William Forsythe

William Forsythe

This page is exploring William Forsythe's value systems. Looking at a range of beliefs, principles and other aspects that he considers important within his work as well as continuing to consider what I have chosen to focus on within Space, Time, Gender roles, Importance of clarity, the body, Equality and roles, Expression, technique, creativity, restrictions, and methods; the research into these from William Forsythe's may not all come up however there will be some of these that do and that will weave in and out of each other. 

Beliefs:

There are rules and expectations within ballet. He believes that to continue to be initiative you must also have the foundation, he uses and believes ballet to be that foundation.  

William Forsythe believes there are rules and exceptions within ballet; "You need the foundation in order to innovate." (The Shed, 2019), meaning how in his opinion ballet, within his work, was the element, the technique, that built and supported all his choreography.

Furthermore, this would apply to the dancers, there understanding and ability to connect this belief and principle to him and the work he creates leads them to have an even clearer knowledge and understanding of what he wants, this leads into another value of the 'Importance of clarity' and also 'technique' and how with this foundation and technique he then can be more transparent about the intentions as the quality and style of movement is already there, it is already known to him and the dancers; "to remember that ballet is always there and always underpins the work even when it doesn't really look much like ballet. The principles, physical principles are always in the bodies of those dancers."  (Boston Ballet, 2020).

"I often say to dancers that, for the dancer, dancing doesn't look like anything, it feels like something. " (Aigner & Turkenich, 2016)

Principles of organization:

"His work is acknowledged for re-orinentaiting the practice of ballet from its identification with classical repertoire to a dynamic 21st century art form. Forsythe's deep interest in the fundamental principles of organisation has led him to produce a wide range of projects, including instillations, films, and web-based knowledge creation." (Aigner & Turkenich, 2016)

Space, Time:

• "A point is not necessarily a geometric point in space; it means any categorical observation. The object, a condition, language: anything can be the place where something can start. Nothing has to start in any particular way that's determined by history or practice or anything. It means that it starts from anywhere." (Whittenburg, 2012)

Forsythe explains how it can be seen as "the point of departure" (Whittenburg, 2012) and agrees that it is "from a movement, or a larger organisation, like a choreography" (Whittenburg, 2012).

• "For traditional dancing, a stage is a safe place, full of regulations." (Aigner & Turkenich, 2016).
• "I think the stage is also a surface that people have to rethink." (Aigner & Turkenich, 2016).
• "I continued working with an idea about space and dynamics to ballet." (Aigner & Turkenich, 2016)

Importance of clarity:

• "We can follow the logic of a known classical step through long new permutations. A penche may plunge in extraordinary directions, or a foutte be created by picking up the dancer and hurling her manually around 360 as she executes the legwork- and we still recognise the source." (Driver, 2004)

• "We were not allowing ourselves to be teleological." (Aigner & Turkenich, 2016) William Forsythe explains in an interview when asked if he had noticed a change in the way Pina Bausch was working. Going on to say that "I think that the idea of a straight line began to collapse, even the desire for a straight line was abdicated. In my case, I just said ok, there's only methodologies and the only thing that's new is methodologies. I thought that rather than keeping one methodology and looking for exchangeable subjects, I would try to make methodologies themselves my real subject." (Aigner & Turkenich, 2016)

   

The body:

• "Most dancers in outside companies who are cast in Forsythe pieces look like different artists in his work. They visibly know what depth of information lies behind their movement." (Driver, 2004) 

   

Equality, Roles, Gender:

During the process, as you have created the body of the work, Forsythethen begins to transition into allowing the dancers to embody the creation and develop it even further through their own understanding of what it is they interpret from his language and processes used.

• "You want to hand that work over to the performer, because that's gratifying, as opposed to [the performer] just fulfilling various suggestions from me and trying to satisfy what they think is my intention. I more or less try to work with them on their own work, in general, and I do that by trying to find metaphoric language, poetic language, practical language: things that will give them tools for autonomy. Maybe, after the performance, I can go back and say, "Wow, those are really interesting decisions, beautiful decisions you've made." As opposed to saying "You did it exactly right!" that would be horrible." (Whittenburg, 2012).

He has dancers in the process and says they are "co-composers" (San Francisco Ballet, 2015) with the composition.

As well as the dancers, Forsythe began to find ways to include other disciplines such as production, music, and artists, within his practice giving him a greater understanding of how to collaborate, appreciate, learn and create through this, therefore, he started to embrace how other interdisciplinary forms are of such value to him and his artistry.


"I also collaborated with the set designer Axel Manthey on a number of pieces. I'd help 

design the set and he would also direct and choreograph. Everything began to get mixed 

up, nothing was stable. I think what I took away from it all was that the real political work 

was that of the work place, it wasn't the product. That seemed a much more viable form 
of immersion in political reality. Looking back at it today, it was definitely a situation that 
induced a certain kind of reflection that I think would not have entered my mind or become my practice had I not moved to Europe. There is no way I would have made the work I 
made, or worked the way I did, had I remained in the New York ballet environment." 
(Aigner & Turkenich, 2016)

• When asked about the roles and themes within ballet Forsythe responded saying; "decontextualise the most common experience, to make the understructure terrifying."(Aigner & Turkenich, 2016) going on to explain this he says how it is "the psycho- social understructure." (Aigner & Turkenich, 2016) He explained how he did not like being restricted to the male roles, they were not the ones he wanted to do because of the stereotyping involved; "I felt so ashamed of behaviours that were stereotypically manly, they were ridiculous." (Aigner & Turkenich, 2016) He questioned this concept and principle of ballet, he did not feel comfortable with it which led him to create his own values in terms of gender, roles and equality.
• "I knew that I was a ballet choreographer and I said to myself that that's ok. It was about questioning how to participate in the Big Conversation, irrelevant of what medium within one was practising." (Aigner & Turkenich, 2016)

Technique:

The technique is such a strong and important element within every piece Forsythe creates. Without it, he would not create the same way. A lot of the movement he creates comes from a starting point of a technical step and is evolved from there, qualities and values of ballet are seen throughout his work and through this, he also went on to create his Improvisation technologies which underpin some of his values that can be seen from classical ballet such as the Point to Point Line - Collapsing Points, in which he explains how there are "a number of relationships between points on the body" and shows in an example how in a tondue and arms out in bra barre you have relationships from your elbows to your knees. This is what he calls "The seed of it all" (Whittenburg, 2012) when he had an "epiphany" (Whittenburg, 2012), which was the "point-point line moment."(Whittenburg, 2012). This evolution of technique and analysing the movement led him to create his own style and disruption of classical ballet technique. I think it is important to acknowledge how if a piece of his work such as 'In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated' 1987, was shown without being told what piece it was or who it is by the technique and style of the dancing and choreography you could very easily know who it is by, his creations have such a clear style whether it be through the tone, dynamics, production, technique, the dancers or choreography alone, you can see it comes from him. This makes me consider how the overall values and principles he has must be so ingrained in him as he can produce such strong, quality work that is recognizably his, which tells me that he stays true and authentic to his value system and principles within himself and into his work. 

• "As Forsythe has often stated, he treats the premises of classical technique as a usable language capable of new meaning, rather than as a collection of phrases and traditionally- linked steps that retain traditional rules, shapes, and content subject only to rearrangement." (Driver, 2004) 
• 
  

• "Challenges the conventions and assumptions about what ballet is or what dance is or should be." (Boston Ballet, 2020) 

• "Not that he didn't ever use recognizable classroom steps, but he combined them often in ways that were extremely unexpected."  (Boston Ballet, 2020) 

  

Creativity:

He creates and explores choreography as though it is an experience, expecting others to go with him on it and to look at it in a new way each time. To expand their understanding or be perceptible of new and evolving thoughts, ideas, concepts and inspirations. 

With his work sometimes being described as "Deconstructed ballet"  (Boston Ballet, 2020), you can see how the movement has to underpin balletic qualities and apparent sense of style however this is manipulated and distorted through his work process to create movement that redefines what his own style each time. 

• "He treats choreography as an adventure, and he expects his dancers and audiences to redefine their views on dance."  (Boston Ballet, 2020) 

Is there a possibility that Forsythe has a value of which is 'evolution' is key to his success?

The choreographic process itself is never the same, he is always evolving and his creative value is that there is no limit, you must always move and always allow for the world to change and grow therefore you also go on this journey and discover new inspirations and ideas which can lead into choreography or the creative process. 

• "His ability to distil ideas through the practice of choreography, really using the world as inspiration, is constantly shifting and changing based on the beautiful dancers in the room."  (Boston Ballet, 2020) 

His work was often seen by people from the ballet community such as directors as extreme 
and "radical" (Aigner & Turkenich, 2016). Highlighting his urge to disrupt the calmness of classical ballet at the time.

Methods, Expression:

• "Aside from his enrichment of the ballet d'ecode, his approach greatly strengthens the dancers who use it. This is apparent physically as well as in their intellectual development, and it shows up in a look of knowledge - ability and engagement on stage" (Driver, 2004) 

He works to "making the dancers look as good as possible. Also, making the work the right thing for a particular dancer." (Boston Ballet, 2018). Forsythe works with the dancers to show them off and what they can do, even if it is not what he first wanted technically or choreographically within the steps, he works to change this around the dancer to what looks best on them. This feeds into other values and principles such as equality and roles; this is through his ability to work with the dancers, the dancers then shift into the process with him and have a responsibility not only to do the movement and task he asks but to also invite opportunities to put forward suggestions, be involved in the creation, adaptations and rehearsing so that they are as much a part of the process as Wiliam Forsythe is. It is shown throughout rehearsal footages that he has an openness when it comes to him and his dancers whether it be his own Frankfurt company, existing companies he has worked with many times, or a new company he has never worked with before. He has the ability to adapt and create a space in which professionals of their disciplines hold just as much responsibility and value within the process.

• "Bill's role in each new piece varies, but almost always he functions as a catalyst and an editor; there are many levels of collaboration between Bill and the company within that framework." (Driver & Caspersen, 2004)

His methods within 'Improvisation Technologies' developed over time and through his knowledge and understanding of classical ballet technique; "Now that all came out of the ballet experience which- I consider ballet to be on some level a geometric-inscriptive practice. You're inscribing geometry, often, or using the inscription of geometry to create other affect." (Whittenburg, 2012)

'Other affect' meaning "I mean, how you engender line, and the qualities you imbue this engendering moment with, are up to the individual artist. That's what creates distinct performances. It's not just creating distinct performances. It's not just creating a line; that's sort of primitive. In fact, Improv Technologies is very primitive. And was never intended as a choreographic method. It was only, finally used to capture improv. It was meant so that, if you were in a research phase and you had moved without rational intention, if there was a category you were working on, and you wanted to notice what you had done, you could use those particular techniques, those tools to help you recapture what had happened, in some way or other. And, especially since I was working with ballet dancers at the time, it was very useful, because people were thinking in a fairly geometric- inscriptive way." then continues to explain how "That's not the final goal-the final goal is something else-but you use it. It's a tool." (Whittenburg, 2012). Highlighting how his methods in creating and process, especially within the 'Improvisation Technologies' he has no specific expectations that have to be achieved, he uses his methods to navigate and explore a process of which could be what he initially wanted but can also be open to opportunities and developments beyond that first idea.

• “I mean, how you engender line, and the qualities you imbue this engendering moment with, are up to the individual artist. That's what creates distinct performances. It's not just creating distinct performances. It's not just creating a line; that's sort of primitive. In fact, Improv Technologies is very primitive. And was never intended as a choreographic method. It was only, finally used to capture improv. It was meant so that, if you were in a research phase and you had moved without rational intention, if there was a category you were working on, and you wanted to notice what you had done, you could use those particular techniques, those tools to help you recapture what had happened, in some way or other. And, especially since I was working with ballet dancers at the time, it was very useful, because people were thinking in a fairly geometric- inscriptive way." then continues to explain how "That's not the final goal-the final goal is something else-but you use it. It's a tool." (Whittenburg, 2012).

• "I was focusing on the extended sensations of ballet torque and moving things off centre, basically working with gravity and torsion, both of which become politicized. The conservative press would say that my work was violent, and I said, well its not violent, its just fast. I think in the ballet world, though, people were also relieved to see something else." (Aigner & Turkenich, 2016) This could come under Forsythe's belief that people were becoming stuck within ballet, there was no progression and, to him, the excitement and intrigue was not as present as it once was, bringing about the evolution of his work to change this.

Restrictions, criticism:

Forsythe came under fire by many because of his outlandish creations that may have initially caused confusion for the ballet world and audiences. It was an evolution not only within the contemporary ballet world but also for the audiences going to watch, the responses he received could go from one extreme to the other however working through that and continuing to change and develop his practice to stay in touch with what is going on in the world he became more and more sought after.

For some time he worked with "different methodologies to the original balletic subject, never knowing where we would end up. Then I abandoned that strategy for a long time. I haven't done that for 10 or 12 years... simply because that was very difficult." (Aigner & Turkenich, 2016) this led him to thinking about creating a language for what it is that he does.