The wit(h)ness Scores are a series of audio/ text scores for audience and performer that have evolved from my ongoing research into the relational-solo practice of self-choreography. 

Background

Coined by the feminist artist and psychotherapist Bracha Ettinger, to ‘wit(h)ness’ is to ‘witness whilst resonating with another’ through an ‘encounter-event’. It is a practice of ‘being-with’, that challenges our tendency to encounter others/ performers/art via a disconnected/ objective ‘seeing’.  Like the experience of a Rothko painting, it requires the creation of a shared ‘border space’, through which both audience and performer can settle into each other’s presence leading to the ‘co-emergence’ of the performance/ work.   

Previous Work

In April 2020 I set out to research the practice that I described as self-choreography. Working alone, first in my living room (during the pandemic) and then in a private studio space in Clarence Mews, Hackney, I reached out to other solo artist-makers to teach me their own processes. I was lucky enough to receive one to one mentoring from Rosalind Crisp, which jolted me into moving and thinking in the moment of dancing. I then worked with Amy Voris, welcoming a longer processual approach, deeply reflective and grounded. In 2021 I joined Deborah Black’s Six VIewpoints workshop drawing on Mary Overlie’s practices. These three influences come together in my own processes and practices which have developed into three scores:

Rolling on the Floor – a methodology for not knowing

Body – Shape – Space

Bone Time – Any Time

In 2022 I worked with Amy Voris to develop a choreographic score through her framework of ‘Opening, Harvesting, Returning and Deepening’ (Voris, 2019). During this project, to return (2022), I performed solo accompanied by Voris’ prompts. On one occasion, as I performed in Voris’ studio, I became aware of my proximity to the audience and the shared space that we inhabited. As one audience member put it: ‘the ground is what we share’, which made me reflect on how I develop this shared space as a material in itself. This laid the groundwork for what I am now looking to explore through a further development of the wit(h)ness scores through/ with audience engagement.

Biog

Marguerite Galizia is a London based dance-maker, Pilates Method Teacher and artist-researcher at De Montfort University (Doctoral Scholarship), where she is conducting a Practice-as-Research PhD into the solo-improvisatory practice of ‘self-choreography’. Her professional practice treads the line between explicitly performative events (choreographic works, installations), and the subtler affective imprints of somatic attention scores. Recent professional collaborations include working with visual/sound artist Rita Evans (Respondents, 2023) and the dance-maker Amy Voris (to return, 2022). Awards include the LUTSF award (2016 & 2011), Marion North Award (BBCF, 2005) and the Deutsche Bank Pyramid Award (2003). She trained at London Contemporary Dance School, earning an MA in Choreography (2010) and a BA (Hons.) in Contemporary Dance (2003)