Blog – Page 97 – Bourgeon

Fair Use Copyright Law for Artists

Editor

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May 22, 2009

Creators today may assert copyright ownership of their creations, but this does not necessarily limit the public’s legal access to or usage of their work. Fair Use copyright law is intended to protect usage of a copyrighted work for criticism, comment, new reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. In application and implication, Fair Use law has significant impact on creators, scholars, and journalists.

Fair Use law is different from some other areas of the law in that legality of an action depends on several factors. Harvard Law School Professor and copyright expert Charles Nesson wrote, “Fairness is a standard, not a rule….No simple definition of fair use can be fashioned, no bright line test exists.” The U.S. Copyright Office outlines four factors in determining whether or not usage of a copyrighted work is fair (legal):

“The purpose and character of the use….the nature of the copyrighted work….the amount and substantiality of the portion used…. and, the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.”

In order to clarify some of the inherent fuzziness in the law, practice communities (such as book publishers, movie producers, and the music industry) are empowered to create Statements of Fair Use. These Statements document common allowable usages, and outline (but do not define) the ways in which a member of the public may use copyrighted material without reasonable threat of legal repercussion.

On Friday May 8th, 2009, the Dance Heritage Coalition presented the results of their multi-year project to develop a new Statement of Fair Use for Dance-related Materials. The mission of the Dance Heritage Coalition is to improve the ability of the dance community to retain and utilize materials documenting the art form. According to Project Director Libby Smigel, through developing and publicizing the new Fair Use Statement, the Dance Heritage Coalition hopes to encourage increased access to and usage of Dance-related materials. Smigel asserted that one reason archival materials remain out of sight to the public and researchers is confusion over copyright, and fear of lawsuits. The press release for the event noted, “it hasn’t been clear how librarians, archivists, and curators can legally use.… images and texts.” The issues addressed in the new Dance-related Materials Statement are common to other art forms. Fair Use access issues apply to images, videos, notes, copies, and recordings of any type.

In an explanation of Fair Use issues on their website, the Copyright Alliance (a trade association dedicated to tracking copyright issues) explains, “An individual does not have the ‘right’ to make use of another’s copyright work…. [Fair Use may apply] when someone already has a copy of a copyrighted work and makes copies, distributes, performs, alters, or displays that work and the copyright owner subsequently challenges that use of the work as being an infringement. In that case, the person could raise a defense of fair use.” Fair Use law is not intended as a defense for people who are simply too lazy to seek copyright permission.

The impact on the financial value of a copyrighted material is a central issue in settlement of Fair Use-defended law suits. Writing on his website the marketer-cum-journalist Brad Templeton reported, “Famously, copying just 300 words from Gerald Ford’s 200,000 word memoir for a magazine article was ruled as not fair use, in spite of it being very newsworthy, because it was the most important 300 words — why he pardoned Nixon.” Artists would be well-served to empower their own usage and the usage of others by considering how fair use law applies to their work.

The best way to be certain of the legality of one’s usage of a copyrighted material is to seek copyright permission. In the event that copyright permission is not secured, Statements of Fair Use articulated by practice communities provide guidelines for usage, and defense in case of prosecution. To receive a copy of the new Fair Use Statement in Dance-Related Materials produced by the Dance Heritage Coalition, or to learn more about the document, visit www.danceheritage.org.

-Robert Bettmann, Editor

A (informal/unsophisticated) Conversation on Laban’s Efforts by Cheryl Palonis Adams

Editor

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May 14, 2009

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A (informal/unsophisticated) Conversation on Laban’s Efforts by Cheryl Palonis Adams

In 2007 and 2008, I attended The Laban-Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies weekend studies program, resulting in my Certified Movement Analyst (CMA) degree. While attending this course, friends of mine would sometimes ask, “What do you do there all weekend?”

Many people know nothing about Laban’s work, and even people who have heard of Laban are easily confused by its complex vocabulary. In answering a question on my final exam I produced this informal and somewhat tongue-in-cheek response to the question.

——

So, you want to know about my adventure with Laban? Well, let’s sit on the porch in the sunshine, have a glass of wine or two, and I’ll try to make some sense out of it for you.

Rudolf Laban was a Renaissance Man, a kind of educated dilettante, who dabbled in the arts and mathematics, and a few zillion other areas. He was fascinated with movement and the human body – in not a simply “theoretical” way. (He evidently had quite the way with the ladies.) Laban had a wife, and many affairs, and obviously a lot of free time in which to develop his theories. I think one of the reasons why he focused his erudition on body movement was to get those women – and men – out frolicking in the nude in nature.

In the early 1940s in Europe, Laban was hired to study factory workers in order to help industry find the most economical movements for workers (in terms of their own bodies and their factory output). He saw that repetitive motions could result in muscle dysfunction unless they were balanced with opposite muscle movements to provide Recuperation. He labeled this series of balancing actions, Efforts. The German word he actually used means “driving on” or an impulse that comes from inside, but he translated it into the English word ‘Effort’. He had difficulty with the translation; maybe that’s why some of what he wrote is so dense and confusing.

From what he observed, Laban divided Effort into four ‘Factors’: Flow, Weight, Time and Space. Each Factor is comprised of two elements: Free Flow and Bound Flow; Light Weight and Strong Weight; Sustained Time and Quick Time; and Direct Space and Indirect Space.

Flow has to do with whether a movement is fluid or restrained. Free Flow is an action that cannot stop suddenly, while Bound Flow is an action that can be easily arrested. If I’m “holding on” to keep from slipping on ice in my driveway, I’m probably using Bound Flow. If I throw this apple core out into the yard, then I could be using Free Flow.

Direct Space Effort has to do with pinpointing something; so if I point to that cherry tree in the orchard because I want you to look specifically at it, I’d be using Direct Space Effort. But if I want you to get an idea of the scope of our property, I could sweep my arm side-to-side to take in everything, and this would be multi-focused Indirect Space Effort.

Weight Effort seems fairly obvious. I can show you some Strong Weight by pounding on the table. Okay?!?! But, if I brush some of the lint from your shirt, I’m using Light Weight.

Time Effort can be tricky because it doesn’t really have to do with time in “length of time” or “chronology,” rather with how you approach time. (Oh, Laban was big on Intent — all the Efforts have some kind of personal, internal Intent. That has to do with what you want your movement to say and mean. In the end, it’s all about meaning and communication.) I can have an hour to get something accomplished and approach it in a rush as if I have only a minute, in Quick Time; or I can have five minutes to get the same thing completed and approach it as if I have all day, in Sustained Time. What is confusing is that Quick Time is not constant speed; Sustained Time is not constant slowness. It’s about the increasing and decreasing of Time. You can’t “see” Time Effort without contrast. In fact, it’s difficult to specifically pinpoint any of the Effort qualities without contrast because you can see the Effort quality only at the moment it is changing.

So, those are just the very basics of the Effort Factors. Laban’s work also has a connection with the study of Jung’s theories. For instance, Flow corresponds to feeling; Space has to do with thinking; Weight relates to sensing; and Time is involved with intuiting. When I observe movements, I’m trying to make connections between the movement and the meaning — a sort of non-verbal communication theory.

Laban saw innumerable connections between spatial forms and movement, and he observed that certain Efforts occurred in certain spatial configurations. He found that we usually move Upward with Lightness and Downward with Strength. If I reach up to grab something from the cupboard, I’d be going Up with Light Weight; but if I’m splitting a piece of wood, I’d be going Down with Strength. This doesn’t mean that you can’t do the opposite; Laban called these opposites, Disaffinities. I know it sounds complicated. The scary part is that I actually make sense of this, and I’ve been able to use these theories in classes and choreography.

No, we’re not finished yet. YOU’RE NEVER FINISHED WITH Laban Movement Analysis!

Every time you think you know something and understand the concept, there’s another question, and you’re back at square one. And a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. I think that’s why Laban was so dangerous — he had a little knowledge about a lot of things and tried to put them all together in an intelligent (cerebral) way. And, he often did not answer questions directly. I guess that’s another reason why so many people kept hanging around him: they were waiting for an answer, so they thought they might as well have a good time while they were waiting.

Laban decided that identifying these Efforts just wasn’t enough. He had to add them together and come up with what he called States and Drives. States are combinations of 2 Efforts, and Drives are combinations of 3 Efforts. He named all of these, too–6 States and 4 Drives. No, there aren’t any with 4 Efforts (although this is possible); but if there were, you’d probably be in one now because I can see that you may not have been serious when you asked me to tell you what I did in this course. Maybe we could call 4-Effort combinations — Drive Aways!

Laban analysis provides insight into the emotional and spiritual values of movement. When I couple the Jungian concepts with Laban’s, I can ask myself questions like: “Is my impact on others Strong or Light?” I can work on figuring out how to express Outwardly what I’m Intending Inwardly by considering the Efforts I am projecting.

I’ve probably lost you by now….. Just remember for the future: if you ask me a question, you are likely to get an answer! If this information piques your interest to learn more about Laban and Laban Analysis, I recommend Karen K. Bradley’s book, Rudolf Laban, published by Routledge.

Cheryl Palonis Adams has an M.F.A. in Dance from the University of Utah, a B.A. in Humanities/Dance from Wayne State University, Maryland Teacher Certification in 5-12 English, and is a Certified Movement Analyst (CMA). Cheryl has taught dance at the University of Toledo and St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and k-12 dance in the private and public sectors. Most recently, Cheryl taught English and Dance for Calvert County Public Schools where she directed the student company, CalvertCrossCurrents Dance and served as choreographer for the Theatre Department. She is a member of the Southern Maryland Modern Dance Collective, serves on the National Dance Education Organization’s (NDEO) Board of Directors, and is the Associate Editor of the Journal of Dance Education (JODE).

Isadora Duncan and Vaslav Nijinsky

Editor

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May 14, 2009

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Last week Isadora Duncan (May 26, 1877 – September 14, 1927) would have celebrated her 138th birthday. Two of my dance colleagues forward the following rememberance of Isadora, from Mary Fanton Roberts:

“I recall one memorable time when a little party of us were together at a studio luncheon in New York, and both Isadora and Nijinsky were there. After the table had been cleared away, some one played the piano. I cannot recall who it was, but it was one of the great men playing divinely.

And Isadora and Nijinsky danced together — Isadora creating the dance as the music flowed from the piano, and Nijinksy dancing with her as though he had rehearsed each entirely new measure for weeks. It was an amazing performance — Isadora’s extraordinary power of instantaneous creation and Nijinksy’s sensitive response to her mood and to the music.”

Here is the link to the only known authentic clip of Isadora dancing.

Safety Release Technique by Camerin Allgood McKinnon

Editor

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May 4, 2009

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Safety Release Technique by Camerin Allgood McKinnon

I will be teaching a free ‘Introduction to Safety Release Technique’ workshop on Thursday mornings in May (7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th) at Dance Place’s annex studio H (3225 8th St. NE, Washington DC 20017 – very close to Brookland Metro.) The class is open to experienced movers not just dancers, anyone that has a clear sense of their own body and how it moves through space. Please contact me if you’re interested: allgoodesigns@gmail.com.

BJ Sullivan developed Safety Release Technique through integration of her understanding of Release Technique and other Somatic practices. I had the pleasure of studying with BJ for several years while working toward my BFA at UNC Greensboro, and am very excited to introduce this work to the DC area. Most modern dance classes are a compilation of everything that an individual artist has studied; it is rare to find a codified modern movement technique class. I am looking forward to further developing my own teaching of the technique, which is why I am offering the workshop for free, and continuing to study this movement with other artists.

Personally, I was not so much drawn to Safety Release Technique as pulled to it with an undeniable force. As a bright-eyed high school senior I visited the University of North Carolina at Greensboro to check out the campus, and the dance department. One of the classes that my mom and I observed was BJ Sullivan’s advanced level technique class. I remember thinking to myself: They’re all rolling around on the floor. I want to roll around on the floor just like that. I remember feeling the movement very strongly in my own body just watching the class.

One of the most powerful things about Safety Release, watching class and later practicing it myself, is the intimate relationship with the floor. The technique asks the dancer to initiate movement from the centeredness of the core using breath, weight and momentum instead of through muscular force, and to further develop the movement from that place. Floor work is an integral part of the technique.

When you dance standing up, there is often a linear quality – similar to standing or walking. I love the connectivity and freedom to be found when dancing without the concern of balance/falling off your feet. Movement on the floor can be done with eyes closed and full internal attention to what is occurring within the body. With some practice, freedom found on the floor can be transferred to standing. It is the ease allowed by dancing on the floor, the repetition of movement, and the fluidity of Safety Release that permits inner investigation of movement as opposed to external visual focus.

The technique is focused on personal discovery. BJ likes to say that when she can do it “right” she will quit dancing. Each class offers a new opportunity to explore the movements through your own body. I find the continued opportunity to discover more, to further develop even the most basic movement sequences, very inspiring. Also, Safety Release has helped me to redefine success. Success is discovering something new each time you walk into the studio, and the work to maintain that focus. Studying Safety Release Technique taught me a process for being a dancer. There’s a connection with the metaphysical through the physical movement.

Safety Release Technique has a visceral circularity. I immediately related to this connectivity as my personal movement aesthetic is closely tied to fluidity and enjoying the pathway from one movement to the next. In understanding the movement vocabulary students are encouraged to focus on metaphor and create a story for themselves within the movement. This story or metaphysic understanding allows the mind to fully connect with the work of the body.

So that we are comfortable being really open together in listening to our bodies, I begin each class with a short community building activity. I try to encourage the class to the sense that we are more than a bunch of individuals sharing a space – we are a community sharing a common experience. It’s important that we are comfortable discussing our bodies and personal understanding of their capabilities in this specific movement vocabulary, and what is and isn’t working.

The movement is codified and taught in order very much like a ballet class. You will always do side hooked arm leg swings in a Safety Release class, just as in a ballet class you will always do tendue. Once you understand the mechanics of a side hooked arm leg swing each class offers moments to more fully explore that movement individually. Each movement flows directly into the next.

If you have any questions, thoughts or comments about the technique I’d be happy to respond to your comment here. I have benefited enormously from studying Safety Release Technique, and hope that you’ll join me for my workshop at Dance Place annex studio H on Thursday mornings in May.

Camerin Allgood McKinnon, a Georgia Peach from Atlanta, developed a love for dance as part of Metro Dance Company in Decatur. She received her BFA Degree in performance and choreography from University of North Carolina at Greensboro in May of 2007. After graduation Camerin moved to Washington DC as an intern at Dance Place where she has since transitioned into staff. She also works with Mason/Rhynes Productions. Camerin has done performed locally in projects with Kayla Hamilton, Reggie Glass, Heather Doyle and Coyaba Dance Theater. She is currently apprenticing in Gesel Mason Performance Projects Women Sex and Desire: Sometimes you feel like a ho, sometimes you don’t. Camerin also teaches, working with all ages. She has been particularly inspired by her work with students with disabilities.

Images of Camerin are by Enoch Chan. Copyright (c) Enoch Chan, 2009

David Koteen on Caught Falling

Editor

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May 4, 2009

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Hi. David Koteen here. Recently I completed a book with and about Nancy Stark Smith, entitled Caught Falling. Many of you will know Nancy as an experienced performer and teacher of the dance form Contact Improvisation.

In Contact Improvisation there’s no leader, no follower. No hierarchy. Contact Improvisation is democratic by its nature. Just bring your best game to the floor, make a point of contact, and begin. Follow and lead. Stay connected.

Our experience participating in the development of Contact has occurred in moment after moment. Creating Falling with Nancy, we realized that there was no way to summarize years of experience. Our book contains selected episodes from our experiences together with Contact Improvisation.

Because we are both such dedicated Contacters, every step in creating this book encouraged another step. Caught Falling is our dance, 14 years in the making and hardly breathing hard.

Following is the Table of Contents with a taste or two from each section.

David Koteen 5/4/09

Table of Contents

Prologue

Nancy and I have been working on this book, Caught Falling, on and off, in fits and starts, since 1994. It has truly been an engagement of two Aquarian, writer-type, Contact Improvisers. Fun, research, and exploration; very challenging, always moving. A slow long-distance dance.

Caught Falling is about Nancy’s life, about Contact Improvisation, about our mutual devotion to this endlessly delightful art-sport. We’ve generated volumes of material, edited and reedited, replaced, sought counsel, laughed at our complicated musings. How like a river the book caught us up in its current. Who knew where it would take us? What it would be?

Since the beginning of the project, my intention with Caught was to further disseminate information about CI, with Nancy as the medium: How she has unhesitatingly taken on major roles as Contact archivist, continuous editor of Contact Quarterly, initiator of CI25, and on and on. How she has wandered the globe like some peripatetic diva, embodying the spirit of Contact in her teaching, writing, performing, workshops, dance—life.

Take a look at Caught Falling; make contact with it; jam awhile…enjoy the ride!

From: What Is Contact Improvisation

Contact Improvisation (CI) is, at its root, a duet dance form based on the dialogue of weight, balance, reflex, and impulse between two moving bodies that are in physical contact. The form was first presented during a series of performances that took place in New York City in June 1972 at the John Weber Gallery, conceived and directed by American choreographer Steve Paxton.

It is a free play with balance, self-correcting the wrong moves and reinforcing the right ones, bringing forth a physical/emotional truth about a shared moment of movement that leaves the participants informed, centered, and enlivened.

When I asked Steve recently what he thought the “core proposition” of Contact Improvisation was, at first he said he didn’t know, but on further reflection he offered this: “Do under others as you would have them do under you.”

From: Epi-chrono-logue

From 1985 to 1990, prior to Raku and the falling rose incident, I had more observed Nancy from afar: teaching, laughing, singing, skipping – being best friends with her body – running backwards (eyes closed, standing by river in red beret) headstand with braid swishing like panther’s tail. Seamlessly fearless. We shared an occasional dance, lunch, happenstance, flash dialogue, random meeting. In Nancy I found a sophisticated sororal ally. An amphibious monkey creature, who like me, luxuriated in movement, romance, service and freedom.

My self had become rededicated to the principle of self-liberation through assistance to others on their respective paths…and here she was, Nancy, embracing her own karma, being her own gravity.

We shared a craving for precise language, art/icu/lation. Giving things their proper names. I suggested an interview, or intra-view, or VIEWS: our first working title.

I had been published on and off by The Sun Magazine and wrote editor Sy Safransky, January 1994, about interviewing NSS on CI for The Sun…..

From: He Made Me Do It

Caught Falling is a book for you to enter anywhere, follow along with, skip around in, imagine your own answers to the questions, be amused, be informed, enjoy in your own time. Follow the faces and the passage of time through a life; a family; an extended family of relatives, colleagues and friends. Imagine your life in it.

I have benefited beyond calculation from the profound teachings and enlivening practice of Contact Improvisation. Thank you Contact, thank you Steve, thank you David, thank you Contacters all over the world. May the benefit of our work and our pleasure in the dancing continue to multiply.

Nancy Stark Smith 2008

Simone Forti’s Talk Bubble

Color is light, and Nancy has an eye for color. Delicate
and precise. Deep red, pale yellow, purple black, sky
blue. A touch of juniper. I’ve often wondered what
other animals must think of us, always changing
clothes, changing colors, so they can’t say of
us “the one that hangs out by the creek; the gray
one with white marking on its breast.” But of Nancy
they can always say, “The one that gives off light,
like wild flowers clustered in a clearing.”

From: Questions and Answers

David: I often describe Contact Improvisation as an American martial art but with no defense. Comment?

Nancy: And no offense? Defense and offense are communications that probably occur in CI too. But in CI, the intention of the activity is not to fight or prevail over the other or to neutralize their aggression, but to dance together. Perhaps in CI you could call it action and reaction. Yes, like martial arts: always being in the ready state. Maybe it’s closest to tai chi “push hands” practice, where you’re testing each others readiness to respond.

David: Currently for me, intimacy is the new road, the work, the way. Intimacy and touch go hand in hand. And contrary-wise, non-intimacy and non-touch lead to abuse and bayonets. As Karen Nelson so aptly stated: “Contact is the “touch revolution.”

Nancy: In Contact Improvisation, you need to be able to harmonize with your partner physically and energetically to dance with abandon safely. To read and be read through the surface of the skin takes patience and speed. It requires being aware of yourself and the other at the same time, often sharing a common center of balance – synchronizing weight, rhythm, and timing enough to proceed. This does tend to reinforce cooperation rather than aggression. In Contact, initiative can replace aggression.

From: Steve Paxton’s Backwords

As Contact Improvisation has enlarged geographically, it has become more inclusive socially. Ballet dancers, modern dancers, postmodern dancers, folks with disabilities, and just plain folks have ventured into the swirl of it. Apparently, a new common dance has emerged.

It is difficult for me to imagine the developments of the past quarter century without feeling gratitude for the keys Nancy has provided, the doors she has opened. She has made it possible for us to know ourselves and maintained a forum for our words, which will give future dancers an idea of this period.

From: Life Stories

Quitting smoking

Thanks to Bill’s support, I quit smoking on January 28, 1986, which turned out to be the day that I was interviewing Bonnie Cohen and also the day the space shuttle Challenger blew up. Quitting smoking opened up a deep, raw emotional flow that I hadn’t realize was constricted; it introduced me to sadness I didn’t know I had and taught me how to tolerate my own tears. It was tremendously empowering to be able to give up a pleasurable but enslaving addiction.

From: The Underscore

What it is

The Underscore is a framework for practicing and researching dance improvisation that I’ve been developing since the early 1990’s. It is a score that guides dancers through a series of “changing states,” from solo deepening/releasing and sensitizing to gravity and support; through group circulation and interaction, Contact Improvisation (CI) engagements, opening out to full group improvisation with compositional awareness, and back to rest and reflection.

The Underscore can be seen as a vehicle for incorporating Contact Improvisation into a broader arena of improvisational practice; for creating greater ease for dancing in spherical space – alone and with others; and for integrating kinesthetic and compositional concerns while improvising. The Underscore is also being used in the CI community worldwide as a way to focus and concentrate Contact jams.

Dedications

This book is dedicated to probing life’s mysteries through movement, and to the people whose work that is.
NSS

To self-liberation & simultaneous liberation of others, which is both sides of Contact Improv.
DK

Caught Falling is distributed by:
Contact Editions
P.O. Box 603
Northampton, MA 01061