Process as Guide
/ process as guide /
what it is
/process as guide/ is an intimate group structure and one:one sessions format I developed and am currently leading.
The aim in the process as guide cycles is to learn from your own art, from the reoccurring voice within and to learn to guide one-self through one’s own challenges and joys of the creative processes. For that we need to be aware of certain principles, be seen, challenged, inspired and in connection with others, in this case myself and a group, that is up for reflecting your process back to you. Dance people are usually naturally good at that.
We listen, study, and relate to our process and our intuition through shared movement experience, the lens of art, experiments in performance making and through language-based communication. It’s a rhizomatic approach to the creative process, to being together and to learning, where each participant also gets to lead within the group. By providing the guiding structure and principles process as guide is the frame that invites each individual to co-shape their experience.
The group meets once a week for two-hour sessions for 6-12 consecutive weeks. Each participant has a weekly 1:1 session with me. A few weeks after the conclusion, the experience is processed and reflected on in another 1:1 session.
whom is for
The ideal participant is any dance and performance artists who wants to study outside of academic structures, get deeper into what attracts them to making work, is interested in agency and self-responsability, wants to get out of a creative rut or confusion, wants to be held by a group for this endeavor and / or is simply eager to get our of their own way for their work to unfold as it wants.
guiding principles
art life
not knowing while leading.
my work knows more than me.
mutuality and flexibility in roles.
non-duality.
sensing and reflecting.
consciousness in the touchable and the non-touchable.
structure and flow.
relational realities.
the symbolic and imaginary.
diversity in experience.
play and ritual.
change state logic.
core desires.
so above so below.
object as subject.
attunement, intuition and implicit knowing.
non – linear space and time logic.
cooperative making and dissolving.
These principles continue to draw me to dance and its various voices and practices.
They are at the foundation upon which process as guide is built.
A set of agreements I created and assembled, adjusted each time anew with the group, are holding parameters for our togetherness.
history
Process as guide grew out of me noticing the dissatisfaction of some young artists with academic study around dance, their desire to study art as a process, follow their curiosities and confusions while being held in a group and without having to ‘make dances’. My performance work, teaching and study of the unknowable within art-life processes, as well as my offer to make the creative process explicitly part of leading a group was what attracted participants and brought about the original gatherings.
The way we go about it is that during the first two sessions I lecture and we reflect on certain principles of making. I also lead practices for exploring those principles in experiential, moment based ways during these initial sessions.
I first started to shape this model in 2015 through study groups that were called Boosts for my Qi Gong and Dance students to deepen learned material. Workshops around touch, intuition and improvisation as well as regular one-on-one meetings with various dance people, talking about and guiding their process and intuition were the impetus in 2017 to formatting process as guide. Each relationship informed this model and inspired my desire for mutuality between us in this learning process.
The first group of 6 women I invited to explored process as guide as a study group took place from February 15th until May 15th, 2018 at Domestic Performance Agency in Brooklyn New York. These artists had been participating in my workshops or classes prior and expressed the desire to study and communicate further.
currently
Two artists are currently in a 1:1 cycle with me.
Four artists successfully concluded a two year DIY MFA in December 2022, focusing on new modes of learning and teaching as performance artists. The group sessions took place via zoom, the one-on-ones were live.
The seventh process as guide cycle took place at Sunset Space Dance Studio in Brooklyn in March, April, May of 2020.
One of the groups was produced by Janet Panetta’s International Dance Dialogues and facilitated by Movement Research NY in October/November 2018.
connecting
If you are interested in hosting or participating in process as guide please contact me directly at melaniemaar@gmail.com
webbing
some participants as well as graduates of the DIY MFA:
Laurel Atwell- https://cargocollective.com/laurelatwell/About-Contact
Laura Bartczak- http://laurabartczak.squarespace.com/
Natalia Espinel- http://nataliaespinel.com/
Roxy Gordon-https://www.roxymovement.com/
Mor Mendel - https://www.mormendel.com/
Kirsten Michelle Schnittker - https://kirstenschnittker.com/
Amelia Tarpey-
Julia Gladstone-https://www.theincubationseries.com/julia-gladstone
Julianne Cariño-https://www.bax.org/julianne-carino/
Jo Warren-https://movementresearch.org/people/jo-warren/
Julie Brandano -https://www.julibrandano.com/ https://www.julibrandano.com/lag
Emma Rose Brown - https://www.emmarosebrown.com/
Kat Brown -https://kbmovementarts.com/
Grace Carney - https://www.gracecarney.io/
Amelia Heinzelman - https://www.ameliakh.com/
Kay Ottinger - https://kayottinger.com/ Dustin Maxwell- https://www.dustinmaxwell.org/
