Tuesday, July 24, 2012

One Minute Movement Project Update


One minute of choreography a day. Four days a week for the month of July 2012.

This project is keeping me on my toes & keeping me creative 4 days a week even if I don't fully like that minute worth of choreography that is created each time.

So… posting stuff online in a timely manner hasn’t really happened.  Here is a little bit about the multiple projects & performances I have been doing in addition to this personal 1Minute Movement challenge:   
I was lucky enough to be a yellow galaxy girl character in a film by Alicia Berger that is being projected in the Seattle Center fountain August 3 & 10 at 9:30pm.  More: https://www.facebook.com/events/361562243913856
Another day I got to be a ninja doing acrobatics all around the city, including the new Ferris wheel, while promoting a new line of cosmetics called Emotional Brilliance by the store Lush.  On the weekends I had fun (& bruises, floor burns, & sore muscles) dancing for DASS Dance in their show, “Untitled, 1982.”  More: dassdance.org

Rehearsals for the Seattle Opera’s production of Turandot directed & choreographed by Renaud Doucet are also finishing up soon & the show opens at McCaw Hall August 4th.  It is truly an amazing production & I’m honored to be dancing in it & working with such great people at Seattle Opera. More: seattleopera.org

In addition to all that I am still teaching circus classes & flying trapeze at SANCA.  They have this great new pay-per-flight thing on Fridays from 6pm to 9pm that is affordable enough to get a taste of flying without emptying your pockets that I highly recommend to everyone (especially if you’ve never flown before!)  Flying trapeze is so fun!!!


Ok, here we go…

Here’s what I’ve done for the 1MM challenge:
Week 1 created a partner study with Terry Crane, two days I created different 1 minute sequences for the “Wind Blown” concept, & began developing “Project Benjamin,” a dance piece created with my friend Ben’s strengths & movement character in mind.

Week 2, I continued developing “Project Benjamin” for one day, setting movement to “Bird Song” by Florence & the Machine.  The next day I began teaching the piece to Ben for my hour of 1MM working time.  Day 3, I attempted to choreograph to a song called “Romantic Acrobat” by Danni Rosner, yet I know the lyrics so well that I found myself “Micky Mouse-ing” the words & being way too literal for my taste.  I finished that hour of work feeling like the 1 minute I choreographed was a failure.  I want to revisit that song & choreography, but find a way to move away from too literal an interpretation of the lyrics.  The fourth 1MM of the week came together literally at the last hour.  I was not feeling creative as I was super tired & sore from the DASS Dance performances & being an acrobatic ninja earlier in the day on Sunday. Finally, at 11pm before going to bed, I went outside to sit on the picnic table in my back yard & cool off.  I started stringing together a sequence of movements using the picnic table as my dance space & an object to interact with.  By 11:30pm I had a minute worth of choreography that I liked way better than the “Romantic Acrobat” sequence.  I tried to film the sequence, but it was too dark—which brings me to week 3.

Week 3 started off with choosing a costume look to go with my back yard picnic table sequence & filming my 1 minute movement multiple times & from multiple angles.  For working purposes this 1MM is called “Picnic Table.”  Day 2, I used my hour of creative work time starting the process of video editing the clips together into a sequence that uses the most appealing views & dynamic timing.  Unfortunately, I’m not as fast at video editing yet as I am with choreography.  I had to start by converting the MP4 files into something like Apple Pro Res 422 to get it into a format that works with my final cut pro editing software…  This short dance film is still a work in progress, but I hope to spend time on it again & maybe finish it in week 4.  Day 3, I created a fun little tango, salsa, & flamenco inspired sequence in the living room because Ben was listening to Tango music before an instructor came over to give him a tango lesson.  I have always admired Tango, but never tried actually it.  Later in the week, I was lucky enough to be there during Ben’s second lesson & the instructor let me join in.  Tango is awesome, & it’s so fun to dance in those pretty ballroom shoes.  Day 4’s creativeness wound up being working on the choreography for the SANCA staff show, “Between Raindrops: A Seattle Love Story.”  I am creating the opening & closing numbers for the show, which will premier August 24th & run for two weekends.  I get three rehearsals with the cast (who are mostly all used to being solo circus performers, yipes!) to make two ensemble pieces.  The opening act is mostly finished & uses lots of umbrellas & acrobatic balancing.  I love how the energy builds in this piece & it will be even better when all 14 cast members are on stage!  For the closing act I created a cute little partner sequence that will appear somewhere in the act.  I’m still brainstorming ideas for the sequencing &the look/feel of the rest of the closing act.  I am hoping to include things like juggling/passing, acro/hand to hand, diablo, & tumbling, in addition to the dance movement…   Only got one rehearsal left.  Wish me luck!

Here’s the little sneak peek into the unpolished choreography for the closing act as it was filmed for missing cast members:


Kiss Kiss!

Rachel

Sunday, July 22, 2012

One minute of choreography a day.  Four days a week for the month of July 2012.


Monday, July 9, 2012

"Wind Blown"

One minute of choreography a day.  Four days a week for the month of July 2012.

The first video is up!

The One Minute Movement


One hour a day.  One minute of choreography a day.  Four days a week for the month of July 2012.

You know how writers challenge themselves to write one page a day... 

Four days out of the week I will choreograph a minute's worth of movement for each day.  Some days I will have a specific assignment or goal in mind, & other days I will choreograph whatever movement comes to the surface.  At the end of the week I will share little snippets of the process &/or some of the final one minute movements.

I would love to hear from you, so feel free to leave comments or suggestions.  After watching the videos, which one minute movement would you like to see expanded or developed?

At the end of the month come see my favorite one minute movements performed live at an informal studio showing.


Week 1 done!

This week I worked the most on a creation called “Wind Blown,” which had its share of success & failure.  Also did the beginnings of a partner study with Terry Crane, & created a phrase called “Project Benjamin” which I am creating specifically to be performed by my friend Benjamin Weston at a park in Georgetown (Seattle).

Here’s the original “Wind Blown” page in my notebook that sparked creation:



















Here’s the page for the partner study with Terry Crane:



















I’m really excited about this one because I love partnering & the automatic opportunity to tell more of a story because we have two people relating to each other on stage.  It needs more development & it seems to take longer to create longer sequences in the beginning because of the collaborative nature of partner work.

For “Project Benjamin” I just went out on the sidewalk one day & thought about how I’ve seen my friend Ben dancing down the street with his headphones on.  Ben sent me two pieces of music & I’m going to try to use one of them, expand the dance material, & teach it to him later this week.

Come back soon to see videos of the One Minute Movements!  
They are being uploaded to youtube later today.