titles and one-liners

"Spine"
    location: under the stairs on 1F
    dancer: Eryn Tempest
   Viewing the body as an intimate landscape

"Limbs"
    location: RBC gallery on 2F
    dancer: Heidi Bunting
   Remembering the body as more than a sum of parts, in relation to missing parts

"Optic Nerve"
    location: 3F gallery
    dancer: Katrina Smy (dress by Sid Neigum)
    singer: Michelle Milenkovic
    An operatic and visual ode to the end of oil

"Organs"
    location: stairwell from 3F to 1F

            dancers: Eryn Tempest, David MacInnis, Gerry Morita, Matt Brault

   Finding love through gravity; falling and halting

Sound design by Shawn Pinchbeck
Scoreography by Gerry Morita
Mile Zero Dance

Random bits of progress

Heidi began working with the mannequin legs yesterday and it was so lovely. She has some sort of serenity in her focus that is very powerful to watch as she manipulates them and places them. The piece is so much about line and order, and her Cunningham-ness really shows through even in a subtle way.  Since her task is so simple and complicated at the same time, it will differ each time, and she can improvise it easily I think.

Katrina in the big tire dress is another spell-binding piece. Frightening a bit, which is appropriate.

The duet is getting built, but will be likely pretty short since it is dense and fast. Definitely a counterpoint.

Working with Shawn's sounds is going well. Looking forward to some new stuff.

Visited the AGA again and mapped out the pieces in the space, which causes some adjustments, but makes it more definite.

press....

It is always funny when you need to do press stuff before you are really ready with a piece. In this case, it was Breakfast Television with Eryn and David bright and early on Friday. We were able to use it to rehearse their duet, try some things on the stairs, approve the colour black, and to get some nice shots of the sunrise with them dancing (Ernest did, not me)
In the spoken interview part I couldn't believe that I said that we are extracting movement just like extracting oil...boy what a load!
Eryn and David both brought out their chops and delivered very nicely. I think press stuff is often more revealing and nerve wrecking than actually performing is. One minute is not much time to show what you've got and it really puts things into adrenalin mode, which is not ideal, but is a part of what we do...
It was nice to spend time in the building and yes, we do need to bring lighting to do the work justice.
The stairs are gorgeous.

Exhausted Dance

I have been reading Andre Lepecki's criticism of modern dance for making the assumption that dance= continuous flow of movement. It also reminds me of Min Tanaka, who says he doesn't care if people think what he does is not dance anymore, and prefers improvisations in the outdoors to performances in theatres.

It is interesting how movement has dictated what we think of as dance, categorizing pedestrian movements as 'non-dance', and stillness as some sort of empty time. It is challenging to break entropy, whether it is moving or halted.

David's Text

"Bodies of O"

Did they know?

Did anyone tell oh-eye-el

that their souls would flow

letting us stretch and grow

like a virus

Unchecked, unmanned man

careening at a helmless wheel

ever forward, ever on

Did they know?

Did they know that their blood

stolen from a field without battle

would fill our armor

and we'd swell

our hive built with the shadow of their bones

atop their very shoulders?

In seven-year-old sunlight we

move in clouds of their sighs

burned off, churned by the still restless wind

lost in the jungle concrete

and stolen beaches.

Where straw men fire metronome guns

full of fear

and oceans of oceanless sea stretch

further than the I

in me cares to see.

Rainstick in hand I laugh at the clouds

and swear it's dry-bone.

Would they have stayed if they had known?

Or would they have changed course

using force or whatever necessary

means to mean us no harm

but to leave no leaves

Leaving is the easiest way to say

hello

to the future-past

Like glass

cracked and stained it waits

like a bowl of fruit jellies

standing at ease

waiting for a hand

to make them useful again 

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...

legs...

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