This duet was a socially political statement addressing civil partnerships between married couples, in which the husband carried a previous diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome (a mild form of autism) unlike the neuro-typical wife, based on the literature by Maxine Aston (2003) who was an autism-specific relationships counsellor and interviewed real-life couples.

 

Social conflict – including misunderstandings, misinterpretations and miscommunications – and segregation between people with/without autism are issues which are historic and remain current. Aston’s literature examined the fundamental aspects of complicated relationships between ‘AS-NT’ couples which appealed to me as a way of addressing social conflict in this context.

 

A Definition of Asperger’s Syndrome

 

Asperger’s Syndrome is not a mental illness per se, but an incurable, developmental disorder. It affects one in every two-hundred-and-fifty people. It causes problems in social communication/interaction and imagination which furthermore cause a narrow focus and repetitive singular interests.

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The Creative Rehearsal Process

 

This project attempted to utilise the 5th Process of Jo Butterworth’s Didactic Democratic Framework Model – Choreographer as Collaborator, Dancer as Co-Owner (2009). We shared research, negotiation and decision-making about intention and structure. But sometimes, we employed the 4th Process – Choreographer as Facilitator, Dancer as Creator – due to some critical debate during the process.

 

I read key facts in summary of select chapters from Aston’s source (2003) to the collaborator before devising sequences inspired by scenarios written by Aston. The Unspoken Word was a semi-structured, part-improvised, playful work-in-progress that explored issue-based scenarios in (non-) verbal communication, social scenes, verbal abuse, and domestic violence besides routines, rules and boundaries. 

 

When it came to transitions, we employed improvisation or play – a theory which acknowledges its central role in our human culture which we tend to forget about as we are becoming adults, but an essence required for working creatively (Huizinga, 1930s). We did this using loom elastic tied to all four corners of the rehearsal/performance space to represent the term ‘crossed wires.’ Every time we ran through the full work, the transitions that supported the set sequences always changed.

 

The loom elastic brought something new to that movement design of mine and my dancing partner, challenged our skills, and enticed the audience with some aspects of virtuosity and skill seen before them. It made a powerful beginning and was visually strong throughout. I think that out-danced my collaborator and I because the assessors could not see the difference between each character in its final product as understood in the tutorial process.

 

Every time we ran through the full work, the transitions that supported the set sequences always changed. When asked to 'play' in improvisation, it's not very easy for me to be in the moment. I had run out of what I could do to ad lib or demonstrate a developed movement vocabulary that was organic and authentic. They said to me and my peer, “That was very good...” I just felt like I wasn’t good enough.

 

If I was to develop this work, I would explore the other elements, originally investigated by Aston which were not covered in the process such as infidelity, sexuality and attraction, mutuality, trust, parenthood, and value yet distil the final product by replacing whatever was ad-libbed with new sequences. As I felt the playful element could have been about anything, it was not relevant to my original intent that was my textual stimulus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

 

Aston, M. (2003) Aspergers in Love: Couple Relationships and Family Affairs. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers

 

Butterworth, J. and Wildschut, L. (2009) Contemporary Choreography: A Critical Reader. Oxon: Routledge