Review from the Coast

Coast Review, Friday October 8th

A list of treasures from Ross Creek

Treasures created during our process-
(in no particular order)

Arm Stronging
Gloming
Walking Massage
Beatrice
Airy Cylinders
Good Cop, Bad Cop
Neil
2 Green Lights, 1 Yellow


P.S: The costumes are like winter clothes- fur, wool and many layers.

Moving into the Wolf Den Tonight

Today was our last day at Ross Creek! Excited and sad to go all in one. We had one last Creek Side dance class with the ladies from Toronto and the miniature shoe. There was one run of the piece today and we found some really beautiful moments and yet another time adjustment in the length of the piece. The understanding and full embodiment is now setting in nicely. Now it is time to shift into the Wolf Den (aka the theatre) and see the piece really come alive in full light of the moon!

Packing up and getting ready to move into the theatre is a whole other choreography in itself:

Elise takes the sound and pilates equipment, along with her famous belgium cake plate...Oh I will miss you.

Jacinte and Cory pack the many Balls, Bases and Growler collections.

Susanne takes our guest, Lord Daelik and the remaining boxes.

I take 91 boxes. My job is to move air.

Pictured below are the 91 boxes carefully arranged for transport. I guess flying across the country over the past 10 years really had improved my packing skills. Maximizing my use of space.... I think I need another 10 years for the over packing component.




Sara

We Have a Piece

Today we ran the piece!
It was 48 minutes, including the detour we took to reconstruct a tower that Elise knocked down "wrong". Yesterday we practiced building that tower, and Elise breaking through it, about 6 times, hoping to achieve knockdown perfection. But today was a whole other story...
We have 4 more days at the Creek to get things all smoothed out. We continue to practice dancing in high heels, fur coats, and wolf masks. We will perfect the spacing between boxes to create a wall. (We open the big sliding door to let the warm air in, and the wind blows the boxes down. We rebuild the wall). We improve our teamwork. Daelik is pleased. He sees the logic of the piece. And the holes.
Cory and I need a better ending to our duet. I need a reason to leave him after we negotiate the building of our tower.
Susanne and Cory need a little more time together.
Sara's bag dance is getting better.
We leave imprints of ourselves on the floor, in sweat. My right hip is higher than my left.
Some pants need hemming.
Cory has to walk within the "state" that he is dancing in. The women get to drop states, and become totally pedestrian from time to time,
Cory may perform naked.
Cory is going a little mad trying to finish up the music.


Elise is the massage queen.
Danielle came into our studio at the end of rehearsal looking for someone to pull on her legs. I volunteered, but soon began giving her exercises. She brought me a shoe-shaped rock from the beach, in honour of our foot work.

Tomorrow, we continue our group warm-up with Susie, then Daelik, into contact improv, into manipulating Cory. I do a radio interview with Olga Milosevich at 11 am. We run the piece again, and find ourselves within it a little more deeply.



It's time for bed.


Jacinte

Ross Creek wild life has entered the studio

The Art of Letting Go

Exploring the Art of Letting Go:

Letting go has been a strong theme in my life lately and here again it follows us into the studio.

At this point the collective role is too constantly task ourselves to create an impulse and then be ready to abandon it at any moment. This seems easy enough, such a task that is very parallel to my personal philosophy: ‘that movement is merely about being ready to shift’.

In the light of cooperation and negotiation the theory is easier than the actual. It is a practice of never assuming that someone might know and to always be ready to let go.

We have danced around this theory and practiced our techniques of shifting everyday for four weeks. Simple, perfection must be close. But we find everyday is different, every moment is different than the last and every shift is new. Accepting mastery or defeat is not the object, but living within the exploration of negotiation and acceptance is where the beauty lies. Some days moving Cory amongst the four is a breeze, and some days it feels like a foreign language. Abandoning any expectation and digging deeper into the curiosity is the only way to keep going.

Today, practicing my solo, I had to abandon my expectation of place. Do I have the patience to track every shift in my body and down to the smallest degree, when I realize my whole sense of self is based on knowing my relationship to other. Can I cheat and use the floor tape as a marker, but really with the stage lights flooding the floor and a bag on my head I will be totally blind. Negotiating in my own vacuum. The only thing to right me is my connection to gravity. At least I can’t loose my sense of up and down. I’ve abandoned any use of tricks, I’ve let go of front, and my performance ring is a new exploration every day. I just wish my friends would stop me before I run into the walls….

Hungry Like the Wolf- October 7-9th

October 7-9th
Sir James Dunn Theatre
Dalhousie Art Centre

Choreography: Daelik
Performers: Jacinte Armstrong, Cory Bowles,
Susanne Chui, Sara Coffin, Elise Vanderborght

with work by Susie Burpee
Apple Darkest, performed by: Danielle Baskerville

Presented by Live Art Dance Productions

Tickets:
$25 Adults; $20 Seniors; $17 Students
To purchase please contact the Dal Arts Centre: (902) 494-3820

The Art of Negotiation

I find myself talking about 'negotiation' a lot in rehearsals.

"The structure you build with the boxes is not as important as how your bodies work together to negotiate the space with the boxes"

20 years ago I began my love affair with dance through Contact Improvisation. CI is a dance of communication and negotiation. It requires you to 'listen'. It requires you to 'cooperate'. I've had the dancers training every day in CI because my work is heavily influenced by my own practice of the form. Contact Dance has given my dance 'style' a sensuousness, a full bodied, relaxed quality even when the movement is fast or dynamic. Dancers who work with me are often surprised by the technical skill that is required to move in this way.

While practicing CI, while dancing, I'm constantly asking myself the question "what is happening right now?" and constantly asking my partner "Do you want to do this?" It all happens in a split second and without words. The result of this negotiation is quite often very satisfying from the inside, and sometimes surprising from the outside.

I try to bring the same philosophy into my dance creation. My choreography is often a negotiation between my own desires as a mover and those of the dancers. I create material and they learn it. I negotiate the qualities I want but sometimes the dancers know better than me. I have them improvise and something they've created becomes the basis for a scene. I negotiate their material into my concept.

I love watching Cory being moved around by the ladies. They negotiate with each other to make it happen and he negotiates with them to either allow it or not. Sly Cory.

I love watching the ladies don their fur coats, high heels, and white purses and negotiate the narrow corridor I've set up for them. Even knowing that Susanne will cross the curtain line.

I love watching Elise wall herself up in a tower of boxes, negotiating the design so that later she can escape it leaving the structure partially standing.

I love watching Sara dance with the purse on her head. I put it on myself to see what it's like. It's claustrophobic. I have to negotiate whether the comfort of the dancer is more important than the image.

I love watching Jacinte and Cory work together to move boxes. As they negotiate the task, I see all the tenderness and drama of their real relationship unfolding in the simple scene making it all the more human.

I'm starting week three with SINS, and I know that I've already got more material than I'll need. They wanted a 30 minute dance, but I can't stop at 30 minutes. Maybe I'll stop at 40. It's something we'll have to negotiate.

Daelik

Suggesting a memory in movement and intention?

Thoughts and accomplishments of the day: Dancing inside an imaginary box, reminding the sound keeper of his distant memories, tackling the task of stacking his collection of sounds, catching a friend in flight and dancing under cover.

The technique of the crescent roll is attuned with the moon phase here at the creek. We practice soft landings, and spirals in the morning and felt our fish spine in the afternoon. Week 3 is now accompanied by more clarity and more kinks all in one.

I have never had the experience of feeling my own air trapped in my lungs until today when Daelik asked me to dance with a bag on my head. Usually when I improvise I love playing with my vestibular system and aim to shake my orientation. But today was the real deal! I could feel my lungs collapse and found myself spun around and flipped upside down in my perceived orientation. This is a whole other training now. We didn't capture an imagine of this one, so you will have to use your imagination.

There are many tasks to practice in the studio now: moving Cory through space, mobilizing and stacking boxes, feeling the timing/weight shift and skeletal structures in our partnering, detailing movement phrases, and dancing with limited air.

I hope I survive Wednesday, unlike our little Ro-Dantz friend today...


Sara

Confirmed: A box with sound weighs more than a box without

Photos by Mike Tompkins

If you have been reading along, why not give it a try! Upcoming Workshops in Halifax

Skeletal Landscapes: a comprehensive intro to the principles of Contact Improvisation

DATE: October 2 -3, 2010
TIME: 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
LOCATION: DANSpace, 1531 Grafton Street
COST: $30/one day $50/both days

This workshop is appropriate for beginners, dancers, actors, as well as advanced students who are looking to deepen their practice. Daelik will draw from 20 years of practicing and performing Contact Improvisation to address the ideas of: moving with an active relaxed body, the floor as the first partner, skeletal support, moving the pelvis through space and listening for connection. Contact Improvisation is an invaluable practice for anyone looking to develop physical awareness and yearning to dance from his or her sense.

Auditions for RO-DANTZ underway

Artistic Director Cory Bowles has been thrilled in response to the interest and turnout for the newest Nova Scotia dance company: RO-DANTZ

Auditions are being held daily and each day new blood turns up. Some of the younger mice trying out tend to be a bit squeamish from their nerves. But usually their potential shines when the nutcracker theme music begins to play. Bowles puts them through the real test once he begins the duet material.... consisting of suspension through time, a sudden jolt, impact, theatrical pause and the grand scurry to finish. Usually the mice are cut here and only the smart ones return the next day for a re-try.

I think a marking system will have to devised to keep track of all the action!


Further Reports Later
Sara

A day inspired by Tom Waits perhaps, perhaps, perhaps....

What's he building in there?
What the hell is he building
In there?
He never Waves when he goes by
He's hiding something from
The rest of us... He's all
To himself... I think I know
Why... He took down the
Tire swing from the Peppertree
He has no children of his
Own you see... He has no dog
And he has no friends and
His lawn is dying... and
What about all those packages
He sends. What's he building in there?
With that hook light
On the stairs. What's he building
In there... I'll tell you one thing
He's not building a playhouse for
The children what's he building
In there?

Being Brave

It takes some bravery to practice contact improv, to give, take and share weight, to live in the countryside for 4.5 weeks, to live in a house full of spiders, and to stay quiet during rehearsals (because you should be dancing...apparently). But I take no particular pride in facing these daily. It is the blog I fear. So here I am. I think if I can post this, I will dance better tomorrow.
I will keep you posted.

Jacinte

Boxed In, Boxed Out, Boxed Set, Boxed Meat

Yes it's true;
There was suddenly a bit of phrasing here, an idea there, a couple of white boxes stacked somewhere, and a load of samples and tangled cables -

then there was a prologue, an opening, a transition, a story a development, and my sore body, and the end of the day.
just like that, we jumped in
like fall, and suddenly leaves go from green to yellow

our season changed today
now we're flying
or falling........which ever one has the rush.

I also disposed of a mouse today
he was cute
but I let him off with a warning
next time
i won't be so generous
because I have an idea....

I will catch all the mice
and train them to be a modern dance company

I will call it .....
(wait for it)
....RO-DANTZ
and we will do a better nutcracker than anyone here can do
I will tame the shrews then tame your heart

I like ross creek very much
I too feel like it's a vacation
except it has hurt my muscles...and stretching, to me, is a language long lost, long lost, long lost.........

Cory

Tuesday at the Farm

I was really happy to see that my back was alright, sometimes I lose confidence in my body but it is the smartest and if I only listen and give time she will rebound.
Thought of the day, love your body.

My challenge hear at Ross Creek is unusual, some will say the creative process is draining, I am tired, we are lost in the woods, we share everything for me all that is detail the real struggle is to be always on the edge looking out for spiders, my first enemy.

Daelik and Susanne are doing body work after rehearsal, i am pulling on Jacinte talus, she teaches me pilates, and drives back and forth, Sara mops the floor, Susie collects, Danielle speaks quietly and Cory is wearing headphones, what a great time we are!!!

We work really hard, but for me it is almost like holidays: no bed time, no cooking supper, no homework, no dishes, no dealing with day to day business. It is the best! :)
Sincerely yours, Elise

Week 2, Day 1

Back in the studio after the weekend. Daelik came back with a whole storyline for the piece - 4 women, one man, a relationship for each. I am the redeemer. The question of the day - does sound have weight? 100 white boxes filled with the last sounds on earth. Ideas are flying, Cory and Daelik like two brothers in love with the end of the world. Our contact dance skills are improving with each day. Every morning we work to find connection between each other, how to spiral in one another, give and take weight, speak through touch.

Susie Burpee and Danielle Baskerville have arrived to begin their process. Ross Creek is buzzing with creative energy.

Susanne

Sometimes your hair must fly to get into character

To prepare Elise must find her inner wolf...

Closing of the First Week

Tomorrow is Friday, and we will be finished week one with Daelik.

For me, I think my favorite part of creating a new piece is swimming in the unknown and then feeling small fragments of the greater picture reveal themselves. It's exciting to watch a moment of the truth unfold in front of you, even when you don't know what it is yet.

As always, one of the joys of coming home and working with SiNS is the strong presence of support in our working environment. Support for each other, support in the dialogue and the support to create a new work. It's like being in a hug all day....even if we get rough and dirty sometimes.

There are some exciting unknowns in the studio working with Daelik, (as a new choreographer to the group); learning his language, supporting his aesthetic. Daelik is also learning from SiNS, watching the intricacy of our group dynamic and pushing us in new directions.

So far this week,

work stations were set-up:


for music

..and for portable Pilates


we have had the luxury of learning material from a giant screen:



we assembled our props that were sent in the mail, surprisingly UPS found little rural Ross Creek without a problem!:


....a welcomed Arts and Craft break




and improvising begins....




HOARD, MEASURE, TAKE STOCK

There are always two options: to go towards, to go away or even redirect.... so I guess that's three?

Sara

Ross Creek Creation Residency

SiNS dance with guest choreographer Daelik are now in residency at the Ross Creek Centre for the Arts.

Pictured above, the centre is in rural Nova Scotia (Canning, NS), where we will be in creation for 4 weeks along with our favorite collaborators Cory Bowles and Elise Vanderborght.

Set in beautiful Nova Scotia, eating fine herbs fresh from the garden and dancing in the spacious renovated barn studios we have found our own little utopia creation colony.

SiNS has commissioned Vancouver artist, Daelik to create the next sin: Greed in our 7 deadly sins series. Through the magic of internet (even in the country), you can join us for an inside look for the next 4 weeks as we explore and create.

The new work will premiere in Halifax, presented by Live Art Dance Productions Oct 7th-9th at the Dunn Theatre in the Dalhousie Art Centre. We hope to see you in the actual but until then here is a virtual look.....

Warm Gooey Balls and Opening Night Anticipation!

Yesterday, was our last rehearsal before the Canadian Premiere and Opening Night. Energy was high, and we are ready to rock!


Chaos, Confusion, negotiation, playfulness, panic, relief, sweat, tears, beer, and a lot of warm gooey balls!

Enjoy the Friday June 9th Vancouver Sun article.

Correction in the print:
SHOWS TIMES: Saturday July 10th at 8:30pm (tonight) and Sunday July 11th at 2pm and 8:30pm
Location: Scotiabank Dance Centre, 677 Davie Street.

Join us tonight for the opening night reception and oh yes... this is the theatre with air-conditioning.

Three's a charm

New York has touched down.
Vancouver is in the theatre
Halifax is still sampling the food.

we show and tell a wee bit today

the three vibes are nice
beer, paper and cell phones

Thomas is here in spirit, and we send our spirit back to him.

question of the day - do you really need a liquor licence for empty cans on stage?

answer - obviously not.

cory

It's not a competition

I have equal excitment for all groups, Sara

Cory

Team Vancouver is back in the game

Today, Team Vancouver meet in the studio for the first day of remount. I think they are a few points ahead of Team Halifax.... We were able to get a run in on the first day!! Halifax had their first run on day two. Nice work Vancouver!

Cory stopped in for a few minutes to get a peek at what Vancouver will serve up. It was worth just seeing his reaction and excitement for the upcoming pairing, weaving and many possible accidents. Negotiation is our next point of research.

(Cory is in the room next to me, on the chi machine arguing my point system. SINS dance worked last in Jan and Vancouver worked in May, 2.5 months equals 1 day, so the score is actually 1-1)... how did this turn sport..... guess we have the world cup fever.

Sara

Photo by Connor Gnam

We are offering WORKSHOPS with Guest Directors

Mark it on your list of things to do this week:

Dancing on the the Edge is pleased to offer workshops with guest directors Cory Bowles (Halifax) and Dan Safer (New York).

Where: Firehall Arts Centre Studio (upstairs), 280 East Cordova Street

Friday July 9th, 10am-12pm
Cory Bowles

Workshop Description:
This workshop has a strong influence of African Tradition and uses
fundamentals of early black dance. Designed to use the body as a
rhythmic tool, participants utilize voice and sound to create a
charging connection of dance and design in a group dynamic. The class
will integrates breath, flow, space, and release work; a style used in
Cory’s work as a director, actor and choreographer and starts from the
rule of natural movement. Referred to as Straight up Moving, the body
plays a function of precision and alignment and taps into the the
natural rhythm skills a dancer and actor possess. Combined with early
jazz, body percussion and techniques of physical theatre, it is a wide
open approach to contemporary dance.

Saturday July 10th: 10am-12pm
Dan Safer

Workshop Description
This workshop is geared towards bringing the idea of dance/ choreography into direct collision with theater. How do you make work that is as much a dance as it is theater, dances that are scenes, scenes that are dances, movement that is fully inhabited and tells a story and/or creates a world? What happens when you apply choreographic principles to a dramatic scene? What happens when you apply theatrical modes to pure movement? How can you work with context and montage to invest abstraction with meaning? And how do you make sure it is all entertaining, or involving, or un-ignorable?

A director's dirty work

Seen here our director, Cory Bowles, must do the dirty work of authenticating Sara's actions from instruction number 9 - "Fucking."




The instructions are for each dancer to create a motif based on a position of the sexual act. Today Cory questioned, and proceeded to test, the accuracy of Sara's unconventional sexual position - turns out it can be done!

Susanne

Day five is an odd number

In light of the fifth day, i ask
five questions
Who, What, where, why, and when?

Five themes
etological, cultural, personal, physical, and historical identities.

Five spots in space

Five beats per phrase

And Five dollars for the delicious frites I'm getting at break.

A full run will be a blessing
Or a scare

I'll take either
Cory

Setting it straight..... we are actually pretty devious

Schreibstuck is featured in the Straight this week, take a look.

One week today- and the anticipated union of all three trios will take place. I just spoke to Dan Safer this morning from Brooklyn, it was great to connect and hear a bit more of his side of the schreibstuck story. Dan's company Witness Relocation has performed their trio, version #13 in Bangkok and in Atlanta in two separate productions.

Now heading north-west for the Canadian Premiere I will be happy to share the stage with such a German structuralist expert!

I haven't actually specifically counted out the number of times or ways we have deviated from Thomas' instructions.... but I think we are staying straight and narrow when it comes to his intent... But then again it is my interpretation of his intent. But what is deviating, and what is staying true to your voice. I didn't set out to be a rule breaker, sometimes this just happens. It's my truth to fit in. conscious, sub-conscious and accidental it's all there.

Maybe I will post how many times I broke the rules, but I think I will wait till the last day of the production... so YOU can experience some anticipation as well.

Sara

Talking Heads and Muttering Appendages

Vancouver is sunny, and rainy at the same time.

The weather switches in a heartbeat. You blink, and it rains, you breath you squint at the sun. It's inspiring. I'm stealing it. Thanks weather. We're going rainy and sunny.

We do that anyway, or at least I thought we did.

It's just now i get it a little more.

cory

Moving from big to small

SiNS dance, the Halifax trio is just entering day three of our remount process. I have let go of the larger picture and now bringing my focus in. For this trio I need to switch back into performer mode, and now think about all the smaller details.



Luckily, with Cory here (the Halifax director) he has picked up what I have had to throw out and he is keeping the picture alive. If I played basketball maybe it would be similar to throwing a ball around the court, and keeping things moving. Although I don't think Basketball players jump around in their positions as much as I have in this project. Oh wait..... we relate to Hockey more, right? Does the forward stay the forward or can he jump in for the goalie or even THE coach once in a while? This is what's happening in the Schreibstuck performance rink right now.

It all started with the post....

For those of you who need some catching up or even a bit of insight... this is what happens to realize a production of Schreibstuck.

Make friends with Thomas Lehmen
Confess you may have indirectly acquired an art piece of his...
Wait for the lovely package from Germany to be sent in the mail (it may get lost a few times, or you may have to enlist a third party to deliver it across the country)

Open the box




Scratch your head


Invent your truths
Argue
continually spread out and re-stack piles of paper
Throw your bones, muscles and sweat around

Scratch your head

Stick to your truths

Schreibstuck.... the adventure

Wow the dates are approaching soon and all the anticipated arrivals will soon be happening.

My good friends, and long-time collaborators from SiNS dance have already arrived. Susanne and Jacinte are in town a week early to get their Vancouver groove on and do some professional development.

Cory Bowles, the Halifax/SiNS director arrives on Sunday.... then we get to work!
SiNS with Cory will bring the Halifax trio back to life, since we haven't worked on the dynamics as a group since Dec/Jan when I was home last. Cory will whoop us to tighten all the timing and delivery of the material.

Then soon after we will join forces with the Vancouver and New York trios, but this meeting will only take place 2 days before the show. It will be electric on stage, with 9 bodies navigating each other.... come join us for the rock show!