SECOND STORY REHEARSAL #1

​                                                         July 26, 2016

• Jonathan’s caregiver situation for today starts to crumble, inducing panic.  Massive juggling is required to come up with a viable alternative.  Suddenly, Jonathan realizes that part of the concept of Second Story is creating while the children are present.  He recognizes that he slipped into a “I need to be in control” mindset as he prepared for the first day.  This realization allows him to make the decision to bring his children to the studio.
• Jonathan arrives early with a backpack full of toys, snacks – and, yes, dance clothes.  He fills out paperwork related to the space grant provided by the Steffi Nossen studio.  Meanwhile, the kids run around the studio, becoming acclimated to the space.
• Lorena arrives next with her 8-month old son Sebastian.  Sebastian joins Edgar and Eliza in getting used to the space while Jonathan and Lorena connect.
• Mandy arrives a bit later as she has to drop off her 3-year old and 5-year old sons at camp.  Jonathan, Lorena and Mandy take some time to become reacquainted.
• The dancers use ballet bars to create a play/snack area for the kids.
• Jonathan  realizes he didn’t have time to prepare a warm-up routine, but reminds himself that they can simply play it by ear and see what emerges.
• Eventually, Jonathan senses that “the spirit is right,” and the dancers begin to move.  They consider doing either a modern dance, Pilates, or ballet barre warm-up before deciding that Jonathan will lead a modern preparation.  He takes the dancers through pliés, tendús, and dégagés into full body movements – all while holding Eliza.  Jonathan then alternates with Lorena and Mandy to lead exercises.  All three dancers are elated to finally have an opportunity to warm up properly – a little more like professional dancers!
• Jonathan has a couple of ideas for the remaining hour, but cautions himself to avoid overthinking.  He instinctively chooses a classical piece by Dvôrak he loves and feels is appropriate for the dancers.
• Jonathan selects a phrase he used in his warm-up that he believes will look good with this music and tests it out; it works!  He then enhances it and eventually makes four “8’s” of material.  He acknowledges that “it’s a beginning” – and feels it is evidence that the environment they have created can actually work.
• As soon as the dancers collaborate, Jonathan is reminded how experienced Lorena and Mandy are.  He is delighted to see how they immediately delve into qualitative details, musicality, and counts. 
• Jonathan is excited when Lorena demonstrates a small part of a solo she recently created.  Backstory:  Lorena is a choreographer and performer who has been struggling since the birth of her child to find time to feed her creative needs.  Jonathan resonated her experience, explaining that he, too, has been trying to acknowledge and connect with his artistic self while functioning as a full-time caregiver.  He found a way to do just that by collaborating with Maggie Bradley, another professional dancer who is also a full-time parent.  Jonathan has been creating a new solo for Maggie; their work together has become a crucial creative outlet.  Both Jonathan and Maggie find themselves operating in a new context in which rehearsal time is severely limited, and work is combined with attending to the needs of their children.  Jonathan encouraged Lorena to take a similar approach: create a solo for one of her colleagues who is also a parent.  Lorena took Jonathan’s advice and choreographed a piece for another dancer.  She performs it herself today for Jonathan and Mandy, who consider it to be “beautiful.”  As to be expected in this new context, she dances despite the distractions of the children in the studio.
• The experiences in today’s session reaffirm Jonathan’s inclinations:

1. Jonathan’s choreographic style meshes well with Lorena’s.  They share similar training and artistic values even though they studied different techniques.  They “love the same things about dance.”  Jonathan believes Lorena would make a terrific collaborator as they are so in sync with one another.  Their complementary styles and choreographic approaches would ensure the cohesion of any piece they work on together.  Jonathan doesn’t like shared programs that feature disparate material; the pieces must make sense together.
2. Imagining a show they might do as a group, Jonathan envisions it including:

          -   an original work by Lorena.
          -   a solo he would revive for Mandy, originally created for one of his RDT                           dancers.
          -   a duet for Mandy and Lorena that springboards off of the choreography they               began creating today.
          -   the work of a friend who is a visual artist.

• Jonathan feels great about today’s session and receives enthusiastic feedback from Lorena and Mandy.
• Jonathan likes having his kids with him in the studio so he doesn’t have to worry about them.
• He wants to figure out what to call this group; an early idea is: Second Story...a name representing a new chapter in their professional and personal lives.