SECOND STORY REHEARSAL #69

March 28, 2018

PREPARING TO DEVELOP YOUNG CHOREOGRAPHERS

​For months, we have been solely focused on preparing for our works-in-progress showing that just took place on March 18th.  Consequently, we only have 2 rehearsals – today and April 11th – to determine the program details for our choreographic children’s workshop called “Watch, Do and Make Dance!”  Designed in collaboration with the Westchester Children’s Museum, this special event will premiere on Sunday, April 15, 2018 at the museum.

Before discussing program content, the dancers consider their clothing options for the workshop.  They ultimately decide that they will wear the clothes they usually use for teaching their dance and Pilates classes.

Jonathan then offers ideas for a verbal introduction to kick off the workshop.  Mandy and Lorena think that Jonathan should be the speaker at the event.  They agree with Jonathan that his initial remarks should include an explanation of Second Story’s purpose and unique environment and a summary of the elements of the choreographic program.

Jonathan suggests that the workshop begin with a teacher-facilitated warm up with the children.  The dancers believe 10 minutes would  probably be the longest amount of time they could devote to this segment while retaining the kids’ interest.  The team agrees that one dancer will lead the warm up while the other 2 dancers spread out among the children so they can follow the instructor more easily.

To determine the contents of this segment, Jonathan, Mandy and Lorena simultaneously offer ideas and demonstrate their execution.  The sequence of exercises they select will touch on nearly every body part, going from head to toe.  The warm up will feature movements at different speeds, different height levels and in different directions…weight transfers…balancing on one leg and on tip toes…stepping out wide, then together…marching/running/jumping in place…rudimentary phrases such as grapevines…basic rotations/twists.  The dancers practice teaching the warm up movements, keeping the age of their audience in mind.

Mandy suggests that the dancers conclude the warm up with a game segment in which the kids are asked to make a variety of shapes with their bodies, based on Mandy’s prompts.  She proposes using cues tied to shapes, different height levels, and character imagery.  This way, the children gain some experience with creating material early in the program that will facilitate the generation of choreographic ideas later.

The team agrees with Jonathan’s outline of the rest of the program:

• Lorena will show about 30 seconds of her “Voices” piece, teach 4-6 moves from that segment, then encourage the kids to create new material jumping off from Lorena’s choreography.
• Mandy will do the same from the solo she created for Lorena.
• Jonathan will do the same with gestural phrases from his “Embers and Ash” piece.
• Lorena, Mandy and Jonathan will help the children weave together the 3 segments of material they have created into their own, unique dance.
• Parents will be invited to watch and video this final piece.

 
Time to choose the phrases to perform and teach:
Lorena

1. Lorena decides that she will dance a section of “Voices” that includes a lot of skipping and jumping.
2. She suggests teaching a couple phrases that involve, alternately, running, skipping and jumping in 3 different directions; after each traveling phrase, the kids will learn, then dance, a couple of moves that typify her style.
3. Lorena will help the children come up with similar movements to add on to her choreography, focusing on musical timing, patterns, and the material they just learned.

Mandy

1. Mandy chooses a segment of the solo she created for Lorena to perform. 
2. She then selects several movements from her piece that she thinks will best reflect her focus on making shapes with the body and be easy enough for the kids to learn.
3. She will remind the children of the shapes they made with their bodies during the warm up to help them come up with new material that they think would make sense to add on to Mandy’s choreography.

Jonathan

1. Jonathan decides to perform a series of gestural phrases from “Embers and Ash”.
2. He chooses several gestures from this segment to teach the children.
3. Jonathan plans to focus on the imagery of birds, claws and branches – and the emotions of his gestures – to help the children create material that they think would “come next” after the choreography they learn from Jonathan.

 
Lorena, Mandy and Jonathan then practice “teaching” the phrases to one another and coming up with verbal and physical cues that will help the kids generate new material.

Next, the dancers imagine working with the children to combine all 3 new sections of material.  They realize how this process will be a great lesson in learning about choreographic structure/geometry.

Interspersed throughout rehearsal today, the dancers suggest and play on their phones a number of pieces by Phillip Glass, So Percussion, Mickey Hart, and Hang Massive that could be used for the warm up and creation of original work.  Lorena volunteers to make the final selections from these options and create a CD for the workshop.

Meanwhile, Sebastian has been largely absorbed in watching videos, racing toy cars around the room, and joining the dancers as they test out Lorena’s aerobically exciting choreography.  Nevertheless, Lorena repeatedly transitions between creating and caregiving to attend to a variety of Sebastian’s needs.

​The dancers make a lot of progress today.  With one more session to practice each element of the program, they will be ready to launch this exciting new choreographic workshop!