Improvisations

Here are some more improvisations from the first rehearsal. I asked the dancers to make an improvisation based on their name. They could draw the letters in space, interpret the name within their body more sensationally, etc. Then I asked them to create a duet, connecting their names. This is what materialized. Cool stuff. Well work more on these and projects like these over the next few days. 

First Rehearsal

Hey All! Tonight, my cast met for the first time and it was such a success. I introduced my ideas for the piece and the cast seemed responsive to my ideas. Hopefully, they will feel like this is a piece about themselves and will feel that true commitment will, therefore, come naturally. I have high hopes for this talented group of people.

Tonight, we reviewed the audition phrase and I taught the longer, unedited version of the phrase. They dancers practiced it a few times to get a good rhythm going that made the phrase look good and more feasible. They really paid attention to the details, which made the phrase come to life in a whole new way. I like how it looks performed by all of them all together, so this may become part of the ensemble part that I have envisioned. It will be inspired by an image of women carrying baskets on their heads. This activity of carrying things on one's head isn't a local one, unique only to African women. In fact, both men and women carry things on their heads and backs all over the world. Activities that are universal such as this one are interesting to me and I hope to develop them a little bit more throughout the piece.

The music at this point is just providing us with a background beat and the dancers were told to ignore it for the most part. Here is a video of the group performing together.

The second half of rehearsal, I asked each dancer to create an improvisation of their name. They could:
1. draw the letters with their hands or feet (used like a pen)
2. make the letter-shapes with their bodies (Y-M-C-A style)
3. intellectualize  their names
4. internalize sensations (we didn't have to be able to see them as the audience), etc.

After they created a short piece for themselves, I asked them to partner with someone and put their names together. They were allowed to use only certain letters from each name and to incorporate the word "and" or the symbol "&" in between the names, etc. I wanted moments of physical contact, small lifts (if possible), and personal relation with the other person they were working with. Lots of interesting things materialized. I will upload those videos very soon in my next post.

My "homework" for them was to find a story happening right now and bring it to rehearsal. It could be a story about something happening to them or to someone else they know (or don't). We will do an improvisation using various narration methods.

New Demonstrators and a First Phrase

Hello! For the DanceWorks 2011 auditions, I have asked Molly (Senior) and Julie (Sophomore) of the GWU dance department to aid me as my two demonstrators. Luckily, they both agreed. We got together on Tuesday at 6pm to learn the short phrase I had prepared.

Initially, I taught a 32-count phrase. It was pretty rhythmic and specific and required both technique and artistry to be performed--two qualities I am looking for in my future cast. Individual expression is incredibly important to tell the story of the piece. Technique will help my cast understand my physical instincts.

After rehearsing the full dance phrase a few times, I realized it was slightly too difficult and too long. I cut it down to 24-counts and simplified the piece. I asked the demonstrators to practice both because I liked the more advanced version better and may expand on its ideas during my real rehearsals in the future.

I have posted Molly and Julie performing both versions.

The Beginning: The Journey to DanceWorks 2011

Welcome to the new blog, everyone!  As a member of the GWU Choreographic Projects class this semester, I am responsible for designing and maintaining a blog of the choreographic process of my first formally created dance work. I am so happy to have your support through your following this blog and encourage you to visit and comment often on all you see. I hope you are as excited as I am to begin this journey of creativity, artistry, and self-discovery!

My thoughts for this dance piece are complex; inspired by my travels to the Dem. Rep. of Congo in August 2009, I want to create a work that speaks to the experiences I was exposed to there. Beyond just observing the immense poverty of the capital city, Kinshasa, I was immersed into the true Congolese life; I learned to cook outside, to fold wear traditional garb, to speak a few words of the native languages, Lingala and Swahili, etc. For 2 weeks, I was an overwhelmed American 19-year old, surrounded by at least 20+ foreign family members at every hour of the day, limited by a language barrier that could only sometimes be overcome by my rusty french capabilities. 

The most memorable part of my trip, however, was an evening spent at my aunt's house (more like a hut--even in the capital city) toward the end of my trip. For the entire evening, I simply sat and listened to the incredible stories of the life my family was experiencing. My aunt and cousins spoke very honestly and candidly about specific moments of hardship and triumph they endured. These stories are at the core of the memories I brought back from Africa. I felt that they really captured the true reality--the good and the bad-- that the people of Congo are forced to experience today.

For almost 2 years now, I have been digesting this trip in my mind and have decided to explore it through research and dance. I hope to make sense of my personal relation to these problems and this foreign reality and to discover something new about myself as a dancer, a choreographer, and a person.  I have come to realize that though I am most personally affected by these stories because of my personal relation to the people experiencing them, I am also struck by these memories because these stories, these women could be anyone, from any corner of the world.  We all experience pain, love, loss, joy... We all must, therefore, be connected universally. In my eyes, this universality is a big part of the solution of the Congolese problem.  

My idea for this piece has broadened from specific Congolese stories to slightly vaguer thematic ideas of humanity that I hope my dancers and I will detail individually with our own personal stories during our rehearsals this semester. I want each physical movement and conceptual decision to be relatable to all stories everywhere and I hope to speak to these universal moments of hardship and triumph through this expanded perspective. I hope to realize them in a simpler, absorbable form (through dance) with the help of a guiding support and influence of an amazing cast. Though at this time my cast is not finalized, I am confident that they will all be talented, beautiful, and creative artists that will work hard not only to learn something new about themselves and their own artistry, but also to bring this dance to an unimaginably sophisticated and powerful level.