Rehearsal #3

September 19, 2013

Our third rehearsal was excellent. I'm feeling amazed and excited by each cast member's contribution as people, dancers, and choreographers to the project.

We began today by sharing photos of each others' families. I felt this experience was important to building an understanding of each other and how we think of our families in relation to the concept of "family" that is informing this thesis. I asked each cast member to pay attention to any thoughts or feelings that may have come up while looking at these photos.

We then improvised to "Madness" by Muse (a song that reflects in part how I feel when I think of family) as a warmup for the remainder of our rehearsal.

The large part of the rest of our rehearsal today was spent working on solos and duets. Prior to beginning, I gave each person a costume item to try on (costume trial #1). I then asked Shannon to expand on her "eating" solo with the idea of the word "roiling" in mind and removing direct association to food.

Shannon's Solo #2

I asked Alex and Molly to work on a duet that would incorporate their two personal solos and expand on them together.

Alex and Molly's Duet

I asked Hannah to expand her solo with the idea of a spinal contraction in mind (Graham style). Hannah, I posted the first version instead of the second. I like how you never seem to stop in this video. The moment of relevé that keeps rising when you're in plié and contracted is beautiful.

Hannah's Solo #2

I asked for Ian and I work on a duet that would begin at the end of my solo and feed into Ian's solo.

Ian and Angela's Duet

I am very pleased and excited by the beginnings of solo/duet ideas that were developed this rehearsal. I'm very much looking forward to developing them further next time.

The last 15 minutes of rehearsal we reviewed the beginning phrase once and worked out a basic structure for how the piece continues thereafter.