Chunky Sunday.

It is h o t.  Julieann, Elisa, Mary, and Melissa are good sports.  The five of us dance pretty solidly for 3 hours, humidly and slowly, we wade through a few ideas and come up with some structures that work.  We all know each other in some capacity, but haven't improvised together in a process in a while.  I am so grateful for their experience, and willingness to share ideas and successes. 

We start with finding our own individual perfect spot in the space.  Taking about 20 minutes, we explore the area of space- its lines, the feelings and emotions that the spot brings out, the other objects in the space, and anything else that comes up.  After getting to know the space and our bodies in the space we come back together and jot down 3 words that we can associate with our experience.  I send everyone back to their spot to then find 3 movements that correspond to the words.  Now we have a small dance vocabulary to work with together   Like a string, we put movements together and make a small phrase that we all know and do together a few times so that it is comfortable.   

After a bathroom break and standing in front of the porta cool for a while, we start a group improvisation, working and bouncing off the things that grab us in the space.  Lines, chairs, the piano bench, and a lingering feather that keeps reappearing and dancing with us.  It feels good to get moving together, and to let go of the feeling of product.  Some of the things that came out of the first group improvisation were found with questions.  I asked everyone what stuck? What mattered?  Which things are still living in the space even after we've left it? 

Some things I remember from the conversation on how do you know if you're connected to what's going on in the improvisation::: 

• It's nice to observe someone else while in the space as a supporter.  It's important to support, and hold what's happening in the space in the moment, even if you aren't directly tied to it.  
• Elisa and Mary brought up reverberation; bouncing of what someone is dancing, grab a bit of their movement and let it travel through you.  
• Eye contact is an easy way to know that connection might be happening
• Melissa mentioned not overanalyzing things- importance of letting things happen and moving on
• We talked about pathways as a way of connection- traveling in the same physical space, making a movement grid as a response to lines in the space 
• I talked about the feeling of being "not in it," and how sometimes I work on recognizing when I've left the improvisation in my mind, or if what I'm dancing is just not working, or I'm not feeling it- I often try to leave the space.  It's a consciousness issue. 
• I was so glad that Julieann mentioned surprises.  She said something she's been working with is when she feels "not in it" is to give herself a movement surprise- something that sends her in a different path that she could never have predicted.  

Thoughts on endings.  I wanted to know how we think about endings.  Time limits make is easy to feel endings; if we are working with a time we can usually feel when endings come.  When there are many people dancing, ending are hard because everyone may be within different pages.  The group consciousness is something I'm going for, and honoring the softening, ebb/flow, and dovetailing when endings are coming is so valuable.   In the same conversation, something that we decided we were interesting in is dynamic endings.  Findings endings that happen on an up note, not a swirling down the drain.  

We did a bunch of "shorties," which are improvised dances that occur within 2 or 3 minutes.  We started out the shorty section with duets and trios because working in a quintet felt difficult to see everyone and maintain a feeling of connection so early in the process.  I think that by friday we will be well on our way.  

Dancing shorties felt so good- they were contained, intuitive and innovative. We had fun with the observers calling end, so as to keep the dynamicism up, and with simultaneous beginnings.  Finding the thread wasn't always easy or immediate, and with that, honesty in movement was at the foreground. 

In the last half hour, we made a string of the things that seemed to work, and deemed the 15 minute bit Chunky Sunday.  

I'm looking forward to tomorrow.