Dancer Lise Manavit has joined us for the second phase of rehearsals, so we are finally all together in the studio, Camilla, Keir, Lise and myself (plus three accordions). It is amazing for me to step away from being inside of the work and to see what we have been creating. The atmosphere between the performers is very warm and there is a lot of positive energy in the room, which is a gift. Particularly at this point, when a lot of the material has been created and difficult choices about how to develop the piece as a whole are pressing. And new challenges arise of how to travel through the many complex materials that require a lot of concentration and constant listening to each other. An important conceptual element of the new work is that the performers try out and learn something new, in this instance playing the accordion (to Camilla's expectation). The idea is that this helps to stay alert and open. In reality this is also very challenging, it requires some trust, stamina and curiosity in our own process.
Various sharing and workshop have been coming up and I have invited some people into the studio to see the process. Last week we gave a lecture demonstration for the MA composition students at Trinity College of Music, which was followed by a discussion. This was a great opportunity for us to perform some of our materials, to share our thoughts and to collect responses from an audience that is very familiar with working with formal structures. I was not sure what to expect and started to question my own aspiration of working so intensively with concepts that I am not an expert in. The students were very generous and curious in the way they engaged with us. Some of the questions that came up: What kind of commitment and precision do the minimalist structures, like those we borrowed from Tom Johnson, demand? When reinterpreting scores that were created by another artist is it important to stay true to the spirit of the original work? Can you respond to only one aspect of someone else's work?
No comments:
Post a Comment