With the second, younger, group of Deciertopicante I am leading basic workshop. This youngsters are incorporated as apprentices of DCP. Before my arrival, they have already been working on "Alice in Wonderland". I took over the direction from Roberto to create a choreography based on this world-famous story, yet using the already exciting structure of the show. The begging was very difficult. I would call it a shock, caused also by the fact, that the aim of this process was not so clear neither for me. A confusion appeared where do we go with "Alice"... Suddenly, from day to another, they dropped the text repeated by heart every evening, they faced an unknown language of contemporary dance, their bodies were asked to transform the text into a movement and to give a body and physicality to the characters performed automatically, basing the acting on mechanical execution of text.
It was far too much, it was far too quick. It was another planet. I realized, that with the "Alice" group I can' t keep the same speed of developing material as with the advanced group. The apprentices have been participating in rehearsals of DCP 3-4 months, they haven't had enough time to get known each other well. The priority for this group became to built trust between themselves, and not as with the advanced group, between me and them. I changed the approach and content of the rehearsals. We decided with Roberto that I work on the choreography till 1st June, when we have a work-in-progress performance, and after that he comes back to recover the full piece with use of text, incorporating the movement material that we will create.
Next, it was important to show them how the choreography relates to the story, because the dancing material was too abstract. Happily, last rehearsal, I observed a strong engagement and commitment, after it made sense for them, that one piece of choreography corresponds to the moment, when the foot of Alice grows until it disappears of sight (so she imagines to send gifts for Christmas for Mr.Right Foot).
Now we can continue with Alice' abrupt changes in size and the White Rabbit... Hurry! Hurry!
It was far too much, it was far too quick. It was another planet. I realized, that with the "Alice" group I can' t keep the same speed of developing material as with the advanced group. The apprentices have been participating in rehearsals of DCP 3-4 months, they haven't had enough time to get known each other well. The priority for this group became to built trust between themselves, and not as with the advanced group, between me and them. I changed the approach and content of the rehearsals. We decided with Roberto that I work on the choreography till 1st June, when we have a work-in-progress performance, and after that he comes back to recover the full piece with use of text, incorporating the movement material that we will create.
Next, it was important to show them how the choreography relates to the story, because the dancing material was too abstract. Happily, last rehearsal, I observed a strong engagement and commitment, after it made sense for them, that one piece of choreography corresponds to the moment, when the foot of Alice grows until it disappears of sight (so she imagines to send gifts for Christmas for Mr.Right Foot).
Now we can continue with Alice' abrupt changes in size and the White Rabbit... Hurry! Hurry!
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