First Week Recap

Rehearsal One:

I used the first rehearsal to familiarize three (out of five) of my dancers with my concept and share the stories that I have with them. They each picked five stories:

- one they could relate to

- one they did not relate to 

- one they saw as "shallow" or "surface level"

- one they saw as "deep" or "vulnerable"

- one extra one of their choice

We played a bit with choreographing movement to the cards and reading them aloud to each other. I didn't take any video and probably will not end up using much of what happened in the first rehearsal but it was really helpful to speak with most of my dancers and get the ball rolling.

Rehearsal Two:

First rehearsal with my full cast! Yay!

And they are...

Phoebe Workman

Linda Ryan

Katie Banks

Hana Springer

Gabby Garruppo

All beautiful ladies, range of heights and movement styles- should be wonderful!

I taught them a phrase to "Home" by Nosaj Thing ( song here ) 

This phrase is based on the things that people do not want to share. When choreographing this phrase, I was driven by the image of a story trying to be told using it's own power and volition but the person who holds the story trying to keep it in. The movement is meant to be stilted and the dancer should look like she is struggling with herself. 

I am also very music driven and the rhythm of this phrase is very specific to this song. I do not plan on setting it to different music.

Here is a video of myself doing the phrase and of my dancers doing it in a fun little sequence right after they learned it.

We THEN broke up into pairs and tandem choreographed some movement to three stories that my dancers selected. The video can speak for itself...

Overall, a good first week. I hope to set sound and music as soon as possible because I am realizing I don't work well without some driving sound/music/beat.