Dancing in the Rain: The Duet.

So, I wrote a post about how we’ve had to do a few rehearsals in the rain, however, in fear of jinxing rain for the performance I never published it. So, I’ve decided to edit it and post it, now the performances are over and there was no rain.

Due to the British summer including rain and my decision to do ALL rehearsals outside we ran into a few rainy rehearsals. Over the jubilee weekend, we had to move a rehearsal to Primrose Hill, and this was a perfect opportunity to re-unite the dancers with a clear contrast of nature and the industrial as the hill is surrounded by roads and set on a backdrop of the city sky rises.

What I have experienced previously in myself and also in my dancers (a few months ago), is that when we improvise in the rain, the dancing becomes insular and stuck within a comfort zone.

Here the dancers were using contact to experiment with
the terrain by using weight, touch and direction.

 However, we continued working with motif development and the dancers were responding to the weather, as a sound, feeling and with sight via the landscape, which saw a development in their motifs, which became really responsive. They were pushing their bodies to really understand how they wanted to use movement to relate to the rain, and rather than going into their comfort zones, I saw them really engaging with the change of the environment. The movements for sight, sound and feelings would be completely different, which saw a step away from a particular technique, and instead they were using the bodies to create a dialogue with the surroundings.  This is a big change from when we had encountered rain before, whereby they would become rather self-indulgent with their movements, reverting back to using their dance training and creating movement that was a dance style rather than a response.

We starting working with duets in the rain, this was the next the steps, as not only did the dancers have to be responsive to the surroundings; they had to also be aware of the other dancer. This is simpler when there are obvious things to respond to, so for example if there is a sudden loud noise, both dancers will hear that and start moving in reaction to that sound, which they had started already doing when flocking as a group.

Here the dancers were using touch to
experiment with the trees buy in an
individual way.

We started off by just experimenting with different ways of improvising as a duet, using contact, levels, repetition, and working by imitating each other and in contrast to each other, this then created an understanding of how each other moves. I found they were still being responsive to their senses, however, sometimes this got lost when they were watching the other dancer intently. The next level came when I asked them to respond as an individual and as a duet, so they started off with contact improvisation and sight, where one dancer would direct their eye towards something and together they would respond to that sight. This worked really well, as the dancers’ eyes were open and engaged, which meant the spectator could also take notice of their direction.

Working with ideas of Lisa Nelson, I introduced Tuning Scores to add another dimension to how a duet could work. During the Tuning Scores, one of the rules includes one of the dancers (A) improvising with an object and the other dancer (B) watching and when the leader calls PAUSE, B moves dancer A in order to create a new relationship with that object; it could include changing the level, or location of the dancer or the dynamic in which s/he is moving.

This really worked as the dancers began to watch each other and see how that could adapt their relationship to an object or sense. This really developed the group flocking; as the gelled more as a group the flock was really responsive and alert. The group would be constantly changing as they would respond as a group to loud noises or a change in terrain (e.g when they would move from gravel to grass), but then they would also bounce off of each other’s movements. This meant the audience were seeing an awake group of dancers constantly responding to different things with different changes in their bodies. With the imrpovisation came the openness of the dancers to the surroundings and each other, as they were being an individual within a group ensemble, hopefully inviting the spectators and passersby to do so too....... 

I was confident that the piece wouldn't see the dancing drowned by the rain, but they would use that as another aspect to dance with.