Mature dancers
It's been a great Summer. Dance beyond Borders, workshops in Belgium, holiday in France, more workshops, more holidays and all while the sun didn't stop shining. For the last couple of weeks it has been all go again, just as if the Summer never happened. I am currently reconstructing Hard Shoulder, a piece I created with Sacha Lee, Jules Maxwell and Lucy Carter about 10 years ago. Students from the Artesis higher education school in Lier (Belgium) are learning it and it is great to come back to how I approached movement all those years ago. Last week the rehearsals for Antipode and Relative Danger also started again, ready for the tour that starts next Tuesday in Nottingham. We managed to keep the structure of Antipode the same as it was for the premiere in Hamburg but nearly all the sections have been polished and improved. It was good to have nearly 2 months to study the video and to reflect on the work. As I was not sitting with my nose on the piece for a while, I could make clearer decisions and managed to work on the overwhole picture of the work. I have also been learning Relative Danger, we still have some dates of RD this Autumn and since the company is quite different to last year it makes sence for me to jump in. It reminds me that I love moving!
At the moment we are working on Rauw in Deurne, Antwerp. Rauw in Deurne is quite different from previous Rauw projects that we have done because everybody is over 50 and the oldest person in 79 years old. It's a fantastic project and I have been amazed by the energy these people have. To be honest, I think they are surprised too. We are working all around the building, doing contact improvisation, dance on settees, in foyers, on the big stage, solo's, group structures, etc... The Retina dancers are also dancing in Rauw and the integration really works. I am very excited and can't wait for the performance next Saturday.
One thing that stroke we over the past few weeks is that people are intriguing creatures. We are all different and react all so different to different circumstances. When I am working with these older people I am convinced that age has nothing to do with how old we are! It's all in the mind. The mentality of some of the 79 years old is much better and much more open than some of there younger (50 year old) dancer friends. I realize that some people still have the energy of a small child and others struggle to be physical. Its a great challenge but what I am also realising is that people don't actually know the extend of their real potential. I love to challenge people and try to have no expectations before the beginning of the project. And already after just 2 day's the improvement is mindblowing, you can see the trust, the cheer inventiveness, energy, socialability and communication that seems to come naturally to all these oldies come out and result in an inspiring physicality that only can be achieved when people give themselves completely. It's great to see that they are all doing that and the result on Saturday could be stunning.
Come and see
Filipx
Antipode
Eleven weeks have just passed since the first day of rehearsals for our new Retina Production of Antipode. Eleven weeks might seem a long time to create an hour long work and in some ways it is but having said that I feel that the work is only just beginning. Yes, we have finished the piece, it is in fact 1 hour and 3 minutes long but while we were doing our first preview in Lakeside Arts Centre in Nottingham last Tuesday I could see the real potential of this work for the first time. It was the first time that we did it with all the elements of the production. Live music, full lighting, projection, even a select, invited audience followed by a feedback session. For the first time I could sit back and see what I had created. Where the dynamic changes work and where they don't work, where the relationship between the dancers works and the relationship between the music and the dance.
The day after we had an other preview in front of a group af students and during this performance things were even more clear for me. So today we changed the whole middle section of the work. Not the actual movement material but the intent, spatial arangement and the order of events. So tomorrow we will work some more changes before we do our last run of this rehearsal process. Then we have a month off, to reflect on the work before we get together again a few days before the world premier during Tanzkiosk in Hamburg.
I love the way a work is never finished and in a way it is good to have deadlines to finish something. But sometimes I dream of having the luctury of having our own production space where we can experiment and try and start again for as long as it takes so we can really finish something before we take it on the road and actually do a premiere where I can be proud of. In the past I have been proud after about 25 performance.
I have the feeling that I am going to be proud at the premier in Hamburg on July 17th.
Cheers
BAsta
Joris Vanvinckenrooye plays SONAN. SONAN is a part of the new Retina production ANTIPODE. Here is a little preview.
