It's Beginning!

Tomorrow is our first rehearsal with the whole cast (minus Andrea, since she's still in Scotland...boo!) and we're going to start learning eachother's bodies and my "movement style" through what is really going to just be a technique class to start. I have to come up with the class and music and all that stuff today, so that's my assignment before we get together.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about Duet and saw the video (finally) of our March performance. The piece was definitely a fledgling at that point. I had to cringe a little bit. I really want to bring the text into the piece and props, and I'll need to re-work the floor patterns to reflect the concept that each duet is moving over the course of the piece across the stage (stage right to stage left). The audience is really reading book of the lives of this couple...

I think that the dancers I have to work with now are really going to improve the overall look of the piece. They are able to do whatever I come up with, which is really exciting.

I've been sketching out the structure of the piece and the way that the music (The Book of Love by the Magnetic Fields) fits with the text (My mind crashes up against your body... written by me---I'll put the whole poem at the end of this entry). There is a major structural significance to the interactions of the dancers with the table/chairs/glasses of water.

There's so much to think about, but it just feels good to finally be getting together with my dancers and putting thought into action.

Poem:

My mind crashes up against your body
And when you speak, I'm a message in a bottle with a stopper in my throat
My mind crashes up against your body
I break on your shore
Bits of you, cling to me


Also---since it's the first time that the cast of Duet is getting together, I'm going to bring back the writing exercise---we'll be free-writing on this subject:
If you were a message in a bottle, what would you say?

This message is internalized by the dancer and becomes their intention for all of the movement in the piece---I've found this is a really powerful tool for creating a layered performance.

That's it---better get to work!