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 This page is the informal log of my transiency process, in reverse chronological order.
+- 11 September
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+Full week of a new rhythm. Both of our kids are going to school in Brussels. It means a very different schedule for them and for us. Waking up at 6:30h to prepare breakfast and lunch for Faust kind of messes up the whole day. I'm not an early bird you could say. Such an early start makes me feel slow and lost. I guess after while i will get used to it.
+At FoAM mainly dealing with various rental requests. It looks like this autumn it will be a few longer events using our space. It is great. But i feel i have to put a limit on it as well, because it does consume lots of time and energy to menage it all. I still want to explore a few things my self.
+I bought a new photo camera. Well it is an old Nikon F4. I never had a device with so many buttons on it. Spending my days studying the manual and taking some shots. It is very exiting. Can't wait to see the results.
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+This year i've been investing lots of time in making bread.We have the bread making machine but i find that the bread made that way gets old very quickly and always taste the same. I like the process of bread making a lot. Even i don't eat it so much of it my self i find it magic to experiment with different ways of mixing the dough and baking it.
+This week i found maybe the most favourite recipe so far. It is inspired by Scandinavian so called 'night bread":
+glasses of flour (i use spelt but any kind of white flour will do)
+glass of warm water
+tea spoon of salt
+spoon of brown sugar (i use honey in stead)
+tea spoons of dry yeast
+glass of mixture of seeds, nuts, raisins...
+Put it all ingredients in a large bowl. Mixed with the spoon until all the ingredients are blended well together ( dough should stay liquidy). Transfer the dough into the bread form ( lined with paper if it is a metal or ceramic one), close the top well with plastic foil and place it into the fridge over the night or at least for 8H. Remove the foil and bake it in non preheated oven at 150°c for about 1:30h.
+August-4 September
+Back to Belgium, back to home, back to FoAM, back to the routine of school work home. The intensity of the summer manifested in the new sort of physical pain. As i was very happy to be painless for a few weeks before i left on holiday, as much disappointed i felt now. Being absent for such a long time requires lots of attention to the things that i left "hanging". First of all i had to deal with Parkdesign. The very well received proposal didn't get followed up by the person responsible. She has send information about the practicalities and new demands so late in august that i had no choice than to cancel the whole thing. I think festivals like Parkdesign are great, but perhaps it should be clearly stated in their mission that they wish to work with starting artist that have lots of time on their hands and don't mind "improvised" organisation. On the other hand i felt relieved. Still not ready to do anything public.
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+-28 August
+The abstract sound composer of the last century Varèse has ones said "...think of music as an arrangement of objects in space, and keep in mind how long it takes for any sound to travel through the hall." If i would paraphrase this sentence for dance and choreography it should sound something like this: Dance is an arrangement of metaphors in space that takes lots of time and invisible patterns for body to travel trough.
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+I spend this week like a fairytale in the tower of Frankfurt. Living and working intensively with Eisa & co on the new piece that explores happiness in the context of Disney animation films and Disney theme parks. Finally hot summer week but almost entire time spend indoors. I really didn't mind. The view from our rooms and studio was stunning. It felt like living and working above the busing city and seeing clearly hills on one side and forrest on the other. It was a dream week. Working in what it seems like a busy cultural institution. Due to an extra efficient german organisation allowed us to work uninterrupted by anyone els. We could choose when and how we want to work without any obligations to interact with the other artist groups present in the house at the same time. In fact we spend almost entire time with only 4 of us (Eisa and a new dance partner Josh, composer Marc and me). We would start every morning at 10h with the discussion and more theoretical analysis of the subject and elements, set the frame work and goals for a day, go for lunch around 14h work more until 19-20h, go for dinner, have long conversations over glas of wine in the kitchen, go to sleep. Do exactly the same the next day. And in the weekend i was joined by Pieter and Faust that came to see the open rehearsal. Working on something that you love, with people that are professional and interesting, concentrating only on one project, having lots of fun by improvising, not having pressure to define what the final result has to be, not needing to deal with any practical stuff made this week very precious.
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+I was asked again a few times about what exact involvement of mine is in this kind of work. And it is not easy to explain. In the dance world there are only a few job descriptions ( dancer, choreographer, dramaturg, mentor...) neither of which fits to what i do. But after this week it became a lot more clear how to describe it:
+I facilitate creative process by helping artist to analyse chosen topic, extracting clear elements and clustering ideas. Next to this i create a frame work where all of the above can be explored more deeply and translated onto the body work. Ones the dance vocabulary and choreographically patterns/strategies are established i help to polish off the movement details keeping a close eye that it still corresponds with topic discussed.
+Apparently this kind of work in dance world it is very new. And no one els is doing it like that...
 July- 21 August
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-It has started with an extremely intensive and complex week in Panevezys where i facilitated a project Migrating Birds. The aim of the project was to bring a divers group of people to create ideas and projects to revive the city. The goals where achieved, projects created and participants inspired. But a small group of organising team that we where was left with a bitter taste and completely drained of our energy. My colleague that agreed to assist me wasn't familiar with the methods i was using and was stressing out all the time.The second assistant that was suppose to help out had to concentrate on the other issues that appeared after being too generous to accommodate many wishes of the participants. I was mostly left alone with a lot larger group than agreed and deal with the problems that i had not much experience with (such as writing press reports and so on...).On top of all this during the week we realised how complex the topic we are working is. The city that after independence became ruled by mafia gangs, 3 very large industry sectors collapsed and got abandoned, cultural life that lived only on the legends of a few intellectuals that past away years ago and even a river that sometimes runs backwards against its current... We new this before we arrived but we couldn't estimate beforehand how deeply these problems still are rooted in the daily life of the citizens. (Even the hotel we stayed in is obviously build on illegal money...) How much energy it took for us to keep everyone calm and not start fighting. Well we kept it all under control... Or almost under control. The last evening blood was spilled... and the largest quantity on the mayors jacket. Such a reality check...
+It has started with an extremely intensive and complex week in Panevezys where i facilitated a project Migrating Birds. The aim of the project was to bring a divers group of people to create ideas and projects to revive the city. The goals where achieved, projects created and participants inspired. But a small group of organising team that we where was left with a bitter taste and completely drained of our energy. My colleague that agreed to assist me wasn't familiar with the methods i was using and was stressing out all the time.The second assistant that was suppose to help out had to concentrate on the other issues that appeared after being too generous to accommodate many wishes of the participants. I was mostly left alone with a lot larger group than agreed and deal with the problems that i had not much experience with (such as writing press reports and so on...). On top of all this during the week we realised how complex the topic we are working is. The city that after independence became ruled by mafia gangs, 3 very large industry sectors collapsed and got abandoned, cultural life that lived only on the legends of a few intellectuals that past away years ago and even a river that sometimes runs backwards against its current... We new this before we arrived but we couldn't estimate beforehand how deeply these problems still are rooted in the daily life of the citizens. The mafia behaviour that in the 90-s had a clear visible "dress code" now is hidden underneath the black suits and still so powerfully present in the daily city life. How much energy it took for us to keep everyone calm and not start fighting! Well we kept it all under control... Or almost under control. But the last evening blood was spilled... and the largest quantity on the mayors jacket. Such a painful reality check...
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-As part of my transiency i can only say i managed to facilitate the whole event on my own. From the initial design to the implementation. All worked well and gave me a lot more confidence to do this in some less complicated circumstances. And be strict with organisers about things we agreed upon ( number of participants, extra activities, help needed...) Also measure well the energy spend vs getting back.
+As part of my transiency i can only say i managed to facilitate the whole event on my own. From the initial design to the implementation and even graphic documentation that proudly found its place and the main room of Touristic Office of the city. All methods and exercises worked well and gave me a lot more confidence to do this in some less complicated circumstances. Also be strict with organisers about things we agreed upon ( number of participants, extra activities, help needed...) And most importantly measure well the energy spend vs getting back.
-On a plus side i've visited one of the abandoned factories Ekranas. I feel very sorry that i couldn't spend more time there in the compleet vastness. The space is huge and so empty like a set for cinema.
+On a plus side this week i visited one of the abandoned factories Ekranas. I feel very sorry that i couldn't spend more time there in the complete vastness. The space is huge and so empty like a set for cinema. The light traveling trough the space from one side to another makes it dance with the shadows.
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-After that the holiday followed. But it seemed as if all the good weather was spend on the week in Panevezys and all we had left was only dark clouds,rain and low temperature.So instead of settling somewhere we traveled around without meeting too many people. One of the top destinations was a city of Visaginas. It was built as a town for workers engaged in the construction of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (exact replica of Chernobyl).
+After that the holiday followed. But it seemed as if all the good weather was spend on the week in Panevezys and all we had left was only dark clouds, rain and low temperature. I was not ready to socialise and meet lots of people as i usually do during the visits in Lithuania. So instead of settling somewhere we traveled around without seeing too many human beings. One of the top destinations was a city of Visaginas. It was built as a town for workers engaged in the construction of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (exact replica of Chernobyl). According to a few besides Visaginas is seen as a perfect example how to build a green city from scratch. Originally planned to be shaped like a butterfly with lots of interconnecting bicycle and walking paths, green squares and a surrounding pine forrest, this city still has a feel of some kind of health resort.
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-It is a city- museum. I never been in city build only in Soviet style. The development of the city stopped after decision to close the nuclear power plant was taken. So it is really unspoiled and feels like traveling back in time. Even people still dress the same.
+It is a city- museum. I never been in city build only in Soviet style. The development of it stopped after decision to close nuclear power plant was taken. So it is really unspoiled and feels like traveling back in time. Even people still dress the same.
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