No:4/11

Choreographic Research:"On The Edge"

Instantaneous or real time composition is an ongoing research for me for more than 25 years . As long as I’ve been performing, I’ve been improvising. The renewed general interest in improvisational performance is in part due to the refocusing of movement back to body consciousness and the eternal questioning of the basic need to move and express ideas and emotions through the vehicle of our body minds.

Why move? Why improvise? Why perform? Some of the questions I formulate in my current teaching and practice:
-Who am I addressing when I perform?
-What is my responsibility to myself and others?
-When do I take the risk to abandon and/or contaminate my individual or the group body/mind?
-Where do I position myself in the space and the time of present tense?
-Why do I project past and future desires and fears rather than simply acknowledge the present?
-How can I keep the spirit or curiosity and surprise alive?

This workshop is open to experienced improvisers and performers, and will conclude with public performance.

SEMÝNAR:
"Complex Images"
Presetations of the performances "Song and Dance" and "Animal"

PERFORMANCE: HOMMAGES

Mark Tompkins has created and performed many solos, the most recent being "La Valse de Vaslav" (1999), an homage to Nijinski, "Witness" (1992), dedicated to dancer and choreographer Harry Sheppard, "Under My Skin" (1996), an homage to Josephine Baker and “Icons” (1998) dedicated to Valeska Gert. Since 1998 these are presented as an evening of solos, “Hommages”.

MARK TOMPKINS is a dancer, choreographer and teacher living in France since 1973. After a series of solos and group collaborations, he founded his company I.D.A. in 1983. Parallel to his activities as artistic director of I.D.A., his interest in improvisation and real time composition has led him to collaborate, through teaching, performing, and producing, with many dancers, musicians, lighting designers, and visual artists.

Winner of the 1984 Bagnolet International Choreography Contest, he created a trilogy "Trahisons-Men, Women, Humen", inspired by photographer Edward Muybridge's study of the human body in motion. The following year he created "Nouvelles", based on the novel “IDA” by Gertrude Stein, for the Avignon Festival. From 1990 to 1992, he produced "La Plaque Tournante", a series of unique site specific performances involving dance, music, video and light with his company and local artists in ten european cities. Returning to a traditional theatre space, he created "Home" (1993), a vaudeville comedy for four actors/dancers, "Channels" (1994), a large scale urban fantasy for seven dancers and three musicians, and “Gravity” (1996), a “reality show” for five actors/dancers and video.

Mark Tompkins is currently associated artist with the Théâtre de la Cité Internationale in Paris from 2001 to 2004 where he is developing “En Chantier”, a three year research and performance project in the construction site of the rehabilitated theatre.