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

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...

Breadth and Range

Rehearsal today was interesting- things are getting deeper and it is pretty funny rehearsing with this drop-in centre type of structure, when people just kind of show up and work on their part. I have been through so many processes in which I was unaware of what the other people were doing, and I am glad that this ensemble can be there to witness each other in the periphery. Kind of like 3 year olds doing parallel play. It is also good since the material is dense and a bit of a downer sometimes. Most of the pieces have a spellbinding quality too and so it is nice to be able to share them with each other and see if it is working...

Kat and Michelle are building their connection in a frightening way- that piece really has the meat of the message. It is the anti-oil piece in a way, but it is turning out to be much more. I gave Kat the volcano and Michelle the Earth's crust as images to work through, so that when Kat erupts they get to really meet. In a once-a-millenium meeting...

Eryn and David just worked physical repetition and that is good because the piece will need lots of confidence to do it on cement with a loose audience. They are starting to look strong and intuitive together and to find new things in the choreography.

Met with Shawn tonight and went over the sound details so he can build- it is helpful that we know what we want as far as structure so clearly at this point.
I look forward to hearing his little angel voices next week! Very excited...

Also I got to meet our stage manager Tanya today which is going to be a HUGE relief in a week or two to not have to worry about!

Collage Process

We continue to meet in a very layered way, and did a 'show and share' of Spine, Limbs, and Optic Nerve today. I am purposely trying to introduce performance into the process, since the different sections will not interact with one another in performance. I want the performers to be able to conceive of the whole by placing themselves outside for parts other than the ones that they are in.  I am appreciating the density of what we are creating, and anticipate editing and clarifying as we evolve, but still with the same weight of material that we now have.

We played a bit with the video images for Spine with Eryn, which is going to be more interesting and pertinent to the whole piece than I initially thought.

It is interesting to have Ernest there photographing- a luxury in some ways, and it keeps things on edge a bit in other ways. I promise to post some shots of his process.

Now that we have our overall structure, titles, time frames, we just need to get the music and the journeys mapped out a bit more.

Making a Mess

Well today was exciting and full at rehearsal. Michelle arrived and we began working on her scene with "Dido' Lament", while trying to see what it looks like/feels like to hammer her skirt to a frame. Of course, she was stunning and captivating. I enjoy the long 'building/working' introduction as she builds her space before beginning her ritual of self-sacrifice. Jamie (her 4 year old) was so sweet helping her hammer...
I am quite certain that Michelle ends the whole piece.

David and Eryn met again- this time as partners. We took the so-called choreography that David and I developed last week and re-fashioned it for their 2 bodies and added new movement too. The piece is going to really get enriched by repetition, and will really suit a 3-D environment for viewing.  I am trying not to over-complexify it so that it can stay pure, although it is tempting to just choreograph a whole contact duet. The serialism of repeating events seems necessary- kind of like a Phillip Glass structure.

Ernest showed up with both the mannequin legs AND the tire dress. Both are perfect and almost hideous. The legs, all white, make quite the dance prop and I am now excited to get Heidi in there. The tire dress is heavy and formidable, but I think that Kat will work really well in it. She can play her iconic queenly dance and the lines will be so strong... I imagine Kat and Michelle will actually be dueting on different levels of the gallery concurrently. We will have to try it once we get the dress safe and less sharp to play in.

Ernest and I talked about documentation and how to actually document something like this- he seems interested in bringing in video to truly represent it.  I like photos too in how they can capture an instant and hint at the past/future of it. This seems like an ongoing conversation.

After dancing and playing in the space, we went down to the AGA to check out the Burtynsky exhibit and the space itself. Wow. The exhibit is so moving and disturbing- even more than I expected.

Space-wise, we looked at the 3-F to begin with, working the piece downwards over time. We need to decide what happens with sound so that we are selective about the DJ's a the Refinery event, although it sounds like we can still do mostly what we want. I will try to get them something quite concrete ahead of time.

The stairs are appealing and David might need 2 other people to fall down with him over the span of an hour or so, with David dueting on the landings with Eryn.  Also Michelle might need 'help' with her frame (which doesn't exist yet).

It was pretty obvious by the end of rehearsal today that the mess has begun, the props have arrived, and I am in process...