Michael Klein
DANC 500 Heather White Hagar
Graduate Seminar
Instructor, Cari Coble – ccoble@ju.edu
Summer II Term 2013
A Personal Reflection of Guest Artist Michael Kliën
I am a choreographer… dance is my medium
Michael Klien is more than a choreographer; he is a dance radical, dance philosopher, and keeper of the light for future dance generations. Through his liberal methodology, evolution and conservatism are materializing. He observes the world in broad terms, choosing to search out interconnectivity.
Patterns are everywhere. Patterns are flexible and fluid constellations, appearing and disappearing, crystallizing and dissolving, being born and dying. They are an ongoing dance of creation and de-creation in the world where we have our being, enabling our very own subtle frame of flight, our living. In this dance lies a world full of interaction, relationships, constellations, dependencies, arrangements and ecologies.
Michael began our weeklong journey by introducing his philosophy of patterns, frameworks, and social arrangements within our society. He feels that artists are used by the system to beautify. He wants to find ways to create a counter culture, where dance is cultivated from the inside out. Validity of dance in the art world is of utmost importance.
Michael offers common ground for choreographers. The dance space is no longer studio space but instead an excavation site. In a communal setting, choreographers dig to find movement from the inner self. Use all of your superpowers when digging. Strategies are given and we are asked to dig in all directions, to listen to ourselves and to change anything we need to be comfortable. We may move as much as we want, when we want or not move at all. Personally, I thrive in this type of environment. Without any consideration, I have created a similar type of workspace. In this clearing, the choreographer can see and hear again. To explore our space, Michael asks us to smell the ground. We are
Graduate Seminar
Instructor, Cari Coble – ccoble@ju.edu
Summer II Term 2013
A Personal Reflection of Guest Artist Michael Kliën
I am a choreographer… dance is my medium
Michael Klien is more than a choreographer; he is a dance radical, dance philosopher, and keeper of the light for future dance generations. Through his liberal methodology, evolution and conservatism are materializing. He observes the world in broad terms, choosing to search out interconnectivity.
Patterns are everywhere. Patterns are flexible and fluid constellations, appearing and disappearing, crystallizing and dissolving, being born and dying. They are an ongoing dance of creation and de-creation in the world where we have our being, enabling our very own subtle frame of flight, our living. In this dance lies a world full of interaction, relationships, constellations, dependencies, arrangements and ecologies.
Michael began our weeklong journey by introducing his philosophy of patterns, frameworks, and social arrangements within our society. He feels that artists are used by the system to beautify. He wants to find ways to create a counter culture, where dance is cultivated from the inside out. Validity of dance in the art world is of utmost importance.
Michael offers common ground for choreographers. The dance space is no longer studio space but instead an excavation site. In a communal setting, choreographers dig to find movement from the inner self. Use all of your superpowers when digging. Strategies are given and we are asked to dig in all directions, to listen to ourselves and to change anything we need to be comfortable. We may move as much as we want, when we want or not move at all. Personally, I thrive in this type of environment. Without any consideration, I have created a similar type of workspace. In this clearing, the choreographer can see and hear again. To explore our space, Michael asks us to smell the ground. We are