Landing - rehearsal 2

Tonight we had a small Landing rehearsal, with Lydia, Angela, Danita, and myself.

Rehearsing with David's music is always a truer experience for the dancers (and me), but we did our best to work with the howling wind and some ambient Aphex Twin.

I failed to capture any video because I was wrapped up in watching -- and considering which nuances to take hold of and shape. The choreography component in this work is surprisingly fragile. It tinkers precariously between thoughtful and elegant and just a big ol' mess. While performing, the dancers make several choices within the parameters I've set up, and in rehearsal we get to see what works and what doesn't. They continually reinvestigate the movement for themselves, and I stay on the outside making notes on how things "read."

Today, for example, the dancers's choices kept spreading them out in space, which dilutes the effect of the cannon (they perform the base choreography in cannon) and makes the space feel alienating. Not to mention that they would have been falling out of the edges of the slinky "forest". We got the piece back to a tight, intimate spacing. The dancers start in the same triangle with roughly three-foot spacing, but with the focus on the small space, they navigate through each other as much as they do through the slinkys and this draws the eye into little moments of unison, intimacy, and solitude. It is delightful to see the choreography shape up in this way. There are definitely choices that work and choices that don't, nonetheless, we will continue to play with the choreography existing only as a structure to explore in performance, rather than a strictly set piece.

Landing - rehearsal 2

Tonight we had a small Landing rehearsal, with Lydia, Angela, Danita, and myself.

Rehearsing with David's music is always a truer experience for the dancers (and me), but we did our best to work with the howling wind and some ambient Aphex Twin.

I failed to capture any video because I was wrapped up in watching -- and considering which nuances to take hold of and shape. The choreography component in this work is surprisingly fragile. It tinkers precariously between thoughtful and elegant and just a big ol' mess. While performing, the dancers make several choices within the parameters I've set up, and in rehearsal we get to see what works and what doesn't. They continually reinvestigate the movement for themselves, and I stay on the outside making notes on how things "read."

Today, for example, the dancers's choices kept spreading them out in space, which dilutes the effect of the cannon (they perform the base choreography in cannon) and makes the space feel alienating. Not to mention that they would have been falling out of the edges of the slinky "forest". We got the piece back to a tight, intimate spacing. The dancers start in the same triangle with roughly three-foot spacing, but with the focus on the small space, they navigate through each other as much as they do through the slinkys and this draws the eye into little moments of unison, intimacy, and solitude. It is delightful to see the choreography shape up in this way. There are definitely choices that work and choices that don't, nonetheless, we will continue to play with the choreography existing only as a structure to explore in performance, rather than a strictly set piece.