Rehearsal #2: Always the hardest.

Have you ever flexed every muscle in your body all at once? Well, I am pretty sure I came close to that today. More to the point, my body is definitely in rebellion, protesting and warring against even the smallest attempts to move through space. And there is always that one person (usually me) who suggests that it is better to work through the pain and in essence push through it as if the promise of some great eternal reward lies just within your reach. So I, like a good little dancing cadet, soldier on and begin reviewing sequence after sequence. It is about an hour or so into the process that I realize this advice is not only unfounded but cruel because there is no working through the pain. There is only more pain, particularly after six hours of reworking phrases. It does not take long before I recollect that I am now experiencing the “no pain, no gain” philosophy I have been so cheerfully endorsing the past few years as a high school dance teacher. Sweet charity! I do not know whether to be the pot or the kettle here. All my moaning and groaning through rehearsal today has given me a new appreciation and perspective for the expectations I place upon my students. More importantly, I have assumed the challenging role of being the “student” once again, discovering that I need to reconnect with what it is like to push the limits and boundaries of my body. Focusing so much of my career on pedagogy has caused me to forget the thrill of this pursuit; the excitement of competing with myself to achieve much more than my body believed me to be capable of accomplishing. I cannot teach this. I can only exemplify it and relate my experiences to the students I teach. This whole process has reconnected me to my humble beginnings as a dancer, and provoked the awareness that it is a connection I have sorely missed.

-Natalie King

Mary: The Dreamer

We had our first dance rehearsal today. There were a total of six participants, one of course being the choreographer Mary. It was quite the experience to say the least. Mary is extremely athletic and therefore expects her dancers to be so as well. She relies heavily upon the physical prowess of the dancers to actualize her vision, which came to her through a series of dreams. While she managed to rule out walking in mid air, her dreams definitely lead us all down and up an unconventional path or two. Mary’s creative process centers primarily upon loosely structured contact improvisation. Her only rule negates “dead” lifts (partnering lifts that require brute force). This rule became my arch nemesis along with the floor of course. For the first time, I was responsible for my own weight when being lifted. Normally I could rely the on the person lifting me to actually lift me! Instead I found myself body climbing from one limb to the other as if they were tree branches. My hands, arms and legs were all simultaneously and without a doubt gracefully gripping for dear life to avoid that inevitable crash onto floor. I found that I did not mind grasping or being grasped in those oh so sensitive areas of the body as long as that meant I was going to defeat gravity. I found that I liked the challenge because it gave me a sense of power and satisfaction that I as a petitely statured dancer had never experienced before during partnering. I found that I was not just a prop being tossed around for aesthetic pleasure, but rather an equal partner in the design of a moving image.

Natalie King

Just Melt Up

Today was our first day of dancing. For the first part of this journey we are meeting in Lexington, Virginia with choreographer, Mary Lane.

Travel Day – Friday

Today is our travel day. My day started at about 3am in Phoenix. I am traveling through Charlotte, NC as is Natalie. From there we will board smaller plans and fly into the small Roanoke, Virginia airport arriving at the same time, if not on the same plane. My dad is picking us up from the airport and then we drive an hour north to Broadview Ranch, our home for the week and where I grew up.  After a nice family meal at farms pond, we will settle in and prepare for our early start in the morning.

This whole process, including the blog, is going to be an experience. It is going to be interesting working with Mary Lane again. I know her through her mother who was my high school dance teacher. Mary has gone on to study and explore the dance world in her own right and currently resides in Washington, DC. I will find out more of her experience later.

Flux Blog

Two of the members of Flux Dance Project are about to embark on a week lone choreographic intensive in Virginia. FLux is made up of dancers from all over the US and has it roots in Phoenix, Arizona. Graduate Students from Arizona State University gathered and decided to use thier multi-talents and energy to create a company which is able to be flexible and focus on any project any memeber wants to be part of. This give Flux Dance Project a real free, open structure. Flux feeds off of the many talents of it’s memebers and guest artist.

One project we are starting is called Common Threads. Because Flux memebers are spread out, we thought it would be interesting to have some choreography from all over. I am orginally from Virginia and still have many contacts there. We thought that having an intensive week of having work set on us would be idea.  So we set it up.

We have Mary Louisa Lane, from Lexington Virginia, but now in DC traveling back for a three day intensive to set a trio on us. While only two members were able to fly to Virginia, we are using interns and will record the work and set it on the third Flux member once we get back to Phoenix. Another great thing about this work is the music  might be from a local artist whose band is now starting to be seen all over the world. (Baroness) To have everyone come back to thier roots, with thier craft toned, and to share with fellow friends / artist is going to be an amazing experience.

The next three days is going to be spent in Lynchburg, Virginia at Sweet Briar College with Mark and Ella Megruder, professors at SBC. They are going to set work on Flux although, in true Flux fashion, no plans have been made until we get into the studio  and use the momentum of the moment to create the work.

The BLOG – Our goal is to keep a blog of our experiences, photos, and videos to keep anyone interested informed as well as to showcase the actaul process of creating work. As a dancer and performer I get many questions about the “process” of how dance is created. The process varies greatly depending on the choreographer, dancers, and time frame. However, since Flux is going through such an intense process, three pieces in one week (yes that is alot) I wanted to show how we create this work, from the dancers view, from the choreographer view, from the interns etc.

It is my goal it up date the blog everynight. Stay tuned and let us know your thoughts.
–Laura Atwood, Co-Director, Flux Dance Project