Creating/Fermenting

I think I'm slowly making a transition from absorbing to creating. I'm accepting my skills, talents and interests; my weaknesses, hang-ups, and pride. I'm making things. And it's fun!

Over the past two weeks I choreographed a dance for Easter Sunday celebration at church. When my friend Philip first asked me to choreograph, I was rather apprehensive because I'd never choreographed before. That wasn't a good reason to decline; also, even though I'd never choreographed formally, I do it all the time. I make up movements when I can't get to sleep, when I'm walking to class, when I listen to a catchy/emo/stirring song. I've been dancing so much this semester it's no surprise that it overflows into the rest of my life. So I agreed.

The task was to choreograph for the chorus of Kutless' "What Faith Can Do". The cast was a mix of dancers from various backgrounds (hip hop, jazz, tricking, and modern) and people who don't have much dance experience. I wanted to make a dance that moved, that involved hands and legs and the body. Most of the dancing I'd seen in church involved more hand motions, which I knew made sense given the space and time constraints, but I couldn't bring myself to choreograph that.

My living room became the rehearsal space as it was about the same size as the stage. I was surprised at how easily movements came to me; I had half the material down within the day Philip asked me to choreograph. The rest came in the next couple of days. I daydreamed on the way to school, mining my repository of jazz and modern moves--Lindsay, the choreographer for my Emory Dance Company (EDC) piece, once commented "we all steal from each other"--and improvised to the song again and again.

Kieu-thu was my model; I taught her the movements and watched her do it. This helped me see if they were difficult for non-dancers. I also threw in some partnering moves since there was a mix of guys and girls in the piece. When I taught the partnering stuff to the dancers, I was surprised at how easily many of them latched on, particularly the boys. I was also very thankful that they were so supporting and willing to move out of their comfort zone. Even the "trained" dancers were new to these type of partner situations.

I was also surprised at how collaborative everyone was. As a dancer in Singapore, I was trained to do what I was told and stand back to let the choreographer tweak and think. Since participating in EDC I've begun to realise that most modern choreographers see choreography as a collaborative process. I didn't think that my friends would be as vocal as they were during rehearsals, though. Their criticism and feedback was hard to take sometimes as I get very attached to my movements. We do this lift here because it's what the music and the previous movement calls for, and my body feels right doing it. My friends, however, spoke up when they felt something wouldn't look good, or that the stage was too small, or a movement was too hard to pick up.

It was a challenge learning to listen to my friends' feedback and either stand my ground or modify the choreography to form a compromise. It was also challenging teaching my friends the movements. In modern, we are given a basic shape to copy but there is leeway on how and when our individual bodies interpret the shape. A lot of times being in sync with other dancers is less important than using movement to interpret a specific point of time in the piece. (Also, personally, I need to be more on the beat when I learn combinations.) While learning the choreography, though, most of the dancers in the Easter piece seemed more concerned about blocking [where they should stand] or where exactly in the music a move should go. I had to stop and think, either to answer their question or dismiss it for later.

I choreographed the chorus of the piece on my own, and collaborated with Jonathan for the bridge. I prefer working alone because collaboration takes a lot of emotional energy out of me. Despite that, I really enjoyed what we produced. Jonathan isn't a trained dancer, but he is a guy, and guys move differently from girls. I didn't want to make an emasculating piece; I wanted the dance to honour the guys as well. I hope it did, at least a little. I came up with a short phrase for the guys and encouraged Jonathan to modify it as he saw fit. I also watched him perform it to see what things he tended to do so I could incorporate that into the choreography. Kieu-thu watched and gave us feedback on what worked, what was realistic, and what was my flight of fancy. In the end, we came up with a bridge that I was very satisfied with.

Our final rehearsal on Saturday was rough. It was then that I saw the challenge of choreographing a piece with a lot of movement. We were actually performing to two songs: one choreographed mainly by Philip and Frances and the other by me (with the rest's help). Despite my lack of emphasis on coordination, I began to realise, as I watched the videos of our rehearsals, that it was necessary to be very conscious of when we should do certain actions. Since we were performing most movements in unison, they had to be done simultaneously, in the same way. Cleaning up was very challenging for me, but luckily Philip and Frances, being part of dance teams, have a lot of experience with this. It also helped to film ourselves dancing so we could each identify our mistakes.

We were still practicing up until the performance; I was surviving on about 3 hours of sleep, having stayed up to finish my multivariable calculus homework. I completely messed up during the second run, but people still seemed appreciative. Most of all, I was really blessed that the dancers stuck with my choreography despite the rough patch the day before. I know how it feels to have to perform a piece that feels awkward on you, and while reflecting on Saturday I realised that may have been what some of my friends felt. Because of that, I was thankful for their grace toward me.

I think I'd like to do this choreographing thing more. Now I know why Lindsay enjoys choreographing!