Randee Paufve – Paufve | dance
I was raised in the rural Northeast, but I grew up in the west. My body is inscribed
by the Pacific Ocean, the redwoods, and urban Oakland as much as by the farms
fields and forests of upstate New York. Both geographies live in my body.
After years of formal dance studies, I retreated into solo work, improvising and
choreographing, learning my body from the inside out. I studied experiential
anatomy, Pilates, yoga, the Alexander Technique. I made dances by exploring my
relationships to the diverse rural and urban geographies I know and love, locating
and orienting myself in place and space, drawing landscapes into my body and
out again, engaging with geography as movement information. I continue these
practices today.
I am also perpetually interested in the physical language of human relationships
– and the forces of geography as they pertain to these relationships. Much of
my work is built from processes of excavating and re-sculpting various types
of relationships, exploring their creation, sustenance and destruction
through movement.
This interest in how human relationships are physicalized, how we relate to each
other socially and expressively through our bodies, generated a shift toward
more collaborative processes. I began making dances with and about each group
gathered for a particular project, developing scores and choreographies based
on a cross-section of questions designed to establish present context physical
connections between dancers during the rehearsal process: How does this
group come together? Who are they together? How do we see and experience
one another in this context? What movement language can we create at this
intersection of time, place, selves, and relationships? This process regards the
effects of geography on experiential and performative movement, relationships,
sexuality, experiences of alienation and belonging. The questions of how we
connect to people in our lives, and why things happen where they happen are of
endless interest to me.
Through these processes, I have begun dissolving the molds that separate my
creative and performing body from my personal and social body. While I study,
practice, teach, and adore compositional forms, I no longer make clear distinctions
between dance movement structures and social movement structures.
My current research and practice involves creating movement and choreography
that help us locate and orient ourselves in our thinking, emotional, visceral and
mechanical bodies. I work with ideas about seeing and touching as a means of developing choreography and performance states which create more fluid spaces
between performers and audience.
I challenge restrictive ideals about the dancer body and choreography, continually
researching ways to coordinate freedom in our thinking, moving, and creative
selves, working with, rather than against, our bodies. Through this work I also
challenge tenaciously held beliefs about age and body ideals. With an interest in
the expressive moving body of any age, my company features dancers ranging
from 24 - 76.
I found inspiration this year in new works by William Forsythe, Ohad Naharin,
Faustin Linyekula, Donna Uchizono and Kate Weare. These artists represent to me
a cross-section of intelligent, unapologetic choreographers making fluid, emotional,
political, feminist, luscious, generous, movement-based work. Attentive to questions
of the heart, the work, and the world, these choreographers model ways of standing
on our own shoulders, and those of our ancestors, weaving our work from past
to present, keeping dance potent, urgent, relevant.
Dance is a language that can capture, describe and illuminate every aspect of
the human condition. I strive to continually evolve this language, through
movement exploration, the rehearsal process, the ritual of performance. As with
the choreographers that I admire, it is critical to maintain movement as my base,
yet move the work forward into more immediate artistic, reflective relevance.
I was raised in the rural Northeast, but I grew up in the west. My body is inscribed
by the Pacific Ocean, the redwoods, and urban Oakland as much as by the farms
fields and forests of upstate New York. Both geographies live in my body.
After years of formal dance studies, I retreated into solo work, improvising and
choreographing, learning my body from the inside out. I studied experiential
anatomy, Pilates, yoga, the Alexander Technique. I made dances by exploring my
relationships to the diverse rural and urban geographies I know and love, locating
and orienting myself in place and space, drawing landscapes into my body and
out again, engaging with geography as movement information. I continue these
practices today.
I am also perpetually interested in the physical language of human relationships
– and the forces of geography as they pertain to these relationships. Much of
my work is built from processes of excavating and re-sculpting various types
of relationships, exploring their creation, sustenance and destruction
through movement.
This interest in how human relationships are physicalized, how we relate to each
other socially and expressively through our bodies, generated a shift toward
more collaborative processes. I began making dances with and about each group
gathered for a particular project, developing scores and choreographies based
on a cross-section of questions designed to establish present context physical
connections between dancers during the rehearsal process: How does this
group come together? Who are they together? How do we see and experience
one another in this context? What movement language can we create at this
intersection of time, place, selves, and relationships? This process regards the
effects of geography on experiential and performative movement, relationships,
sexuality, experiences of alienation and belonging. The questions of how we
connect to people in our lives, and why things happen where they happen are of
endless interest to me.
Through these processes, I have begun dissolving the molds that separate my
creative and performing body from my personal and social body. While I study,
practice, teach, and adore compositional forms, I no longer make clear distinctions
between dance movement structures and social movement structures.
My current research and practice involves creating movement and choreography
that help us locate and orient ourselves in our thinking, emotional, visceral and
mechanical bodies. I work with ideas about seeing and touching as a means of developing choreography and performance states which create more fluid spaces
between performers and audience.
I challenge restrictive ideals about the dancer body and choreography, continually
researching ways to coordinate freedom in our thinking, moving, and creative
selves, working with, rather than against, our bodies. Through this work I also
challenge tenaciously held beliefs about age and body ideals. With an interest in
the expressive moving body of any age, my company features dancers ranging
from 24 - 76.
I found inspiration this year in new works by William Forsythe, Ohad Naharin,
Faustin Linyekula, Donna Uchizono and Kate Weare. These artists represent to me
a cross-section of intelligent, unapologetic choreographers making fluid, emotional,
political, feminist, luscious, generous, movement-based work. Attentive to questions
of the heart, the work, and the world, these choreographers model ways of standing
on our own shoulders, and those of our ancestors, weaving our work from past
to present, keeping dance potent, urgent, relevant.
Dance is a language that can capture, describe and illuminate every aspect of
the human condition. I strive to continually evolve this language, through
movement exploration, the rehearsal process, the ritual of performance. As with
the choreographers that I admire, it is critical to maintain movement as my base,
yet move the work forward into more immediate artistic, reflective relevance.
