SECOND STORY REHEARSAL #63

January 31, 2018

OUR BONDS DEEPEN

​Mandy brings Nate to the studio today as he has no preschool.  Throughout the rehearsal, Nate is generally self-sufficient, content to eat his yummy snacks and play with a variety of games.

Jonathan is excited to have child care so he can stay for the entire rehearsal.  Fingers crossed, it looks like his current babysitting arrangement will become permanent.

Lorena arrives feeling under the weather, but is eager to work.

However, as the dancers prepare to warm up, the conversation turns toward challenging personal and parenting issues.  Given the bonds of trust, caring, and support that have already developed, the dancers instinctively take the time to share their feelings and experiences.  They naturally put work aside so everyone can process these difficult dynamics and receive resonance and encouragement from their colleagues.  This experience draws the dancers even closer together, facilitating greater cohesion and richer collaborations as they return to work.

Lorena ‘s participation in the warm up with Jonathan and Mandy is sporadic as she must repeatedly jump out to attend to Sebastian’s needs.

First up: work on Jonathan’s piece.  Lorena begins by verbally reviewing the most recent changes and clarifications.  This exercise enables her to identify areas in which she needs further information – for example, her gesture phrase once she and Mandy switch roles.  Jonathan makes clear timing choices so he can help Lorena phrase this section to the music.

The dancers then review the final poses of the dance, helping one another clarify the details of each pose.

They are now ready to run the duet while Jonathan takes qualitative notes.  This is a milestone moment; getting to this point indicates that the dance is now a complete, cohesive work!  Moving forward, Jonathan can focus on cleaning up and refining the technical and emotional details.

About ¾ of the way through, the dancers need to pause so Lorena can help Sebastian with a number of issues.  While Lorena attends to her son’s needs, Jonathan begins to share his notes with Mandy.  When Lorena returns, the dancers fix one section of the piece, then continue to run it from where they left off.  Just as they arrive at the final pose of the duet, Sebastian runs to mom.  Of course – just one more movement left to complete the piece and boom, Mandy and Lorena must stop.  From another perspective, though, it appears as if Sebastian crashing into the dancers is the actual finale!  A typical Second Story moment!

Sebastian is repeatedly having frustrating toy assembly difficulties.  Although Nate tries to engage Sebastian and Jonathan offers to help, Sebastian feels that only mom can rectify the situation. 

Given Lorena’s focus on Sebastian and the short time remaining for Lorena to work on her piece, Jonathan suggests that they review his notes at the beginning of next week’s rehearsal.

As the dancers take a break, Mandy puts on a movie for the boys to watch.  Before long, the personal discussions resume.  There is clearly more processing needed before returning to rehearse.

As Lorena and Mandy start working on Lorena’s piece, Jonathan begins to review his solo.  Before long, though, Sebastian is torn between watching the video and going to mom.  Realizing that it will probably be difficult for Lorena to get much more work done with Sebastian as a continual distraction, Jonathan takes Sebastian on a walk through the building.  They play in the dressing room while Jonathan occasionally swings his legs and moves around to keep his body warm.

Mandy and Lorena now have some uninterrupted time to devote to the finale of Lorena’s dance.  However, it is difficult to focus on creating since this rehearsal has been so physically and emotionally draining.

When Jonathan returns with Sebastian, the dancers agree to begin next week’s session with work on Lorena’s piece. 

​It is wonderful to see a company of true friends and colleagues pull together to offer one another unconditional love and support.  It’s what makes Second Story Dance Project so special.