Motion Bank: Two

Re-imagining Choreographic Ideas

Posts tagged “Bebe Miller”

Preview: Bebe Miller, Tendency Set

Posted on November 27th, 2013

“We are generating movement strategies that unfold in ways that are not as feasible in step-by-step choreography, for us. We specify the intentional body-mind-set and allow the movement articulation – the dancing – to respond to the frame or strategy.” —- Bebe Miller

 

 

The Motion Bank interface is set up in “Sets” that are devised by the creative teams working with the choreographers.  Motion Bank hopes that in the future, visitors to the site will be able to make their own preferred sets of related information. The four sets that we have curated for this premiere on Thursday November 28th focus on a handful of the mind/body strategies that these makers use in creating performance improvisation. For example, Bebe Miller has a longstanding interest in the movement tendencies of her dancers and how these can be distilled to create states for improvisation. In our TENDENCY set, we have several different windows into three states that Bebe has devised over the years, Risky Weight, Story State, and Drive State. States are the other side of HABIT and that is the focus one of Thomas Hauert’s sets.

 

“I find myself drawn to the pull of attention, the sweep of action, the arrested moment, the pressure between people.” —-Bebe Miller

 

 

Categories: Bebe Miller Company, Process, Tendency, Uncategorized

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Momentum in Bebe Miller’s work

Posted on July 8th, 2013

In examining the motion capture work from our January residency with Bebe Miller Company we are becoming interested in the possibility of tracing the momentum transfer through the body. The paths of momentum transfer reveal patterns of movement sequencing in the body. In both Darrell’s and Angie’s performances it is evident that several motions often happen concurrently. Performative tendencies that focus on simultaneity and dis-coordination of body segment motions are likely to interrupt viewer’s ability to anticipate movement and thus create fresh and surprising performance qualities.

 

There are a number of ways to approach visual representation of movement sequencing, and I thought it might be interesting to see this by making visible the sequences of joint rotations.  To set up this visualization I hypothesized that the initiating joint would rotate first, sending the waves of sequential rotations to the other parts of the body.  In the video of Darrell’s performance it is easy to notice many instances when sequences of joint rotations are initiated simultaneously or with minor offsets in time . I have used color coding to present two types of joint movement analysis.  The red figure indicates angular/rotation speed of joints (A) (the brighter the red the higher the speed), the green figure indicates linear speed of joints’ locomotion (L). As opposed to joint rotation speed, visualization of the linear (joint translation through space) shows a more even speed value distribution that is more sequential.

 

Since these may be a bit hard to notice at high playback speed of the captured motion this movie is at 1/4th speed.

 

While working on ideas about momentum I ran across a video on momentum transfer in parkour.   In this video, the second jump comes as a surprise. In order to get additional momentum to make the second jump possible, the landing position after the first jump had to be exaggerated… At a quick glance the shape of the body at the time of the first landing seemed to be that of trying to slow down.  By exaggerating this pose through leaning back and further lifting the arms backwards, it is possible to gain additional momentum. This hidden quality of getting the additional momentum is very intriguing as it also serves as a way of hiding anticipation of subsequent action. This triggers parallels between the animation concepts of motion anticipation and exaggeration and Bebe Miller’s ideas of “interrupting the inevitable” as well as “furthering”.

 

– Vita Berezina-Blackburn, Animation Specialist/ACCAD

Categories: Animation, Bebe Miller Company, Contributing Authors, Motion capture, Process

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Word Cloud of Bebe’s Movement Direction

Posted on May 23rd, 2012

Norah and I have been working on establishing a vocabulary that we could use to better discuss some of the choreographic tendencies that Bebe employs in her work.  We started from the vocabulary we gleaned from our conversations with Bebe about the work and our residency with the company.  To test some of this vocabulary development we invited Bebe to direct OSU dance student Erik Speth during a motion capture session.  When directing Erik, we asked Bebe to work within the specific subset of her ideas that we had summarized.  Bebe and Erik worked with some phrase material that they had already been rehearsing for a Spring performance as well as some improv that was shaped by Bebe’s descriptive direction.   Aside from the…

Categories: Bebe Miller Company, Process

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Bebe Miller honored with Doris Duke Artist Award

Posted on May 2nd, 2012

Amazing news for two motion bank artists Bebe Miller and Deborah Hay, the Doris Duke Foundation announced its first “class” of Doris Duke Performing Artists Awards.

 

Press Release

 

THE DORIS DUKE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION AWARDS MORE THAN $5.5 MILLION TO THE FIRST CLASS OF DORIS DUKE ARTISTS
 
21 Outstanding Performing Artists Are the First Participants in an Unprecedented Nationwide Initiative to Expand Artistic and Personal Freedom for Creative Leaders in the Fields of Jazz, Contemporary Dance and Theatre.
 
NEW YORK, NY, April 19, 2012 — Twenty-one of America’s most vital and productive performing artists in contemporary dance, jazz, theatre and multidisciplinary work were announced today as the first class of Doris Duke Artists, sharing a total of $5.775 million awarded in an unprecedented new initiative of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF). Each member of the first class will receive an unrestricted, multi-year cash grant of $225,000, plus as much as $50,000 more in targeted support for retirement savings and audience development. Creative Capital, DDCF’s primary partner in the Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards, will also offer the awardees the opportunity to take part in professional development activities, financial and legal counseling, and grantee gatherings—all designed to help them maximize the use of their grants.
 
DDCF is granting these awards as part of a $50 million, ten-year commitment over and above its existing funding for the performing arts. By the end of the ten years, DDCF will have offered a total of at least 200 artists greatly expanded freedom to create, through an initiative that makes available the largest allocation of unrestricted cash grants ever given to individuals in contemporary dance, jazz, theatre and related fields. Provided to honorees through a rigorous, anonymous process of peer review—no applications are accepted—the grants are not tied to any specific project but are made as investments in the artists’ personal and professional development and future work.
 
DDCF is naming the first Doris Duke Artists in the year that marks the centenary of the birth of Doris Duke (1912-1993). The 2012 inaugural award recipients are:
• • •
Anne Bogart, theatre (New York, NY) Don Byron, jazz (New York, NY) Wally Cardona, dance (Brooklyn, NY) •  Rinde Eckert, multidisciplinary performance (Upper Nyack, NY) •    Bill Frisell, jazz (Seattle, WA) •    Deborah Hay, dance (Austin, TX) •    John Hollenbeck, jazz (Binghamton, NY) • Vijay Iyer, jazz (New York, NY) •  Marc Bamuthi Joseph, multidisciplinary performance (Oakland, CA) •    Elizabeth LeCompte, theatre (New York, NY) •  Young Jean Lee, theatre (Brooklyn, NY) •  Ralph Lemon, dance (New York, NY) •    Richard Maxwell, theatre (Brooklyn, NY) •  Sarah Michelson, dance (Brooklyn, NY) •  Bebe Miller, dance (New York, NY and Columbus, OH) •  Nicole Mitchell, jazz (Long Beach, CA and Chicago, IL) •  Meredith Monk, multidisciplinary performance (New York, NY) •  Eiko Otake, dance (New York, NY) •  Takashi Koma Otake, dance (New York, NY) •  Basil Twist, theatre (New York, NY) •  Reggie Wilson, dance (Brooklyn, NY)

Categories: Bebe Miller Company

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