January 11, 2017 Lorena Flies Solo Lorena is flying solo today!
Jonathan and Lauren are down for the count. Must be some strange Northern Westchester plague. What’s worse, Jonathan’s whole family has it. I still can’t figure out how you can care for someone else when you can’t even move…. Mandy chooses to skip today’s session to enable Lorena to use all of the studio time to prepare for the performance at Jonathan’s sister-in-law’s studio next Monday. The silver lining is that Lorena “has the floor” today to really focus…at least in theory! Between exploring the studio and eating his “puffs”, Sebastian is occupied enough to allow mom to warm up with minimal interruption. To a point. Before long, he wants to be held. As usual, Lorena has to figure out creative ways to warm up while holding her son. Enter: Steffi Nossen’s director Shelley, with THE BEST toys for imaginative play. Sebastian is entranced, and Lorena is back stretching at the barre. Following warm-up, changing and playing with Sebastian, Lorena starts rehearsing her solo. A few phrases in, Sebastian decides that moving in mom’s arms is more compelling than the new goodies. Lorena winds up marking her choreography as she dances a virtual pas-de-deux with Sebastian. Sherri tries to engage Sebastian with inventive use of the toys, but is only intermittently successful. You just can’t compete with mommy’s embrace! During the time that Sebastian DOES play with Sherri, Lorena experiments with changing the location of an imaginary crib in her dance. Ultimately, she decides that the change is not working; it would require her to adjust too many other aspects of the choreography. Lorena then senses that something at the end of the piece is not quite right…she thinks she knows what it is and tests out some alternate ideas. At the conclusion of rehearsal, Lorena pronounces her solo good enough for a small showing of a work-in-progress. Sherri notes that Lorena’s choreography is quite lyrical and fluid, with graceful, flowing arms, suspended positions, frequent changes of direction, and soothing hand gestures. Lorena explains that the origin of this piece is “very organic. It just came out of the music.” Listening to some of her favorite pieces of music, she came upon Mozart’s “Serenade #10 in B Major” – the adagio portion – and instantly knew she wanted to create a dance using it. Her inspiration was the birth of her first child and early weeks of motherhood. While pregnant, Lorena found herself constantly swaying from side to side, a repetitive movement that remains in her body to this day. As soon as she heard the Mozart piece, her body moved into the familiar swaying rhythm. Clearly, this music would be the vehicle through which Lorena could communicate the experiences of new motherhood, including night rituals around putting the baby to sleep. In fact, the rocking movement that had already become ingrained in her body turned out to be the most effective way to soothe her child – and became the foundation of this dance. Creating this new, as yet untitled, work represents Lorena’s first foray back into dancing and choreography after becoming a mother. Our entire group wishes her all the best in her first post-baby performance! We also send our energy and support to Jonathan since he now has even LESS time to prepare himself for the show. Fortunately, the emotions upon which his work is based are deeply ingrained in his body. We are confident that he will be able to access these internal experiences to guide his performance.
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AuthorsSherri Muroff Kalt, founder of Process Portraits, LLC and author of Portrait of an Artistic Journey: The Creative Process in Real Life Context, is a Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude graduate of Duke University with a B.A. in psychology. She began her career in marketing and sales in New York City with L’Oréal, Monet Jewelers, and Givenchy. READ MORE |