Kim Leads POWOW 5 - Lots to Give and Loads to Learn

On Friday night Studio A had been the venue for Yvon Bonenfant's performance of his work 'Beacons' which I'd gone to see.  By Saturday afternoon, when I arrived for my workshop, Studio A wasn't ready for us and there were no tech staff around to clear away a large screen hanging in the centre of our space.   The Performance Centre was being redecorated which fortunately meant there were hardly any people in the Performance Centre and luckily Studio C was available.  The floor space and light is fantastic in Studio C but it's reverberant acoustic proved a challenge.  Andy Mellors who's been photographing our workshops, didn't see my hastily written notice that we'd moved studios and so there are no photos of POWOW 5.  I did capture some video.  In fact, this workshop had a totally different feel than any of the others for many reasons and I think it turned out to be the end of the run of POWOW workshops designed to answer my enquiry for the purposes of my CEP (Contextual Enquiry Practice) but also the beginning of a different manifestation for the group.


Good Ideas But Less is More!


I'd wanted to maintain the physical sensations, connection and flow from theatre improvisation and vocal production warm ups and tools to singing warms ups and devices and I led our group through these.  The idea was good but in the event it all felt just a bit rushed and I realise we need time to drift with some of the improvisation tools so that the benefits are felt and held in the body.  I'd planned for the singing section of the workshop to be experiential and experimental, for the group to play with what's possible once I'd provided them with experiences and means to manipulate breath, pitching, phonation (making sounds) and timbre.  I especially did not want to over direct the group in how to use the play spaces I'd created.  What happened was a compromise between the group's desire to be led more specifically and my desire to stand back.  I asked each woman to find sounds that interested them, to play with an aspect and I would come to them one to one and show them potential developments of what they were doing or offer technical assistance.  This seemed to work fine.  I realise that ideally I needed some time to work one to one with people so that the group could learn from watching before trying things out, but then I didn't want the participants to feel overly exposed by singing in front of the group at this early stage.  


The women were great and went along with everything I presented and I think they all enjoyed the workshop and gained something from it.  What I realise retrospectively is that they'd had four hour workshops on either theatre improv or vocal production but I'd given only one hour out of our four on this Saturday for singing due to my desire to maintain the thread 'body out' generation.  I really wanted to avoid a 'head down' approach to discovering voice.  I need to slow down activity to closer meet the needs of the group rather than try to see my enquiry through to a conclusion before the money ran out!


Where Does POWOW Go From Here?


We had a chat about where to take the group, the possible objectives and what the next step should be.


Here's a few points that arose:-

• The women are happy that we'll continue on an ongoing basis on Saturday afternoons, meeting for just 2 hours.  Kim will need to book a studio.
• Kim will continue to lead the group but members of the group might lead activities within the sessions.
• We won't have enough people available for a performance for Platform but Kim and Andy will put together a presentation of the workshops.
• The women will see the first showing of the presentation and Kim will record their responses.
• Kim will survey/interview each participant for feedback for Platform and Hall for Cornwall, who have supported us, and for the purposes of planning further activity.
• The group will continue to explore singing and liked the idea of preparing a piece for performance but workloads and existing commitments preclude this happening this year.
• Everyone feels Kim should try to attend the Body Opera workshops taking place in London from late November to December for the purpose of her CEP and for the benefit of the ongoing group.
• Kim will initially take a directorial role in creating the first piece of work but on the basis of creative collaboration.  Kim felt it would be important for each woman to take a turn at directing.  
• We are all interested in following the whole enquiry through to a performance at some point
• It would be great to have more facilitation and leadership from Pip and Adele which enables Kim to be a participant rather than a leader but finances do not allow for this at the moment.

Thanks to all the people who've been involved in POWOW so far I have lots to reflect on and need some time to re-evaluate how to move forward for myself and the group.  I'll post more on that in a few days, in the meantime I've a lot of reading and a long to do list, not least on the list being to have a 'head shot' done and prepare an artists c.v. to send off to Opera Erratica.  I don't rate my singing at the moment but I'm still hopeful of being able to attend, even as an observer or go-fer.


Kim
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