This week we didn’t record any video. The mouse was dead, we were without batteries, and I am not enough of a technical wizard to control a computer without a mouse. I believe Jennifer got some video which may be posted later, but that is not the point.

What is the importance of video to this process? Do we really need to document each step of the process? On the one hand, it is great. We have a clean record of what is happening and what has happened to give us an idea of how to move forward. The production team, musicians and costume class that are working on the show have some visual information to work off of. I am truly sorry that I am not able to give those parties video this week.

But for the dancers and choreographers, I think this week’s lack of video poses different questions. How much control do we exert over this process? What is against the rules? The very nature of this year’s November Dance is to allow for an evolving dialogue that we have less control over. Does making videos leave us too attached to the results? With video, will we strive to bring back the qualities and original intentions of the work? Without video, might we find ourselves arriving at  a different place? Might we be able to better invest in or explore the ephemeral nature of our work? When do we let go, and let it be what it will?

As rehearsal director, I have noticed that the inclination of the choreographers is additive. The changes that they have made to what is set previously are relatively minor. There has been little cutting of material and rearranging of material. Some choreographers have exerted a desire to continue influencing the process even as it is handed off to the next choreographer through performance notes for me to give the dancers. I am not saying this is right or wrong, just bring it into question.

As a dancer in the project, I am realizing how quickly certain material changes in my and my fellow dancers’ bodies–when we have days off and when we shift to the perspective of a new choreographer and musician. My inclination is to allow these changes to become a part of the material instead of working to recover what a choreographer may have instructed us to do a week or three weeks ago. If the current choreographer gives us a note on how to do it or change it, great, but once they leave, we move on, and it is out of their hands.

This ability to move on is a unique type of agency to have as a dancer within a piece that is set by choreographers outside of our “dancer” group. And I am realizing that this agency is what this project is all about. There are many groups involved in the creation of “Big Tiny Little Dance”: the dancers, the choreographers, the musicians, the lighting and technical designers, the video artist… And there is nothing to say that even though we are coming together to make one evening-length work, we can’t all make our own decisions completely independent of each other. This turns the idea of collaboration on its head (or at least its side).

I am curious and excited to see how each of these groups exercise their agency. Will our lighting designer choose to turn out the lights on us for five minutes so that you can only hear the sounds of our bodies moving against the floor? Will the music be so full that it is prioritized over the dance? Will the video on its own take up a half hour of our hour-length show? Will we be left to our own devices to dance without costume, theatrical lighting and music to fill our theatrical images? Will all of the various artists involved come together in a moment of complete improvisation? These are all possibilities. I can’t wait to see what comes next.