21st of June - 7th, LAST day

To conclude our work...

We start the day with movement. There are 2 classes proposed:

1. Valentina- about embryology. 

The group goes through the different phases of development of the embryo. Working in couples; one is the mother, the other the embryo. The process turnes into an improvisation with the mesoderm, from which develops the structure of the body: bones, muscles, fluids (blood). 

"Challenge your structure" is the key instruction that creates a dynamic movement improvisation of the group.

2. Katja, - yoga lesson. 

We work basically with different variations of the sun salutation for 40 minutes. She gives us specific focuses within the body.

Before lunch we have a 20 min. open space.

Lunch brake

Today we have a special lunch: we do a food meditation introduced by Defne. 

This is the last day of Budapest T.T.T. 2013. To conclude our work I do interviews with the participants about how do we interpret what happened during the last week.  This is kind of an overview about what one experienced during this 7 days. 

Valentina de Piante

Katja Mustonen

Tamás Bakó

Defne Erdur

The closing event

The closing event was a very fruitful experience for me.

At the beginning I was asking myself how will we able to share or present what we did this week. We didn’t have a well defined structure that would lead us to a simple score for the presentation. It was a very organic process that had many many different aspects involving different layers about teaching, learning, art (making), Life itself and also dealing with the relationship between these central topics. We created a beautiful net and I found it challenging how to demonstrate its essence in front of a public.

At the end I was surprised how faithfully we could mirror the whole week’s research trough this event:

We decide to use some elements, practices, the materials we created during our research and we make an installation out of it:

-          We use the big papers on which we were gathering our ideas in as a decoration on the walls

-          We  set a sound installation out of the discussions I recorded

-          We make a reading corner with different books that we shared with each other

We give 10 minutes of arriving time for the public to get familiar with this context and then we offer them to join us in the space in which we retraced the core of our common practice:

Everyone becomes a student & everyone become a teacher at the same time:

we can all ask for a teaching or propose something we want to teach, we can be taught by someone, we can join a teaching… or we can just witness the space or be a free mover.

We introduce this open space with our well known ball game. First –as we did with the international group- by just showing the game, without saying any instructions, then for the 2^nd round we explain that the timing of ball must stay the same, keeping the rhythm of the passing.

We played together with the participants and we create like this a common space with the “audience”.

After this game we open the space and we just start to use it as playground where knowledge is free to be exchanged.

To be honest, before the presentation I was quite septic if this will work with people joining us, if we will be able to create this playground with does who didn’t take part of this intensive research week and didn’t merge into this context of open structure. Maybe this open space will be intimidating for them… bla bla bla…

During the presentation I understand so many things!

It is all about trust and

being present,

following my interest,

feeling the needs of the space and

enjoying the sharing and being together!

I really had fun, I learned new things and transmitted information too.

I was deeply touched by this togetherness!

I would like to that Workshop Foundation for making this whole event possible! I believe that TTT 2013 Budapest was a very nourishing and inspiring experience for all of the participants. I personally feel that I got a lot of key inputs to continue my teaching practice and found artful presence in what I do.

I’m looking forward to share the video of this event with you. It will appear here soon!

Till then let me share the writings of the participants about this event, the conclusion of TTT 2012 Budapest (you can also read the complete reports of the international group members by click -ing on their name in the menu!!) :

Defne

"Towards the end of the week, as we prepared to share the results of our week’s research with the public, we returned to the topics of “teaching performance and the performance aspect of teaching itself”. Interestingly, due to the open and non-hierarchical structure we were working with, the “result” also happened to reflect this approach. We ended up creating a playful, trust-based, receiver-driven sharing environment. All the material we used (books, sketches, audio recordings, music, games and instructional excerpts) were presented to the audience, and the audience was invited to choose from these as we went along. This way, any possible stress was lifted from the presenter’s shoulders. The emphasis was on horizontal sharing. By the end, we realized that the audience was a bit lost and stressed at first, since this non-hierarchical structure (the sharing-harvesting circle) was new to them. Yet, as they found their own ways to relate to the material, they relaxed and even started to enjoy the process…"

Tamás & Viki

"The closing event of the week created another open learning format, model. Preparing the presentation of our conclusions for a wider circle, we were looking for a format that mirrors in the most faithful way the experiences of our research.

We wanted to create such a structure where we let the participants experience the result of our research and in which everyone -according to his/her own interest- can freely connect to what happens in the space.

The space was an installation of sounds, images, books, as well as a performing space and a playground for open learning structures.

This experimental way of creating contact let an open space for active participation, for creative self-expression, for receiving, interaction, and experiencing several way of learning."

Iscra:

"As part of the process we had a presentation/sharing which took place the last day of the TTT meeting. We shared our process with the local audience in Budapest. As part of the presentation we practiced exchange of knowledge within an open structure that we were dealing in the frame of this meeting. Therefore the presentation showed the practical outcome of the process and thus became a reflective artistic sharing. "

20th of June – 6th day

Morning session:

We start the morning with AUTENTIC MOVEMENT. Actually it was my proposal cause I felt the need to see „where we are” as individuals and also as a group trough the mirror of our movement.

"Authentic Movement is a holistic dance method in which we dive into the depth of the body and it’s memory awareness. We move from our inner impulses with closed eyes in a safe, and non-judgmental space. Archaic and mystical forms of expression have room to appear as much as play, desire, togetherness and rest". (Sabine Parzer)

We do on of the basic form called DIAD when we are in pars exchanging the role of the mover and the witness. After the 2 rounds of movement, we come together for a sharing about what we experience both as movers and witnesses.

In my sensation it established a sense of togetherness that was present the whole day.

Then we came together to share what did we experience concerning our HOMEWORK.

It was given by group 3 of yesterday, the one who were working with the topic of “Open structure”. Here is the task:

Any time you realize that you are doing something, change it! Continue this during 15 minutes.

Here is some sharing about this experience:

Tamás: I could feel clearly the difference between intention and action. The intention of doing something is there in a second, but the act…? It was hard to get out of the exercise.

Julia G.: I was going home. When I realize this action, I stopped to smell the flowers. I realize that I didn’t do this for so long time.

Heléna: I noticed that after taking a shower I am always drying myself in the same way. This time it was a totally different feeling: I was changing my action within my action.

Viki: Usually when I hear the word homework I feel a cramp in my stomach. This morning I was pushed by my family to change my actions. I realized that I was doing the homework.:)

Juli L.: I perceived a pain in my scapula this morning. Then came the idea: ok, let’s change this….!

Tamara: I felt like a poisoned mouse. I know this state actually, but it was interesting to experience it in this way. I would like to try this out within movement improvisation.

How did this exercise born?

Within the open learning structure we invite ourselves to step into the unknown. To push ourselves in a place that we don’t know. Katja worked a lot with this exercise in a workshop called „the Switch project”, when they were doing it 1 hour a day with a witness. It is a way to recognize our automatism and to create a space to change our habits or just to question our function.

We finish the morning session watching a video about human creativity and its importance in education: Sir Ken Robinson – TED

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

Afternoon session:

For the 2^nd time during the week we split in the 2 original groups: the international and the local one. (I still have some struggles how to call ourselves…:)

We were answering the following 3 question:

1.      What expectations did I have concerning Budapest T.T.T.

2.       What did I get?

3.      What did I give?

We also started to prepare the final presentation of the last day, when we share with the people our common work. Gathering ideas about how can we present what happened during the last week with us.

In our group there were a lots of common feedbacks about the 3 questions:

1.      A big motivation to participate in the program was to come together again with the participants of the junior group. Actually we are all coming from the same school, we know each other very well, we are a community.

At the same time there was the wish to meet new people, to get new impulses.

To be in an intensive workshop situation was also an important source of motivation in which we can dive into a deep process.

There were some expectations or I would rather say previews about the structure of our week: working together in the morning in 2 groups and in the afternoon separately.

2.      Feeling that we all have the same questions, interest was an important experience for us. Not only our small group, but the other teachers, dancers from other countries has similar interest within their work:

teaching-creation-performance are 3 different fields, aspects of dancing but they kind of feed, inspire each other. We almost can't speak about them separately (this last sentence in my conclusion)

Tamara: I would like to be present and active in all of the 3 and I can perceive that there is so much knowledge in these fields.

We learned a lot from being in this "Open structure mode”:

how to organize ourselves, how to listen, to react, to hear and feel the needs and to summarize and give a direction.

Often perceiving how each of us is present, which role do we take was even more interesting and instructive then the content itself.

We went deep in analyzing this open structure and its advantages and disadvantages from the point of view of a school and also comparing with the school where we all come from: Budapest Contemporary Dance Academy leaded by Iván Angelus. (http://www.tanc.org.hu/)

3.      We have the feeling that we gave some kind of safety trough the fact that we as a group, we are a community, for the others it could give the sensation of “home”.

       We gave our openness and constant attention.

       We were giving also another point of view, another prospective for all the topics we touched.

Dear reader! We are approaching the end of T.T.T. 2013. I feel touched while writing down this

sentence… This intensive togetherness and sharing created in me the deep feeling of being part of a group.

You are all very warmly welcome for tonight’s presentation about our work from 7PM in Jurányi Art Incubator House, Workshop Foundation's Grabó studio (4^th floor). See you! 

19th of June – 5th day

Dear T.T.T. group!

Thank you so much for this day! I learned so much about teaching, the art of sharing!
This is how I lived the work of today:

We arrived somehow to the middle of our time together and this was very much sensible in the space, in the group dynamic between us. Till now we were gathering and mapping what is our common interest, what are the fields that we want to discus in their depth and we created lot of situations in which both intellectually and physically we could do that.

Today there was some kind of a questioning on how to proceed, how to structure the following two days and designate the direction that will lead us to a conclusion till Friday.

Actually we created in our reality, within ours group and common research one of our central common topics: THE OPEN STRUCTURE. We are experiencing on our skins the advantages and disadvantages of this way of structuring our program.

I feel very thankful that we allow ourselves to function in this way! All the group is participating in its own movement, I feel that we are all dancing together, not only literally but also metaphorically. It is a constant improvisation that allows us to remain fully with what is here and now and to work with all 14 people’s presence.

Today we could all experience how it is to enter into this field which is unknown for everyone: how does it work if we don’t have a leader who give us the direction to follow, but we all try to hear each other, and sense what is the direction that shows up.

This created a moment of chaos and instability among us.

I remember you saying today:

Katja: „The question is: how can we use this chaos to arrive where we all want to arrive.

Julia G.: „I can feel from the beginning that we are coming from different places, with different experience, with a different pathway, but at the same time I feel clearly that there is something common that connects us.”

Today I lived some kind of a catharsis with the Jam of Peace at the end of the day. This event was proposed by Defne who spoke a lot about the actual extreme situation in Turkey - that she experiennced on her own skin-, about the aggressively of the police towards people who want to protect the “Gezi park” in the heart of the city, were the government wants to create a shopping mole. We dedicated our dance to the Peace in Turkey and all over the World. You can find detailed information about this event on the following link:

https://www.facebook.com/events/512716998781387/  

Please see also the interview bellow with Defne Erdure about the situation in her country (Hungarian only):

http://www.szuveren.hu/tarsadalom/a-nem-mozdulas-tetje

About our work today:

The structure of the day is composed of 7 phases. Because this day is very much connected to the PEACE in the world, I use the 7 colors of the rainbow for the 7 topics.:)

1. Arriving – looking at the books

We are sharing in these days books that are sources of inspiration, daily used handbooks for our work. We gathers a list of books that can help to nourish our work.

2.Gathering topics to work on within small groups – preparation of LAB

Under the umbrella of „Place of Art in Pedagogy” we created together our list of interest:

·         different way of learning (time to enbody the information, differnet tipes of memory, senses in learining: kinesthetic, visual, analitical…)

·         What is dance? The performative aspect of teaching

·         Different „places” to teach from. Tools, techniques that we use.

·         Trust between teacher and student

·         open learning structure

3.Warm up of Ivo + feedback circle

Ivo gave us a half an hour warm up. We worked basically with the 3 bodies:

·         front body that is connected to our organs and digestive system

·         back body that is connected to our nervous system

·         middle body that is connected to our structure: muscles, bones, but also the heart (the blood) and the sexual organs.

Then we come back to a circle to give feedback about our experiences.

4. Round about where we are? What is the direction that we want to follow from now one? (2 minutes each)

There was a wish to hear everyone where he/she is now in the process? What is our interest, how to proceed?

5. Lunch break

We continued to reflect on our situation as a research group but informally in little groups. Then each took time to digest the huge amount of information that has been shared, not just today, but during the whole program till now.

6. Art therapy Jam

When we met again, we just put some music on and started to dance – to connect to our body. We created a score: min. 5 max., 12 people in the space and we dj. Moving, being together non-verbally was a way to let all the  intellectually shared information to find it’s place in our bodies.

7. LABing in 3 groupes

We came bake to our list of interest and created 3 little groups who worked together to develop their topic.

group 1 (Iskra, Tamara, Julia G., Julia V., Julia L.): The role of language in teaching

group 2 (Defne, Anna, Viki, Valentina and Heléna):

What is dance? The performative aspect of teaching?

Different „places” to teach from. Tools, techniques that we use.

group 3 (Julia H., Ivo, Tamás, Katja): open learning structure

After the LAB group 1 and 2 did a short presentation about their labing.

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18th of June - 4th day

18th of June - 4th day

This morning we start with movement. First the Junior Group is leading the session. So let me share first what we did yesterday afternoon, cause actually it was all about the preparation of today’s teaching.

Yesterday, after the long discussion of the morning and the lunch break we had a big hunger to move and we spontaneously started to play with a ball. Just passing the ball one to the other, playing, laughing… Then we just gave a score to ourselves. Let’s play with the TIME of the ball: the rhythm of the passing on must be equal all the time from one to another.

This starting score transformed very quickly and a lot of new elements came in.

Then we tried it out without the ball, just recalling the body sensation we had during the first game and with the idea of passing on the movement.

At a certain point we start to build up from this experience what we will „teach” or rather share the next day. Here is the structure as a result:

1.      just showing during two minutes the very first score: keeping the rhythm of the ball that travels in space. We ask them to observe and try to catch the score then -without discussing- to play with it

2.      Then we give the instruction of doing the same without the ball

3.      We give the same exercise as in the beginning but this time we give the instructions verbally. After a few minutes we join the game.

At the end of the session we sit in a circle and share our experiences, first from the student side, then also from the proposal side.

Here comes the score of the international group:

1.       For 10 minutes we are dancing with/from our hearts: “Heart dance”

2.      Everybody is a student and can ask anyone to teach him-/ herself something.  – 30 min.

There are 5 options in this score:

·         you are just freely moving on your own in the space

·         you ask for teaching from someone

·         you become a teacher if someone asks you

·         you join a teaching that you’re interested in

·         you become an observer (max.4 people)

3.      Everybody is a teacher and can teach anything to anyone. – 30 min. (same options as before from the teacher's side)

4.      Feedback for ourselves in silence - 5 min.

After this session we again share our impressions.

This whole morning session process was recorded. I invite you now to see how it looks, feels like in practice:

 Junior group session

sharing our impressions

Afternoon

In the afternoon, we did body work in pair led by Defne and Katja. We felt the need to conect with touch and settle the information that was accumulated during the last days.

Some pics from the day:

shaking brake - letting the information sink into the body

our wishpot for tomorrow