the BLUE project blog
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Almost Showtime! 5.12.2011
The curtain goes up on the BLUE Project / Aquatic Dances THIS Saturday and Sunday at the Mystic Aquarium. With only two days to go, we are putting the finishing touches on the production: making decisions on makeup and hair styling; meeting with the costume designer for final adjustments; polishing details of the piece, and running through the whole show again and again for timing and comfort. The tent and stage are being set up at the aquarium, friends and family are making arrangements for carpooling to the show from points in New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, and we are all making sure that we rest and prepare our bodies as much as possible for the performances ahead of us.
It is a busy, thrilling time in the days leading up to the show. I know I am not alone in feeling a deep sense of gratitude and celebration around this weekend’s production. ECDC sends its thanks and appreciation to all of the generous supporters who have made this event possible, and to the NHSO and the Mystic Aquarium, for collaborating with us. Special thanks go out to Dan from NHSO, and Kelly, Amy, and Donna from the Aquarium, for all their hard work and for being fabulous partners on this project and in performing at the school shows. We will miss seeing you so regularly when the project is over and we hope that we can collaborate again in the future.
It promises to be a spectacular show this weekend. Come out and enjoy a beautiful day of music, aquatic life, and dance!
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Rehearsing with the String Quartet 5.5.2011
We were giddy with excitement yesterday evening when NHSO’s string quartet walked into the studio to rehearse with the dancers for the first time. They entered the room and we gave them a round of applause before they played a note – we were just so thrilled to meet them and to experience their artistry.
After settling in and warming up, we all got down to business. First we worked on finding the beginnings of each section of the dance, as each section starts a new piece of music. The musicians and our choreographers discussed tempos for each piece. We have been dancing and creating to recordings thus far, and the musicians did a remarkable job of timing their playing to resemble the recordings we had been working with so that we could seamlessly transition to working with live music. In addition, the live music really inspired us to find ways of shaping and deepening our movement quality. Areas where the movement needed to be stronger, or sharper, or softer, became that much more apparent with live music guiding us.
It was a highlight of the BLUE Project thus far to hear the music come to life last night in the studio. We have been listening to the same pieces for months now, and yesterday they were all new again. The string quartet filled us with energy and joy – thank you NHSO! We are looking forward to seeing you for rehearsal again on Saturday.
And of course, we are now counting down the days until the Aquatic Dance Festival on May 14th and 15th at the Mystic Aquarium, where the BLUE Project / Aquatic Dances will premiere with the live string quartet. For more details, click here. We hope to see you there!
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The Kids Are Smart And Lovable 4.29.2011
We are well into our school touring schedule, and I have been touched by the experience of performing in front of so many bright, adorable school groups. As one of the “masters of ceremony” along with the talented folks from the Mystic Aquarium and the New Haven Symphony, I help to lead the kids through dance movements and interaction about the creative process. Other dancers on the project take on this MC role as well, depending on the particular cast of performers we have for any given show.
As an MC, I get to ask kids questions about their dance ideas and what inspires them when they think of marine life. We talk about movement that is “squiggly”, “slimy”, “bubbly”, “wavy”, “fast”, and “floaty”. We get them to dance along as we do movements with names like “anemone tentacle”, “shark bite”, and “fin clap”. The interaction really gets everyone’s engines running. Yesterday one adorable little girl in the front row was so excited to whisper a story to me (in front of her entire elementary school – about 450 kids) about the time when she and her sister saw a starfish on the beach and had to pour water on it to help it out. Other kids came up to the dancers afterwards to say – “fin clap was my favorite”, or “my cousin is a ballerina!”. Others gave us hugs, or told us they liked our costumes.
Each audience is a bit different, but the kids in our audiences all have in common a natural excitement and curiosity that we get to draw from as performers. I have been so impressed by how a lot of kids know what cartilage is when Amy from Mystic Aquarium describes the makeup of shark skeletons. One little boy even offered that humans have cartilage in their knuckles! I didn’t know that when I was in second grade! The kids of Connecticut are smart, bright, and a LOT of fun to perform in front of.
We have a number of school shows to go, and we are also in high gear getting ready for the big premiere weekend on May 14th and 15th at the Mystic Aquarium. This is when the process is at its best. We are focused and excited for the weeks ahead.
- Millie V.
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On the Road (a choreographers perspective) 4.12.11
VIDEO!!! the BLUE project – behind the scenes touring
A short glimpse of “the BLUE project” on tour. We are going on week three of the Aquatic Dances/the BLUE project school programming, and so far we have tackled 9 schools. Each week has provided it’s own challenges and successes, yet we (the 4 performers) leave each school feeling encouraged and excited to share our art with youth. To an outside eye those of us involved in the project may give off a sense of calm and ease in our approach to the touring, and that is true, yet there are so many details and logistics to smooth out or examine to ensure that the program runs smoothly. For instance, I spent the better part of last week driving back and forth to our costume designer’s house, Brittany Solem, to pick up adjusted costumes and new combinations of costumes as well as drop off ones that have malfunctioned and needed some extra attention. We are quickly discovering that the nature of our movement and the number of performances we have in the month of April alone are quite taxing on Brittany’s brilliant designs; though they are incredibly inventive and moveable, they need some heavy duty reinforcing.
When I wasn’t figuring out what costumes we needed for what day and for which dancers, I was organizing how we were all going to get to each location. We only have 4 dancers performing at a time, however, our cast rotates and not every one has a car. On shows that I am performing in, I decided to be the car to drive the dancers there and back…until my 1993 Volvo refused to leave East Rock last Tuesday on my way to pick up Crystal and Luis to head to a school performance. I called Millie in a panic, and she came through with lending her car – my fairy godmother! Luckily, I was covered for the rest of the week and we figured out who would drive where while I had to relinquish control in the automobile department. Everything works out, it always does. Throughout the rest of last week there were minor set backs but all in all, for a marathon week of school touring, we had an incredibly uplifting experience. I believe I can speak for all of the performers when I say that it’s a blast to perform for the kiddos.
…when they are into it.
- Kellie
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The BLUE Project at Rebound 4.10.11
Yesterday was an eventful day with the BLUE Project. ECDC dancers presented a work-in-progress excerpt of Aquatic Dances / the BLUE Project at the Rebound Dance Festival in New Haven. We danced together all day; a morning of three master dance classes flowed into dress rehearsal and then showtime.
There were a lot of “firsts” in the show yesterday: first time performing in full costume as a group; first time presenting the piece as a work-in-progress in front of a grown-up audience (we’ve been performing in front of school audiences recently); first time performing together as a full cast. Experiencing these firsts together helped me to reflect on how far the piece has come since we began working in August. We have been in the studio as a group of dancers for months – creating, practicing, and refining. Taking a deep breath and bringing the full cast onto stage together made me more aware of the bond that we’ve established as a group and the entirety of what we’ve accomplished. We still have work to do before our premiere at the Mystic Aquarium on May 14 and 15, but this weekend was a moment to celebrate how far we’ve come.
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Preparing for the kiddos 3.13.2011
In a couple of short weeks, ECDC dancers will begin visiting Connecticut schools along with representatives from NHSO and the Mystic Aquarium to bring Aquatic Dances / the BLUE project to life in the classroom. This week in rehearsal we focused on shaping the BLUE project to make the performance even more fun, engaging and interactive for a young audience.
Elementary school was a long time ago for me, but working on this project has cast my memory back to assemblies at Eberwhite Elementary in Ann Arbor, MI way back in the day. An entire school full of wriggly little bodies could cram into the auditorium by sitting cross-legged in rows on the floor. The principal would stand in front of the huge room (it felt huge at the time) and clap out a rhythm for the kids to imitate. We went back and forth clapping out different rhythms until the wriggling stopped (or slowed) and we were ready to pay attention.
I kept that wriggling mass in my minds’ eye as we were dancing through our rehearsal yesterday. What will this contemporary movement look like to little kids? What will tune the kids in, or tune them out? There’s beauty in the movement of Aquatic Dances / the BLUE project, but it isn’t the beauty of swan queens and tutus. There’s also humor, risk, power, and play. What will cause the kids to wriggle even more – and more gleefully – in their seats? I don’t remember seeing anything like Aquatic Dances / the BLUE project when I was a kid at Eberwhite, so it’s hard to imagine what I would have thought of contemporary dance back then. One thing we can count on is that the kids will be honest in their feedback. Happy giggles, oohs, and aahs will be the best of rewards, only to be surpassed by the possibility that performing this piece for kids will help expand their ideas about what dance can be.
- Millie
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Wearable Art 3.6.2011
If you have ever watched Project Runway on Bravo, or seen a parent labor over the sewing machine to make halloween costumes on request (thanks Mom!), or had any other exposure to the world of creating wearable art, you can understand that designing and making beautiful clothes is very difficult. And if you add on top of this the challenge of making garments so that they move along with a dancer during a performance, you have a truly daunting task.
The incomparably talented Brittany Fielstra has taken on this challenge for Aquatic Dances / the Blue Project. Last Thursday, a few of us got a sneak peak at some of Brittany’s work, and it is gorgeous and interesting, as ever.
The colors and the materials are lush and satisfying to look at, and they will be beautiful when they take on the contours of the choreography. Brittany’s ideas are also modern and fresh. Seeing glimpses of her creative process and her vision for the finished costumes left me feeling inspired about the capacity of dance costuming to deepen and electrify the performance experience, for dancers and audience members alike. I remember going to musicals as a little girl and looking forward to seeing the costumes almost more than anything else. It was then, and is now, a delight to rest my eyes on beautiful, wearable art brought to life by on-stage performance.
The costumes Brittany makes will add a whole new layer of depth and artistry to Aquatic Dances. It will be so much fun to dance in them soon.
- Millie
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The Snow Melts! 2.27.2011
Those of us living in New England have been buried in snow for what feels like ages. January and February went by in a white blur. This week – finally – parts of the ice formations encrusting our landscape were absorbed into the earth. As the world turned back into water, we got some great work done on the BLUE project. In yesterday’s rehearsal we ran the entire piece, start to finish, without stopping, more than once. This is a tremendous accomplishment, as it reflects countless intricate details being worked out so that all the transitions lock into place for all the dancers. The fabulous Cecilia DelViscio was in the studio with us to capture these runs in video and still photography.
I’ve always loved this stage of the rehearsal process, because it brings an awareness of the entire dance into my mind as we move through its parts. This is when the dancers can learn best how to navigate the demands of the piece – when to catch our breath, for example – and also when we learn how the piece makes us feel as a whole. Understanding the big picture also helps me absorb more detail about various parts. Dancing the beginning, the middle, and the end of the BLUE project felt wonderful. There were moments when I didn’t have to think it at all, I could just dance it, and that’s really an expansive feeling.
Over the last few weeks we have also been busy preparing for our schools tour. This is an exciting component of Aquatic Dances / the BLUE project. Four ECDC dancers, together with representatives of the NHSO and the Mystic Aquarium, will facilitate and perform a lecture-demonstration module in a series of Connecticut schools. The module will bring contemporary dance and aquatic life into the classroom in a vibrant, engaging way. Lots of schools have signed up to have us come and perform, but there is still room for more. Scheduling inquiries can be made with Dan Kinsman, Director of Education at NHSO. Also, the curriculum guide for the project can be viewed on the NHSO website as well.
More to come next week!
- Millie
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Higher 1.24.2011
Back in rehearsal this past Saturday, we workshopped a sequence of jumps in the choreography. More specifically, running jumps. The jumps are done in pairs. One dancer sprints at another, jumps as high as possible, makes a half-turn in the air, and is caught by his/her partner around the thighs, and then dropped back to earth.
There are a few things that freak me out about this. First, it may not seem hard to do this jump when you read my description of it or when you think about it in the abstract. But for me, while I sprint at my partner I feel like I’m in that scene in Footloose where Kevin Bacon and his nemesis are playing a game of chicken with their tractors. I pretty much feel like I am going to almost crash into my partner and then fall off a cliff. Nevermind that this doesn’t have anything to do with the reality of the studio (no tractors, no cliff, no Kev). The point is, my headspace during these jumps is one of fear.
Second, I am not a good sprinter. I am slow. I don’t have a low self-esteem about this, I just can’t sprint well. My marathon pace and my 200-meter pace are the same: very slow. So when we line up and half of us sprint together towards the other half who are waiting to catch us, it is all I can do to tow the line and keep from falling behind, even in the context of the very short length of the studio. I can’t help but laugh – no matter how much I command myself to move forward faster, it is everything I can do to keep up with the other dancers.
Third, I grimace when I am caught. Do I jump higher when I scrunch up my face? This brings to mind the excellent and very entertaining review of the tv show Dancing with the Stars by Joan Acocella in The New Yorker. (http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/dancing/2008/04/14/080414crda_dancing_acocella). Acocella makes the point that one of the principal differences between dancers and non-dancers is not in the way dancers use their feet but in how they carry their upper bodies; dancers have relaxed, expressive arms, faces, upper backs. Non-dancers show their tension and their effort in their upper bodies. All this is to say that on Sunday, as I sprinted at my partner and vaulted myself into his arms, I felt a bit more Tom Delay than Julianne Hough.
So – fearful, slow, and awkward, I launched myself up, again and again. I know I will get better at these jumps with practice. One day soon, I will jump bravely, quickly, and gracefully. But that won’t be the best part. The best part is that while we are in rehearsal, I am doing something that I would never do if it weren’t for dance. The rehearsal process brings out the bumbling beginner in me, gets me to laugh at myself, and forces me to grow.
- Millie
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HAPPY NEW YEAR! CHECK OUT OUR LATEST REHEARSAL VIDEO! 1.10.2011
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Happy Holidays from the BLUE project 12.16.10
This feeling creeps up on me every holiday season; as things slow down and we all step away from the daily grind, I find myself relieved to pull back. But it comes with a bittersweet tinge. With fewer rehearsals, I feel a sense of rest but also a longing for the absorption in the work and the companionship of our dance community.
This season is no exception in our work with the BLUE Project. Since late November, our rehearsal schedule has begun to reflect a slower pace with the holidays. There are whole weeks where we don’t see each other, such as over Thanksgiving, and now again this week, and next. I find myself with more time on my hands to go to yoga classes, and feel fewer bruises and pulled muscles from the exertion of dancing. My body appreciates the rest. I like the lazy long warm evenings at home, under blankets, sipping tea and reading books, not pounding out a new phrase of work in a drafty basement studio with only my kneepads between myself and the cold hard floor.
But then. In my rested body, I reflect on what our weekly rehearsal rituals means to me. There is simply no comparison to the joy that dancing brings to my life, and the effortless connection with other human beings that is formed in the rehearsal process. It’s hard to feel isolated or spiritually alone when you are rolling, jumping, banging, diving and spiraling through space with a bunch of people you love, and when you know that you will do it all again the next day, and again two days after that, and on and on. I say goodbye at the end of rehearsal, sweaty and hungry, knowing that I will see my friends tomorrow. In these easy goodbyes, I take rehearsal for granted, and the buzz of a full life forms a comforting background noise to everything I do.
Attuned to these thoughts, I enjoyed the last two December rehearsals of the Blue Project, this past Saturday and the Saturday prior to that. The piece is really coming together. We have full sections, transitions, and an order to all of it. We hope to post a new video soon. And with that, the kneepads will be put aside until 2011. I hope to dance, stretch, and move as much as possible during the holiday break. But it won’t be the same. An important, precious part of my life goes on hold until our first January rehearsal.
To all the beautiful Blue Project dancers, to our brilliant choreographers, to our collaborators – the New Haven Symphony and the Mystic Aquarium – , to our fabulous costume designer, photographer, and all other supporters, I want to offer my deepest gratitude for sharing this creative journey together. Immersing ourselves in the world of aquatic life over the last several months has been a great experience. I wish all of you a restful, happy holiday season. I can’t wait to see you in the New Year.
- Millie V.
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The Hum In The Air 11.8.2010
Saturday’s rehearsal of the BLUE Project / Aquatic Dances was the kind of rehearsal dancers live for. It was vibrant, focused, productive, and funny. The entire cast was present, which allowed us to pull together some large sections that we had previously only experienced with a partial cast.
Many of the parts of the BLUE Project contain intricate series of movements where our traffic patterns are painstakingly set to avoid collisons while still creating lots of moments of connection and near-misses. Often when we rehearse, we will make do with one or two people absent. We might improvise by fake-lifting an invisible/absent dancer, placing her down where a lift would normally end, setting her up to lift the next dancer that would be flying in from some other part of the space. Or maybe we remember to jump or run around where we know a particular dancer will be rolling or slicing in the space just next to us. It requires a little imagination to see the whole movement matrix in action, when one or two of its participants is missing.
But this past Saturday, all of a sudden the piece was in full technicolor brilliance with all of the moving parts working together. The rehearsal space was bursting at the seams with all of the big personalities of all of the dancers and the two choreographers, as well as some important guests. It was so great to see and feel the puzzle click together, to allow the intricate movement patterns to play themselves out with all of the pieces in place.
It was good that this rehearsal went so well, as we won’t meet again as a full cast for a few weeks. ECDC will be performing SNAP in New York this saturday, and then after that, various scheduling conflicts will keep us working in smaller groups until after Thanksgiving. I am looking forward to the next big group session, to feel the full-on BLUE Project experience again.
- Millie V.
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ECDC goes to Arizona 10.31.2010
A reflection by Kellie…
Lindsey Bauer and I recently traveled to Tempe, Arizona to attend the National Dance Education Organization conference hosted by Arizona State University. We had 48 hours to imprint our organization inside the minds of dance educators across the nation.
Friday, Oct 22: Day 1) Lindsey and I strolled into the Sheraton Airport Hotel where the conference was being held and we immediately found ourselves in the middle of hand shakes, hugs and greetings. Lindsey, being a member of NDEO year after year and having graduated in 2007 with her MFA in Dance from ASU, had plenty of catching up to do with old friends and colleagues all the while promotingECDC – of course. I proudly walked beside her through the congested areas of the conference with an Elm City Dance Collective name tag pinned to my shirt. For the rest of the day we window shopped presentations and classes but spent most of our time networking and planting the ECDC seed. As Co-Creative Directors of ECDC…we worked it.
After a day of browsing and attempting to settle into the conference I still questioned if ECDC belonged there as a presenting organization. I saw no other collective or company, we weren’t an academic instituion or affiliated with one, so how do we explain Creativity, Innovation and 21st Century Skills – the theme for this years conference and our presentation. Lindsey said, “We have this. We just have to show them what we do”
Saturday, Oct, 23: Day 2) We set up our poster at 10am on a long table shared with another woman. The poster was 34″ length 46″ wide and had one simple image, our logo at the top right hand corner (did we ever mention that our logo is Millie in a series of headstands?). The rest of the poster provided information about ECDC supporting the theme of the conference. Lindsey did a beautiful job with the design. We placed our media in front of the poster – I edited a 13 minute video which was a compilation of everything we’ve done including a lovely 5 minutes highlighting Aquatic Dances/the BLUE project. The video played throughout the two hours we were presenting. We had images from other projects on the table and a beautiful 3 
page spread of Aquatic Dances/the BLUE project. What was suppose to be a 1 hour presentation turned into a 2 hour presentation because of the interest in ECDC. Other conference goers were constantly at our table watching the video and asking about our latest project. When people weren’t flocking around us we danced and laughed while looking at the video (for the 10th time) which subsequently attracted more people. We networked with educators from all over the nation, specifically New York City people who were interested in bringing Aquatic Dances to their schools – a follow up is in place.
Needless to say, we had a wonderful time but had to leave at 12:20pm to catch a flight back to the East Coast, and we were gone as fast as we arrived hopefully leaving an ECDC brand in some peoples minds.
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Elevated by Music. 10.17.2010
This week, when we opened up our rehearsals to the public, I was inwardly amused to find myself standing up straighter and performing the rehearsals. Even when I was standing still and listening to choreographers’ notes, I was performing. Instantly. With an audience watching, there’s a charge of energy and self-awareness that infuses even the smallest movements and minor choices. Although different dancers exhibit various performance qualities and not everyone necessarily responded the way I did, it was an energetic charge for all of us to have guests watching our creative process.
Two of our honored guests at our rehearsals this week included collaborators from the New Haven Symphony Orchestra (NHSO): Dan Kinsman, Director of Education, and Stephan Tieszen, Principal Violinist. They observed some of the movement that we’ve been working on and met with our choreographers to discuss music choices for the piece.
At one point, Tieszen brought out his violin and played for the dancers as we stood listening, rapt. From the start of Aquatic Dances / the BLUE Project, I have of course been aware that we would eventually experience the thrill of dancing to live musical accompaniment. But I was still struck by the deep, calming beauty of hearing live music in our dance space. Tieszen’s violin could not have been more beautiful.
Hearing the violin notes float through the space first pinned me to the floor, immobile, listening. But then it just was too lovely to resist dancing with the music, if only for a phrase or two. I realized later that in those moments at some point I dropped my performance mode and lost myself. This makes me wonder at the rich possibilities that could emerge through our collaboration with NHSO. How will it feel to perform with live string instruments? With the combined energy of musical artists and dance artists performing together? I can’t wait to find out.
- Millie V.
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You’re Invited… 10.13.2010
The BLUE Project / Aquatic Dances is opening its doors for a series of Open Rehearsals this week at CACC. Come check out our rehearsal process in action!
Wed, Oct 13: 6:30-8:30pm
Thurs, Oct 14: 7:30-8:30pm
Sat, Oct 16: 10-12pm
CACC is located in the basement of Christ Church at 84 Broadway in New Haven, CT. Directions to the CACC may be found at: http://centerarts.org/here.html.
New Rehearsal Video!
To watch, click here: The BLUE Project / Aquatic Dances Rehearsal Montage October 2010.
Recent Photos From Rehearsal – Thank you Cecilia DelViscio!
To view, click HERE
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Inhabiting a World of Play 10.3.2010
Yesterday evening I had the immense pleasure of going to see Kellie Ann Lynch – one of the choreographers on Aquatic Dances / the BLUE project – perform with Doug Elkins in Fraulein Maria at the Paramount Theater in Boston. The show was wonderful. Thrilling, hilarious, sweet, and irreverent all at once. I was laughing out loud so hard that my cheeks were actually a little sore when the show ended.
In Elkins’ work, the connection between play and art is tangible. It got me thinking about how there is something about play that is so important to creativity. Its almost as though the discipline of learning and practicing an art form is only a stepping stone, or support system, for the real work of creativity — play.
I came back to this thought when I was ruminating on this week’s blog post. I was talking with Lindsey Bauer, our other choreographer on Aquatic Dances / the BLUE Project, and she suggested thinking about the magical and bizarre lexicon that our project has developed over the course of the work. They way we communicate about the dance material while we rehearse creates a project-specific language all its own. We have names for sections, phrases, and movements that are simultaneously functional and yet ridiculous. But that’s all part of inhabiting a little universe in rehearsal that is playful, magical and productive.
The more we laugh together, the better our shared creative energy. Refusing to take ourselves too seriously frees up our energy to take the art itself seriously in the end.
- Millie V.
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The Dancers Invest In Knee Pads. 9.25.2010
Recently I found myself at a Sports Authority store in North Haven, CT, looking at knee pads. I had been throwing myself into rehearsals and noticing that my knees were feeling – and looking – a little beat up as a result. Admittedly, I felt some amount of pride in describing how hard we’ve been working when concerned friends would ask why my knees were black and blue. But at the same time, I noticed that my knee discomfort made me more cautious during rehearsal, and that was not acceptable.
My first rehearsal with kneepads was a revelation. The falls, dives, spins, and slides were so much more FUN with an extra layer of padding. I took every opportunity I could to shuffle and dart around on my knees, pain-free. And I’m not alone. Many of the other dancers are getting their kneepads as well. Some of those who don’t use kneepads use leg warmers bunched up around their knees, or elbows, to add some extra cushioning. And those who use neither knee pads nor bunched up leg warmers are truly ferocious in my book.
The situation reminds me of thinking about ballerinas’ feet as a little girl. Although I didn’t start dancing professionally until I was a 24-year-old recovering corporate attorney (another story entirely), I had taken ballet classes as a child. There were posters in the studio of just feet: ballerinas’ feet, swaddled in the beat-up and frayed boxes of pointe shoes. The images displayed the grit that underlies the grace in ballet. I remember feeling a sense of sublime intimidation when I would hear about how pointe work could take a pedicured foot and render it blistered, bruised and sore. I admired the athletic prowess of a ballerina who could put on pointe shoes over her bruises and perform her beautiful art without a hint of discomfort.
In the BLUE project, as in most contemporary dance, there are no pointe shoes. But the movement we are working on is only limited by the imaginations and wills of the choreographers and dancers on the project. Which means that we must be open to trying movement that calls on our grit as well as our grace. When my knees are bruised, I am proud of the work that put the bruises there. But this pride is no match for the thrill and freedom of sliding around on an extra layer of padding. And in the BLUE project, where the choreographers and cast are up for any dance adventure that rehearsals might bring, I am happily humbled by, and grateful for, my kneepads.
- Millie V.
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Swimming Along…9.19.2010
Rehearsals on the Blue project are now in full swing at ECDC. Having generated lots of new movement inspired by the beautiful exhibits at the Mystic Aquarium, we are now working on piecing the movement together into the beginnings of phrases and sections. Finding connections within the movement material creates a sense of exploration and collaboration, as the choreographers and dancers experiment and play.
While the dancers get to know each other and grow increasingly comfortable with the material, the rehearsals become more expansive. We work on expressing the specificity within the movement and grow more confident in executing the material as we practice it. This is a satisfying and productive time. We throw ourselves into the work, make mistakes, crack up, take chances, and see what happens. There’s been only one trip to the ER so far, and the injury was very minor (this author can report that it looks like there will be barely any scar on her chin at all).
But that’s part of the process. We invest our willingness to try, fail, and look awkward in our first attempts at new movement, in the hope that we will be able to express the movement fully and confidently in the future. Sometimes the future comes quickly, and we catch on to new movement right away; the movement is easy to learn and feels good in our bodies to dance. Other times the future takes its time to arrive, and we struggle at first with putting the movement into our bodies. It may feel awkward or like our limbs won’t listen to what our brains are asking of them. But by repeating our attempts, by taking risks, and by being willing to throw ourselves into the challenge, eventually we find ourselves embodying new movement. It is a deeply rewarding and uplifting feeling, almost like discovering a new part of yourself, or opening a door into a new and lovely room in your house that you never knew existed. This is the challenge, and the hope, of the rehearsal process. We are growing and learning as a group through our work on the Blue project, and the rewards are great.
- Millie V.
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Diving In! 9.12.2010
September is an exciting month with ECDC. We are thrilled to announce that rehearsals have started on the Blue project: http://elmcitydance.org/the-blue-project/. In collaboration with the Mystic Aquarium and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and thanks to the generous support of the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism, the Mystic Aquarium, and United Illuminating, this season ECDC dancers will dive in to the rich beauty of underwater movement.
This blog will take an inside look at the creative process of the Blue project. Written by one of the dancers, and drawing on the reflections of the co-choreographers, Lindsey M. Bauer and Kellie Ann Lynch, as well as the rest of the cast and other contributors, this blog will chronicle the journey of the Blue project as it evolves throughout the 2010-2011 season. Check back here each week for updates, pictures, videos, and stories from the rehearsal studio.
To celebrate the kick-off of this project, the choreographers and cast met at the Mystic Aquarium at the end of August for the first rehearsal. Co-choreographers Kellie and Lindsey provided the dancers with two “structures” for developing movement ideas. First, dancers were asked to walk around the Aquarium and generate a few words to describe what inspired them about the movement they witnessed. Based on those words, the dancers each created an individual movement phrase. Next, in small groups, the dancers shared the phrases they created and worked on performing each others’ phrases in unison for the rest of the group. Out of this process, new partnerships emerged among dancers. Many of the cast members had never rehearsed together as a group, and this exercise helped to connect the ensemble as well as create movement to work with.
The second structure drew on the shark tank at the Mystic Aquarium – a large exhibit that taps into the collective imagination we all share about this sublime animal. Each dancer created one short movement inspired by the shark tank. 13 movements in all, including two from Kellie and Lindsey, were then pieced together one by one to create a long connected phrase. As Lindsey reflected afterwards, this structure was particularly successful in encouraging the group of dancers to problem-solve together, to find a way to connect separate movements into a coherent whole.
As a dancer, I was personally impressed by how inspiring it was to witness the exhibits at the Mystic Aquarium. Simply observing the fish and the underwater mammals provided so much movement material. There were moments of pure stillness, and then there were the most graceful shooting vectors, and then again there were jerks, twitches, flutters, flits, flops, bubbles, wiggles and waves. And one of Kellie’s favorites – a turtle resting peacefully upside-down on its head. What a magical world we have to explore, re-imagine, and embody throughout the process of the Blue project.
More to come next week!
- Millie V.
VIDEOS FROM REHEARSALS! - click on the links below:
Jen, Leah, and Kara in rehearsal
