Thursday, 4 September

KEDJA 4 September 2008

There is much more to it than dance, music and structure…
Today is my second day… This means familiar faces and a more integrated understanding of the content of the workshop – This slightly growing overview gives me the possibility to notice other areas of the workshop – Expanding my view from being strictly on the technical part of the assignment to paying attention to how they work together, how their corporate. I was thinking of that when my mind crossed the fact that this hole symposium is established with the goal of bringing Nordic and Baltic dance professionals together in order to limit the boundaries and creates opportunities for dancers to work together across countries, becoming more mobile.
One can say that one of the fantastic things about dance is the universal language that the body is able to express and create – we do not have to understand each others languages, but we do have to understand each other – we still need the ability to communicate, especially in the working process. Although this could become an extra challenge for the groups, it seems to be a force – an extra bonus. Because of the various training and schooling background each of them brings along, the approach to the task offers both challenges and familiarity. It also gives both dancers and choreographers the pleasure of working with someone new – both in background, techniques, schooling and nationality- And It gives the opportunity to work in a different space, a new room every day. So even though some of them may be familiar with the task demanding to show and comprehend how dance and music are structures that fits perfectly together – complements each other, the circumstances around the task also gives input and makes the process happen.

This morning
I focus on specific groups – not much running around, staying at one place for a long time.
One of choreographers is leaving today – Just for a day, though – he is leaving at noon and coming back Friday Night. This means that the dancers must work for themselves and that the “outer eye” ad the loud speaking counts will be missing for a while. But the challenge is interesting for all of them. It means that it is very important for the dancers to get to now the exact counts in order to practice correctly.
After his departure, the dancers spend a whole lot of time figuring out the exact counts. It is a tricky piece by John Cage - but the accuracy is important for the dancers ability to work properly.
(Apr. counts: 882844410888887(climax) 8 - 878 (tempo rising) 4444 (speed rising through two last fourth) 6 (boom boom) 65 85 444444441)

The choreography itself is at a very high speed, demanding a high level of physicality of the dancers, The Movement language varies from open to closed forms – open upper chest – arms going up, head rising – in contrast to arms closing, body going downwards. As the music develops – the rhythm is getting faster, the use of space expanding, and the dynamics of the movement becoming sharper.
The energy is rising – the dancing vocabulary mixes with running patterns, the circles gets bigger – up and down – body’s attacking each other without having any direct physical contact – the dynamic and energy of the movements responds to each other. Turning, accelerating, stopping etc. The movements are sharp – cutting through the air in high speed. The flow is constant – not much stopping up – attacking – falling – up again – running – looking – continuing…

Dancers:
When I saw the dancers rehearse this morning the choreographer was still there - counting and directing them – Next step was therefore to embody both dance and counts – Off course one can say that the familiarity with the musical structure gives the dancers a safety net in which they can feel free and move around, but one of the dancers explained – (when I asked if she, as a dancer, normally worked in such details with the music from structural point of view) - that the most common way of working with music, is listening and responding to the cues – instead of counts…
And working with rhythm instead of time.
Off course it is always important for a dancer to get to now the music- get it under the skin, but working with time is not necessarily a big priority in modern dance, as it, for some, is more common to work with peaks, and rhythm. This accuracy of time and counts are important
The dancer ends by saying that the challenge in this choreography is to describe and underline the time and the timing - not the music.

Afternoon:
I am watching another group working. In this rehearsal the choreographer is working with one dancer at the time – going through all movements, guiding the dancer by clapping the hands and repeating the same finish words.
The choreographer is here really taking advantage of the structure in the music by making the dancers work in different speeds, dynamics, on different levels with a completely different movement vocabulary;
One is very much on the floor – jumping on the knees – turning on the back “jumping” on the back – crawling on the floor - the hole sequence is dominated by many small movements, all being kept on the floor level. The other dancer is working in a different dynamic– more movements done In “staccato” – again many small movements – very precise shoulder ticks – head ticks – all in order to fit the “invisible counts” of the music. By invisible counts I mean all the small things in the music that one cannot hear.
She works standing up – combining the use of long lines and shapes with the ticks. Mixing static with quickness and more stressed movements.

The music is actually very slow – but the choreographer uses the “underneath” structure of the music - a quick continuing123 – it comes clear to me that working with the structure not necessarily means to work with the rhythm.
I ask her if the counts and the rhythm is the same thing, she responds that for her the rhythm is something that is put into the dance – something the dance creates – So even though the music is listen to as very slow, she is working with the undertone of the music, something that is not clear to the ear, but lies underneath. When the movements underline the undertone, it supplies the music with an extra layer and dimension. The peaks in the music are fully filled out by the choreography. When the music is filled out in such details, it gives room for the dance to repeat sequences by changing the speed and counts – another count and thereby another dynamic and speed. The music itself is quite melancholic – but with the dynamic of the movements, this dark melancholic universe is giving new life, something extra - it creates musicality that are not present when hearing the piece without the dance to support it. I found that very nice and fulfilling.
As I have now been here for two days I can see how the choreographers uses the first two days morning classes to fill out the counts – to fully work with the structure of the music – and in this case, to go further into it.
Tomorrow they will be approaching the ending of the workshop and preparing for the showing on Saturday – The frames seems to be clear and set for everyone – now it needs to be filled out and worked further with.
A new interesting day is soon to come…