Dancing forward in space::
After a well deserved rest from Sello and Carlos`s workshop(my brain needed the rest more than my body). I somewhat came across Benij`s workshop. The scene looked peaceful through the peep hole from which I stole some scenes of improv.
I called the company to ask if they had available workshops, and alas they had(o.k....so I knew cause I peeped through the door but who was the wiser?). The next day I hit the dancefloor on schedule and had an hour and a half yoga to put me back in my place.
So Benji`s class is simple: warm-up by yoga, then movement research. The way he explained it was that he goes into simple movements that can build up to anything. Thing is the build up does take time, cause he works with the bodies movement memory.
On that thought: it is wonderous that the body can remember certain patterns, movements and habits(whether good or bad). The body has a mind while it dances or moves in daily life, this is why a dancer can dance in the moment or in a trance when they dance cause we move with our whole being.
So I felt Benji`s class did get a bit heavy after a week or two of doing the same thing. The yoga almost killed half the class as they positioned themselves into dogs, ploughs everyday. Those who lacked stretching ability found the warm-up a challenge and those that who lacked in movement could work towards better dancing in the second part of the class.
In our third week we took a trip to the apartheid museum to work on a piece between participants from South Africa, France, Belgium and Mocambique. We took notes on things that stuck out for us in the museum. The following day we had to work together and show our ideas from the previous day.
From Working on our ideas and developing them, Benji decided to pick from some of them to make a new piece. The idea was then to create a dance museum through the Drill Hall. So one piece that makes up a movement museum of sorts.
We worked at how everything can fit in together...sort of like a puzzle. Once we figured that out, we rehearsed it till it felt as good as it could and Benji would capture the rehearsals...even the performance.
Working with different people from different places was interesting. I mean with some dancers you can see how not having regular classes gives them a false sense of accomplishment...and I could feel it myself. Where a dancer can go 100% on adding ideas and movement...laziness comes in. It`s not that the dancer is tired it`s just that they can`t see themselves giving that much of themselves. It also comes with professionalism cause if you know you have to kill every piece even if you aren`t getting paid for it...then you`ve reached a new level in your profession.
The two performances we had went well...I rather liked the first at the Drill Hall. Simply cause it felt like a museum, the conditions were right and the building also was a nicer setting for the piece. The second one we did we did only in a room, we had changed the final piece from what it was the previous week and energy was different. We had lost the museum-ness of the piece plus there some issues during the piece as we had to climb over the audience most times and some happened to be kids.
I look forward to the next time I can build my audience/performer relationship...and try my hand at choreography(god forbid...I actually become one....that would mean I loose all ability to give someone directions!)
