Two steps forward and one step back

Grinnell just had their Fall  so we got one week off to recharge and catch up. I stayed here and took advantage of the studio time. I had been getting a little anxious before break because it felt like, while I've been doing a lot of work for the MAP, the majority of it hasn't been on the actual choreography part. I've been working with several faculty members to bring Erick Noel, a French scholar, to campus to present on the history of the slave trade in conjunction with my performance, and with emailing the authors whose texts I used to inform them of the impact their work has had on me. It's been really exciting and I'm continually surprised with the wide-spread support this project is garnering but I was starting to freak out that I was doing all this work to bring people but I have nothing to show them. But over break I finished the first draft of another section, have a movement outline for another that I just need to teach to my dancers, and have the movement base for another section. I feel like I'm back on track, choreography-wise but I've had another collaboration set back. I emailed the student who had agreed to compose the sound for my show to check in as he's had a couple of weeks with my sound outline to get started and he informed me that he had decided he no longer wanted to invest his time in my project. I'm trying to look at the bright side because nobody knows what I want better than I do, so if I do it myself at least I won't do anything I can't stand. Also, I think I'm not freaking out too much because as I've been choreographing with just the voices so far so I know that they can stand on their own. I'm thinking simplicity might be the answer. Overall, I feel that the break was really productive and I'm happy with where I'm at.

Lessons on tricking yourself

I'm working on a solo right now. The way I've been working so far is to generate movement through improv exercises which I record and then pick and choose what I want from what was created. Since it's just me working on this seciton; however, I was struggling to come up with a way to improv without 'already knowing' what I wanted which usually isn't what I actually want, if that makes any sense. Celeste gave me the idea to pick a video of someone dancing and describe all the things they were doing that I liked and then make up my own movement following those directions. I picked a video that I like on YouTube and have watched about a million times. I described about half her movement and then put it in a list randomizer to get a new order. I'm really happy with the result! I got a lot of usable material from it. This exercise is definitely a keeper!


Here's the original description:

Release pose and bring hands to elbows

Drop left arm and head at the same time while bending knees symmetrically

Initiate movement with right hand creating a straight line with body (hand to foot)

Turn in a semicircle with weight only on one part of your foot

Flick left foot then extend leg, drop/pull/throw arms in opposite directions

Bring right leg and left arm together with right arm in the middle (separating the two)

Float left leg, create a bend at the knee while bringing hands together in a ‘push down’ gesture

Cross left leg over right, then right over left while handing at the waste

Bring hands to touch behind your back

Cross arms in front while picking up one foot at a time from the ground

Trace a pathway with right foot with your arms straight

Look at your right big toe while bending your left leg

Swing left leg and arm around for a ¾ turn

Bring right arm across the body, throw it in a sequential manner while moving the left leg directly with force

Make a ‘push gesture’ with both hands

Travel for four steps, clasp hands to pull you in a new direction

Arch with symmetrical arms

Circle hands in a grasp gesture

Bring right arm overhead, pull down, bring left hand to meet it, release gesture at elbows

Bring left hand to ear, extend right palm directly while transferring weight to your left leg

After it was randomized:

Bring right arm across the body, throw it in a sequential manner while moving the left leg directly with force
Release pose and bring hands to elbows
Arch with symmetrical arms
Cross arms in front while picking up one foot at a time from the ground
Swing left leg and arm around for a ¾ turn
Cross left leg over right, then right over left while handing at the waste
Initiate movement with right hand creating a straight line with body (hand to foot)
Trace a pathway with right foot with your arms straight 
Bring hands to touch behind your back
Travel for four steps, clasp hands to pull you in a new direction
Drop left arm and head at the same time while bending knees symmetrically
Turn in a semicircle with weight only on one part of your foot
Bring left hand to ear, extend right palm directly while transferring weight to your left leg 
Look at your right big toe while bending your left leg
Bring right leg and left arm together with right arm in the middle (separating the two)
Make a ‘push gesture’ with both hands
Flick left foot then extend leg, drop/pull/throw arms in opposite directions 
Bring right arm overhead, pull down, bring left hand to meet it, release gesture at elbows
Circle hands in a grasp gesture
Float left leg, create a bend at the knee while bringing hands together in a ‘push down’ gesture

Fun with Ribbons and a Chair

I haven't worked much with props before so I'm having a lot of fun trying to figure out what I can do with my chair. I've been trying to work with this tan string I have but, because it's so thin, it's hard to see it/the visuals I'm creating. I'm now on a quest for 2 inch wide ribbon that is somewhat resistant to pulling and not semi-translucent.

Yesterday, a friend came into the studio and I taught her my A - F movements. They still need some fine tuning but I think I'm close to being happy with them. I'm mainly having trouble with my 'stop' phrase but I had a potential brain wave last night as I was falling asleep so I'll see how it looks when I get into the studio later today. 

Trio Movement Outline

As I was working on the History section, I became a little overwhelmed with all the potential movement combinations which exist for trios. So I tried an exercise to give me an outline of sorts to work from. I went to YouTube, typed in dance trio, and clicked on the first one that popped up. Then, I wrote down all their different movement combinations on separate slips of paper. Combinations which were repeated were written down more than once. I then mixed up the slips of paper, turned them upside down so I couldn't see what they said, and lined them up. The only rule I went in with was that two repeating combinations couldn't be back to back. I mixed them up and turned them over several times before I was happy with the result. I ended up choosing the first and the last one deliberately and then leaving the rest up to chance. Here's the order I came up with:

1. Move in Unison
2. Duet & Solo
3. Hold different poses 
4. Move in Unison
5. 1 moves, then 2, then 3
6. 3 move individually at the same time 
7. Two unison, 1 individual 
8. All 3 on ground, move in unison 
9. One standing, 2 on ground (all doing a 'horizontal' movement)
10. Moment of connection
11. Two unison, 1 individual 
12. 3 do something different to travel
13. Make a shape
14. Three move in unison 
15. Make a shape 

Dramatic Reading of L'esclave vieil homme et le molosse

Sent the video to my sound guys as possible inspiration.

"Models of Collaboration: Dance, Art, and Music" - Talk given at Grinnell College on 10/06/15

Juliet Bellow, "Working Simultaneously: Robert and Sonia Delaunay and the Ballets Russes"
Julia Randel, "Pas de deux of music and dance: Balanchine's Stravinsky ballets"

A point that both women touched on was the idea that in collaboration there is an inherent hierarchy between collaborators. These made me pause as normally, when talking about collaboration, it's with the intention of multiple people bringing their ideas to the table and creating something amazing from it. When I think about it, this has always been the case in every group project I've ever worked on; someone has to take the lead or nothing ever seems to get decided or finished. But I've never applied the term "hierarchy" to a collaborative situation, especially when it's a project in the arts. I'm having mixed feelings about being in a position of power for my MAP. On the one hand, I do get to make the final call on what to keep and what to change so it's can be exactly how I want, but I'm also afraid that someone else will have an idea that I would love but they aren't saying anything because I'm 'supposed' to be telling them what to do. I like to think I've set up a relationship with those I'm working with to establish an open exchange of ideas but it always takes time to become comfortable enough with people to be bluntly honest about ideas. So, I guess I'll check back on this question in a few months when we've had the chance to work together a little more.

Julia Randel gave the audience a handout with certain quotes from Stravinsky and Balanchine. There were two in particular that stuck out to me. The first makes me feel better about the fact that I'm choreographing right now with no clue as to what the music is going to sound like. The second, I love because I want the music to convey what is being said for non-French speakers.

"Choreography, as I concieve it, must realize its own form, one independent of the music though measured to the musical unit. Its construction will be based on whatever correspondence the choreographer may invent, but it must not seek to duplicate the line and beat of the music."
                                             -Stravinsky

"Well, that's what the music said."
                                            -Balanchine 

Sound Outline

My composer asked me to create an outline that correlated with the text describing what tones I was going for, potential sounds I was thinking of, and images that came to mind. I've been pretty nervous about sitting down to do it because I had such a hard time giving explicit tone directions to my readers. Although, I think because I struggled during each recording and consequently would discuss what I was trying to evoke by any means possible (me trying to read it and let them hear where I changed tones, discussing the content together, etc), I had a much better understanding when I sat down to make this outline. I made my text into a PDF so I could use the handy dandy comment tools that professors always use to tear apart your essays. It felt nice to explicitly state what I've been trying to explain to various people about each section since I first put it together. I'm now waiting to hear back from the composer to see if he got what he needed to start making some mock-ups.

Saturday's Rehearsal --> Objective: Generate Material

Rehearsal went great! We were able to generate a lot of material which I can now go through, re-arrange, put together, and/or build from so I'm happy! I had a great time today because it was the first time I got to see everybody's individual styles. I was really inspired by all of them and I think making their individual styles work cohesively is going to result in great work, yay uniqueness!

The section of the day was History. I had them do two improvs, one of which I also participated in, to generate movement. 

The Name Game:

I had them spell their name. My reasons for doing this were two-fold; one, to see how they moved when they got to choose their movement and when they were essentially embodying themselves, and as a way to insert themselves and their own history into the piece. 

My fist directive was just to spell their names. Whether it was their first, first and last, or a nick name was up to them. We recorded. Then I asked them to add "weight" to it or to make it "heavier." We recorded again and then I asked them to think of puppets and we recorded that. The directives were inspired by certain words/ideas in the text of this section.

One Word at a Time:

Next I gave them one word at a time and asked them to make a movement for each, transitions between movements were included. The words I used were from a sentence that repeats four times in this section. I put it into Google Translate so the words would be in English and then used a word randomizer to create the order. I used Google Translate rather than my own translation because I wanted to get them as far from literally acting out the words as possible. I used the first 12 of the 16 words generated due to time constraints.
Here's what was generated:

1. Can
2. Weight
3. We
4. The
5. Color
6. Desperate
7. Minimize
8. Anachronistic 
9. And
10. Recognition
11. Question
12. Not

Once they finished creating, we recorded it. Something unexpected that came up that I loved was that, because they had trouble remembering the order the words came in, they kept looking over at the board where I had written them with a look of genuine confusion and a need for understanding Not only does this fit well with what I'm trying to evoke in the section, but it sometimes altered their movement itself and created something new.

Overall, it was a great rehearsal and progress is being made!