The dance currently referred to as Wind Song (no title as of yet) was inspired by a New Orleans sculptor named Lin Emery. She creates wind sculptures made of light metal that move in ways of isolation and union of the separate parts. (See her work here: http://www.arthurrogergallery.com/dynamic/artist_pressrelease.asp?ArtistID=22).
The idea of looking to sculpture was first inspired by my partner's sister, Sarah Goodchild-Robb, who is currently an artist in Portland, OR. Just over a pre-dinner conversation she discussed her ideas of sculpture as performance and vice-versa. Though I'm not sure that I understood exactly where she was trying to go with it, I began to look at the ideas through my personal dance lens: dance as sculpture, or sculpture as dance. This brought me to Lin Emery and to Wind Song.
The dance has 5 dancers, 4 women and 1 man. The original idea was to emulate the Lin Emery sculptures with human bodies, which I worked with in my brainstorming phase.
First brainstorm:
Nailing down some choreography:
Week 3 with Dancers:
Yesterday:
I hit a pretty rough spot before spring break. I had no idea how I was going to progress the piece and if I wanted it to have any sort of development. I wrestled with my demons and finally hit a point where I decided that I indeed wanted a "wind gust" to come through the sculptures/dancers but that with that gust the form would not hold and it would break down to become more human. The music at this point was a bit of a struggle too. It is repetitive and heavy. I feel that the choreography for the ending clearly reflects my experience in choreographing this piece as well as my experiences in life lately. I did not feel this way when I started the piece. Thus I experience again that I am always growing, ever becoming.
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