DM-I-PR(02) | 2002

This project investigated the possibility of integrating movement and sound in an improvised environment. DM-I-PR(02), literally: Dance-Music integration project, was an attempt to structure improvised dance and music using the same structural language and gestural logic for both mediums.

Over a week-long research period at Nadine (Brussels) a small group consisting of double bass player Koen Nutters, electronic musician Robert van Heumen and dancers Mette Ingvartsen and Ula Sickle, met daily in the studio to share working methods and to elaborate a common approach to improvisation.

Borrowing from the compositional techniques of electronic musician Robert van Heumen, who sampled and mixed live sounds with other pre recorded fragments, the dancers used copying and repetition to generate their own improvised movement material. Rather than improvising in a linear way, they used these techniques to build up phrase material, creating instant choreographic blocks. This approach to improvisation had the tendency to produce a mechanical and repetitive body language, which echoed the repetitive and fragmented music.

Like the pragmatic gestures of upright bass player Koen Nutters, the dancers based their movements on everyday gestures. At a certain point in the research the interest shifted to the meaning and readability of a gesture or a sound. The same compositional technique was applied to make verbal sentences, adding an extra sound layer to the overall composition.

The research was directed towards two open performances organized at the end of the week. These performances served as a way to test the strategies developed in the studio on a live audience and to get feedback on the working process.

A second work period was organized the following year, this time with the decision to put greater attention on composition and staging (see DM-I-PR(02)-2). For this second meeting the group was joined by musician Morten J. Olsen and light designer Bart Phillips.


research/conception :
Mette Ingvartsen, Koen Nutters, Ula Sickle, Robert van Heumen
support :
Nadine, frogs OS
initiation :
Mette Ingvartsen, Koen Nutters