Tony Orrico developed his own physical symmetry practice as point of entry into his creative work. In his termed state of readiness, he is interested in the application of a present body to a surface, object, or course. He is fascinated with how physical impulses manifest into visible forms. His work often displays infinities of reflective and rotational symmetry with attention to what is lost/gained through representations and how imagery in motion may replicate, mutate, or disintegrate. Centralizing on themes of cyclic motion and the generation and regeneration of material, the work draws on the tension between what is fleeting and what is captured.

In practice, the workshop is based on exploring the use of proprioceptive and visceral (from within the body) information to explore and navigate the body’s internal and mental spaces. While perfecting the art of staying in a “state of readiness” – the readiness to immediately register visceral impulses and follow them – we simultaneously explore a space free of emotions, thoughts, projections, memories, inhibitions, and judgments. By isolating the body from external information, we try to redirect the attention of its receptors to the purely physical sphere, especially to the action of gravity. This allows us to connect with what would seem invisible to us without the use of advanced technology. The practice is an expression of the belief that through point, line, shape, and their visible intensity (density), we are able to give internal physical impulses visible form.

Orrico’s method enters into the boundless realms of mirror and rotational symmetry. Focusing on cyclic meditative movement and the generation and constant regeneration of material, it allows us to draw from the tension between the ephemeral and the graspable.

In Poznan, in addition to teaching his practice, Tony Orrico will workshop Yvonne Rainer’s choreography “Hand Movie”, offering AAT students its group reconstruction and adaptation.