Movement As Inquiry
Dance has always been a significant part of human nature. Movement, so intrinsic to being, is ingrained across species. The interplay of the body and motion is central to the human experience. While dance has played a significant role in our culture, movement is integral.
“Movement can be the act of moving the body through dance or physical exercise, but I tend to look at movement a bit broader than that,” said Isabella Mireles Vik, an artist based in Houston, Texas.
Vik’s artistic philosophy in terms of movement centers around the idea that everything they can do with their body has happened prior to their existence, lending “a sense of primitive investigation” to their practice.
The influence of this philosophy is easily seen when glimpsing Vik’s research into movement as the artist lies on the ground in Norway hair dipped into a stream, moves through theater seating as though encountering an obstacle for the first time, or rolls in a circle around a hole in the snow.
The Body
The body is a machine, a temple, a canvas, an organic battery, a vessel moving through space. Vik views their responsibility in movement as unearthing the past “within my own body and others to better understand what knowledge is hidden within myself or artists I work with.”
Beyond movement, Vik’s practice uses bodily reactions, exploring body modification and ritualized pain, both of which have a history reaching back centuries with a variety of cultural meanings.
“For two years now I have been experimenting with piercing myself and bloodletting,” Vik said. “Around early June last year, I had the seal of Jupiter tattooed on the roof of my mouth which was significant to me for that time of the year.”
Still from “Line Addict” by Isabella Mireles Vik
Courtesy of the artist.
Scarification, deemed a “primitive” practice in Western culture saw a reemergence within the body modification movement. According to Victoria Pitts, professor of sociology at NYU, it was first embraced by queer subcultures “reviving or reenacting indigenous body rituals from around the world — trying to get in touch with a more authentic or spiritual experience of the body.”
For some, it is mere adornment while others view body modification as a means to reclaim control over the body, ritualized markings representing a revocation of former claims or victimizations.
In Vik’s practice, it may carry many meanings, but it allows them to deepen their connection to the body itself, researching how it reacts to different stimuli, and extending their practice beyond movement.
Human Resource + Structural Improvisation
Human Resource: Corporeal Experiences in Professionalism premiered at the 2024 Texas Biennial through the Blaffer Art Museum.
Four artists lounge on the stage in business casual attire. Without an audible cue, they begin to rise and move in pairs. Their movements are similar yet asynchronous, a slight lag between the rise of a leg or a crawl forward. There are flickers of technical form throughout the performance, but the overarching feel of the piece is improvisational.
“Human Resource,” 2024 | Photo by Sol Diaz
“I believe everything so far in my process comes from spontaneity,” Vik explained when asked about the oscillation between improvisation and choreography in the performance. Over the past two years, Vik’s focus has turned to repertoire “as a means to strengthen my choreographic skills, but my first love will always be improvisational performance.”
In an interview with Max Tolleson for Glasstire, Vik expressed that the piece was inspired by the idea of emotional regression when people are continuously in situations devoid of self-expression:
“I had thought about what happens whenever you get a phone call at work that could be very desperate, or it could be an emergency phone call, or it could be a phone call from a friend that you haven’t spoken to in a long time. It doesn’t always have to be so dramatic… I thought about what would happen if we could have a normal human reaction rather than subject ourselves to having to continue to work, cutting off our very human need to be expressive and emotional.”
What happens to the self when it is constrained? How do we express ourselves in real-time?
Vik structured the piece to allow each movement artist to react naturally to the stimuli, each hearing a different part of the calls, whether the language, tone or content.
“Within my choreography, I set certain parts of the piece to have a bit of structural improvisation,” Vik said. “This gives the movement artists an opportunity to display their improvisational skills within certain boundaries that adhere to the context of the work.”
Movement v. Dance
Terminology can be a crutch we lean on to feel comfortable as we identify and classify what’s in front of us. Many may view Vik’s practice as dance relegated to the zone of the visual arts, allowing more flexibility and freedom, a looser definition or set of expectations.
Vik, generally, identifies as a movement artist because — while trained in dance — they do not restrict their expression to choreography.
Aufheben Ensemble, Texas Biennial
Photo by Jay Tovar
“From my perspective, dance has become hyper-fixated on control, making the accessibility to certain styles or techniques only accessible to certain-bodied people; take ballet, for example,” they said.
This control extends to the audience as well. Strictly choreographed pieces or spoon-fed narratives in composition build toward an expected outcome or reaction.
“There is a bit of rigidness to calling yourself a dancer because the art world limits you to making choreographed pieces with an abstract concept for stage,” Vik said. “Perhaps dance that aligns with performance art moves away from the formality of how dance is presented and how the body isn’t married to a certain dogma of movement. Perhaps it goes beyond the academic approaches people learn about in university and lies in the importance of life experience first before technicality.”
Aufheben
Aufheben, the ensemble Vik has begun to work with, began from a place of loneliness. Vik has an extensive history of collaboration with artists, musicians, and spaces, but these collaborations often resulted in solo or duo performances.
With a practice rooted in dance, this can be isolating.
Aufheben Ensemble, “Cuidado No God,” 2024
Photo by Ben White
“Researching and moving alone becomes very dull,” Vik reflected. “From the beginning, Aufheben has been a conduit for all of my research to be shared with others interested in contemporary movement modalities. It is also a way for me to create larger bodies of work with what inspires me most; people.”
Movement and dance are often communal practices, a means to bring individuals into a collective whole. Inspiration has many sources, but a practice resulting in structural improvisation can be limited without improv partners.
Dance companies, however, have a history of hierarchical leadership. As with many organizations, there are claims to be communal at the forefront while the backstage power dynamics are anything but.
“It can be very cult-like and the power dynamics between directors and dancers is heinous,” Vik said. “This project is more of a social experiment or school of thought that draws out the artists' involvement without myself having to blatantly ask for it.”
Through Aufheben, Vik seeks to foster a nurturing environment in which her fellow movement artists can embrace autonomy and make creative decisions within the group. All of this “comes from teaching people to trust in themselves.”
This foundation reflects some of the core aspects of community building seen in social practice or socially engaged arts. Specifically, it brings to mind the founders of the Houston organization Project Row Houses, a social experiment in which artists sought ways to uplift the community around them by engaging them instead of painting with them. If you want a community to rise, you have to equip it with the resources and tools to operate collectively and with autonomy.
“What's important to me is to create work that goes beyond aesthetic beauty or athleticism, work that is relatable to many people, which is why I focus on topics related to societal struggle,” Vik said. “Oftentimes, I don’t have a resolution to these struggles because I don’t believe they’re found in art alone.”
