FREEFALL NYC

I tend to get pretty wound up about two weeks from opening. The material that we have so carefully gathered no longer makes sense to me. I forget what it was that made me really want to do the piece in the first place. Questions mount, solutions are harder to grasp, and all I see are shortcomings.

This time around, its been particularly bad. Even affected my sleep, which is pretty rare. Sleep is something I can usually rely on. Not this past week.

But its been a good week in rehearsals. We’ve been solving problem spots, addressing questions, reworking and tightening the material to reflect our deeper connections to the piece. And at the end of rehearsal today, we FINALLY have a clear, clear picture of how this work needs to wrap up. Its been particularly elusive this time around, and we have tried very hard to not stick an ending on this. The sections have come flying in from all directions, and we have been trusting that the threads that brought these sections forward were connecting to one another, and now we think we have a vision of what it leads to.

It came unexpectedly, after we had run all the material we have so far for our composer Ljova. We listened together to a song that had been suggested as an ending, and as we took it in, and discussed it, an ending that was markedly different in tone emerged. It feels more complicated in feeling, less describable in words, softer in energy and much more distilled as an image, than previous plans have felt. It feels complete, and it feels like an unexpected realization of impulses that have given rise to the emotional core of the work in rehearsals.

We discovered something today…its what this is all about, but it doesn’t always happen. It has taken a year of physical work to come to this distillation of the finished work. I’m simply ecstatic it didn’t take us a year and two weeks.

Here’s to everyone out there looking to figure something out. My hope for you is that the answer comes in time for you to implement it. Thanks.

Our June 15th performance of Lie, Lay, Laid will be held at 2:00 pm, not the previously advertised 8 pm.  This can be explained in part by the number of bar specials available on Sunday Evenings,  This gets us out sooner.

Hope to see ya’ there.

Click to enlarge…hope we see ya’

Noticed a lack of dancing on the blog so far. So here is some floorwork from rehearsal awhile back. We’ve been trying to choreograph with an elevated audience in mind, so to shoot the video, I’m sitting on the top of a ladder to mimic the point of view. Feel free to comment. Thanks.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hnAZhGHNHs]

A very full trip to Chicago, where we performed at the Chicago Moving Company space, a beautiful performing space in the Hamlin Park Community Building.

We included a number of sequences from material we have developed from our upcoming show, and used four cuts from Ljova’s marvelous compositions for the show. Reception was quite wonderful, folks laughed more than we expected, and the big ideas we had been hoping to get across were received loud and clear.

In the process of reworking a sequence where the four of us are turning in a line, we discovered some physical connections to our individual spaces as we turn that we will certainly use to revise the quartet version of the phrase. And we discovered some possibilities for an opening sequence for the four of us and some apples. We learned a great deal of useful information, and gained some confidence about the piece and its ability to speak to an audience.

Oh, and we went to Wrigley.  Cubs won 7-4.  Go Cubs.

So friends from the Field dropped by on Wednesday, same day as the Creepy video. Aeric had left for another shoot, so I shot with my digital point and shoot. Aeric need not worry, but I do like the shots. Hope you enjoy them.

Uta is in California performing with Mark Morris, Carlton is performing in Detroit, so Lynn Marie and I are off to Chicago. We are performing in a Field Trips showcase on Friday night, trying out some of our lie, lay,laid material in a duet remix. It should be fun, we should learn something about the work, and we get to visit one of favorite places. Special thanks must go out to Dave, Jennifer, Donald, Harold, Lynn, Jeff,Daedalus, Liz, Judith, and Chicago Moving Company.

We’ll be able to report back about the work’s reception, and what we learned, when we get back.

Lynn Marie was teaching in New Jersey, so Aeric and I tried running the photo booth by ourselves yesterday, and made a discovery. Two guys asking people to pose on a mattress on a New York City sidewalk are a little creepy. After 20 minutes of failure, Aeric caught the situation on film. Here it is.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjPUXCoK_tA]

We began taking photographs today outside our studio in Lower Manhattan. Nine brave folks (all complete strangers) took the plunge in just about 45 minutes. We’ll have some of Aeric’s photos up soon on a separate page for you to check out. Come join us!!! It is as fun as it looks.  We’re there  Tuesday, Wednesday,Thursday

12:30-1:30 @ 65 West Broadway!!

We worked with almost our full cast of mattresses on Sunday. Played with the physics of unstable surfaces supporting weight, and learned alot. No cracked skulls, but a few bruised feet. The attached photo documents one way the mattresses crumbled, and I really liked their distribution.  So I snapped. Enjoy.