Recently I’ve taken to writing ‘scores’ for the movements, actions and situations that I undertake. These notes, or scores, enable others to stage my suggested performances. They also compile the abundance of layers that comprise this work process and enable an understanding of the overall goal.
The three main elements of reflection and search in Goldberg Versions are as follows: the original score of Bach’s Goldberg Variations composed in 1741; Steve Paxton’s improvised dance performance to the variations in 1992; and the film of Glend Gould’s performance of this music on the piano in the recording studio in 1981. These variations enter the artists’ lives and all three attack them from different angles, producing new variations on the variations in an infinite loop. For me, this is highly attractive from the point of view of writing and the analysis of movement.
In May I presented the first part only. In this second phase I will start from my notes and previous experience and invite various artists to get involved, leading to new notes in which the goal is to ‘transport’ difficulty, to dislocate it and to create different strategies for overcoming it and producing a new version. The power of reading and implementing these notes is an invitation from our being into the present.