DanceBridge Showcase Fall 2011
Co-creating
Posted by DCA Theater on November 17, 2011 in July-December 2011 Season, DanceBridge Showcase Fall 2011
Submitted by Annie Maurer, Millie Kapp and Matt Shalzi, participants in DanceBridge Fall 2011
November 5th and 8th, 2011
“I think that we can still at unexpected moments be surprised by the beauty of the moon even though now we can travel to it.” - John Cage
We return to things we have done before by,
Giving new timing to a sequence.
Becoming important, acting like a dog.
Repeating only what we remember from what we’ve seen.
Trying to carry objects while carrying out a sequence.
Repeating an action until it changes (physically or in our perception of it).
During one rehearsal this week, Matt started out directing, but somewhere in the process we found ourselves directing each other with a decentralized force. Like pigeons flying, altogether and all at once, towards the roof of a building. We look up and wonder, “who or what is leading?” Then it shifts again.
Assembling a performance
Posted by DCA Theater on November 11, 2011 in July-December 2011 Season, DanceBridge Showcase Fall 2011
Submitted by Annie Maurer, Millie Kapp and Matt Shalzi, participants in DanceBridge Fall 2011
On Saturday we began our first attempts at assembly. We divided the rehearsal into three parts—giving each person a chance to make changes to the same material. We each took turns watching from the same place in the room while the others performed their parts in the section. Matt cut out dead-ends among the hairs and specified timing. He placed a small curtain between Annie and Millie as one lowers a sword into a hole to the timing of the other’s interspersed water splashes. Millie made the “setting up” of a sculpture a dance. And the “taking down”, a reverse dance. Annie began to make an interlude between two parts. In this interlude Matt tries to bury Millie but Millie rises from the dead to get back at Matt. Annie laughs because Millie looks like a cartoon Frankenstein. Millie likes to be funny when Annie laughs.
Sometimes, we get too serious about our work and it stops being alive. We always like what we see/do in the warm-ups the best. How can we make enjoying something a serious endeavor? How can we write/reflect on our work in a way that expands and alters our understanding of it rather than trying to explain it? Explanation is good. But it is not everything.
A Dancer Takes the Stage
Posted by DCA Theater on November 2, 2011 in July-December 2011 Season, DanceBridge Showcase Fall 2011
Ni’Ja Whitson has been keeping busy this fall. In addition to participating in DanceBridge, she was also a LinkUP resident at Links Hall. In September, Ni’Ja performed her solo installation work, root shock.
Exploring Goodbyes
Posted by DCA Theater on November 2, 2011 in July-December 2011 Season, DanceBridge Showcase Fall 2011
Submitted by Annie Maurer, Millie Kapp and Matt Shalzi, participants in DanceBridge Fall 2011
Rehearsal 11 & 12, October 30, 2011
Annie asked us to consider three components of saying goodbye: preparing to say goodbye, saying goodbye, and leaving. We improvised in response to each of these processes for ten minutes each. We then extracted a movement from each of the three improvisations and re-combined the order of these movements 6 times, attempting to scramble the usual order of things: the preparation for the event (1), the event (2), and the aftermath (3).
Sculpting our stories
Posted by DCA Theater on October 27, 2011 in July-December 2011 Season, DanceBridge Showcase Fall 2011
Submitted by Annie Maurer, Millie Kapp and Matt Shalzi, participants in DanceBridge Fall 2011
Rehearsal 9 & 10, October 22, 2011
Millie wrapped up her turn to lead rehearsals on Thursday by assigning the task of making a sculpture of a face made out of tissues on the threshold of the dance studio doorway. Matt and Annie carried out this task, using their arms and hands to hold up the eyes and hair of the face. Their bodies became the architectural support for a sculpture of a face. During our cool down, when Annie asked “What is a sculpture on a threshold?’’ Millie replied, “We make a sculpture out of tissues on the periphery to call attention to its unimportance and impermanence.” Matt responded at the following Saturday rehearsal with a sculpture he made of a face, using his whole body, and incorporating a laundry bag, shelves, candles, paper, and a bucket.
On Saturday, Annie guided the rehearsal. She returned to themes of leaving, and asked Millie and Matt to make movement in different imaginary locations while saying goodbye to various materials and people. We find that as we continue to use environment and circumstance as inspiration for action, narrative seeps into our movement. Our personal narratives and associations are at times just as vivid as their material appearance manifest on our bodies. As we put our respective, unrelated narratives together, the resulting combination tends to be deranged. We find this conflict and compounding exciting and often hilarious.
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