The Study Center for Group Work, an open access library of collaborative methods.
We focus on collaborative methods recommended by artists. These methods often embrace the unknown, encouraging people to listen deeply enough to be transformed. We invite you to learn about collaborative methods, to access teaching resources, and to see the schedule for upcoming events and jobs related to collaboration.
NOTES ON COLLABORATION (from GOAT ISLAND, SMALL ACTS OF REPAIR)
1 Find a structure in which every voice is heard. If you tend to speak a great deal, try to make sure you wait and listen occasionally. If you normally remain silent, try to speak now and then. Remember that having a voice need not always connote speaking. Sometimes a quality of attention can become a kind of voice.
2 Work from people's strengths. Make sure everyone is challenged creatively. Allow the entire group co work from each strength of each individual. For example, pretend everyone in the group is as good as the best dancer.
3 Work toward complexity rather than simplicity.
4 Do not expect to understand everything mrellecrually or rationally while creating or performing. There are man)' forms of understanding. Also, if you work from a position of nol knowing, you may find understanding will come lacer.
5 Contribute a fragment ra.ther than a complete idea. Through the group process, the ideas complete one another.
6 Balance talking with doing.
7 Begin the collaborative process with showing the material each member has created rather than telling each member about the material or about an idea.
8 Try different approaches, such as allowing each member to take responsibility for one portion or aspect of the process. Each member may oversee one part of the performance as a directer. One member may become the designated timekeeper. One member may oversee choreography, while another oversees spoken text. Or the responsibilities may divide in other ways.
9 lf you encounter problems during the process, try doing another activity together, such as taking a walk or drinking tea.
10 Try everyone's ideas even if you think you have an instant dislike to those ideas.
11 If you think you have no conection to someone else's material and are having trouble performing it, try to allow your vision and yourself to expand to include the person’s material and to learn from it.
