W-I-P for a New Millennium (revised)

s.t.shimi

For the last few years, an exciting opportunity for performers has been building in this town.  W-I-P or Wednesday-in-Performance/ Works-in-Progress is a collaboration between Jump Start Performance Co. and San Antonio Dance Umbrella that provides a low-tech laboratory for movement based work that is new or in progress.  Every last Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m., the stage of Jump-Start Theatre hosts an eclectic combination of seasoned and fledgling artists with the courage and will to put their just-formed ideas out in front of a supportive and invested audience.

I say that because I don't see W-I-P as purely a venue to put work out there and walk away.  An integral component of W-I-P is the use of the Critical Response Method created by dancer / choreographer Liz Lerman.  It is a series of steps intended to engender thoughtful discussion of the work in question between the artist and the audience.  A facilitator enables the artists to ask questions in an open-ended, non-defensive manner and an audience to provide critique that is honest and constructive, with the opportunity to ask the artists illuminating questions about the work.  Company members of Jump Start have found the Critical Response method to be extremely helpful and empowering in teasing out snarls in emergent work.

W-I-P is a low-tech performance opportunity, the better to concentrate on the work itself.  Artists receive a small stipend and are asked to bring some prospective audience with them.  The audience itself grows steadily and is increasingly better informed about the Critical Response process.  It is my hope that we all learn how to listen to one another and ask the right questions (a bigger challenge for all concerned that you might think) in the best interests of the artist.  As artists we can all stand to learn to ask the right questions about our work; questions that will make our work better.  You can choose to see W-I-P as merely an opportunity to present your work and nothing more, but I encourage you to value the Critical Response session just as much, if not more.

I am proud of W-I-P for many reasons and a couple come to mind.  One is the incredible variety of genres and skills the audience is privileged to witness for a minimal ticket prick ($5 and $3).  We have had Middle Eastern dance troupes rub shoulders with performance artists flying solo with modern dance students from a local college with flamenco artists.  The connections that people make between the forms they see onstage, between artists and across genres... I see that as a by-product of a successful W-I-P.

W-I-P also provides a wonderful chance for creative work in its rawest form to be seen and enlarged upon.  Sometimes artists who perform at W-I-P just need a place to test out new ideas that go no further than that evening.  Low tech, no pressure.  Sometimes the post-performance Critical Response helps an entire new show develop out of one ten-minute snippet.  My first solo work Tourist Trap developed entirely out of one whim-based W-I-P performance.  Madmedia Performance Co.'s Pocho turned into a full-length work.  Sometimes unlikely collaborations appear, to delight and reward the audience.

Dancer/Performers Leslie Siegel and Paul Bonin-Rodriguez once took us through a unique improvised dance series over three months of W-I-P.  Excerpts from a collaborative Jump Start company show (Sugar & Spice) have been presented over the last two years as it developed.  Karavan Dance Company regularly uses W-I-P as an opportunity to further elaborate on its intricate choreographies.  And there are many performers for whom W-I-P has been as opportunity to challenge themselves and debut their own original work.

My fellow co-ordinator Georgina Morgan and I look forward to seeing  you at the remaining W-I-Ps, which are already filling up with prospective performers.  Look out for the May W-I-P Creme, which is a special sampler of W-I-P artists, and closes out Dance Month on just the right notes of anticipation of new work and celebration of what has been polished through performing in this series.

Who can participate is W-I-P?  Anyone who has original, movement-based work: SADU members, community members, students... as long as the work is original you are welcome to try it out at W-I-P.  There is no audition process.  You have ten minutes max to present you r work, along with two or three others that night.  Just email stshimi@excite.com or treecasa@aol.com with the header WIP Booking? and we will answer your questions.  If it is a go, we will send you a follow up e-mail that includes a letter of agreement, confirming your booking.

W-I-P is one of the few regular opportunities there is to see and responde to new work as it's being made.  I encourage you to take the time our of your month (bring your students!) and check it out.  I think you'll value it as much as I do.

W-I-P happens every last Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m. in the Jump Start Theatre in the Blue Star Arts Complex.  Tickets are $5 and $3.  For information on attending or participating in a W-I-P, call 227-JUMP or e-mail stshimi@excite.com or webmaster@sadu.org.