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.

Plans for Development

It is funny how rehearsal sometimes differs form my intentions going in. Eryn and David are both great dancers and work hard to get things right. I asked them to start speaking while they were dancing, kind of messing up their practiced flow to see what would happen. Because the movement is so jerky and stop/start, there is a tendency to make it aggressive, and I want to see if there are other places that it could go in contrast to the first choice. This week I want to make them dance partner-less, imagining the support of the other and seeing how that changes things, and also role-switching so Eryn can do some lifting. I will see how much that plan changes tonight...