Rehearsal Wed Jan 12 - Success!

I had my first rehearsal of the semester today! One of my fabulous dancers from Fall, "C," returned to work with me again, and as before her patience and talent are great to have around! The rehearsal was intended as a callback, and I hoped to choose three dancers of the several I asked to come. C showed up, and one other may be able to come later; I may need to search for a third if I don't want to take the role myself. I'd prefer the option not to, as today there were times I would have liked a different perspective.

Instead of seeing how people interacted in the different roles I will be creating for (as I'd planned to do for the callback), my lone dancer and I took turns in each role. It was actually a good thing, as I have the movements for each role and duet in my own body now and could do any of them should I need to. I gave C the original phrase I'm beginning with that will be a solo and is the basis for two duets, and we worked on those duets as well overcoming some kinks I found when working alone and making some choices that I liked there; we also made movement for a trio section (not shown in the video). I'm excited to see how things develop and I delve into and beyond these starting phrases.



At this point, the way I imagine the dance developing is a father-daughter duet, transitioning into a mother-daughter duet with a father solo, then the daughter solo maybe with a mother solo simultaneously, then all three. That doesn't make much sense unless I tell you the story, but I reserve to answer that question when it becomes necessary. (Last semester, I feel I spent too much time explaining before I knew what questions needed answers.) The order is narrative, then, and maybe I'll break away from that at some point, but I want to get to that when it comes if it should.

On Monday we most likely won't meet for MLK day, unless a dancer I've talked with can be available for a little meeting to catch him up and see what else I can bring to continue growing the piece. Otherwise, we'll meet in a week on Wednesday.

Overall, rehearsal today was fun! The movements are me, the music is me, and the subject-matter is me. That's what I needed, personally and choreographically. I'll be glad to see how this develops, with such a rich subject matter to draw from, and the excitement I feel instead of my previous inhibition!