A choreographers creative process in real time Wayne McGregor

as you might imagine I’m absolutely

passionate about dance I’m passionate

about making it about watching it’s

about encouraging others to participate

in it and I’m also really passionate

about creativity creativity for me is

something that’s absolutely critical and

I think it’s something that you can

teach I think the techni cities of

creativity could be taught and shared

and I think you can find out things

about your own personal physical

signature your own cognitive habits and

use that as a point of departure to

misbehave beautifully I was born in the

1970s and John Travolta was big in those

days grease Saturday Night Fever and he

provided a fantastic kind of male role

model for me to start dancing my parents

were very up for me going they

absolutely encouraged me to take risks

to go to try to try I had an opportunity

and access to a local dance studio and I

had an enlightened teacher who allowed

me to make up my own and invent my own

dances so what she did was let me make

up my own ballroom in lots of American

dances to teach to my peers and that was

the very first time that I found an

opportunity to feel but I was able to

express my own voice and that’s what’s

fuelled me then to become a

choreographer I feel like I’ve got

something to say and something to share

and I guess what’s interesting is that I

am now obsessed with the technology of

the body I think it’s the most

technologically literate thing that we

have and I’m absolutely obsessed with

finding a way of communicating ideas

through the body to audiences that might

move them touch them help them think

differently about things so for me

choreography is very much a process of

physical thinking it’s very much in mind

as well as in body and it’s a

collaborative process it’s something

that I have to do with other people you

know it’s a distributed cognitive

process in a way I work often with

designers and visual artists obviously

dances and other choreographers but also

more and more with economists

anthropologists neuroscientists

cognitive scientists people really who

come from very different domains of

expertise where they bring their

intelligence to bear on

different kind of creative process and

what I thought we would do today live a

bit is explore this idea of physical

thinking and we’re all experts in

physical thinking yeah you all have a

body right and we all know what that

body is like in the real world so one of

the aspects of physical thinking that we

think about a lot is this notion of

proprioception the sense of my own body

in the space in the real world so we all

understand what it feels like to know

where the ends of your fingers are when

you hold out your arms yeah you

absolutely know that when you’re going

to grab a cup or that cup moves and you

have to renovate it so we’re experts in

physical thinking already we just don’t

think about our bodies very much we only

think about them when they go wrong so

when there’s a broken arm or where you

have a heart attack then you become

really very aware of your bodies but how

is it that we can start to think about

using choreographic thinking kinesthetic

intelligence to arm the ways in which we

think about things more generally and

what I thought I’d do is I’d make a TED

premiere I’m not sure if this is gonna

be good or not I just continue I I

thought what I do I’d use three versions

of physical thinking to make something

I’d usually this is Paulo

this is Catarina they they have no idea

what we’re going to do so this is not

the type of choreography where I already

have in mind what I’m going to make

where I fixed the routine in my head and

I’m just going to teach it to them and

these so called empty vessels are just

going to learn it that’s not the

methodology at all that we work with but

what’s important about it is how it is

that they’re grasping information how

they taking information how they’re

using it and how they’re thinking with

it I’m going to start really really

simply usually downsize a stimulus or a

stimuli and I thought I’d take something

simple Ted logo we can all see it’s

quite easy to work with and I’m gonna do

something very simply where you take one

idea from a body and it happens to be my

body and translate that into somebody

else’s body so it’s a direct transfer

transformation of energy and I’m going

to imagine this you can do this too if

you like but I’m going to just take the

letter T and I’m going to imagine it in

mind and I’m going to place that outside

in the real world so I absolutely see a

letter T in front of me yeah it’s

absolutely there I can absolutely walk

around it and I see it yeah it has a

kind of a grammar I know I’m going to do

with it and I can start to

scribe it so I can describe very simply

I can describe it in my arms right so

all I did was take my hand and then I

move my hand I can describe it well in

my head yeah okay I can do also my

shoulder yeah it gives me something to

do something to work towards if I were

to take that letter T and flatten it

down on the floor here maybe just off

the floor all of a sudden I can do maybe

something with my knee yeah

so if I put the knee and the arms

together I’ve got something physical

yeah and I can start to build something

so what I’m gonna do just for one and a

half minutes or so is I’m gonna take

that concept I’m gonna make something

and the dancers behind me are going to

interpret it they’re going to snapshot

it we’re gonna take aspects of it and

it’s almost like I’m offloading memory

and they’re holding onto memory yeah and

we’ll see what we come up with so just

have a little watch about how they’re

how they’re accessing this and what

they’re doing and I’m just gonna take

this letter T the letter E and the

letter D to make something okay who goes

get myself in the zone

for some whales so all I’m doing is

exploring this space of T and flashing

through it with some action I’m not

remembering what I’m doing I’m just

working on my test and my tax this T

gonna watch it from this side so we’re

starting to build a phrase so what

they’re doing let’s see something like

that so what they’re doing is grasping

aspects of that movement and they’re

generating into a phrase you can see the

speed is extremely quick I’m not asking

them to copy exactly they’re using the

information they receive to generate the

beginnings of a phrase I can watch that

and that can tell me something about how

it is that they’re moving in a super

quick right so I’ve taken this aspect of

Ted and translated it into something

that’s physical some dancers when

they’re watching action take the overall

shape the arc of the move but the

kinetic sense of the movements and use

that for memory some work very much in

specific detail they start with small

little units and build it up okay but

something there’s one more thing

so they’re solving this problem for me

having a little they’re constructing

that phrase they have something and

they’re gonna hold on to it yeah one way

of making that’s gonna be my beginning

in this world premiere okay from now I’m

gonna do a very different thing so

basically I’m gonna make a duet I want

you to think about them as architectural

objects so what they are just pure lines

yeah I no longer people just pure lines

and I’m gonna work with them almost as

objects to think with yeah so what I’m

thinking about is taking a few physical

extensions from the body as I move and I

move them and I do that by suggesting

things to them if then if that’s okay so

here we go just grab this on can you

place that down into the floor can you

go underneath that site yeah can you

rotate boom to go back to the beginning

you go ready and bam bake hey ba boom

hey babe at once hey great

okay so you’re both getting up you’re

both getting up here we go good then so

from there from there we’re both getting

up we’re both getting up being in this

direction going underneath underneath

whoa underneath whoo yeah I’m doing jump

underneath jump power kick don’t care

where kick kick the place change your

leg kick the place change the leg yeah

okay okay almost get his head almost

gets head Wow after it maybe whoa Oh

grab a waist

well come up back into first one spin

turn oh haha

great okay little go for the beginning

of that slow let me slow down ago by the

first thing having eight

fancy fancy having eight hours with me

in a day and slightly it’s baby too much

so here we go ready and BAE BAE BAE on

hey hey hey hey hey hey hey

nice good job yeah okay okay not bad a

little bit more yeah just a little bit

more here we go from that place separate

face of Brunton separate face of fun

imagine that there’s a circle in front

of you

yeah avoid it avoid it boom kick it out

of the way kick it out of the way throw

it into the audience one throw into the

orders again we’ve got mental

architecture we’re sharing it therefore

solving a problem

they’re enacting it let me just see that

little bit ready and go bum hey hey hey

hey hey okay okay for the beginning can

we do off phrases first and then that

I’m gonna build something now organize

it the phrases here we go nice and slow

ready and go hey hey hey hey hey hey hey

the US starts pump fake hey hey hey hey

wait hey hey hey hey that one Bay and

that one bait and Daffy Duck Bank Bay ha

ha hey up yeah ok good ok so that was

mother that was a second the second way

working the first one body to body

transfer yeah with an outside mental

architecture that I work with that they

hold memory with for me the second one

which is using them as objects to think

with their architectural objects I do a

series of provocations I say if this

happens them that if this if that

happens I’ve got lots of methods like

that but it’s very very quick and this

is a third method they’re starting it

already and this is task based method

where they have the autonomy to make all

of the decisions for themselves so I’d

like assisted you we’re gonna do a

little mental dance a little in this

little one minute so what I’d love you

to do is imagine you can do this with

your eyes closed or open and if you

don’t want to do it you can watch them

it’s up to you just for a second think

about that word Ted in front of you so

it’s in mind and it’s there right in

front of your mind what I’d like you to

do is transplant that outside into the

real world so just imagine that word Ted

in the real word world I’d like you to

do with that his take an aspect of it

I’m gonna Zone in on the e and I’m gonna

scale that e so it’s absolutely massive

so I’m scaling that you so it’s

absolutely massive and then I really

give it dimensionality I’m going to

think about in 3d space so now instead

of it just being a letter that’s in

front of me it’s a space that my body

can go inside of I now decide where I’m

going to be in that space so I’m down on

this small part of the bottom rib of the

letter e and I’m thinking about it and

I’m imagining this space that’s really

high and above if I asked you to reach

out you don’t have to literally do it

but in mind reach out to the top of the

e where would you reach if you reach

with your finger where would it be if

you reached with your elbow where would

it be if I already then said about that

space that you’re in let’s infuse it

with the color red what does that do to

the body if I then said to you what

happens if that whole wall on the side

of the collapses and you have to use

your weights to put it back up what

would you be able to do with it

so this is a mental picture I’m

describing a mental vivid picture that

enables dancers to make choices for

themselves about what to make okay you

can open your eyes if you have them

close so the answers have been working

on them so just keep working on the

little second so they’ve been working on

those mental architectures in the here

I know I think we should keep them as a

surprise so he goes will premier dance

yeah here we go Ted dance okay here it

comes I’m gonna organize it quickly so

you’re gonna do the first so that we

made

yeah blah blah blah blah we go into the

duet yeah blah blah blah blah the next

solo blah blah blah blah

yeah I’m both at the same time you do

the last solutions okay okay ladies the

gentleman will premier Ted dance three

versions of physical thinking well clap

afterwards let’s use any good yeah so

let’s clap laughs yeah let’s clap up

this you go Catarina big moment you go

one BAE BAE ah hey Bay Bay bar babe um

baked Bay Bay Bay Bay de boom baye baye

baye baye baye baye baye baye baye baye

ah batten down and out and out and out

and bath Bay hey bath batten bay de dum

babe babe at bay bounce here it comes

cat batbabe at bay bay baby baton baton

batbabe at bakes pala go Bombay last you

through low Bombay that act everyone you

made Bombay bait bait uh eh uh eight ay

ay ay ay ay ay ay ay ay ay

hey Bay Bay bar well done okay good

super so-so

thank you so

three three virgins

Oh three three versions of physical

thinking yeah three versions of physical

thinking I’m hoping that today what

you’re going to do is go away make a

dance for yourself and it’s not that at

least misbehave more beautifully more

often thank you very much

we go