Structure, Structure, Structure

Yesterday in rehearsal Jonathan and I discussed how to structure our duet. I think this gets to a central question in creating art - especially, maybe mostly, improvisational work. How do you decide on a structure? What does "structure" even mean? Is it important? There is certainly a case to be made to have a set structure for every work. This would mean that even though we are not setting particulars there is a place where we always begin, move through and end. For example, we could set that we always start at the back of the stage with both of us playing the guitar, this slowly transitions into both of us moving around the stage and then ends with Jonathan playing the guitar and me dancing. The other extreme of this is to set nothing - really just both choose where to start as we're walking on stage and then begin and see what happens. Yesterday we discussed something in between - that for each performance we would randomly choose the order of the sections, but we would go through those sections in a particular order for that performance. The next question that comes up out of this discussion is, how does the order of the section effect the meaning of the performance - for both us as performers and, certainly, the audience. If you set the structure than you can be sure of a certain flow of the piece, but if you leave it open, or change it each time, that changes the arc. In fact it calls into question the whole idea of the dramatic arc.

Most times when seeing a performance - especially dance or theater - we are use to following a dramatic arc. Usually something happens, something changes from the beginning to the end. We have conflict, or development, or some kind of progression. We also know, either consciously or intuitively, that that arc was chosen and set by the creator of the work. We can trust that the structure was intentional and specific. But, if there is no predetermined structure, or the structure is determined for each performance by chance, what does that imply to meaning? This is an age-old post-modern question, but we're in the mix of it right now and trying to wrestle with these options. During this last rehearsal we randomly created a structure (using a computer) and tried it and was quite satisfied with the structure. But, what happens if the computer creates a structure that we don't "like", or feels "inorganic"? We will continue to explore random generated structure for the next couple of rehearsals and see what happens.