Collapsing time / mystic math

i think i've mentioned the mystic math of performance before (re: comedy) - it's really an odd thing - and i think applies to number of people and time.

I've become very much into the idea that Time is actually the central ontology of dance (articulated well by André Lepecki in Live). Reading his article, an aspect of AH's project (that I'm dramaturging) was made clear (a feeling on the edge of language crystalizing) - a the solo's suddenly becoming about that as much as space or movement.

In the solo's we found 20 minutes to be the only time that worked. Longer was too long, shorter too short. The feeling (for lack of better word) that we wanted existed at 20 minutes. And that feeling had to do with a treatment of time, relating to the prior notes about anxiety in away - length was needed to aclimatize us to the space.

The moment we added another performer - CD and IS running their solo's simultaneously, this quality disappeared. The option to look somewhere else meant that we (as audience) no longer had to in time with the performer. When CD falls ten times, I could watch what IS was doing, thereby stopping the duration of CD's falls.

This was less true in a larger space, which adds another factor.

also music as keeper of time.

incomplete