Tbilisi SPP #7 Field Notes

May 8th, 2025, Tbilisi, Georgia

Duration: 2 ½ hours, 4p to 6:30p from meeting place, warmup, and end.

Participants: 7 performers, 2 camera persons (1 performer was camera person, myself)

This marks the 7th Spontaneous Performance Procession (SPP) held in Tbilisi — and perhaps the boldest to date — prompting this commentary as a means of continuing to fine-tune the practice.

The SPP is a happening where dancers process around a given terrain for a set time and break out into mini body-based performances based on site-specific resonance. For detailed info on the SPP, see https://shadowbody.com/spp.

For this SPP, we entered into the abandoned trains terrain keeping in mind that security may or may not be on to us. And not long into the drift, one guard did confront us, yet the camera man bought us some time by talking to the guard which was clever.

Fortunately, the nature of the SPP is that we keep moving anyway, so we indeed kept moving. Eventually, another security person caught onto us a little further down and so we continued on to find the nearest exit out. Within the abandoned trains terrain, several breakout performances occured, and so for all intents and purposes, our abandoned trains section of our SPP was an acceptable enough accomplishment.

The next exit to my surprise was a playground with children playing. These children had seen us already coming from a distance and were already anticipating us.

What followed was various resonances in the playground. Then we drifted out yet again and eventually found an overpass which was traversed in a resonant dancing procession form.

From there, it entered into a well-kept park which led to various resonances and again with children.

Questionable Terrain

The question of subversion — or even a gentle form of delinquency — naturally arises in relation to the SPP, and especially in this instance. Simply by breaking from conventional patterns of (domesticated) human movement, such as walking on designated walking paths from point A to B, a certain subversive or ‘savage’ element is introduced. When this is combined with geography not designed for human presence, like abandoned trains, it’s understandable that the entire experience might carry a little bit of unease.

Fortunately, the nature of the SPP is to keep moving, and even running or quickly abandoning a site if it is called for. Ideally, when we are faced with situations such as this, it can be a great exercise in sustaining performativity. As with nomadic cultures, when one place no longer serves its purpose, it’s time to move on or seek out a new point of resonance.

Safety

Because of the nature of the SPP and the greater potential for running into unknown conflict, it makes the awareness for safety or even prayer important.

Out of our zeal for performance, we ought not to forget about environmental safety. For this particular SPP, that means avoiding any wires — regardless of whether they appear to be live — and exercising caution around potentially corrosive chemicals on surfaces.

We must not only be mindful of the environment, but also ensure each other’s safety. In the context of this particular SPP, one participant had limited vision due to a beanie worn over the face, which resulted in a minor accident that could have been much more serious.

That same participant, in a strong commitment to staying in character (although a great costume and character), may have been too forceful with others when their actions didn’t align with his vision. This departs from the key principle of improvisational theatre — ‘yes, and’ — which emphasizes collaboration over control. It’s vital that we never cause harm within our group, even under the guise of maintaining a role.

Keeping the Framework of the SPP

The SPP framework exists for a reason, to promote a through line and focus throughout a traveling performance.

As the SPP continues to be practiced, new experiments will naturally emerge — and these are welcome. However, this evolution shouldn’t come at the expense of the core framework that defines the SPP which is kept relatively bare bones and simple.

Given the highly improvisational nature of the SPP, the minimal structure it does have becomes all the more essential — especially as the number of participants grows.

It is important to keep the distinction between the procession and the break-out performances. Yes, sometimes the procession might transition straight into a site-specific group performance with all or most participants, but when that performance occurs, we must be aware that it is a break-out performance and so we must find the resonant timing to continue the procession within the range ideally of 1 to 3 minutes, max 5 minutes.

The procession is the through line, the grounding even of the whole happening.

In the case of the playground, though the playground is one site, there are sub-sites within the playground, so the SPP can easily occur within confines of the playground, one break-out performance at a time.

When participants in the SPP break from its structure — such as in the case of the participant who stayed in his own character — they may be perceived, at best, as just another external influence, or at worst, as a heckler. At times, it may be necessary to ignore their actions, as refusing to engage in the spirit of ‘yes, and’ is itself a form of ignoring the group.

Audience: Adults vs Children

Audience reception will vary depending on culture and geography, but having engaged in 7 SPPs now in Tbilisi, it might appear that in general for adults, there might be more disapproval of the activity than approval, but the reverse is true for children.

The sad reality for adults is that they have fallen victim to human domestication. They have lost touch with their own childhood. They also have a tendency to instinctively reject anything unfamiliar or difficult to categorize, quickly relegating it to the realm of disapproval.

On the other hand, children, while they may face an initial confusion, quickly warm up and are heavily resonant and understanding to what is occurring since children are very familiar with resonance.

This was the second SPP which had moments of good resonance with on-site children. Many instances observed were inspiring and touching.

Since children all have phones these days, it added a nice documentation element, but of little documenters. These little documenters in their documenting were even respectful in their own way.

The magic really shined through when at the park site, children lost their shyness and began engaging with the performers as performers themselves.

In another moment, a child was even spontaneously incorporated into being the lead of the procession, if only briefly.

Additional Notes for Future Improvement

Each break-out performance should come with it some form of Jo-Ha-Kyu. Jo-Ha-Kyu essentially is a progression within every performance. Each performance should have a strong starting world or Jo, a series of progressions Ha-Ha-Ha, and a strong ending, Kyu.

We must mantain the 50–50 rule, which keeps awareness of our internal enviornment and external environment equally — 50% inside and 50% outside. To neglect the 50% outside is to break cohesion between the group, environment, and audience.

Ending Notes

Each time an SPP unfolds, I’m left in awe at how much of a journey can take place within a fixed geography. My curiosity deepens, my perspective widens, and I’m always left wanting more — eager to see how these happenings will continue to evolve. This time, it was especially touching to bring a bit of joy to local children — and even a few adults.

Naturally, there will be moments when things fall flat or disrupt the overall harmony — but that’s precisely why we continue to engage in these experiences: to grow, refine, and improve with each SPP we engage in.