Rehearsal notes from March 2, 7

I've been working with Eve on movement for the version of the circle piece that we'll perform in transmodern. Here are some notes from rehearsals:

March 2
Finally, a bit of direction in movement terms. Before rehearsal started I played enjoyable music and danced in a carefree and energetic manner. When Eve arrived we started talking about a dance show that we had seen. The work in the show had been promoted as 'experimental' but I couldn't see anything experimental within it. It was a standard approach to choreography by stringing steps together and drew on a range of pop influences. The level of execution was mediocre at best, perhaps that was what made it experimental? Anyway, we talked about how the young women seemed to be in a conflicted stage of understanding their bodies - drawn to performing as sex objects but also not comfortable with this.
After this conversation it felt strange to ask Eve to dance in a 'pop' way to the music as I had been doing before she arrived. As she put it, she started to feel it was too 'pretty'. But I was interested in this uncomfortable place and started to play around with deconstructing the movement. There was definitely something there - stopping in awkward places, changing rhythm and becoming obsessive with a body part.
Eve said Bill T. Jones said all dance begins with an act of seduction. I'd like to question this. I also thought about telling stories conversationally in the moments when we are not dancing (I'm imagining we'll be taking turns dancing in the circle). Or perhaps it is better to ask questions than tell stories?

March 7
We started with a writing exercise and created two stories each. Mine were about fantasizing about my talent being recognized and about learning how to swing my hips. Eve's were about being watched in Damascus and being asked out after a master class.
It felt right telling each other these stories and laughing and then going back to dancing in slightly seductive ways interrupted by other associations. The stories seem to be coming more easily than the movement at this point but at least there is a clear direction. We focused some on using breath and awareness as a way to interrupt the music-driven movement.
I think we need three sound environments: 1. private music tracks for us to dance to using ipods. 2. conversational space to tell stories to small groups of the audience 3. headphones that are somehow mixing both of those together.

Peggy Phelan says:

"If the performance cannot be influenced by the interaction between the performer and the viewer, then it evades the burden and opportunity of live art. The potential to be transformed by the other allows the aesthetic to embrace the ethical.”

This quote keeps tugging at me like a little sister who wants me to stand up for her against the bullies that I'm really afraid of too.

Some places I have shot video in Baltimore

Westport Asphalt plant
Pigtown empty parking lot
Westport railroad tracks
Jones Falls river near 1801 Falls road
Cemeteries (Greenmount, Mt. Olivet, Loudon Park, New Cathedral)

These are very empty places in the middle of the city

A beginning

One of the many things I'm interested in is using Baltimore as a source for material. Walking has always been a part of my process so I'm planning on taking a lot of walks in Baltimore.

I started at an ending place, Greenmount Cemetery.

From the summit point, the view is of a slope of neatly tended and historically rich graves but also of the neighborhood on the next hill. You can see the sky through the windows of vacant houses. When sitting on one gravestone the sight lines were such that cars driving on the next hill over seem to be driving right on top of the cemetery wall.

There was a gravestone that said: Henry Hooper April 15 1845 - November 25 1910. He went about doing good.


That's nice. I try to go about doing good too.

Since I had started with one cemetery, I decided to visit the only other Baltimore cemetery I had visited before: New Cathedral Cemetery. I checked google maps for directions and headed towards Frederick Ave. At the first cemetery I pulled in but once I was inside I realized that nothing was familiar. There were crows everywhere and a view of the Key bridge, Baltimore Port and the incineration tower. It seemed barely taken care of and I shot some video of myself walking over a mound of brush and stone.

I continued up the road and briefly entered Loudon Park National Cemetery. A plaque with a long quotation from the Gettysburg Address stood at the entrance.

I realized I had taken a wrong turn and found that Frederick Ave. took a sneaky swing north that I had missed. I almost didn't bother continuing since I had already visited three cemeteries and was unsure of the point of going to new cathedral. But I had more time so meandered through a quiet neighborhood until I came to the cemetery and went into the office. The woman at the desk adopted a face of stricken mourning when she spoke to me. I asked for the Flanigan plot. She was able to direct me from memory to the other end of the cemetery, near Edmondson Avenue. I followed the orange path on her photocopied map and found the monument and 16 graves. I shot some video of the graves and tried to figure out who everyone was.