SWW Video Archive Phase 2 May 15
Take nothing personally
1. Bashaw Trk 2, Experiments in Light and Form
As a warmup try to push movement, work large and small, work a variety of strength of accents
Impression – butterfly chrysalis ***** opening idea is the best one, go back and try it again
And think on accelerated musical passages do not travel ****
SWW Video Archive May 26 Phase 2 Rehearsal #10
Looking for a new clearer approach
1. priority is still in the defined SWW values, and in new discovery
2. work with music – but only the expressive evocative best – Bell / Saariaho / Somers / Westerkamp / Lee / Tanaka / Schafer.
3. When working with music use the same piece twice, each interpretation based in a different combination of themes and counterpoint quality choices
4. Consider using Post It notes in the rehearsal space to prompt the inclusion of themes, strategies etc.
1. Saariaho, Violin Solo 6’58
Stay in the values
Impression – ended too soon, stayed in what I chose / but was there new stuff?
SWW Video Archive Phase 5 – October 26, 2020
After review of previous attempts with the violin nocturne I am going to try to work it in sections, choosing and pushing vocabulary to compliment the idea and the music. Pulling then from observation notes of October 23, and other ideas around chrysalis.
0 – 1’29
Opening – try tighter, smaller, lower but not on floor – I want to be able to show asymmetrical form, some twisting, turned in on myself, focus internal, awareness of periphery, and to be able to grow from there to the first musical accent 1’32 perhaps…..because even while I start low I still sink more, …and then I have inevitably to return…so what about pulsing, slowly, in the low?
Opening – when hand come to upper body, when chest comes up, draw pelvis down so that I stay low
Way to come out of opening, so retire one arm reaches above head, pulsing in standing leg, pressing past music pluck at 1’29 (all the way to 2’24 new musical section) into more sustained rhythmic activity…so not one accent and then sustain as the music does
SWW Video Archive Phase 5 – October 26, 2020
After review of previous attempts with the violin nocturne I am going to try to work it in sections, choosing and pushing vocabulary to compliment the idea and the music. Pulling then from observation notes of October 23, and other ideas around chrysalis.
0 – 1’29
Opening – try tighter, smaller, lower but not on floor – I want to be able to show asymmetrical form, some twisting, turned in on myself, focus internal, awareness of periphery, and to be able to grow from there to the first musical accent 1’32 perhaps…..because even while I start low I still sink more, …and then I have inevitably to return…so what about pulsing, slowly, in the low?
Opening – when hand come to upper body, when chest comes up, draw pelvis down so that I stay low
Way to come out of opening, so retire one arm reaches above head, pulsing in standing leg, pressing past music pluck at 1’29 (all the way to 2’24 new musical section) into more sustained rhythmic activity…so not one accent and then sustain as the music does
I started to work this movement material with Howard Bashaw’s Archimage II and danced it ten times over four rehearsal days. I began to sense that there was something in the music that was working against the shape that the dance needed to take. The shifting nature of the music seemed to be getting in the way of my need to deepen in the movement. The ending of the Bashaw piece expressed something tentative where the dance was headed toward something definite. I alternated these trials with a piece by Kaija Saariaho’s for solo cello which seemed too dense to allow the movement material the space to open up. But Nocturne for Solo Violin by Kaija Saariaho has a balance between expression and space. Ultimately the duration, the shape and the initial tentative nature of the Nocturne for Solo Violin by Saariaho seemed to provide what the dance needed.
I am protected by the lightest of films, investigating an enclosed space, testing the expansive capacity of my confinement, shedding, flying.
In SWW 2, Chrysalis, I was struck by the ancient wisdom that exuded from this shrouded figure. And yet, as the dance progresses there is the shedding of the old and a transformation into the new. The specificity of the spine, limbs, and hand articulations was an important application in this work. The pauses between articulations, the tension in the body that gave way to the full expression of one articulating limb/ hand, the weighted struggle of the elbows as the shroud is shed. At times hidden by the material, and other times piercing through or strategically manipulating the material, the articulations of the spine, limbs, and hands lend to the dichotomy of strength and vulnerability within this character.
Helen Husak
SWW Video Archive Phase 2 – May 15
Take nothing personally
1. Bashaw Trk 2, Experiments in Light and Form
As a warmup try to push movement, work large and small, work a variety of strength of accents
Impression – butterfly chrysalis ***** opening idea is the best one, go back and try it again
And think on accelerated musical passages do not travel ****
Viewing: the camera angle is bad, cuts off my head
opening chrysalis theme should be explored at length, other interesting moments include new things to do with elbows as suggested by chrysalis, walking with spine in an attitude and one foot in forced arch while the other is normal this returns a few times and should be explored 3’26, 4’01 ***, the opposite of the chrysalis flapping open …what? I offer a long, sustained opening, and several moves from parallel to rotated with spine feeling torn open, 3’38 broken flow interesting could go further if the music hadn’t changed
2. Bashaw as above repeated
Impression –
Stayed much more on the spot as a result of other focuses, this often happens
Tried to work against travel on fast music, explored more opening idea
Had to work against judgement
Not happy with indecision
At least there is new material **chrysalis
Viewing: the opening 1’35 explores the chrysalis, *** go for more / break away into open the body and shift through side lunges works well but needs more definition, return at 2’20 to opening theme with new accents and qualities is good, more new material ideas, quick stops with crossed legs on balance and facing various ways, spine distorted, hands to narrow and high pulling away, again at 3’50 another iteration of chrysalis, good / ending not interesting but almost headed to a liberation idea, just too shape oriented, not enough in the dance
5. Allan Gordon Bell, Field Notes Movement 3 again 4’00
Impression = ***unsaying what has just been said…as an approach…I found this interesting and in some places authentic
Initial Viewing: what works for me is the changes of quality in the undoing, the abruptness of attack sometimes, and the animal presence
Second Viewing:
’30 liquid and hanging soft….important contrast/accent/***thing, ’56 like the work deep in the back here, could use more of that or explore what that might be… 1’20 example of gesture arising and being consumed, 1’32 return of liquid hanging soft, ***wide to narrow throughout, 2’10 – 2’13 example of compositional development of arm open close gesture finishing each beat closed except for the final beat which finishes open, and sustains to transform, 3’00 on spot **gesture development wide stance with changing levels,
SWW Video Archive May 26 Phase 2 Rehearsal #10
Looking for a new clearer approach
1. priority is still in the defined SWW values, and in new discovery
2. work with music – but only the expressive evocative best – Bell / Saariaho / Somers / Westerkamp / Lee / Tanaka / Schafer.
3. When working with music use the same piece twice, each interpretation based in a different combination of themes and counterpoint quality choices
4. Consider using Post It notes in the rehearsal space to prompt the inclusion of themes, strategies etc.
1. Saariaho, Violin Solo 6’58
Stay in the values
Impression – ended too soon, stayed in what I chose / but was there new stuff?
Second Viewing – what works in the opening is the evident listening of the dancer, the giving of performance attention to the music, nice sense of arrival in right arm pulling down and away with torso pulling the opposite direction 1’25 form, stillness, significance / 2’30 it works to occasionally repeat / reiterate an idea in succession and to intersperse this approach in the more complex variations and hesitations of arising/consumed / 2’50 complete integration of small cross step travel ending with a previously introduced theme and torso accents /3’50 a series of one accent forms, some releve, some plier, all with hand accent and leg extensions ….something here, but how to make it work better? / compositionally well done with the reiteration of cross leg sit in deep plier and at centre stage / musically sound
2. Saariaho, Violin Solo 6’58
Task – completely different relationship to music and vocabulary
Try chrysalis
Impression – better, no travel, deeper focus, more dramatic, programmatic
I think the progression thru chrysalis is starting to suggest itself. The 6’00 duration seems about right.
Second Viewing – works clearly in the theme, first accent in the music needs to be anticipated in the body…here I make an attempt but I am late 1’34 / some new discoveries, deep pumping plier with one forced arch 1’50, 2’26 double handed push away with back of hands, into pressing sideways, into one arm up and into outward reach, encasing embracing, double arm circles outward, inward with focus and chest variations/ slow alternating press away with palms out flamenco, allowing for changes of direction with body 3’20 / adding broken flow with one arm moving toward the other / allowing liquid to come in / working with resistance and reaching and spine / at 4’00 quickly feeling and testing the inside texture of the chrysalis / low body, passe retires also reflecting shape of chyrsalis on the inside / allow pace to alter / 5’31 the reiteration of opening accent 1’34 and followed here by full bodied attitudes with shins brushing and reflecting the chrysalis, 6’00 bounces on the spot with wings, wings transforming from co-ordination to off co-ordination, bounce transforms to knee in lunge, palms wide..so flight but not exactly…
SWW Video Archive Phase 5 – October 26, 2020
After review of previous attempts with the violin nocturne I am going to try to work it in sections, choosing and pushing vocabulary to compliment the idea and the music. Pulling then from observation notes of October 23, and other ideas around chrysalis.
0 – 1’29
Opening – try tighter, smaller, lower but not on floor – I want to be able to show asymmetrical form, some twisting, turned in on myself, focus internal, awareness of periphery, and to be able to grow from there to the first musical accent 1’32 perhaps…..because even while I start low I still sink more, …and then I have inevitably to return…so what about pulsing, slowly, in the low?
Opening – when hand come to upper body, when chest comes up, draw pelvis down so that I stay low
Way to come out of opening, so retire one arm reaches above head, pulsing in standing leg, pressing past music pluck at 1’29 (all the way to 2’24 new musical section) into more sustained rhythmic activity…so not one accent and then sustain as the music does
Opening – could work to face away….and stay longer low and away, find a couple more positions that could serve and turn only at a certain point
1’15- drawing up the folded wings more here. There is a sensuality here that says much more than just enclosure, a self exploration.
1. 0 – 2’43
a. Opening angle not quite right…..too much pelvis, shaping okay but change angle..sinking works, but still too much movement
b. Folded wings should be much slower, and body needs to lean, pelvis forward, focus up
Actually accomplish the c. retire balance on 1’29 accent, so precede it with retire switches in the 5th and 6th phrases
d. Aura hands not slow and precise enough, needs pauses
e. Clasped hands with back play facing usr works in principle, as does the turn change of facing to
f. elbows & knees just prior to see sawing at 2’24….this leads me to elbows and knees with the see saw which I think can work. 0 =
2. 0 – 2’43
Turning for opening okay….but want to be more off balance in legs and or in spine
Folded wings needs to be sharper perhaps with more balance in retire, don’t take focus up yet
Aura hands need to be distinct from folded wings more
What is the connection to clasped hands with back?
Once elbow knee is shaped do not stop the flow, dance through, phrasing with pauses
OPENING (1’24)
0 – 23 single note changing colour first position sinking
Shift to second
’28 – ’38 four note melody with distortion stretch arms
’40 – three note melody and pluck release one broken wing slow low
’44 – ’50 – three note melody slower, three single and distortion waking up
hands to face
’54 – 1’24 –brief tremolo, a long phrase with single note shifts aura hands
FIRST SHIFT (’58)
1’24 – 1’29 again starting brief tremolo, building to pluck aura hands w retire
1’30 – 1’43 – new climbing phrase ending on a high single note 1’35 – 1’43
diagonal step downs with hands
with pauses
1’45 – 2’22 – very long rising and fall phrase, mostly gentle
continued diagonal step down with hands
SECOND SHIFT (’34)
2’24 – see sawing phrase (’10) full body/spine wave to fingertips
2’36 – see sawing phrase ending in high tremolo (’22) back play
2’58 – see sawing phrase, accelerating in reiterated short gesture to…(’22)
Back play, Elbow knees
THIRD SHIFT (’17) Elbow knees, hand body wave
3’12 High tremolo with six plucks (3’12, 3’19, 3’21, 3’23, 3’26, 3’29)
FOURTH SHIFT (’23)
3’35 Slower, darker, see saw phrase returns with glissando head hands
Series of stronger shorter gestures bites with plucks (3;44, 3’49, 3’58)
squeeze thru hands on head, neck, chest
FIFTH SHIFT (1’19) 6 phrases
3’59 – 4’09 pluck & 4’10 – 4’26 pluck odd single arm circle
two short plaintive phrases with plucks (4’09, 4’22)
4’23 – 4’35 pluck & 4’37 – 4’54 pluck sr fists together retire
two phrases simplify with last plucks getting fainter 4’35, 4’55 begin elbow rock
4’57 – 5’07 two phrases very gentle and high, fading elbow rock cont’d
& 5’09 – 5’18 spine dive to retire, plier, rise
SIXTH SHIFT (’29)
5’21 – 5’32 – High note slow crescendo, attack and receding rising flapping
5’33 – 5’50 – high note gentle crescendo, rough to high smooth tone and recede
Usr, retire left, cape release
FINS