Brush Up, Tech Run etc.
I always have a certain feeling before a performance that I organize. Fidgety, expectant, nervous…
Yesterday at Fieldwork we went through (almost) all of the pieces in show order so Kris, our excellent lighting designer, could see what she would be lighting. With all the love in my heart, I’ll say this: it’s harder to wrangle adult women than two-year-olds. But I told them, and I’m still thinking it, they are powerful women. The Fieldwork group is all women, and let me tell you, it is going to be a wonderful, powerful showcase. Variety, depth, exploration, vulnerability. Get yourself there if at all possible. It is worth it.
We didn’t run Points and Coordinates last night because, as you may remember, we had a brush up the night before. I love trusting my dancers implicitly in this piece. It’s what makes it alive. We had all just come from another rehearsal and we were tired, it was late, and emotions were a little fragile/volatile (at least on my end.) So we went through it and we felt disconnected and a little rushed, and lost in the “road map” of the piece. I think we were a bit discouraged because our memory of the piece was true and real connection with one another. But I expected and wanted that to happen. It needed to happen before we could get back into that place that exists within the context of Points and Coordinates. That probably sounds extremely strange to you… got it. Let me try to explain it a little more like this. Doing this piece is a bit like entering another world with its own dynamics, rules, relations. We are both captive to the environment and directors of it. But in order for that to happen there has to be a synchronization of breath, motive and expectation. And when we’ve done it in the past, I truly believe that is what has made it so powerful and lush–that the three of us have come together in those aspects ready to give and receive without judgment in that space. And it will happen again, I am certain. What happened the other night at the brush-up rehearsal actually made me realize how special the dynamic really is, and how dependent we are on each other to create that world on the stage. It’s a beautiful risk. And I’m ready to enter that world.
But before that, I must iron a 12×9 foot canvas and buy some gaffer’s tape…
