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...