Artists on Making Art  (other posts here, info/contributing here.)

When Aynsley asked me to write a bit about some issues or questions related to my artmaking, she unleashed a can of worms in my head. After some discomfort in the deworming process, two questions have emerged as possible bait with which I'd like to fish.

First of all, I'm wondering how I can create structures that will allow a work to develop , and live a fuller, more developed life. Now I'm pretty committed to live work, performed for audiences in a shared space. Film has a place, but its the live experience that is paramount for me. It's the gestation period for a dance, and its actual life in front of any audience, that seems out of whack. It disappears way too quickly. How can I facilitate a process that maximizes interactions between me and audiences both in the performer/viewer relationship, and in the relationship of peers talking about performance and the making of meaning?

Now there are lots of issues here ( marketplace, resources, Zeitgeist). Like every artist I know well, I earn most of the money I need to present work. The occasional grant, the once in a while commission, the generous support of friends add importantly to the resources needed for rehearsals, dancers, designers, the time to create. Predicting a dramatic increase in this regard seems unlikely. Breaking through the white noise of buzz is problematic. I've spent a lot of money to “increase our profile” with fairly little to show for it. So what do I change?

I think its the model. Pouring the resources into one week in NYC, never to see the work again, is all too familiar, and familiarity does indeed breed contempt. I'm craving some evolution with a work, not creating a totally different beast with each effort. Looking back at my work, I see a menagerie. A parrot here, a squid over here. In the distance, thats a genetic mutant. But I think maybe (and I'm really thinking out loud here) I'd like to make a piece that has a brother, cousin, and yes, a crazy Aunt in the attic (or is she the grandmother? My inner Sam Shepard comes out)

It might look like this. Six performance weekend over a year. Three shows a weekend. If some dancers can lock in for a year, great. But performers will be added and changed as the work evolves. I'd line up different venues (black box, site specific, studio) and I'd have an evolving corps of collaborators, based on availability. Technical needs would have to be met through fast, clever, and simple solutions. Audiences could purchase passes to see any three, or four, or five, or all six weekends. I know its hard to plan ahead, and it might be impracticable, but I want to encourage folks to see the whole family. Each performance stands alone, but IF you see more than one, you would sense some of the relationship.

This is not a brand new idea, for I recognize its antecedents in Meredith Monk, Matthew Barney, and Yoshiko Chuma. But in this particular form and with this set of goals, I am comfortable with its being my own, for I think it addresses the particulars of my situation in a meaningful way.

Now I said there were two questions, and the second is one that has irritated me for as long as I can remember. What do I call what I do? What is that pithy, catchy, but most importantly, DESCRPTIVE way to describe the kind of work Lynn Marie Ruse and I make as FREEFALL? How about “accessible abstraction”? I'm floating this here...don't want someone claiming this in their next grant, because we used to say we made “abstract narrative”. Boy, is that everywhere. I'm not claiming we coined it. But we thought we had that one nailed, and then I started reading it everywhere.

So I'd love to hear any feedback about this fishing trip. It's all too new for me to tell if I landed anything. So let me know. Thanks Aynsley.

Lynn Brown is a co-founder and current Co Artistic Director of FREEFALL, with Lynn Marie Ruse.  FREEFALL is  a New York based dance/theater company dedicated to thrilling performances of personal stories in abstract ways.  He earned a Theater BS from Northwestern University, where teachers like David Downs and Frank Galati turned his curiosity into a passion for performance.  Lynn also holds his MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He has performed nationally and internationally with FREEFALL, Keely Garfield, Pooh Kaye, Jody Oberfelder-Reihm, and Victoria Marks. His work has been presented extensively here in New York at all the major venues of downtown dance as well as Symphony Space and numerous offbeat , site specific locations.(including the East and Hudson rivers) .He is a Full Time Teaching Artist in Dance for  Lincoln Center Institute, and teaches technique in the summer at Brant Lake Dance Camp for Girls.