Kelli Edwards, 09 CPF, 3rd and final week

The showing on Sunday was extremely helpful. The piece has changed so much since then (it's now Friday) that I can't remember what state it was in when we showed it. I think we still had three separate sections and didn't know how they could be woven together. And we still had music. There is no music now. Once I realized that the dancers could maintain the rhythm in the accumulation section without an outside sound aid, it seemed like adding music on top of what we had would be imposing a meaning that wasn't there. And as Richard pointed out, performing the piece in silence would force the dancers to take full responsibility for the movement and the sound of the piece. Instead of following something, they would be in charge of the whole thing. The process of weaving the material came pretty quickly after the comments on Sunday. It was mostly a question of what the movement through line was and what were the human moments that could be explored. Along those lines, during a conversation with Marisa, one of my dancers, I realized that the dancers for the most part didn't know how to relate to the movement in a meaningful way. So we spent an entire rehearsal exploring the relationships of the dancers by having them talk while they danced. It was a great rehearsal, with everyone laughing and connecting to each other and to the movement. Right now I am playing with keeping some of the talking. I like the way the talking makes them move and I like it as an addition to the sounds that they are making when they dance. In the last section, the trees, I am having them whisper and the effect is very satisfying and interesting. I think I want to keep talking in other certain sections but I don't really want the audience to clearly hear what the dancers are saying so we need to play with volume and what they are saying. The piece has taken on a life of it's own which is very exciting and the dancers are beginning to understand the entirety of their part in it.