6/29
Max and I worked pretty determinately on developing our "little motif" but I left feeling more lost than found. However, the last little nugget we landed on, though badly drawn, has been ringing in my head all week. It's just a simple exploration of how my body can move into the space that Max is moving into - in order to get him back where he started. When I look at the rehearsal tape it does NOT look pretty or right, but I keep jumping back to it and thinking with some good old fashioned attention, it could be exactly what this piece is about. More than once I have thought that I should get another dancer into our rehearsals so I can step out and look at it - but I am avoiding that instinct right now. I am going to try to stick it out a bit longer. There is much work to be done. We need to do it 16 times and seeeeeeeeeee.... But also be open to discarding if the piece unfolds to reveal something clearer.
7/6
I watched a couple of hours of Lionel's rehearsal today. It was so exhilarating to be in the room and participate in this moment of his creative process. It is way more enjoyable to be a part of someone else's creative process than your own. You don't have the burden of responsibility - but you're just as eager and devoted to figuring out what kind of gems are there. One thing that really stood out to me is when improvisation came out of a set structure, Lionel's movement instincts naturally moved the physicality forward. It's something that we have talked about, but seeing it happen (quite a few times) drove it home. And it wasn't a mess of movement, it was usually one or two simple movement ideas that surfaced. For example, at the end of an improv he said he felt that he wanted to crawl on the floor and gather up the clothes. So, the next time they did the improv he did that and out of it came this flurry as he tossed the clothes into the air. The toss of clothes, that one thing, put the cap on the climax for that section.
Allowing improvisation time to create itself also seems key, as well as not allowing yourself to get attached to one thing. For example, someone joked after one particular un-dancey improvisation that the movement was like, "1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3" as if someone was counting out dance steps. I immediately latched onto this idea. It's quintessential "Arianne" in some ways. It's funny and it is commentary, or meta-text, about the dance process - about dance itself. We were all talking about different things that could go on there, and I kept bringing it back to that text but Lionel's brain went outward from there and he never landed back at the starting point. The idea of the text there, connected him to the microphone, and to sound, and back to physicality. I was still relentlessly spinning my wheels about "1,2,1,2,1,2,3" and he had moved 4 steps beyond.
It's interesting to note where my brain goes - and where Lionel's goes. I see that he is open, broad, and accepting to allowing the piece to tell him where to go. I also see that he has similar insecurities, questions as I do. And he gets stumped. I like that. It's not easy.
I also just want to add that I so appreciated being welcomed into Lionel's practice. Within 5 minutes of begin there, Lionel asked me, "So what does it look like from the outside?" I felt I was a part of his rehearsal for the next 2 hours - not just an observer. I felt like I had something to give, and it was being accepted. As I drove home, I realized that so much of this Mentor/Mentee journey so far has been about coming out of hiding in some ways. This relationship has validated my path.
The work is worth it.