I was struck most by what I experienced as a loss of specificity to the kind of body and movement that is produced from each of the choreographers’ practice. The sharp, idiosyncratic lushness of Cynthia’s movement got more even, the quiet listening and sensing that was in the duets I worked on was completely gone, the rich interior state of bodies was flattened by a common denominator. It would be wonderful if the dancers could go back and recapture or re-imagine even re-invent the kind of space, time and body each choreographer worked with and try to re-embed that feeling into the dancing. Even if it is at a different place in the choreography. I realize that this will take time and patience and is a different task then remembering material and order but it is as important to that task and will help in the long run.

Huge kudos to the dancers last night for pulling together all the strands of information left by so many choreographic hands! It was a feat and I was moved by your presence and commitment throughout. So my comments below are towards the choreographic shape of what I saw last night and not any comment upon the performance of material – yet:)

I was very interested in the loose, and sometimes loopy nature of this journey. I enjoyed not knowing where things were moving to next. However, I found myself responding agitatedly to the walking into place and then dancing as the piece went on. I wondered at the logic of this. Will this be magic in lights and other high jinx? Or can it be that the dancers can dance to their next locations? Can movement – either designed or improvised lead to these places? I think a combing through and looking at all the “walking” moments that take someone to a place to then start dancing could be a good place to begin editing. I did like the walking that described arcs, that moved back and forth like waves of an ocean and left a residue of bodies like they were strewn ashore. Aside from these sorts of transitions, I also thought there could be longer moments with some things. We could see them stand longer, shift and hold space longer before moving on to the next thing – just in general staying with some things longer. I know last night was a feat of memory and the rhythm of the entire evening is still yet to be determined, but it has so much potential for those moments – something to think about. Might be interesting to create arbitrary chunks (segments) and move them around to greater or lesser affect?

In terms of costumes I was very interested in what Ellinor wore – a purplish color t-shirt with lots of knots at her back. The front was smooth and when she turned around one could see a jumble of ties and holes. really interesting. and beautiful color.

And for music, we discussed this briefly last night and I know there was a lot we have not yet heard, but my one burning question – whaddup with Barry White? I know he is no longer with us, but IS HE NO LONGER WITH US? Holla!

In the final run and recording of RW’s segment I asked Branden to take it easy.  When the circle opens and you see Charles standing and Branden squatting the scene would be Charles standing on Branden’s back and would then be slowly lowered to step to the floor.  Sophia is just standing facing upstage.  I imagined the scene being revealed slowly - the circle moving away - and being established for a bit of time as a place where either music, light, or projection could be featured could that also underscore the scene somehow.  Branden left the stage early (again letting him take it easy) during some of the walking and running etc with Charles in the duet.  He would be there until Bianca and Laina enter to join them.

The men’s duet could be seen as comic.  However, I’ve asked that they ’wipe’ it of comedy or reduce it to let the thing speak for itself.  They did this successfully during the last run.  Over all I am not interested in pushing moments that could be comic but letting the places in the segment where it might be possible to push for comedy ride an ambiguous edge – the might or might not be of comic.  My wish would be that the group not push for comedy anywhere in the segment.

As we were working I began to imagine scenes from the movie Big Fish.  Not that the segment is that at all but the group took on a nice eccentricity for me and that was my thought about them.  Again, as with my thought about  comedy, I would not push the character aspect or underscore it with costume props etc.  But that’s just me and when I turn it over I release it.

Renée

To better understand what quadraphonic sound take a look at the following link.

Quadraphonic Sound

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadraphonic_sound

One of the first applications of live sound using the quadraphonic principal.

Games for May

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Games_for_May

Food for thought.

This week while working with Linda Lehovec, I truly believe we were all tested as both thinkers and movers. Until now, each choreographer has come into rehearsal and has, for the most part, not changed previous choreographers’ work. Each chunk taught to us has been added onto what we previously had learned—that is, until this week.

Linda entered her rehearsals wanting to both shape the piece while trying to make it a more cohesive work of art. This melting of movement styles and choreographic choices together was a very unique experience for me. I knew it would be challenging working with so many different kinds of choreographers, but it was much more manageable than I thought. Before now, I could simply jump from one idea to the next as we transitioned from one choreographer’s movement to another.

Now much more familiar with the material, we were challenged by Linda to meld it all together into one structured work of art. Pieces of choreography were completely changed or removed all together.  Allie’s high heels from the work were taken off, the interaction between the dancers in Phillip’s choreography section was changed, and essentially all verbal statements were edited out of the piece. There were also moments cut from one choreographer’s section and placed into another. This on top of learning new material from Linda, it’s needless to say it was a growing experience for all of us as aspiring professional dance