Mark Tompkins
American dancer, choreographer, singer and teacher, he founds the Company I.D.A. in 1983. His unique way of fabricating unidentified performance objects that mix dance, music, voice, text and video has become his signature. Renowned for his teaching, his passion for Real time composition leads him to collaborate with many dancers and musicians internationally. In 2008, he received the SACD Choreography prize for his work. Fascinated by the friction between high and low culture, his shows are inspired by music-hall, burlesque, musical comedy and the ambivalence of gender. He sings and dances with composer Sarah Murcia, collaborates with choreographer Mariana Tengner Barros, and with Meg Stuart in improvised performances and a book about Real time composition.
Real time composition/ Serious Fun
When improvising, each performer is working simultaneously on many different levels of perception; listening, watching, sensing, acting, reacting to one’s self and one’s partners in a given space and time. The art of real time composition resides in the ability to remain open to the wealth of internal and external impulses AND to receive, process and propose material in an uninterrupted flow of feedback. How to stay attentive, how to avoid overload, how to do nothing and still act?
These are some of the questions we will address through a series of improvisations, games and simple scores, from solo to group, that explore vision, listening and touch. Then, we’ll practice performing the essential keys of RTC: the question of choice, intuitive and voluntary states, simultaneous time, letting go, the relationship between the performer and the witness. Moments of analysis accompany the atelier.
