Rehearsal #1

September 12, 2013

Hello All!

Please use this blog as a resource to access materials from rehearsals, choreographic updates, to revisit thoughts, for inspiration, to exchange ideas, and any other relevant purpose. I'm looking forward to an excellent few weeks ahead. This first post will be relatively brief in order to get the videos from rehearsal up as quickly as possible. Feel free to comment on the videos with any thoughts, comments, or questions!

Falling In

Here we experimented with our weights colliding and "falling in" or melting into each others bodies as we allowed our weights to simultaneously sink towards the floor. Dancers, please observe the fall between Hannah and Alex at second 00:43. What do you notice? We'll chat about this next rehearsal.

Eating Characters
Eating Characters (Ian's Phrase)

Here, I asked each dancer to compose roughly two sets of eight counts of movement describing what they think of when they think of their experiences at a kitchen table. I gave each of the dancers different  suggestions on qualities of movement or movements themselves to incorporate into their phrases. The second video is from a dancer who was unable to attend the rehearsal but who shared his movement phrase via video.

Kitchen Table

I shared a phrase motivated by my own experiences at kitchen tables that we practiced in a few different formations, speeds, and number of dancers. This version is of medium speed with four dancers in a circle (or square)

Alex's Solo
Shannon's Solo
Hannah's Solo
Molly's Solo
Angela's Solo
Ian's Solo

The above are each solos composed by the dancer under whose name each link is listed. Each of us prepared approximately two sets of eight counts of movement material with no direct prompt that we then shared at rehearsal. This exercise is tremendously helpful to me to better understand the great contribution each of us brings to this project and how that contribution happens in each of our bodies. Dancers, please watch each of these a couple of times and think about what impressions you receive from each. What do you feel when you watch each of these? What qualities describe each dancer's movement?