So, it's been a long time since our last post! We have been working hard and struggling to get things finished. We have both been frustrated with our inability to get a consistent flow going, and the work we have been producing seems to reflect that.
While this may be a good thing - we are working with ideas of miscommunication and confusion - it's been hard to figure out where to go with things each rehearsal. For this newest section, we have been playing with sensuality and narcissism. How do we get someone to pay attention to us? How do we flirt with others? How do we show off our bodies; tell someone, "Look at me!" These are some ideas we have been playing with.
Ideally, over the course of the evening we are trying to create, we want to come back to this idea of sexual communication. How do men and women talk to each other? What inherent confusion presents itself when a man tries to talk to a woman - do we speak the same language or are women from Venus and men from Mars?
The section we have been working on for the past week seems to be a good start...
Below is a quick video.
If you'd like to see more, visit FaceBook. It's much easier to post video there.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Eileen says...
This evening in the RawMoves tradition we observed our artistic directors skillfully create a phrase both challenging and detailed right before our eyes. Work is created out of thin air...as we the dancers watch and wait until it's our turn to try it on. We never quite look like they do...well not immediately, but that's what rehearsals are for. Let the journey and process of creating a new show begin. Pop, lock, drop!
Saturday, May 8, 2010
We Love Facebook!
If you haven't already, be sure to become a fan of RawMoves of FaceBook. Here is a link to another video from today's rehearsal. This is the whole phrase and our dancers were very patient with us while learning it!
RawMoves Starts a New Project!
'The Story of Eight' is over and we are moving on to our next project! While ideas are still rumbling around in our heads, we have some amazing dancers who are ready and excited to work!
We plan on blogging about the process and work we are doing. While our last attempts at maintaining a blog were not totally successful, we now know what it takes and are going to make a HUGE effort to post things regularly! The tech aspect of blogging is coming together nicely so we shouldn't be able to procrastinate like we did with 'The Story of Eight.' We can post while at rehearsal and keep things updated regularly!
As for the new project, the tentative title is 'Babble.' Referencing the Tower of Bable, we are interested in words, meaning, context, miscommunication, confusion, gibberish, etc. To start off, we played some surrealist word games to generate words and phrases. Without thinking or planning, we each generated a word in a sentence or an answer to a question we didn't know was being asked. We will use some of these phrases to generate movement and see where it takes us. Here are a few things we've come up with:
- A curly lip hastily holds the tomb.
- The panther drinks the window.
- A dreamy dream softly dips into the wardrobe.
- Where are my underpants? They are waiting for you, if you just keep walking without looking too hard.
- What is the difference between you and me? It's a matter of perspective.
- What do red cars do? Take a left, follow the bus, then stop under the jacaranda tree.
- What is falling? It's a different path, longer, rockier, but the destination is the same.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Dress Up
It has been months since we have posted anything! Things have been so busy and only seem to get worse. We have still, however, been working very hard and can now see the end of the process. Most of the sections are done and we are just struggling to keep them reviewed and in the dancers bodies. Our goal is to have the last two group sections completed by the end of October. That will give us a couple of Thursdays in November to tie up loose ends and Saturdays we will work to put the whole dance together with transitions. It’s very exciting!
Working each Thursday and Saturday has been rewarding, wonderful, and totally exhausting. From all of our other jobs, RawMoves meets up to tire ourselves out even more. We push through and try to make as much progress as possible each rehearsal. Our dancers have been beyond tired, emotionally exhausted, and injured. It's often hard for us to push forward when these wonderful people are donating their time. It would be wonderful to give everyone the night off and take care of ourselves; however, we need to finish!
For our past shows, we have never given ourselves time to review, rework, and re-evaluate. Usually, we are finishing choreography the week before the show. If we didn’t have to do that this time around, that would make us SO happy!
Who knows, maybe this will be the last project where our dancers will have to donate all their time. We are so excited to announce that we have FINALLY been approved by the IRS as a non-profit organization. This means we can now apply for grant money and receive donations from private sponsors and foundations. It also means a lot more work for us, but we are very happy and excited.
Many new sections have been started and found their way to completion. One of our favorite sections started out with five women and three sport coats. The music is up beat and has some great rhythms, which thanks to Tosha, led to some great choreography. As is always the case, one rehearsal later our quintet became a quartet and a new dancer was added. Things at RawMoves are constantly changing. No matter how hard we try, our plans never seem to last more that 24 hours. You'd think we'd figure it out and stop planning so much, but we don't. And we keep getting frustrated by it all. People probably don't understand how much of our process is dictated by unplanned events. We can start of with a very clear idea of what we want but, soon enough, that idea is gone because of conflicts, problems, or unforeseen scheduling issues.
After working like this for years, we have learned to be very easy going and to roll with the punches. In fact, our second or third plans often end up stronger than what we started with. That certainly seemed to be the case with the new quartet. With the changes in cast and structure, we were able to find something that is creatively much more interesting than what we produced during our first rehearsal. From all the obstacles and diversions we deal with, our creative process seems benefit and has become much more fluid, open, and malleable.
We have posted two new videos on YouTube - go and take a look! Here are the links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lmy_BfakeA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udLXGTXGurw
Working each Thursday and Saturday has been rewarding, wonderful, and totally exhausting. From all of our other jobs, RawMoves meets up to tire ourselves out even more. We push through and try to make as much progress as possible each rehearsal. Our dancers have been beyond tired, emotionally exhausted, and injured. It's often hard for us to push forward when these wonderful people are donating their time. It would be wonderful to give everyone the night off and take care of ourselves; however, we need to finish!
For our past shows, we have never given ourselves time to review, rework, and re-evaluate. Usually, we are finishing choreography the week before the show. If we didn’t have to do that this time around, that would make us SO happy!
Who knows, maybe this will be the last project where our dancers will have to donate all their time. We are so excited to announce that we have FINALLY been approved by the IRS as a non-profit organization. This means we can now apply for grant money and receive donations from private sponsors and foundations. It also means a lot more work for us, but we are very happy and excited.
Many new sections have been started and found their way to completion. One of our favorite sections started out with five women and three sport coats. The music is up beat and has some great rhythms, which thanks to Tosha, led to some great choreography. As is always the case, one rehearsal later our quintet became a quartet and a new dancer was added. Things at RawMoves are constantly changing. No matter how hard we try, our plans never seem to last more that 24 hours. You'd think we'd figure it out and stop planning so much, but we don't. And we keep getting frustrated by it all. People probably don't understand how much of our process is dictated by unplanned events. We can start of with a very clear idea of what we want but, soon enough, that idea is gone because of conflicts, problems, or unforeseen scheduling issues.
After working like this for years, we have learned to be very easy going and to roll with the punches. In fact, our second or third plans often end up stronger than what we started with. That certainly seemed to be the case with the new quartet. With the changes in cast and structure, we were able to find something that is creatively much more interesting than what we produced during our first rehearsal. From all the obstacles and diversions we deal with, our creative process seems benefit and has become much more fluid, open, and malleable.
We have posted two new videos on YouTube - go and take a look! Here are the links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lmy_BfakeA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udLXGTXGurw
Sunday, August 2, 2009
We finished another section!
Our most recent work has been with seven of our eight dancers. Using the wonderful ladder that Josh so nicely built for us, we set out to create a sweeping dance using the ladder in many different ways. This process was more complex than we thought it would be; for the dancers as well as us. We were able to use the ladder as an architectural element - bisecting groups of dancers and creating lines in space that framed the choreography. All in all, we are VERY happy about this section!Here is a clip of a duet with Nathan and Karin. To watch the whole section, go to YouTube. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9CxHWyOiKw
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
