Matthew Rawcliffe

  I’m back to writing today, trying to structure the theories presented in Ahmed’s Queer Phenomenology as a framework for experimental learning. I’m taking a lot from this: In a way, the utterance “I can” points to the future only insofar as it inherits the past, as the accumulation of what the body has already done, as well as what is “behind” the body, the conditions of its arrival. The body emerges from this history of doing, which is also a history of not doing, of paths not taken, which also involves the loss, impossible to know or even register, of what might have followed from such paths. As such, the body is directed as a condition of its arrival, and as a direction that gives the body its line. ( Ahmed, 2006) I spend a lot of my practice cutting up small pieces of paper, gluing things together and typing things out painfully slowly on my typewriter. Sometimes I feel like this is more akin to a childish art project, I begin to question why I have arrived at this point. Mayb...

I’m not sure what to write about today. I’m digesting. My brain is both full and empty. I need a structure. I want to be in charge of it and at its mercy.   I want to offer it to you as a thing. So - I decided I would design a little online scavenger hunt, four prompts that will give me four words. I will then have to write a paragraph about each word I have. Here is the structure I designed if you would like to give it a go: Using your favourite search engine, do each of the following tasks: search for “[name of a famous person] fashion disaster!” and take the second word of the second search result search for “[the amount of pets you have] ways to get rich” and take the third word of the description of the most bizarre result that comes up search for “is quentin tarantino [pick your favourite suggested autocomplete]?” and click on the first link - take the first word of the second paragraph. search for “[somewhere you think is beautiful]” - go to images and select the first im...

I was thinking around the framework of our meetings and something that Helen introduced in approaching the conversation as an improvisation with the same rules of the yes and game. So maybe I will start focusing on this as it’s a common framework, and because I have an embodied understanding of it through exploration in the studio. I can try to look at some theories within it. Firstly, my own theories that I bring to open improvisation can set the tone of what I’m searching for. If we decide that the purpose of yes and is to drive the material forward and to listen, then I have many questions to stretch and exist within this as a framework. These are things I’m searching for in my practice of dance improvisation in a group… but maybe they can also apply to conversation.   how can i say yes and whilst also saying: no absolutely not maybe but i’m not sure but what about this yes but i don’t know why no but i don’t know why this is not interesting to me i want to go somewhere else b...

I've been reflecting on scores, rules, frameworks and tasks within choreographic practice. Two of the below illustrations are from my own work, one is a work I experienced as a performer. 1. Matthew Rawcliffe's hockey or watching the daisies grow (2019) 2. Maria Ulriksson's Magnet (2020) 3. Mathew Rawcliffe's Mrs Dalloway: The One Man Show (2022) - My Three Suns - Futurama, Season 1, Episode 7

day one of the autism, children and dance forum at pavilion dance south west (bournemouth) I am back practicing - it feels so good! I’m in the UK for two days. It’s the culmination of two years of discussions with PDSW about autism friendly dance and now we have a forum together - there’s flyers and everything! I’m performing a solo that I’ve never performed before, it’s something I designed on someone else that’s found it’s way back to me. I have my amazing autism keyworker, Hannah Miles, delivering the practical workshop before this performance, and I will be leading a separate CPD session giving an insight to my process towards autism-friendliness. We lead two school sessions (totalling 90 participants) each including a practical workshop and a performance. The workshops are inspired by the autism-friendly performance I created ‘The Crisp Sandwich Cafe’. This is our first time leaving our cafe and we visit two classes from a specialist school. I just want to highlight some moments s...

I wanted to practically test some of the ideas from scholarship in the studio with students, here are some things that came up: It’s so hard when my main practice isn’t necessarily pedagogy, to not connect theories around learning and teaching to my own work as a teacher. I decided to let them be a bit blurred and mashed together. I decided I would both deliver the session as a trial of taking experiential learning as form and guide, but also trying to teach and articulate some of the areas where I feel I have significant learning - but that I wouldn’t normally incorporate into my teaching practice (especially with pre-professionals.) And here it gets messier. Because I have a real interest in developing and making space for the autonomy of performers I work with. However, this becomes complicated as I’m engaging with theory around reflective learning which now I see relates both to what I’ve learned and also how I’ve learned it. I feel some clarity in this: Schön  (1987) on The...

I have just started reading Schön’s  Educating the Reflective Practitioner  and so I wanted to jot down some initial thoughts and name some of the questions and ideas that have already arose. I’d love to hear from others who are also reading it. These responses mainly come from notions presented in the first chapter. Here, Schön presents the epitome of the argument: asking what knowledge is needed in order to excel in your practice. Already, there is discussion around what methods can offer this rigorous professional knowledge beyond traditional structures. There is recognition that artistry affords this personal growth. There is identification of how profession affects perspective, our unique framing of a situation gives rise for the need to somehow mediate these differences. It is the skills which allow for this greater perspective which are proposed to offer this extension of professional knowledge.   At some point I will probably write about woke-washing and current p...