Framework

 

I am having a hard time understanding what FRAMEWORK means. 

So I have looked for the French translations: 

le cadre / framework, frame, setting, scope, surroundings, executive

la structure / structure, framework, organization, fabric, system, building

la charpente / framework, skeleton, woodwork, build, gateway

le système / system, method, framework, setup, shape

le plan / blueprint, plan, map, plane, scheme, framework

les branches / framework

la société / society, company, association, framework, folk

So my intuition of a structure being a framework - or these two words in my mind being interchangeable might be sort of right. I have been debating my relatioship with framework. I really related to what Matthew, Caleigh and Imogen said about it. A framework could become a "fixed identity" (1) and there, it slips to the darknesses of closed-mind-ness. Or using Honor's metaphor; closed doors. 

I realised that there's a pattern going on in my learning practice / practice: I step out of the pre-created frameworks and create a more suitable framework for myself. I started doing this at the age of 15. 22 years ago. 

STUDIES

I have always get out of classic academic frameworks. As I mentioned earlier this year, institutions + myself = not a happy wedding. I liked that Mike talked about his working-class lad-ness. Coming from a working class family, I currently understand how interesting it is for me to have learnt to speak "well" and how my career in the arts also has an element of social revenge to it. `

Not only, obviously. 

So. Studies. I joined a "Sport-études" when I was 15, leaving the East of France for the beautiful city of Lyon, where suddenly, I was brought back to my accent and my family name. I would go to high-school in the morning and train in the afternoon. Once I got my A-level, I joined the University. A first year or Spanish and English that I dropped. Not the right choice, not the right classes, not the right subjects. At least, not at the right time of my life. 

I then started a new BA; History of Art and Modern Literature, BUT, not the normal route. I managed to have a waiver of attendance (does this make sense?): the lectures/modules I could attend, I did attend, the other ones, I would catch up at the library on my own. When I would not be at university, it was because I was training, BUT not the normal route. I organized my own timetable with the dance schools I had chosen with the techniques I had chosen: Graham three times a week, Ballet once a week, release twice a week and Cunningham, once a week. Thinking back, I was so rigorous with the timetable I had set myself: I was attending every dance classes and was working my a** off for uni. And loved this happy mariage.

In parallel, I was working at the ICA of Villeurbanne.  

My own framework, led me to what was expected: the obtention of my BAs, the improvement of my dance technique, and an artistic and conceptual awakening (as well as having a joyful student life). 

Fulfillment. 

Then, I knew I had to dig a bit more. I spent 3 months in NY where I trained through different workshops (Cunningham, Graham, Trisha Brown). I joined London Contemporary Dance School in Sept 2008, BUT not for the classic BA. I joined Certificate of Higher Education cohort of 2008. The last one. We had all studied other subjects than dance. 

Fulfillment. 

I started to get money-job (sale assistant, bar tender etc.). I promise myself I would never get a dance job I would not 100% believe in. There was no way I would sell myself. 

I danced. I loved it. 

I eventually got a great job in a State Theater in Germany. I believe that my hybrid trainings led me to be flexible and empathetic. 

I started making my own work. No career plan. Not the normal route again. No studying of choreography, just a strong sense of what moved me as a dancer, as an audience. Instinct as a lighthouse. 

WORK 

As a dancer, I have collaborated with choreographers would not share a thing about the piece we were developing with them. I felt we were just used, our emotions and our bodies to the service of their ideas, they would not even take the time / care / consideration to share with us. Maybe that was part of their own creative practice? Watching a Netflix documentary about Ohad Naharin (2), I remember a dancer saying about his process, that he wouldn't share anything with them. He wouldn't explain. But at the end, the piece would make sense, to them. They would find their own meanings to it. 

I do value this. But overall, I value the transparency about it: stating clearly to your team: I do not know, I do not want to share where this comes from because X or Y. But talking to your collaborators is key and central. It is my framework. Sharing that you will not sharing be anything, is something. 

I hated feeling blurry as a dancer. I hated feeling not considered as a thinking body. 

So I "counter-echoed" this experience of being left over and created a framework where I would always involve my collaborators. I would tell them why, how, where, and I would tell them I don't know when I did not (and often, that was the case). But I would always leave the door open to their own interpretation and take on the work. 

I once worked with a choreographer who was so grumpy, he would not say hello at the beginning of the day. 

Care is major in my practice. 

STRUCTURE

On the other hand; what really helped me as dancer, was knowing when my breaks would be. It sounds funny right.. but it helped me measure how to use my energy. How long can I hold that pee and how much should I eat before I can eat again. Should I push more, Should I repeat this again etc. 

The choreographers who don't share a timetable with me gave me a sense of being unsafe. I can't explain why. So I "counter-echo" and I structure the day vigorously, because taking care of my collaborators' time and energy is important. For 8 hours with me, they are available and not at my availability.

SAFETY NET 

So a framework, a structure, a way to work to be to share, is like a safety net. No one will fall because the framework is here to hold you. Behind the framework, I am here to hold you. 

But a framework is a frame, in which you are able to add, change, modify anything and in way, should be fixed, in time or in practice. 

(1) Peterson K.,  Kolb David A., How you learn is how you live, 2017, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc

(2) Demaizière T., Teurlai A., MOVE, Episode 2, 2020, Netflix