Organising Desire
Group improvisation systems based on John Zorn's Cobra

Background:
Cobra is a complex group improvisation game language conceived in music by John Zorn, which is absolutely fun, mind-bending, addictive, often psychodramatically provocative, and forever changes the way one thinks about the potentialities of group improvisation. It is normally executed by 10-14 diverse musicians of any stylistic background and one prompter– a conductor behind a table of coloured cards relaying requests from the participants, as well as overseeing the group as a whole and instigating his/her own ideas. I played it with Zorn in New York and have since directed it myself hundreds of times in the USA and Europe. Over this time I have developed it further into more varied and refined energetic and social dimensions— working interdisciplinarily and integrating influences from my research and work with languages of synergy and ritual in Africa, from improvisation practices in dance and theatere and the physicality of the language of conducting (and developing in the process my own gesture system for directing improvisation).

Now dance:
One of the directions I have developed Cobra into is dance. On several occasions, upon
demand of dancers who were fans of the Cobra music spectacles in Amsterdam and Berlin, we collaborated to translate the system to include dancers with musicians. In these sessions the dancers and musicians each held absolutely equal roles in the "game", as if there was no difference between their respective artistic mediums. And dancers take particularly well to learning and using my gesture system as an integrated aspect of their physicality (for example to direct each other or challenge the prompter via the advanced guerrilla operations). The system has also worked surprisingly well in the absence of musicians, as the dancers' audible actions, breath/vocal sounds, spoken texts and natural rhythmic resonance (i.e. walking, breathing, or other pulsed actions) become automatically integrated as musical material. In these situations, we also have the option to include recorded music in the system, which is controlled and utilised in the game by the performers themselves, at a laptop ‘DJ’ station on stage– which contains a vast diverse library of music, however the performers may also bring their own to spin. Any dancer at any time may take the role of DJ, and continue following the same rules as the others, just now as a musician. Accordingly, dancers are encouraged to bring any musical instrument they enjoy playing.

Process:
We will enter deeper into the complexities and potentialities of the language bit-by-bit each day, so that the process remains experimential and fun rather than a conceptual information overload. The performers shall truly digest the system, thus thinking creatively and proactively with it, coming back each day prepared to use it as a tool to actualise their creative ideas/desires in the moment, rather than just obey it – they grow to play the game, rather than get played by the game. The system does not need to be administered in completion to be satisfying and effective, so in 5 days we may or may not bite into the aforementioned guerrilla operations (advanced tactics to subvert each other and/or the director)– first priority is to keep the language flexible and organic to the participants, administering it only at a pace which suits them. This daily process is also essential for the diverse ensemble of performers to get acquainted with each other, to discover their creative interpersonal dynamics and subtle chemistries, frictions, and alliances which will be the foundation of their strategic tactical maneuvers in the heated fleeting moments of reaction, provocation, idea and desire. This entire process implicitly invites the improviser of any level to transcend any unconscious limiting notions of their own creative scope – a process which has penetrated and "rewired" (not unlike an unpremeditated psychotherapy!) performers’ minds hour-by-hour and day-by-day in the workshop/rehearsals, and piece-by-piece, set-by-set (and indeed month-by-month) in performances.

Be welcome and look forward to a me-transcending week of confluence, eyes-wide-open communication, fluid power exchange and swimming in interdependence... hopefully full of fascinating mistakes and unsafe successes!



Nathan Fuhr
Nathan Fuhr (Berlin/Dakar) lets music and dance resonate as a single art based on pulse and breath. He is a transdisciplinary conductor whose precocity and creative instincts eventually led to a rejection of academic structures and penguin suits in favour of a plurality of artistic influences. He holds orchestral conducting degrees from the conservatories of Cincinnati and Amsterdam, dance diplomas from the Amsterdam School for New Dance Development and L'Ecole des Sables, Senegal, and draws influence from several workshops with Meredith Monk.
Concurrent to more than a decade of experience conducting classical and modern music ensembles to critical acclaim in New York and then Europe, and furthermore directing John Zorn's legendary game-piece of social alchemy and improvisation Cobra, Nathan created the ensemble Collision Palace in Amsterdam in 2002, specialising in the development of group improvisation languages and regularly collaboration with dance. This ensemble performed in the Holland Festival with Fred Frith, premiered scores by Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth and Robert Ashley, and was invited by the Steve Reich in The Hague Festival to realise a performance of the minimalist-cum-maximalist classic Coming Together, in which Nathan created a system of conducting combining physical direction and vocal text performance. In the same period a music theatre collaboration with composer Alison Isadora spawned his creation of a conducting technique using the energetic language of Butoh dance.

Currently, Nathan is the founding flow sculptor of the Demonshaker drumset ensemble- a project which is the fruit and urban occidental recontextualisation of his research, experience, and gradual demystification of traditional trance music and ritual dance practices in nonindividualised societies of Morocco, Egypt and Senegal. This path is born of an artistic interest in collective holistic synergies and empirical belief in the basic universal healing potential of the physicality of sound, organic rhythm and human synergy– excluding no stylistic or cultural background. Demonshaker's motivations in performance offerings are no less than transcendental– a humble utopian celebration of coming together and of life... Its most recent splashes have been at Prisma Forum Mexico and Tanznacht Festival Berlin; its American homecoming debut is set for California next year.

Nathan was introduced to ImPulsTanz after leading workshops for Meg Stuart in Berlin in 2005 (rhythm & trance) and Brussels in 2007 (group improvisation language research). As a result of his workshops, his choreographic scores and improvisation languages have been performed by Damaged Goods at Pact Zollverein Essen, student ensembles under his direction at Festspielhaus Hellerau Rhythmic Institute Dresden, European Dance Development Center Arnhem, Centre National de la Danse Paris, Institute Jacques Dalcroze Geneva, Mobile Academy Berlin, Antonia Baehr, a.o. He has led dancers in impromptu sessions as a guest at Ponderosa Dance Festival and Hu.Z TanzplanBerlin, a.o. He has worked as a rhythm coach and advisor for several independent choreographers in Amsterdam and as a vocal coach for Paul Gazzola in Berlin, as per his specialisation in the performance practice of Robert Ashley. At the invitation of certain girlfriends choreographers, Nathan has also worked as a dancer/performer. Recently he was framed as an actor by a major Estonian state theatre for the European Culture Capital 2011. In Dakar he plays with Baaba Maal's band, dances sabar, and learns simplicity. He practices Vipassana meditation, pranayama, Tai Chi, and holds surfboards and passports in the USA and Senegal. He has cherished ImPulsTanz as a first-class confluence joint since 2007 and is happy to return and reciprocate.
www.urbanrituals.org