We may have to talk more about it...
     unfinished ramblings about the little con
 
What is it when I see dance? you see a moving body, perhaps ideas; to paraphrase Barbara Mettler, 'what is it when you see improvisation? You see the person.'

Interested in design elements, when this response was written I sit and muse for this moment in time playing, I playfully respond as I look back in hindsight.
Some elements of design are space, line, shape, form texture, and colour. Each of these elements plays an important role in the overall success of a design, whether it is created for a home's exterior, a specific room, or a piece of furniture or performance, it is a system for creating for or a way of seeing what’s there.  It was a night of improvisation, so I guess there is no inherent design...

I enter the space blank as well.

The Space

Space is the area provided, looking in from the door between the audience seating, a large pink room with three chairs on each side. Six chairs seating six women. For a particular purpose? Well it’s a performance night of improvisation for six different female performers and many flowers scattered on the floor around their chairs...    The space... It is a large open room pink with a floor of long strips of dance flooring... what else is the space, I drift into a notion, a room a picture ...  a waiting room in some place, waiting for something to happen  ... I sit quietly as do the performers, Sarah Rodigari, Sally Smith, Stefanie Robinson, Dianne Reid, Grace Walpole, Ann-maree Ellis. ... waiting thinking what is this night about? a place to watch some dance or theatre, perhaps sport, somewhere a space slips ... where I slip into another mind, a place without judgment ... how do they feel, how will they do this or what will they be doing ... how do they feel?  A space may have three dimensions (length, width, and height), such as a room or dwelling for performers or people in a situation, and how I am the viewer affected by this.  I am nervous and anxious ... I sit as they do calm ...

The Line

The Line is spoken somewhere ‘I want to hold your hand’, anticipation of making connection... The line is the mark made by space between two sets of rows made up by three chairs and performers that sit facing each other from opposing sides of the room. And for the moment   there is also seems to be a line between the audience and the performers ... I sit waiting like the performers, waiting for something to begin...  a moving point, such as a brush a word, a shape or form to take the empty space between the lines, something to make shape...       Someone stands and moves to the space, Ann-maree a tall black line, standing between two lines... she makes a stroke or two with her arms, and then speaks for an introduction, a very short few lines ... that marks into the formal beginning of the night ... She moves to the back curtain, like a bolt of electricity she swings an arm, her body bends twist and a set of different feelings begins in me. Lines, arcs, twists and curves in her body; a spin, a drop, she pops up, her arms out, legs searching. Ann-maree moves, a beginning, the basic building blocks of the basic two-dimensional space, my judgment fades away, as a kinetic sense takes over... A song is being played somewhere in the room ... Ann-maree dances and after a while Sally begins to mimic the song like a bird, she takes over the song, it’s a Beatles song, ‘I want to hold your hand’.........

The Colour  

... Ah this brings a colour, the song the dance...Sally in a red dress, Ann-maree M black and grey... is this their feelings... the room, pink with lights and flowers on the floor... the lines  merge together... the blank canvas  drops away and the improvisation of searching begins ... A new colour

Colour is the most expressive element of art and is seen by the way elements reflect off a surface. Ann-maree dances, Sally sings ... the night was humming slowly to me, my thoughts flash through nostalgic moments with that song... the volcano of emotion was slowly erupting in Ann-maree’s dance and in Sally’s voice. It was flowing this pink room with large chunks of stillness in its fluid lava mass, but there was energy created ... Colour is used to create illusion of depth, as red colours seem to come forward while blue seems to recede into the distance.  Ann-maree moves around searching for the impro, asking others, giving out, seeing what comes back... Colour, and particularly contrasting colour; Dianne takes the stage, Ann-maree sits down... Dianne in black pants and floral shirt moves around the space in a warm vibrant full colour, soaring and shaking and crooning the space, Dianne picks up on Ann-maree’s spatial patterns, but colours it in a different way... Sarah interrupts the dance with a different tangent of performance style... she uses words, she draws the attention to a particular part of the image, you are watching me searching and performing improvisation... And so and so and so... another change, again Sarah leaves, Sally picks up a movement motive left by Sarah, the song ‘natural woman’ comes on... Sally plays with her dress, a red colour and color of sexuality...  she molds the dress to her body, in particular her legs... you make me feel like a natural woman... I blush...... eventual she dances and a hip hop dance move comes out  (maybe?) , Stef joins in... and we watch this evolve; a jitterbug, the Charleston... Grace Joins in... it is back up Motown dancers, a chorus,  so on... The lava flows, the improvisation has an aerobic work out occurring between the back doors in the space... the room colours are getting brighter... other worlds begin to expand. Ann-maree takes the stage... And moves around in a more solemn manner, rolling dragging slumping on the floor, Dianne gives her advice from the chair... or is Ann-maree in the chair at the shrink’s office...

***On some cases of interior design, colour can be added to increase visual appeal such as the natural colours of floor. Colour may add visual appeal to a home decor just as coloured flowers can add beauty to a field on a prairie. Which my attention is drawn to, with all the flowers strewn around...

Shape

Shape is an area enclosed by lines or curves. It can be geometric or organic. Importantly, a shape automatically creates a negative space around it. Shapes in house decor and interior design can be used to add interest, style, theme to a design like a door. Shape in interior design depends on the function of the object like a kitchen cabinet door. Natural shapes forming patterns on wood or stone may help increase visual appeal in interior design.

Texture ... what was the texture of the performers?

Texture is the feeling and visual feel of the fabrics. They all provided interesting textures, Sarah with her little monologues about performing – after the performance I overheard some mentioning she was the Woody Allen of impro... Stef with her background in mime and vigilant presence that provides so much support in subtle ways... Ann-maree with her out-there and in-there movement and journeys of imagination, tonight I enjoyed her dances with an air of mortality... Dianne with a worldly ominous feeling that I enjoy watching a real humanness...  and Grace, the writer of the of the night who provides the strongest narrative which moves and flows through dances and stories with - sorry to use the pun - a mixture of grace and also a deadpan matter-of-fact style... her input into the night used two types of texture; Tactile, or story texture, and texture which you can detect with your five senses. Texture summer holidays hot nights green lawns and perhaps family vacations... Grace’s narrative provided a strong anchor for me and counterpointed all other constellating narratives which brings me to form

Form

Form may be created by the forming of two or more shapes. It may be enhanced by tone, texture and colour. Form is considered three-dimensional - showing height, width and depth. It can be illustrated or constructed.

Value

Value helps with Form. It gives objects depth and perception.

Jonathan Sinatra