Well, we finally had a bigger show here at CHAC, close to 50 people and all the energy and excitement, opportunities and challenges that presents. Its funny how our thoughts shifted after a small first weekend when the word had not yet spread. We turned to thoughts of intimacy, dealing with smallness, and forgot our initial concerns of dealing with larger groups. Those came rushing back for me last night, and the concern I found to be the most serious was bringing people into the space. With a big line I felt a pressure to rush and a pressure to bring in larger groups of people. Both will probably be mitigated some by experience, but bringing in larger groups of people seems a larger concern. I like to have a moment of intimacy right upon arrival into the space, a sort of shedding of the everyday and donning of the cloak of potential for the night, a registering of the initial image of the space. Anyway, with more than 4 people it feels watered down to me, frantic, hampered by common denomonator mathematics as some people want a drink and others to hang up their coat. Perhaps I just need to get better at corralling everyone together.
Once everyone was in it felt great. 50 was a very watchable size. It didn't feel like people had to chase us around the space to see like happenned at the big show in Oberlin, but there was a complexity of formations to see in addition to us as performers. Also, I was able to interact with different people all the time, spreading the wealth as it were.
It is so exciting to me how my little glitter moments, the ones that stand out and feel special to me, are different every night. I had a playful solo in the preshow last night where a guest was interacting with me through the food cart, I had a nice bird duet with a woman in red shoes, it was constrained beautifully by her sitting on the floor. I felt acutely the presence of dancers, improvisers and friends, granting me support and pushing my expectations both. I had one unique jump that I almost would have forgotten if not for writing this. It was during a little duet with KT where she does set material and I improvise off of it but we meet up for bookends of set unison. I jumped up crossed my legs fast as I sometimes do and landed in a KTish bird crouch, very balanced, sticking it you might say, but since it was improv I hadn't been trying to stick it, I just landed in a way that encouraged me to freeze rather than keep flowing, and it was a delicious moment of marvel at unique moments.
Onwards towards tonights kid show, with my son Kaveh to be one of the babies in attendance. I can hardly wait and hope my focus is intact.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Power of Numbers
Last night (Friday April 27th), we gave an intimate performance to a small group of guests. This is the nature of 19 shows: a fluctuation in the number of guests. We've done this work with a group of 100. Last night we had 14. Justin, Olivia, and Oona; John and Dan; Stan and Marsha; Zoe and Paige; Kirby; Jenae and Andrea; Mathew and Jennifer. This is the beauty of intimate performance: I can actually know the guests, hold meaningful conversations, and connect.
Justin brought his daughter and niece because he had been to a CHAC Lower Level performance last month and became interested in seeing more live performances. Olivia is an Irish step dancer and Oona takes ballet. John worked with KT on one of her earlier pieces, Residue, but he hasn't seen her perform for close to 5 years. Mathew and Jennifer know KT from New York, where they all danced together. Kirby is KT's husband, and he makes amazing snacks for our shows. Paige and Zoe are friends and colleagues. Jenae knows Amii Legandre, a close friend of Lingo's. Stan and Marsha came representing 4 Culture. ***
Tonight, the number of guests will be at least double. How will things change? Shift? Develop? Every night is so unique, even though our "performance" as hosts is more or less set choreography.
*** I apologize for any misspelling of names or inaccurate details from guests. Such is the nature of a party where we learn each others names but don't spell them for each other. And how slippery the details of personality become after a few glasses of wine and a good night's rest...
Justin brought his daughter and niece because he had been to a CHAC Lower Level performance last month and became interested in seeing more live performances. Olivia is an Irish step dancer and Oona takes ballet. John worked with KT on one of her earlier pieces, Residue, but he hasn't seen her perform for close to 5 years. Mathew and Jennifer know KT from New York, where they all danced together. Kirby is KT's husband, and he makes amazing snacks for our shows. Paige and Zoe are friends and colleagues. Jenae knows Amii Legandre, a close friend of Lingo's. Stan and Marsha came representing 4 Culture. ***
Tonight, the number of guests will be at least double. How will things change? Shift? Develop? Every night is so unique, even though our "performance" as hosts is more or less set choreography.
*** I apologize for any misspelling of names or inaccurate details from guests. Such is the nature of a party where we learn each others names but don't spell them for each other. And how slippery the details of personality become after a few glasses of wine and a good night's rest...
Thursday, April 26, 2007
aarons first blog
Ramping in to the second weekend, rehearsed yesterday and also did an improv performance with John, Anna, Alia, Kaveh, Peggy, jeff and Mark. It was a blast, what a joy to improv with my son. It was also powerful artistically as a way to shift the space, experience it in a new way. Hopefully that will lead to more spacious performance this weekend, a deeper awareness of potentials and a trust in the validity of our process regardless of how challenging it feels.
Regarding our rehearsal yesterday, which was all talking, it felt important to me, and in line with my desire to find a method for instigating conscious change. As our experiment continues to shed light on our aims, where they are being met and where they go slightly awry, we need agreed upon criterion to move forward with the new information. For me the idea of creating a whole has become paramount, perhaps streamlining the show, honing it towards its core tenets, images and movements. Having a defining vision so that we are not continually reacting to the emotions of our performances and coming up with stop gap measures to shift them, maintaining respect and compassion for our four seperate experiences of the piece while striving to forge them into one overarching exsperience for our myriad of guests.
Regarding our rehearsal yesterday, which was all talking, it felt important to me, and in line with my desire to find a method for instigating conscious change. As our experiment continues to shed light on our aims, where they are being met and where they go slightly awry, we need agreed upon criterion to move forward with the new information. For me the idea of creating a whole has become paramount, perhaps streamlining the show, honing it towards its core tenets, images and movements. Having a defining vision so that we are not continually reacting to the emotions of our performances and coming up with stop gap measures to shift them, maintaining respect and compassion for our four seperate experiences of the piece while striving to forge them into one overarching exsperience for our myriad of guests.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Reactions to Inhabit
We hope you'll post your reactions to the show and your thoughts about art, community, and the way people interact with art and each other.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
thoughts from the company about the first weekend run
Some thoughts after the first weekend run of INHABIT
How can we develop a formula in which we monitor our own performance over the course of the run?
What is ok and what is not ok in the realm of improvisation/change inside this specific choreography?
What defines “ok”?
What are the elements that relate to unchange: that hook us together, give us confidence and define this work?
What are the elements that relate to change and in the moment decision making?
Tenants of Deborah Hay
1. You are becoming or are already skilled at monitoring your own performance.
2. Integral to your experience of performance is an exclusive regard for the presence of your audience.
3. You are without fear of appearing foolish in your capacity to violate form in order to recognize where and why it exists.
Quote of Deborah Hay
I recognize my choreography when I see a dancer’s self-regulated transcendence of his/her choreographed body within a movement sequence that distinguishes one dance from another.
What is the wholeness of INHABIT?
Aaron - A day in the life – from waking up, arriving, the tasks of the day, a series of events going and taking us in different directions – all taking us closer to night, sleep, reflection and dream.
KT – A good party – from good energy / buzz, entering, eating, drinking, worrying, wondering, hoping, looking, gathering information, getting clearer, forming opinions, making choices, getting agitated, excited, shifting, slowing down, taking pause, reflecting, changing.
Bianca – How specificity can become universal. People and personalities move in both directions simultaneously – toward the universal and toward the individual. Shards of the four of us in a setting of “anybody”. The more we show ourselves in these different scenarios, the more ourselves transcend to the “anyone”. It is the lens we give.
Dustin – Shifting the way the guests views the work. Putting them in an environment that allows for self-reflection. We as hosts are able to admit who we are in all the funny, strong, difficult, beautiful ways we are. It allows the guests the permission to see that and take it back to themselves, giving a personal voyage for them. The anti-whole – if we were to do these as a series of solos onstage – it might be cathartic, but wouldn’t set up the correct environment for the guest to have an experience.
Questions relating to the first weekend
Do we put the space hold solos back in?
What changes to we make with a smaller audience?
If we shift our own solos – how can we be clear to the others as we make those shifts?
How do we create the potential for growth and discovery while staying true to the bones of the piece and the movement? That balance is essential and difficult.
The way we relate to movement
Dustin – If he is dancing with someone, it shifts the permission he feels in the movement. Looking for codified moments of unison – wants it to read as such. In unison, to the degree possible (we will always have our own spice) wants to look the same.
In the upside down material, he has the same desires but he feels more room. The patience of it. Us not having to do every single move at the same time. A different kind of unison. There is just pure facility – will never have the same shape as another – doesn’t see it as a negative. His flexibility (or lack there of) comes into more focus if he is trying to look exactly like another.
In solo – the clearest moment is when he give someone a note and does the solo re: to the note – that is when he feels the most permission re: his movement. It gets reigned in other places – standing solo or rock solos don’t really feel like solo to him. When he veers from the track he has beaten down, he looses more than he gains.
Aaron – happy with the movement – the strongest and most reliable part of the piece to him. Struggles with dynamic/sharp vs. sustainable/nourishing. Inhabiting in the body in a way that feels good. Question of individuality – there IS room for individual energies in the movement even though the movement is the same.
The way we relate to time / music
Dustin
I will rush instead of cut
I am distracted to the guests but want to be committed to the music
I will always go for the early end – I am ready to end before someone else does.
The number of people affects time. Less audience = perception of too slow and more audience = rush of time.
KT
I will always try to be with the music
I have a sharp sense of time that makes me not trust something being extended
I rarely indulge
I feel responsible for time and for the company in time and for that matter all the guests in time too.
Aaron
I have trouble listening to the music analytically
I feel torn because the music pushes us but on the other hand it rushes audience interaction and image.
Bianca
I don’t know the music.
The way we relate to space
The way we relate to each other
The way we relate to the guests
The way we relate to the philosophy
How can we develop a formula in which we monitor our own performance over the course of the run?
What is ok and what is not ok in the realm of improvisation/change inside this specific choreography?
What defines “ok”?
What are the elements that relate to unchange: that hook us together, give us confidence and define this work?
What are the elements that relate to change and in the moment decision making?
Tenants of Deborah Hay
1. You are becoming or are already skilled at monitoring your own performance.
2. Integral to your experience of performance is an exclusive regard for the presence of your audience.
3. You are without fear of appearing foolish in your capacity to violate form in order to recognize where and why it exists.
Quote of Deborah Hay
I recognize my choreography when I see a dancer’s self-regulated transcendence of his/her choreographed body within a movement sequence that distinguishes one dance from another.
What is the wholeness of INHABIT?
Aaron - A day in the life – from waking up, arriving, the tasks of the day, a series of events going and taking us in different directions – all taking us closer to night, sleep, reflection and dream.
KT – A good party – from good energy / buzz, entering, eating, drinking, worrying, wondering, hoping, looking, gathering information, getting clearer, forming opinions, making choices, getting agitated, excited, shifting, slowing down, taking pause, reflecting, changing.
Bianca – How specificity can become universal. People and personalities move in both directions simultaneously – toward the universal and toward the individual. Shards of the four of us in a setting of “anybody”. The more we show ourselves in these different scenarios, the more ourselves transcend to the “anyone”. It is the lens we give.
Dustin – Shifting the way the guests views the work. Putting them in an environment that allows for self-reflection. We as hosts are able to admit who we are in all the funny, strong, difficult, beautiful ways we are. It allows the guests the permission to see that and take it back to themselves, giving a personal voyage for them. The anti-whole – if we were to do these as a series of solos onstage – it might be cathartic, but wouldn’t set up the correct environment for the guest to have an experience.
Questions relating to the first weekend
Do we put the space hold solos back in?
What changes to we make with a smaller audience?
If we shift our own solos – how can we be clear to the others as we make those shifts?
How do we create the potential for growth and discovery while staying true to the bones of the piece and the movement? That balance is essential and difficult.
The way we relate to movement
Dustin – If he is dancing with someone, it shifts the permission he feels in the movement. Looking for codified moments of unison – wants it to read as such. In unison, to the degree possible (we will always have our own spice) wants to look the same.
In the upside down material, he has the same desires but he feels more room. The patience of it. Us not having to do every single move at the same time. A different kind of unison. There is just pure facility – will never have the same shape as another – doesn’t see it as a negative. His flexibility (or lack there of) comes into more focus if he is trying to look exactly like another.
In solo – the clearest moment is when he give someone a note and does the solo re: to the note – that is when he feels the most permission re: his movement. It gets reigned in other places – standing solo or rock solos don’t really feel like solo to him. When he veers from the track he has beaten down, he looses more than he gains.
Aaron – happy with the movement – the strongest and most reliable part of the piece to him. Struggles with dynamic/sharp vs. sustainable/nourishing. Inhabiting in the body in a way that feels good. Question of individuality – there IS room for individual energies in the movement even though the movement is the same.
The way we relate to time / music
Dustin
I will rush instead of cut
I am distracted to the guests but want to be committed to the music
I will always go for the early end – I am ready to end before someone else does.
The number of people affects time. Less audience = perception of too slow and more audience = rush of time.
KT
I will always try to be with the music
I have a sharp sense of time that makes me not trust something being extended
I rarely indulge
I feel responsible for time and for the company in time and for that matter all the guests in time too.
Aaron
I have trouble listening to the music analytically
I feel torn because the music pushes us but on the other hand it rushes audience interaction and image.
Bianca
I don’t know the music.
The way we relate to space
The way we relate to each other
The way we relate to the guests
The way we relate to the philosophy
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