Choreography
I spent 3 hours making a detailed spreadsheet on Tues. (Monday?) that laid out the progression of the music by counts of eight and then matched the progression of the story to each section and made note of all entrances, exits, and effects. It was a bit tedious, but very helpful and I felt good about having finally done something. I estimated that that was 1/3 of the work needed to create the dance.
Yesterday, I found that I wasn't in a very dancey mood, so I wore clothes that made me feel dancey, which actually helped quite a bit. But I still didn't really come up with anything, so I decided to start reading one of the choreography books that I bought for my independent study instead. I really liked it and it did a good job of making sense, even though it was clearly written for people who have actually spent most of their life being trained in technical dance.
When I went to bed at 11:30, I decided to finish the chapter and go to sleep by 12. However, I realized when I'd finished the chapter that part of the dance had formed in my head, so I'd better write it down and make sure that it hadn't all disappeared in the morning. Of course, once I'd gotten up and started to try things and write things down, one thing led to another and I ended up creating all four of the themes I had wanted to include. It was 2AM and I was wide awake at that point, but it was great to have completed another chunk of the process when I had thought the day had proven unproductive.
I guesstimate that this was another third of the work, which would put me two thirds of the way done after 5 hours of total work. It's interesting that I can be so far along when I haven't actually started to create the dance itself yet, so to speak. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the final part of the process proved to be as smooth as the others were?
The themes -
I realize that the story of Midsummer is pretty complex and crazy, so I wanted to have a way for the audience to be able to quickly recognize the current relationship between people. I realized that almost all interactions in the show (my cut version of it, at least) boil down to a variation on the following four impassioned messages:
I LOVE YOU!
I HATE YOU!
WE LOVE EACH OTHER!
WE HATE EACH OTHER!
By having a recognizable, repeatable sequence of moves for each of these four emotions, I'm hoping that the audience will be able to follow the changes in loyalty a bit more easily. My only concern is that I can't let it get boring, since these themes occur many times.
I'm kind of hoping that boring is the least of my concerns considering how incredibly fast this dance is. This will be very demanding of my dancers and rehearsals will definitely be a work-out. Hopefully, we'll all get to increase our stamina. I'm starting to think that the only way this dance will be smooth is if everyone can do it in their sleep.
This is gonna be an Adventure and I really can't wait to watch the process unfold further!
Yesterday, I found that I wasn't in a very dancey mood, so I wore clothes that made me feel dancey, which actually helped quite a bit. But I still didn't really come up with anything, so I decided to start reading one of the choreography books that I bought for my independent study instead. I really liked it and it did a good job of making sense, even though it was clearly written for people who have actually spent most of their life being trained in technical dance.
When I went to bed at 11:30, I decided to finish the chapter and go to sleep by 12. However, I realized when I'd finished the chapter that part of the dance had formed in my head, so I'd better write it down and make sure that it hadn't all disappeared in the morning. Of course, once I'd gotten up and started to try things and write things down, one thing led to another and I ended up creating all four of the themes I had wanted to include. It was 2AM and I was wide awake at that point, but it was great to have completed another chunk of the process when I had thought the day had proven unproductive.
I guesstimate that this was another third of the work, which would put me two thirds of the way done after 5 hours of total work. It's interesting that I can be so far along when I haven't actually started to create the dance itself yet, so to speak. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the final part of the process proved to be as smooth as the others were?
The themes -
I realize that the story of Midsummer is pretty complex and crazy, so I wanted to have a way for the audience to be able to quickly recognize the current relationship between people. I realized that almost all interactions in the show (my cut version of it, at least) boil down to a variation on the following four impassioned messages:
I LOVE YOU!
I HATE YOU!
WE LOVE EACH OTHER!
WE HATE EACH OTHER!
By having a recognizable, repeatable sequence of moves for each of these four emotions, I'm hoping that the audience will be able to follow the changes in loyalty a bit more easily. My only concern is that I can't let it get boring, since these themes occur many times.
I'm kind of hoping that boring is the least of my concerns considering how incredibly fast this dance is. This will be very demanding of my dancers and rehearsals will definitely be a work-out. Hopefully, we'll all get to increase our stamina. I'm starting to think that the only way this dance will be smooth is if everyone can do it in their sleep.
This is gonna be an Adventure and I really can't wait to watch the process unfold further!