Play, Dare and Shoot a series of experimental workshops/laboratories.

‘Play, Dare and Shoot!’ is a seris experiments to explore performing arts as a training for ‘daring’ (Wagemut). Occured a series of workshops designed to dissect the act of daring through different contexts and participants asking: Who ‘dares’ to take risks and how? How does the body engage in that moment? How to support and enable it sustainably?

This was the occasion to explore the choreographic potentials of playfulness and collaborative or individual empowerment.

DIS-TANZ-SOLO Förderung, NEUSTART KULTUR, Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien.

PLAY

The meta-game, a game where the first rule is to invent the rules. A game that creates itself while playing it. The goal is always to recognize, communicate and agree on the game that we are currently playing. By doing so we want to reveal a dynamic structure that engages us in a playful way and can be applied to diverse contexts, mediums or formats.

PREPARATIONS:

• to get into the mind set :
  "yes and ...", play the Block game

• to mobilise the body :
  "dance the not dancer " from Eleonora from Nobodies dances.
  score : repeat tasks 1,2 and 3 in a loop for 20 to 45 min. 1, say yes to something you don't yet recognize / do before you know what you are doing. 2, complete it with your full self, your full everything. 3, Observe.

• to start relation and interactions :
  "collective yes and ...", play the Better game.
  "leave space and recognize new situations", play objects chess. score : Take turns moving objects or doing things.

THE RULER

Invent a shared / common language based on the present / relationships / environment / dynamics.
Letting go of a preconceived plan.
Listening, receiving proposals from others.
Offering / being a stable proposal.

DARE

What is the shape of the moment when we dare ?

Exercise 1: Reenactment

Find a “foundation stone” of your experience with daring. Choose a moment where you did dare something out of the ordinary, be it a rather banal experience (asking for the time to a stranger) or an extraordinary one ( … ). Observe its physical and mental process to be able to reenact it.

In an empty room, set the space to reproduce or mark the major elements of your selected experience. For exemple tape the floor to mark walls or place significant objects to represent peoples.

Divide your experience of daring in meaningful parts like “waiting for”, “hesitation” or “decision making”. Clarify its chronology.

Make you know where those moments will occur in the recreated space of your past experience.

Take a moment to concentrate. Reenact your experience so that you can observe the internal and external dynamics occurring. Do not talk/explain, if possible let yourself be submerged by the mental states corresponding to each moment of your past experience. Let yourself the chance to explore the situation via body movement, sounds or objects manipulation.

An observer is invited to witness the reenactment and find a concrete representation of it. What would be a fighting shape for this daring experience ? How its different moments and dynamics look like as a drawing, a clay sculpture, a dance, a song.. Ect.

Exercise 2: Shape clash

Reenact a daring experience in/on somebody else's recreated space.
Compare the difference and similitude, how does a new space affect the different parts of your experience ? Does it help ?

Camille’s different moments, daring to ask Norman Spinrad : “would you like to have a drink ?“

Recognition of an opportunity /// Internal bubbling /// Spontaneous action blocked /// Leaving the place of indecision to relocate /// Letting the pressure drop /// Refocus /// Return on the spot of indecision /// Finally dare

Exercise 3: Playing at the things you don’t dare. (4 people minimum)

Round 1
“A” writes down a description of something you don't dare to do. Explain briefly why or how it makes you feel.
Pass the paper to “B”

Round 2
“B” creates a daring task. Transform the description received into a task, a clear action doable here and now.
Pass the paper to “C”

Round 3
“C” executes the task while “D” notes down all the “dry” actions that they see.

Round 4
“C” and “D” create a little game from “D”’s notes, doable here and now.

Round 5
“A” decides how and if we play the game all together.

photo : Cécile B. and Camille Chapon, at Tanzfabrik, October 2021

SHOOT

Play and dare, yes! But to do what? Win? Over who? At what cost? When does daring overreach overconfidence, excess of boldness or when being courageous becomes a must? Here I want to untangle a possible link from daring to heroism and bravery being hijacked by toxic masculinity, nationalistic idealogy.

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