Impressions

The works are developing. In fits and starts, sometimes, but all of the works are going somewhere. The process is simultaneously thrilling and agonizing, as I watch the dances take shape and wonder whether I'm making good/interesting/useful/important choices.

My own impressions of the works--their character, their "aboutness," a sense of their arc-- are coalescing enough so that I can solicit impressions from others. I had my first observers in rehearsals last week; on Tuesday, a member of my thesis committee who was also my choreography teacher for two semesters, and on Sunday, the chair of my thesis committee, both supremely perceptive and skilled observers and interpreters of dance. Since hearing their impressions (not really feedback, in the way of improving, but more: "This is what I observed and this is what it meant to me."), I've been thinking a lot about how these impressions affect or intersect with mine, whether others share those impressions, and overall, what do I do with them? How do they go into the continued development of the work? My current course of action: invite others into the rehearsals, ask dancers for their impressions, collect information. I may end up with too many different interpretations, too much information. I hope that it won't stifle the process. I don't really expect it too, however. Right now, I feel like I'll be able to choose the information that seems most important, and not feel obligated to satisfy everyone's interests or interpretations.

Already, the comments I've gotten from my two committee members have been quite revealing about my own impressions about the work, what it is that I've been thinking about. And it's even brought up something of a contradiction for me in how I think about and "do" choreography. I've been saying and writing and thinking about how important it is to me that my dancers are really individuals, not just any body, but these people. I solicit movement contributions from the dancers, and foster an individualistic approach to performing the movement. I generally welcome variation. And ultimately, it is important to me to be working with these particular people; I know the work would not be developing in the same way if I were working with others. However, I realized that in developing most of these dances, I've been thinking about how the movement interacts. What is the character of the movement? What is the movement communicating? In contrast, one of my committee members posed this question to me: Who are these women? And why are they moving in this particular way? My committee chair wondered similar things--why that dancer with the other dancers? What does it mean that those three people are doing something different than the rest? What is the relationship of the big group to the small group? What does it mean that these dancers belong to one group in this section and a different group in the next section?

I realized that I had not thought about the continuity of character, or the implications of these particular dancers in this particular combination. I'd been making sure the movement was seen in particular ways, or at particular intervals, as if the movement was the only thing communicating.

Big questions now, about how this new consciousness affects the choreography...

I hope to post some more video soon, so stay tuned.