Internet Magic

The performance at Dumbo this coming weekend marks the third time I’ve created a dance with far away dancers. Thanks to that crazy thing we call You Tube, I’ve managed to work with dancers in Kentucky while I was in New York, Kentucky while I was in Minnesota, and now New York while I keep my booty stationed in Minnesota. It’s fantastic. I can have my work performed all over the country for the price of a video camera and the occasional priority mailed costume. I can also have my choice of dancers as long as they reside in the same place as each other. There are a few drawbacks, however.

I really enjoy feeding off my dancers during a rehearsal. I love to say, “I’m thinking of some sort of swirly movement in which you hold her like a koala zombie,” and seeing what I get in return. I can, of course, still do this but I may not get my answer for four days and it may not be what I wanted. Start again. “What if you make it less corpse like and more as if you were trapped in a jello mold?” Eh. Not quite. It works like this: I video myself or dancers located where I am and sometimes follow that by talking into the camera to describe certain parts. Then, I upload it to youtube.com and mark it private so the whole world can’t see my embryonic dance or me looking sweaty and gross as I blabber into the camera. The far away dancers watch it, learn it, video tape themselves doing it and repeat the upload process. I watch, take notes on changes I’d like made, send the notes back to the dancers, and get to work on the next segment of dance. It seems to take ages for one cycle.

I find myself forced to work off only my body if I have a deadline or a rehearsal space budget, and I often have both. This creates works that are made for a body like mine blended with the body of the dancer I’m imagining. So far, this has turned out great, if frustrating. It’s terrible to try and see tiny gestures or facial movements on video. I find myself dancing and describing what I’m doing at the same time, which generally works. The process gets long with all the video back and forth. It also requires a certain amount of trust. Trust in the dancer(s) to work hard without my immediate guidance. The dancers have to trust me to be working in times of less video contact and to properly explain how I want the work done. Common training and common dance language are helpful.

This weekend Kathleen Kelley and Anne Lazovik will be performing “So…come here often?” which is a work I created for two dancers in Minnesota, Erin Drummond and Kristin Howe. I really enjoy the piece. It’s silly with secret depth. Right. That’s pretty vague. But, to me there is meaning beneath the silliness. You’ll have to go see them at The Flea on October 6th for more about that. For the most part, Kathleen and Anne are simply learning the movements, etc. from Erin and Kristin on video. Of course, it won’t look the same. They aren’t bouncing off of me in person and currently have no idea what the piece is about (to me). I think that’s great. They’ll have a different story to perform than the original dancers. Now that they know the piece, I’ll be filling them in with my ideas in case anyone asks and I’m not there to answer. Another interesting point to me is that Kathleen and Anne chose to “be” the opposite person than I assumed they would. Kathleen and Erin are both taller, longer, more fluid dancers and even have black curly hair and porcelain skin. Anne and Kristin are power houses. They are more compact and muscle bound than their counter parts. They also both have blonde hair. Hair, of course, has nothing to do with anything, just a side note. I didn’t specify which part would belong to which dancer, but I assumed they’d see what I saw and go in that direction. It really surprised me to see their first video to me and see that Anne will be playing Erin and Kathleen will be playing Kristin. I can’t wait to see the video from these performances. It’s going to be a whole new dance and I just love that.

Merde, Kathleen and Anne! I can’t wait to hear how it went!