Pushing Scores // Shuffle Step

Publishing & Performance

overview

I was commissioned to contribute to DE_PLAYER’s magazine for remote events, DE_LAYER. Their 5th issue focuses on the topic of Pushing Scores. Among other artists, I was invited to create a piece using their Pushing Scores archive created by Varia. My short jazz choreography was created using the chance-based approaches of John Cage and Merce Cunningham and focuses on the rhythms of the terms selected within the archive. The rhythmical, feet-shuffling performance was filmed, and the audio became a self-standing audio piece.

Shuffle Step is a score system I designed as a tribute to John Cage’s and Merce Cunningham’s work. Putting it together with Chester Whitmore’s list of jazz steps, whom I admire for his determination in preserving the culture of African American jazz dance, felt suitable as a way to channel the difficulties of documenting dance. The article in DE_LAYER brings context to the issue and invites the readers to create their own choreography with the help of my system.

extra detail

• Dimensions 200 × 300 × 10 mm

• 100 prints

• Release comes with a CD with audio pieces

• Publication layout by Koos Siep

• Published May 2021

• Order the publication from DE PLAYER’s online store.

Photos above made by DE_PLAYER. Images below are my visual experiments and scores.

Project was made possible with the support of Mondriaan Fonds, Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie, Fonds Podiumkunsten and Gemeente Rotterdam.