I’m sure you could have guessed that I’m back in Houston now.  It was quite the trip back.  My flight was delayed getting out of the Roanoke airport by SEVEN hours due to a potential hurricane warning in Atlanta.  There is nothing to do in the Roanoke airport.  A little perspective?  There are 6 gates.  I must say, it is one of the most beautiful views of any airport I’ve been to–the gorgeous Blue Ridge Mountains, but there is only one store –called “Spirits and More”– inside of security and they close at about 8 pm.  Good thing I packed my snacks.

We boarded and deboarded the plane THREE times before we took off.  Meanwhile I’m talking with the agents about the connection I have in Atlanta (along with the 40 other passengers).  Finally we take off.  I was instructed to run to the gate with any flight leaving for IAH.  Well, they had all left by the time we got there.  Luckily, my brother lives in Atlanta and he picked me up from the airport so I could get a few hours of sleep in a place other than the airport.  I woke up very early, took the MARTA to the airport and finally got on my flight.  24 hours later than expected.

But I’m back and have a lot of exciting information to tell you.  Until then…stay cool, it’s officially summer.

Lately I’ve been reluctant to write my thoughts.  I think it’s because I’m coming to the end of this stage of the process.  I do feel a sense of closure, or completion.  I’ve played with concept, music, creating movement, manipulating movement, filming, costumes…  I’ve come as far as I can in this part of the process without having other bodies to work with.  Have I “made” the piece? No.  Not a chance.  I don’t want to hinder the process by creating the piece without people.  My favorite part of creating work is to see what happens when dancers have the material.  “Mistakes” in rehearsal are so valuable because they break down the limitations of my imagination.  And I love, love, love that.

The last master class I taught was thrilling because I was able to work the newest of the three phrases I’ve been developing.  I gave the material, and asked the dancers to take it and play with:

1. Stopping and starting the energy– coming to complete stops and resuming the movement or slowing down slightly and resuming the movement, or anything in between

2. Interjecting movement into those “stops” or “slowdowns” in #1.  This could just be interjecting a variation of the movement (changing level, facing, tempo etc.), inserting other movement from the phrase, or inserting something completely new.

What I found was that they didn’t see the phrase as linear.  There wasn’t a “start” and a “finish.”  Once they played with the phrase, it bled into itself and increased in manipulation.  Lovely, purely lovely.  It was then that I realized I was finished creating new movement.  I have enough for this piece–and probably 2 more.  I didn’t feel the pressure to create more just because I have more time.  I think it would actually be detrimental.  So the next day instead of making new material, I sank into it.  I danced it, fully.  Victory.  Creating dynamics and smoothing transitions.  Committing to a base phrase–knowing it will (and must!) be changed further in variations, but that it is full as it is.

This painting by Ryan Russell is in the studio space.  I’ve meditated upon it quite a bit.  And I think it is particularly pertinent in this post.

Windows open and twinkle lights on, working in the studio last night was lovely.  I enjoyed the company of another dancer whom I taught my longest phrase and one phrase-let.  I learn by teaching so each time I show the material I learn more about it and actually have more prospective on it.  We danced the phrase and as I was showing it, I found that the areas we stumbled over when breaking it down were also the areas that needed attention choreographically.  She gave me her instincts as to where her body moved and where the momentum took her, where I found the phrase–as it was–resisted the natural pathway.  Valuable time.

Yesterday and the day before I worked on creating a gesture phrase.  My goal was to create movement that resisted my body’s natural sense of rhythm and momentum.  But with this, of course, comes struggle.  I tweeted (@FrameDance) that I was resisting the movement, and someone replied to ask what it was that I was resisting.  I was thankful for that question, because until then I hadn’t though much about what exactly it was that I was resisting.  After some thought, I came to the conclusion that I was resisting my body’s “discomfort.”  It is inorganic and purposefully so.  But the combination of not knowing fully what has been established, not knowing what would come after it, and it generally feeling foreign was what I was resisting.  Now I know what the problem is, I can tackle it a little more objectively today.

Today.  I haven’t made it to the studio yet.  I woke up and wanted some space.  I will go in later today and work these things out before I teach the Master Class tonight.

At the corner I’ve been noticing an old pair of shoes that were left just under the stop sign.  After a week of walking by them, I started to get used to them…they blended into the background.  Then, one morning, I noticed a Big Gulp-esque drink sitting IN one of the shoes.  I say “esque” because the closest 7-11 is about 100 miles away.  Then, this afternoon I saw this:

Is this some kind of non-verbal secret message system?  Curious.

Can I please have unlimited time with dancers who humor me so I can just play with material all day long?  I think I’ve been teaching the 6 and under crowd a little too often.  They do completely inspire me in ways adults couldn’t, but I’m really enjoying creating material and watching dancers untangle it.

What if I make it really aerobic, and it can be their cardio for the day…equal exchange?

Hmmmm.

Dear Frame Dancers,

This in apology in advance for nightmare I will soon inflict upon you.  Dexterous?  You will be!  Start those finger push-ups.  And start memorizing these:

Don’t worry.  I only need you to practice numbers 5 through 10.  On each hand.  In cannon, both hands moving at the same rate.  In 6/8 time.  Just a little head’s up!

Love,

LPH

I’ve been making movement phrases lately: stringing them together, chopping them up, trying to set them specifically to music, and then ignoring and layering on top of music.  Basically playing around.  I wrote an earlier entry about how I work to create these.  To summarize, I don’t dance fully when creating.  But I have continued to think about why I do this (or don’t do this).  And I think it has to do with me not wanting to commit to a certain energy or emphasis while still in the beginning of the process.  It’s like stream of conscious writing, not stopping to commit to writing on a certain subject.  Actually, I don’t think that’s a very good analogy.  Stream of conscious writing is most similar to improvisation, which is not what I’m doing here. I’m creating the words of a sentence and after I see them written down, spelled correctly, and thought through, I can begin to add things like tempo, dynamics, facings, pathways…  Of course, some movements lend themselves to very specific dynamics and then I can choose to go with that or work against it.  It’s all a matter of choices, really.  Once the material is out there, then the fun begins.  But for now I have some more refining to do.

Here are some images of Panther Falls which is were I spent several hours this weekend.  Look familiar?  If so, I’m impressed.  This is the site of the advertising image for Halestones’s Concert, “Older than the Mountains.”

Absolutely beautiful.  The rocks are placed to frame the water so perfectly that just sitting there was enough experience for me.  But then this little voice came into my head–words I had written in a previous post.  Let me find them…

Beauty surrounds us,

But usually we need to be walking

In a garden to know it. (rumi)

After I arrived at the Dancers House (the most beautiful, calming, creative space I could imagine) I walk to Halestone to watch some of the dancers rehearse.  Walking to the studio, I was reminded of that Rumi stanza above.  The act of walking—it’s like participating in the beauty.  There’s a deepening of beauty when we can experience it as opposed to seeing or hearing about it at a distance.  Walking in Lexington is like that…recognizing and feeling the beauty of the area and the people and the town.  And then comes an active pulse or current of energy.

Yeah…so…somehow I needed to experience this beauty.  Watching isn’t enough for me, eh?  Let me tell you, the water was cold.  I’ll be the first to admit my aversion to water colder than 75 degrees, and this was chilly.  My artsy-experience-it-all-even-if-it-gets-in-the-way-of-comfort-we’ve-artificially-grow-accustomed-to mantra was falling farther and farther away from my priorities.  Looking and enjoying and breathing in this experience was more than enough!  More than Houston could offer!  It was settled, that was enough for me.

Time ticked and I couldn’t stop thinking about that stupid soap box about “walking” in nature I spoke from last week.  Wimp?  Hypocrite?  Sissy?  Well there was no way in world that I would be jumping off the cliff/rock into the water.  Unfortunately, I’m far too careful a person to even consider that.  Actually that’s probably the very reason I wouldn’t do it.  I would consider doing it.  I saw several brave souls jumping off those rocks and realized that in order to do that, you just have to go for it.  Not think about it.  I’m not so good about that.

So I worked my way in, feet, ankles, knees, fish nibbling at me and all.  Those jumping from the rocks created enough splash that I eventually got wet and figured I should just get in.  So I did.  I swam around, walked around and shortly realized I had had enough.  It wasn’t bad, but that was all I really needed to do to “walk” in the beauty.  What happened next was quite unfortunate.  As I came to shallow water to climb out of the swimming hole, my feet slipped around on the rocks from the algae.  The current was quite strong and it pushed me over the rocks down a small water fall until my legs landed straight down onto a rock.  I was in a vertical standing position, stuck between the top edge of the waterfall and the bottom rocks.  I was literally stuck due to the slippery rocks and the strong current.  One of the jumpers saw me half-laughing and half-panicked as I squirmed to try to get out.  But I was one-handed because my bathing suit top had come unlatched.  He came over and with one hand holding my top on and the other held by the jumper he pulled me (with all his might, may I add) to the dryer rocks.  Thank you, sir.

So after that incident you may guess that I had had enough.  No.  I will not be defeated by the Panther Falls.  After a short break, and after the coaxing of some others, I jumped into the deeper end and swam to the larger falls you see in the pictures above.  I was not going to end on that humiliating note.  And I didn’t.  It was successful, and I came away with a funny story.  All in all, a beautiful day.