Icosa A dance company

Repertory

Thirteen Ways

Six dancers, an open score, and a different fifty-one minutes every time.

First performed
2,021
Running time
51 minutes
Dancers
6
Music
Improvised, different every night
Travelled
10.5 radii

The only piece in the repertoire whose score is not fixed. The path below is the one the company keeps returning to; on any given night about half of it survives.

High right — Door plane High left — Door plane Deep right — Door plane Deep left — Door plane Forward high — Wheel plane Forward high Forward deep — Wheel plane Forward deep Back high — Wheel plane Back high Back deep — Wheel plane Back deep Right forward — Table plane Right forward Right back — Table plane Left forward — Table plane Left back — Table plane Left back

The phrase, written down

7 reaches · 71% of them in the wheel plane · 10.5 radii travelled

  1. Forward high Wheel plane start
  2. Back deep Wheel plane 2.00
  3. Forward deep Wheel plane 1.70
  4. Back high Wheel plane 2.00
  5. Forward high Wheel plane 1.70
  6. Right forward Table plane 1.05
  7. Left back Table plane 2.00

The last column is the straight-line distance from the previous reach, in kinesphere radii. Two is right across the body; the shortest possible step between two of the twelve is 1.05.

How it is danced

Basic Effort Action

Float

Light, sustained, indirect. The arm that goes everywhere and arrives nowhere.

Weight
Light Strong
How much the body commits its mass. Not how hard the dancer works.
Time
Sustained Sudden
The attitude to time, not the tempo. A slow piece can be full of suddenness.
Space
Indirect Direct
Whether attention goes everywhere at once or to one place.
Flow
Free Bound
How readily the movement could be stopped half way. Not part of the action names.

Also in the repertoire