#1 at St John the baptist Church, Hackney
#2 at Arch 1 Members Club Canning Town (minus Carlos)
Participant's comments:
" I really enjoyed the Out Of The Box workshop. I was fascinated by the different techniques for setting up the conditions of improv...A very enjoyable weekend and time well spent! I’m looking forward using the experience to further my playing and my thinking around improv."
"I particularly enjoyed playing with the randomness of the dice throw..... a welcoming, generous and open facilitator and this I feel really helped us all to feel safe and get involved despite any reluctance we might have carried into the room with us…I’d definitely be up for playing more..."
"...The box game has definitely changed my conceptions of how to make and experience music...It was cathartic and I feel as though I’ve seen (and heard) a whole different world"
" ...The style and framework allowed for thoughtful springboards / exploration into the work, and then creating something special and challenging as a group. I would like to do more, and particularly work on joint listening exercises"
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:
'Out of the Box' is a workshop Hannah devised in 2023. It's practical deep dive into free improvisation, for instrumentalists and vocalists, delving into strategies and simple pieces that engage group improvisation, harnessing chance based approaches like dice & cards as the means to navigate our way through hundreds of ways to play together freely. Out of The Box is a game through which the participants explore borrowed, original and collected instructions & instigations, brought together over 20+ years. The workshop can take many cues from composers (such as La Monte Young, Pauline Oliveros, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Cornelius Cardew), and can investigate areas such as Search & Reflect and Conduction, as well as adapt to different approaches to 'free' playing, in an organic and playful way, where the dice and chance leads what happens next. Participants gain experience and insight into their own play and listening processes and how that affects and creates the 'group' - as well as finding inspiration in music making and composition along the way.
Playing a game frees the direction and content of the workshop away from a 'leader', or 'teacher', to become a playful interaction, with timings and synchronicity principally using dice rolling. The game encourages participants to simply notice what the present moment brings. This approach takes the pressure off, and invites the participant's trust in what the universe is guiding them to do. 'Out of The Box' aims to make space to develop tools for listening, to help develop personal creative practice, shake-up stale approaches, or allow new ideas to bubble up, whether those be musical, or otherwise.
The workshop is however guided by Hannah, who can explain or clarify the game as it unfolds. Material for the workshop has been influenced and inspired by her observations and experiences performing improvised music in the Uk and abroad, collaborating in theatre, working in education, community music, as a composer, with artists and philosophical practices.
Hannah is an experienced and inclusive facilitator, having held many creative spaces with people of all ages and abilities.
For a CV detailing Hannah's past experience and training in teaching and participation please go HERE
