electromagnetic pulse

FMiH. Solos in the park.

2009-06-28T23:59:00.001-04:00

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Anna and Sarah also spent some time rehearsing their solos, working out the complexities of dancing in the grass.

FMiH. Following

2009-06-28T23:49:00.001-04:00

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"Following" is the section after "Repeat + solo" (see previous post). Here we see it at Astoria Park with only 2 out of 5 dancers, but hey, it's always fun to experience something new in the work!

FMiH. Repeat + solo.

2009-06-28T23:39:00.001-04:00

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Today we rehearsed at Astoria Park (site of our first public performance on July 19). We were down three dancers (yikes!) but made good use of the day rehearsing this section that focuses on Anna's solo.

FMiH. Chelsea floor version.

2009-06-28T23:10:00.001-04:00

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I asked Chelsea to create a floor sequence inspired by my phrase and here's what she came up with. We've still got some work to do with this phrase, which you'll get to see in a few weeks!

Find Me in Here. Notes from the break.

2009-06-28T14:16:00.002-04:00

After a break from rehearsal and blogging, we're recharged and getting excited for our upcoming performances.
We're still working hard to polish and finish up the piece (I keep changing and adding things up to the last second), and posting video from our last few rehearsals.
I've also asked the dancers to share some of their thoughts about the process now that we're 2/3 of the way through it, and will put their words here soon. Their experiences have indeed varied from "normal" (though is any process still the norm these days? We're all doing a variety of things) and it's informative to hear what they work through to make sense of this piece.
For me...
Searching for answers and finding them where I didn't expect them. Creating something I don't know very well or even understand. Learning from my dancers, opening my idea of movement. Recognizing, again, that the ingenuity in choreographed movement usually comes from someone else's movement, which is the beauty behind bringing together different movement voices. Loving the moment when Emily told me that this piece is about process -it's brilliant when others can see that. So curious to have an audience be part of this -you change everything by just watching, and we do so by making something for you to see. I hope they will also want to dance!!

Find Me in Here. Rough run thru, part II

2009-06-08T11:50:00.001-04:00

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Here's the second clip of our rough draft, which starts where part I leaves off. enjoy!

Find Me in Here. Rough run thru, part I

2009-06-08T11:36:00.001-04:00

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I put together the dance on paper, and then we tried it out in rehearsal. There are plenty of holes, but the ideas are starting to be there. This clip starts after the guiding section and anna's solo section (see the last two weeks).

Find Me in Here. Anna's solo.

2009-05-31T23:02:00.001-04:00

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Picking up where we left off last week, Anna's solo emerges from my phrase that everyone is repeating.

Find Me in Here. Guiding as opening.

2009-05-26T15:55:00.001-04:00

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Here the ladies are dancing our new (and final!) opening, also known as the guiding section. We made some great progress in this rehearsal, clarifying performance attitudes and "details." My goal is to communicate cooperation and team building, and we were working on this section to make sure it is neither too internal nor too presentational/obvious/showy.

Find Me in Here. Sarah's name dances.

2009-05-26T14:32:00.001-04:00

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Here are Sarah's dances in response to "Does my name represent me?" and "Do I like my name"

open studio 5.

2009-05-19T14:16:00.002-04:00

Delightful! Two open studios in one day! And with an audience! What a difference they make! Dancing through my nervous excitement. Trying consciously to listen to them, to "connect" and be fine --all while composing.

I do not have the innocence of just doing what I love -of "just dancing." Ten years ago this performance would have been no less self-conscious but without such a clear expectation of entrancing my audience -though in all honestly, I think I've always danced with the desire that I was enchanting someone and so always with an eye on people's attentiveness. Always aware when they stopped to watch. Blatantly and unapologetically, the bystanders watch.

Now I have the hope and desire but also the compliments in my head --and with these comes a fear of disappointment, which disturbs the honesty/genuineness of my performance. But I need to use this to get rid of it, work through my desire to delight.

open studio 4.

2009-05-18T19:01:00.002-04:00

Sleepy again today.

I had one really great run --but it was to music (which is against the rules). Why is it so important to practice in silence? Well, because I prefer performing in silence -largely because the energy between me and audience is so "loud" that I don't really "hear" music during performance anyway.

In practice, however, there is only the distraction of my thoughts, and I've been struggling with this all month. I so wish to give in, to say the music is my audience substitute, and it is but only in one respect -it guides and directs me, but then am I giving back? Can I "hear" my own decisions through the external rhythms?

Find Me in Here. Sarah's first name dance.

2009-05-17T15:10:00.001-04:00

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Ages ago the dancers created movement sequences in response to the question "does my name represent me? is it me?". Sarah finally gets a chance to catch up.

Find Me in Here. A chat with Sarah.

2009-05-17T15:09:00.001-04:00

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Sarah and I talked briefly about what it's like to jump into this piece midway through.

Find Me in Here. Hsiao-Ting + Hsiao-Wei Hsieh.

2009-05-17T15:07:00.001-04:00

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Hsiao-Wei and Hsiao-Ting break down the parts of their last name as written in Chinese - the is made up of other words (a whole is greater than its parts) and here we learn what they all mean.

Find Me in Here. More phrase from Esther.

2009-05-17T14:51:00.001-04:00

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I am continuing to build on the phrase we started last week. this will be used as a transition phrase --just a little glue for the rough spots.

open studio 3.

2009-05-12T20:55:00.004-04:00

VOICE - After nearly nine months out of the studio and out of dancing... this recording is an idea (that I came up with in my practice) while rehearsing what to write to my friends to make them as excited to attend this performance as I am to perform it (promote, promote, promote...). This recording is planned. My practice is also planned. These choices are not.

I am sure I owe the inspiration for many of the movement choices tonight to the dancers in Find Me in Here, another of my current works-in-progress (August 29-30 at Green Space in LIC, 8pm...) because they are contributing most of the movement for that piece, and maybe I am dancing like them today.

[the above is a sketch of an idea for a voice recording I plan to make to accompany my May 28th performance of Open Studio (vs. 7)]

Find Me in Here. A short phrase from Esther.

2009-05-10T16:26:00.001-04:00

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Curve ball. I created this phrase. More of it to come. Sorry the end is out of frame!

Find Me in Here. Chelsea's solo, part 2.

2009-05-10T16:19:00.001-04:00

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Chelsea finished her solo, here we see her picking up where she left off.

Find Me in Here. Hsiao-Wei's solo.

2009-05-10T16:14:00.001-04:00

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Hsiao-Wei finished her solo today.

Find Me in Here. Hsiao-Ting's section 3-2 movement

2009-05-10T15:57:00.003-04:00

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Open Studio 2.

2009-05-06T17:30:00.002-04:00

It was difficult today to move without music. I just discovered Sufjan Stevens' music and am completely enchanted with his song "Sister Winter." (Listen to it here and check out Sufjan here). It is an entrancing song. Far more lovely to dance with the song than by myself. The music makes my body feel stronger and more alive than it is (well, stronger at least) and it is nearly impossible not to move with the freedom.

But I did resolve to practice in silence for at least half of my studio time (the first half being devoted to warming up) and thus danced alone as planned. I found sort of a melancholy movement - a resistance to moving, but also a playfulness.

Mostly what I took away from this practice is that while I can move big, lush, and flowing-ly in response to the rhythms of sound, my own rhythms don't seem to exist. I (end up) exploring tensions in the body, stillness, slowness, and control.

In the moments of pause after dancing-- in there is what I am looking for.

Find Me in Here. Section 3-2

2009-05-03T18:21:00.003-04:00

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Here are a few moments from the new section, which I'm calling "section 3-2." I'm not including the whole thing because of poor camera framing (the rest of the stuff is just hard to decipher). At the end of the video, what you can't see is the chelsea-sarah duo joining the anna-HT-HW trio serendipitously with the same movement that shows up in the different sequences they're doing. We will come back to that for sure --it was a lovely moment!

Find Me in Here. Following Chelsea trio.

2009-05-03T18:11:00.001-04:00

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I started a new section today, and this is a more fun take (handheld) of the new "following chelsea" trio. Chelsea created this sequence for the once-was "opening segment," and now she's dancing it with Sarah and Hsiao-Wei. The next video shows parts of the whole new section, including this trio.

Find Me in Here. Talking with the twins.

2009-05-03T18:02:00.003-04:00

Here I ask Hsiao-Ting and Hsiao-Wei to tell me what it's like for them to work on Find Me in Here which uses so much of their own movement, while also choreographing their own work.

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