A performance of John Cage's STEPS: Movement Composition Notes

Steps score experiments with ink.

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This past fall I had the pleasure of collaborating with Jarrad Powell and Robert Campbell on performing John Cage's STEPS.  Attached is the program of the event, and below is the original written movement composition I generated through engaging with Cage's score under Jarrad Powell's generous guidance. 

March 22nd, 2013, 12pm, we will perform another version of STEPS at Cornish College of the Arts, Main Gallery, which will be the culmination of a week-long exhibition of the December 14th, 2012 performance containing video documentation, the paintings and the materials constructed for the performance.       

STEPS, A Composition for a Painting (1989) 
Three Paintings: Disintegrating Loop, 12 Parameters, 24 Breaths

Three 15 ft long x 4.9 ft wide Fabriano Watercolor Paper, 2 troughs & 6 Hake brushes of varying length.  (Troughs and Hake Brushes were beautifully designed and constructed by Reilly Sinanan.)
5 dancers: Shannon Stewart, Mary Margaret Moore, Corrie Befort, Alia Swersky and Beth Graczyk
For the December performance Jarrad Powell accompanied STEPS with a chamber version of Cage's Atlas Eclipticalis with Winter Music, featuring Angelina Baldoz, Stuart Dempster, Julio Lopez, Roger Nelson, Jarrad Powell and Paul Taub.  

Movement Score – An interpretation for a 30-35 minute performance of STEPS

Part I - Beginning

All dancers begin seated near canvases.  Dancer 1 counts 12 breaths.  After 12 breaths, dancer 1 begins Part II.

Part II 

Disintegrating Loop

Dancer 1 begins a spontaneous movement pattern across the canvas, tending to the sensual, experiential action of stepping, forming a looped pathway that extends the whole canvas, drawing from the movement poem provided.  Dancer 2 watches.  The third, fourth, fifth dancers are facing away only able to see Dancer 2.  As Dancer 1 finishes the loop on the canvas, Dancer 2 repeats the spontaneous actions of Dancer I as closely as possible emulating the quality, rhythm, and speed while Dancer 3 begins to watch.  As dancer 2 ends, dancer 3 repeats what dancer 2 executed.  Dancer 4,5 and 1 are now facing away.   This pattern continues through for 3 full cycles of Dancers 1-5.  At the end of the third cycle, Dancer 5 dips their feet in ink, and makes the final loop with inked feet. 

Part III

12 Parameters

Each dancer has a given number of events and movement poems that were derived from 12 parameters through chance operation using the I Ching.  Some of the poems generated for the performance Dec 14, 2012 are below.  

Part IV

24 Breaths

The dancer with the least number of events will begin the final section after counting 24 breaths.  The dancer will continually brush with either a large full-length hake brush covering the whole canvas, or smaller brushes which cover only part.  The dancer will dip the hake brush in watercolor and trace the canvas length-wise.  As dancers end events from the previous section, they will join the action brushing with the additional trough.  The action will repeat until all the canvas has been brushed. 

Here is a handful of the 13 movement poems generated + the Disintegrating Loop poem:

Disintegrating Loop
Southeast.
The shifting weight of feet.  
To change levels, 
to subdue or muffle.
Moving from muscle, 
the energy of blood.  
To follow the linear, generating arcs.  
Sequentially unfolding.  
Time parameter: medium length

# 1
Southeast.
Ultra-light feet.
To change levels,
to tie together.
Moving from the bones,
the energy of metal.
To articulate points in space – generating diagnols.
Sequentially unfold.
Time interval: short


# 2
Northeast.
Naturally weighted feet.
To move towards,
to tie together.
Moving from organs,
the energy of an ember.
To follow the linear, generating closed circuits.
Transform.
Time interval: long


#3
West.
Ultra-light feet.
To re-trace,
to subdue or muffle.
Moving from bones,
the energy of stone.
To follow the linear, generating diagnols.
Transform.
Time interval: short


#4
Southwest.
Heavy feet.
To change levels,
a shortened continuity.
Moving from the skin,
the energy of wood.
To feel curvilinear, generating arcs.
Sequentially unfolding.
Time interval: short