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Documenting “Process in the Process” of Bebe Miller’s Prey Valarie MOCKABEE, Mila PARRISH “Unpretentious,” “postmodern,” “both electric and soulful” describes the work of Brooklyn-based artist Bebe Miller. Her choreographic process is one in which repeating a movement over and over is integral to understanding the relationship the dancer has to the movement; and that the movement has to the dancer. In her formative years as a choreographer Bebe began answering the question: “What is dance?” She answers her own question by “...still finding physical challenges…enjoyable of being in the moment. I almost didn't trust it...I found a whole other process in the process.” Today, Bebe embraces those ideas and continues to push the boundaries in her relationship to movement. “There are depths to go...Stay with a gesture and stay with it for fifteen minutes and find where do I space out? Why do I space out?…I'm more interested in the relative space between people and how that gets smashed.” “For me, process is the point” she stated in a May 2000 interview.3 As a post modern Bebe has broken through barriers and embraced art-making techniques that involve dancers, music, improvisation, time, and “catching.” As dance documentarians capturing Bebe’s process as well as her movement, Mila Parrish, CD-ROM designer, and Valarie Mockabee, Professional Notator candidate, struggled with choices in putting down the process and product during the rehearsals of Prey, Bebe’s work she created at OSU from January 2000-May 2000. We created a CD-ROM to accompany the Labanotation score of Prey that documents in various media Bebe’s choreographic process and resulting work. We will present a phrase from the Labanotation score and relevant information from the CD-ROM in a session that will take the participants through interactive investigations which inform their reading of a phrase of notation from the Labanotation score. Step by step approaches to Bebe’s choreographic process are provided in a “Tasks and Solutions” section as educational tools for understanding the work and its creative processes. Bebe answers questions concerning Prey and her choreographic process in “Meet Bebe.” “Bebenotes” provides digitized video of Bebe teaching or talking about choices of performance alongside the Labanotation. Notation professionals and educators who are interested in improvisation, history, notation, choreographic process, and dance documentation will enjoy experiencing recreating Bebe’s creative/choreographic process through technology and learning one of her phrases through notation. Participants experiencing the CD-ROM and reading the Labanotation score will come to a rich understanding of Bebe Miller’s process and resulting work. A portion of this research was supported by a University Seed Grant, the Department of Dance, College of the Arts Level II Grant and Special Research Assignment, the Advanced Computing Center for Art and Design, and The Dance Preservation Fund at The Ohio State University. |
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Valarie MOCKABEE - Assistant Professor, Ohio State University; B.F.A. The Juilliard School; M.F.A. Texas Woman's University; Certified Teacher of Labanotation. She toured with Lincoln Center Tour Programs for four years serving as dance captain, and has presented work on the national companies of Peru, Ecuador, and the Jakarta International School in Indonesia. She is a Candidate for Professional Notator Certification, currently notating Bebe Miller's Prey, which has an accompanying CD-ROM. |
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Mila PARRISH, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, is a dancer, choreographer and educator active in the field of dance technology, K-12 interdisciplinary curriculum and teacher training. Mila received an MA in Dance Education from Teachers College, Columbia University and a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in Art Education. Ms. Parrish has performed with modern, ballet and theatre companies, most notably, The Jean Erdman Theater of Dance, with whom she toured nationally. Her choreography has been presented at various NYC venues including DIA Center for the Arts, PS.122, the Morningside Dance Festival and St. Mark's Church. Mila is a Certified Movement Analyst (CMA) with research interest in dance cognition and multimedia development. She is nationally and internationally recognized for her work in educational technology and CD-ROM development. Mila has taught at numerous conferences and recently gave a keynote address at the Physical Education Technology Symposium in Hong Kong. Her article "Integrating Technology into the Teaching and Learning of Dance" appeared in the recent issue of the Journal of Dance Education. |
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