts field discovering Street Theatre, Improvised Theatre
and Improvised Music. Travelling the country with a 'low
rent' Roving Theatre Company, she developed work using
recycled and found objects as the inspiration for the
company's performances. In 2000 Fiona redefined her dance
through improvised music and then discovered Contact
Improvisation Dance classes taught by Michael Baker in
Nelson. Since then she has danced with Nancy Stark-Smith
(USA), Otto Ramstad and Olive Bieringa (BodyCartography
Project USA/NZ) and Wilhemeena Gordon (aka Ivy Granite,
NZ). Her theatrical training was with Kim Merry of 'Still life
Productions' in Nelson New Zealand.