Jerzy Grotowski interview Wywiad z Jerzym Grotowskim

Jerzy Grotowski stalks about the Theatre of the Poor.

Wow it's been a long time since I've been in touch with this stuff, I remember being so influenced by this approach to theatre in my teens. This pre dates Lars Von Trier's, Dogma films; in the idea of paring down an art form to re-connect with what is essential about it. Again, this idea of too much technique obscuring the essence.

I don't know why this seems to be popping up as a theme with me lately, it's not as if my technique is so polished in anything that I do that it will threaten to take over! :-)

Jiri Kylian - Bella Figura [rehearsal]

. . . . and to the other end of the spectrum, the ideas or the letting go of ideas is the same. In the BMC workshop I did last weekend, Alice Cummins commented that she has just begun again to start using the word "technique" again, to refer to the particular set of skills you bring to express your movement. I can see why she may have shied away from using this word as dance or anything we do can sometimes get lost in the technique of it. It's something to be aware of as we get "better" at things, perhaps to acknowledge that the very heart of it is already there and whether our "technique" improves or not is actually peripheral to the crux of the biscuit.

Contact Improvisation

Gorgeous. Makes it look so easy.