process doodles

Post-Mortem

OK we did it!
Saturday night, -25 degrees outside, and an art gallery with 800 people in it. I was relieved that the event organizers had things under as much control as they did, but it still bordered on chaos. It seemed to involve a power struggle between AGA security and the event organizers/liaison people. We often got caught in the middle. We seemed to defy the fire code- especially on the stairwell descent, and they weren't interested in turning off the security cameras for Eryn's nude part and overall had no sense of humour at all (which made them even funnier!)

Ernest's buddy who came to do video doc was a performance in himself with his bright red jacket and his overall obtrusiveness. If I knew he would be such a paparazzi I would have choreographed him in a bit better, because as it was he distracted some of the tenderest moments by being right where the audience should be looking. I sure did not foresee that one!

The tech kids were a great help- it turned out that we had a LOT of crap to load in and out. The dress alone would have been an ordeal...

And Ernest took back the dress and his legs! I am a bit sad at seeing them all leave...

One of my funnest moments was when we managed to pull Jesse, Amber and Catherine form the extended entrance line up and costume them up to dance with us!! They added to the critical mass falling down the stairs.

I am not sure what to do with this piece from this point- I think I will just let it sink in a bit. And collect feedback!
Feel free to deposit some -------------

Feedback Time...

We are gearing up for our open showing/feedback session tonight at the Studio at 8:30 in preparation for the premiere on Saturday. There are still lots of little details to iron out, but it will be good for the performers to have focus and a test audience to try things out on.

Sadly, Shawn is gone already- back to Estonia! That means there will be no audio tweaking, which is our new limitation.
The other new factor is Patrick Ares Pilon is dropping by to add some film to the "Spine" section.
And flour. (Things weren't messy enough)
And Michelle's costume- it is stunning.

here is the link to the Facebook event page

Translations

As the piece gets closer and chaos will soon envelop us all, I can only hope that I have managed to translate, either into words, movement, or meaning the impressions and expressions that I feel in response to Burtynsky's works on oil. Kat and Michelle both recently saw the exhibit, and their own reactions were strong and visceral. I don't find the work his work too negative- I see it as hopeful and an impetus for change. The characters and vignettes in Bodies in O are my feeling of a future world if nothing changes. They are sometimes mythic, sometimes symbolic, but not of the here and now. Their losses are more apparent than ours are.

Acting and Dancing

I have been thinking about the differences between acting and dancing, performing and presenting, constructing and being. I think that dancers work with their own selves a bit more readily than actors do, and then go to a symbolic level, where they can be safe in performance. In really physical dance, the 'character' ends up being a really good dancer, dancing safely first and foremost, and often the choreographer tries to lead the performer into different movement states that elicit an emotional trigger in the performer- so they don't have to construct one.

At the same time, a dancer's performance state involves self-witnessing: Where is the front? Is it safe to jump now? Am I on cue with the music? Did I just fluff that move?  Those constant self-assessments can get in the way, but as an improviser, that is part of the brain space that needs to be active and able to judge the situation accurately in order to make the next split-second decision. For me, it is part of the fun.

Musical side

Shawn has been developing incredible soundscapes that we get to try out this week. Michelle and I visited him on Monday so that she could sing "Dido's Lament" in with his shipbreaking sounds. Frightening! We should get the new version tomorrow to work with Kat and timing of the development. The piece needs more tweaking than I thought (go figure).

I am enjoying Ernest as the voyeur/archivist/reminder that we have to perform eventually. It adds a certain tension to the process, but also makes us go a bit deeper to stay in, I think. He is not obstructive, but there is a constant reminder that a photographer is in the room. At one point, Eryn and David actually adjusted their duet timing to Ernest's clicking sounds.