wHere, etc.: Choreo-Photo-Graphy Workshop

Compositional Frameworks for Dance
A workshop by David Bergé and Trajal Harrell

19th to 24th February, 2011 @ Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi

Wim Wenders has written that if you go to the cinema to see a film that claims to document something, you’re likely to be disappointed….you never actually get to see what you want to see, but rather an attitude towards it, an idea of it, an opinion about it.

When I first saw David’s work the images struck me as being ‘normal’. The photographs, to me an uneducated eye, did not seem to have any of the usual photographic flair. It is only when you delve deeper that you notice the naturalness of the movement, the rational frames, the objects in the periphery and the colours of reality which actually encourage this perception of normality and you realise that this perhaps is exactly what he intends.

The first activity that Trajal introduced at this workshop was a discussion on whether choreography could be separated from dance and vice versa. He went on to quote Bojana Cvejić “If the body I dance with and the body I work and walk with are one and the same, I must necessarily entertain the suspicion that all of the body’s movements are, to a greater or lesser extent, choreographed.”

This workshop did not approach learning as we in this part of the world understand it, where one teaches and the rest listen, but rather was about conversations and collaboration while exploring thoughts and concepts, which slowly but surely led to a shift in perception.

Yeah! David and Trajal – Go on.

What do photographers see when they look at a dance? What do dancers see when they look at an image? This workshop was an interdisciplinary journey in photography and movement for dancers and photographers alike. The workshop focussed on the ability to articulate perception: how the eye frames, selects, and understands information from the visual field. The idea was to develop and share compositional understanding.

David Bergé is a photographer working on the intersection of photography and choreography.His artistic practice consists of performance walk projects, performance installations, photographic projections integrated in choreographies and traditional acts of photography.

Trajal Harell is a dancer-choreographer from New York City, USA. His current work proposes an alternative historicity of early postmodern American dance. His choreographic works have been seen widely in the US and internationally in Berlin, Amsterdam, Angers and Mexico City.

Organised by the Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi and The Gati Dance Forum.

The following are a few images that were made by the participants during this workshop.