electromagnetic pulse

Find Me in Here. Chelsea on "Group Dance 1."

When Esther asked us to think about our role in groups, I realized that I am always the loud, outspoken, or “noticed” person within any group. It is not a conscious, attention-seeking kind of being noticed, I am just naturally not afraid to speak up or put my ideas on the table. I can be frank, have big ideas, some small ones, move big, take up space but never mean to exclude anyone or overshadow them. So that is the way I made my phrase, a big, moving, limb-filled phrase that ended with a theme of stepping on other peoples toes, ideas or creative input.

Learning the individual phrases, I started to understand the new people in my creative circle and how differently we move. In general, we are all trained dancers and quickly picked up the movement from one another but the way it felt in my body was so different. I think it was, Hiaso-Wei’s (sorry) phrase that gave me the most trouble. Her long sweeping arm motions with arching backs were so beautiful on her body. The intention was in her and it looked like the movement made sense. In my body, the movement made me feel like an old, ungrounded lady just trying to make it through the phrase. Over time, I know that I will adopt meaning and intention in others’ movement but for the moment, I was trying to remember the phrases knowing we would put them together at the end of rehearsal.

Also, this disconnect from the movement might be a reflection of Esther’s creative disconnect with the phrases she is shaping/choreographing. If we can establish the “group” first, we might have more strength as individuals, which was something I felt we started to get to at the end of the last rehearsal learning Anna’s phrase. There was a nice sense of the group when we repeated it earlier today.

Labels: FMiH

posted by e m p @ 12:29 AM