present: Marc, Jeff B., Barbara, Dale
Our first meeting since April, and in the Newnan School of Dance’s new studios!
We have been asked to consider working with NSOD dancers to put together a performance for the next downtown Art Walk. We talked about material we could possibly put together in the five weeks before September 18. This included some Neo-Futurist pieces, a revival of “Milky Way” and/or “Two Sunflowers,” and two of our bear works, “Bear & Rabbit” and “Old Man Wind.”
At the moment, we’re focusing on developing “Old Man Wind.” We took five minutes to read over the text again and propose ways to integrate dancers into the work.
Some ideas:
- cluster/machine, from which characters detach; music/sound created by the dancers
- indication of the “four corners” in some way
- use of turtle shell rattles, gourds, drums to create sound
- use of specific colors
- progression from noise and color to the stasis of the “young men” in the water and on to their rebirth
- objects spoken of but embodied only by dancers in some way
- the Old Man Wind embodied by a performer, but other characters indicated by movement
- the use of fabric, poles, lights (LED flashlights?)
We will probably need to meet more than once a week in order to get this pulled together.
In addition to this performance piece, we are also considering an evening of pieces to be performed this fall down at NCTC in the black box: Jeff’s version of Chekhov’s “The Bear”; Turff directing Ionesco’s “The Lesson”; and a collection of Neo-Futurist works.
NEXT: AUG 19, 6:30, NSOD
- TEXTS: Old Man Wind (doc)
- PATHS: Vocal Sequence; Contact Improv; Story Theatre; other
- HOMEWORK: be prepared to work the first 30 minutes on nothing but sound: vocalizations, body sounds, rattles, drums, etc.
I vote we approve the minutes.
It occurs to me that I have a social engagement next Wednesday. I won’t be there. Someone else take notes.
It occurs to me that we may be presenting the first few minutes of a work in progress. And I think that’s okay. The dancers are also going to be doing a Paul Taylor piece, so we don’t have to worry about it being a skimpy offering. We’ll get as far as we get. If this goes well, we may actually be able to replace the Coriolanus photos on our home page. Nothing wrong with them, of course.