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February 27, 2006
Saltminer
Since the last entry, and the promise of a new posting as soon as, I've had my head firmly stuck where the sun doesn't shine. Jodie Gates arrived, fresh from setting the piece for Paris Opera Ballet no less, and took the people who'd done 'Artifact Suite' before up a notch and gave the newbies something to think about. It's amazing how much information, and processing of it, you can fit into four days. It made all the difference having her around again. Very challenging and very interesting. I feel the process took me a leap further as a dancer.
My back felt it too. I have a tendency of throwing myself totally into the movement and forgetting to hold anything back. The spine thinks that it's a garden hose on full blast and the pelvis dreams of hula hoops. A new addition to the mayhem is the ripping pain from the scars from a lung operation I had during the army. My left lung collapsed a couple of times during the service and the surgeons operating on it helpfully scraped some of the insides of the chest cavity so the lung would attach itself to the inside of the ribcage so that, in the case of the lung rupturing again, it wouldn't collapse. As soft tissue goes out of intercostal muscles, scar tissue and lung tissue what do you think is the weakest? I'm a bit worried that pushing the movement so far that the scars start hurting will have some adverse effect on the integrity of my lung... On a brighter note: that must mean that my ribcage is more mobile than ever!!! I'm transforming from a lump of brainless muscle into a pantyhose donning nancyboy. Nice.
A week after Jodie was gone it was Gerald Cassel's turn to do the same to MiddleSexGorge. It's a piece I'm hugely fond of. It's also first and foremost an ensemle piece. We've had a few new people busting their brains and bodies learning the material. We'd got all the way through the piece before Gerald arrived, but it seemed like we were getting constantly ahead of ourselves. We're talking about being three or four eights ahead of every possible musical que. Learning a new piece is always hard work, but learning twentyfour minutes of material and slotting into an established group in a week is akin to learning the entire Arameic dialogue of Mel Gibson's reworking of the Monty Python classic 'Life of Brian'. Gerald's influence was immediate and fascinating to watch and feel in the fellow dancers' bodies. Being able to show a movement, describe the intention and break it down to it's bare bones is one thing, but doing it so that the information is instantly understandable and useable to all involved is another matter. I personally have a lot to learn from how Gerald treated us and relayed his imformation to us. It was like he was adding the punctuation and explaining the meaning of that Arameic script to the new guys, Paul Liburd and Luke Ahmet in the first cast, and through the week they started to form understandable words, sentences and entire passages of thought out of the previously unconnected steps.
Jodie went. Gerald went. My back went. A change of oil, some chiropractic action and a re-think of the above mentioned total abandonment within the movement. Rather than jumping off the bridge and hoping the water's deep enough I've started to use a bungee cord. In other words: I'm learning to use my centre. After fourteen years of dancing it's about time I did.
We're boiling Cinderella on low heat and blasting the other pieces with a flamethrower. This week is production week in Theatre Royal in Glasgow, so plenty of hanging around, faffing about with lights, spacing and costumes. Next week we'll be in the exciting town of Stoke-on-Trent doing Cinders and rehearsing the new programme during the day, and the week after we'll be in Sadler's Wells in London doing the last shows of Cinderella and giving a little one night peek of the triple bill. The last time the company has been to London was about six years ago under the not-so-succesful direction of Robert North. Peter Darrell never saw the company do a major London gig, so it's quite a special occasion.
I'll let you know how it all unfolded as soon as and I'll get some pictures as well so when the stories get a bit long winded you've got at least something to keep you entertained. I'm going to stick my head back up my behind and go to bed like a good ostrich. Ta-ta.
February 14, 2006
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