Reflecting on the translation of the work on another body

The second performance, at 19.00, had according to me the essential feeling to it. In the warm up, I had helped Cézanne (the dancer) to get deep into the performative state that she needed to be in. A certain way of moving, which includes moving slowly on the floor with as many body parts released as possible, helps with getting there.
In general, I think that the translation of the work on another body was successful. The reason for that is what I stated above – the overall feeling that I was looking for was translated, and the movement qualities were very similar to when I performed the solo myself.

I must say that I was not completely happy with some details though. For example, there was something different in Cézanne’s facial expression in the dancing in front of the mirror part. Though I had tried very hard during rehearsals (maybe too hard), it seems like I had not been able to fully communicate what the intention behind the facial expression was. In addition, the lack of clarity that I had for myself in relation to the last part of the solo, became even more evident when I faced the challenge of translating it to Cézanne. I had my hopes that through working on it together, I would realize what it was about. But instead I avoided working on that part, which resulted in both me and Cézanne feeling more insecure about it compared to the other solo parts, and the performance was naturally also weaker.

Reflecting on the collaboration process with the dancer

The collaboration process went very well! Me and Cézanne were a match, and that is important to me - to ‘click’ with the people I am working with. I can of course also work with people that I have less of a click with, but I have noticed that it requires a lot more energy.
Anyhow, what worked in our collaboration was the warm up that we performed together every rehearsal. I had a set of songs, around 4-5, that each indicated a specific part of the warm up. The specific parts were also linked to movement qualities from the solo, that Cézanne according to me needed to get used to. It worked well, because I both gave verbal instructions that Cézanne could follow, but most importantly, I participated with my body, and Cézanne got the chance to watch and directly copy my movements.

When getting to the part of the rehearsals where we worked on learning the solo more specifically, we continued with the same strategy. I did a movement or a set of movements, and then she tried. Then I gave feedback and showed the movements again. I would simultaneously talk and try to find different words, different ways of describing the feeling and intention behind the movements or actions. Cézanne also asked a lot of questions. The communication worked well.
I do believe it was sometimes to much information at the same time though. I always got very enthusiastic during the rehearsals, and wanted her to do everything perfect. I didn’t see it as her job though, but mine, to be such a good leader and translator of the solo that she and her body would understand everything perfectly.

Luckily, I did have tools to combat the perfectionism. I broke down the choreography into smaller, more comprehensible parts, I drew pedagogical floor maps for better overview of how to travel through the room on stage, and I made super clear plans for each rehearsal. Then I tried to stick to them. Cézanne gave me feedback that the clear structure of the rehearsals made her feel more calm and receptible for information.

Evaluation and conclusions and feedforward towards solo trits

The first of my conclusions is that I would probably have benefited from sometimes sitting down and just watching Cézanne do the full solo. Then giving feedback. What we lacked was more runs of the solo, so that she got to practice the whole journey. I spent too much time working on the parts separately, because I wanted her to get the details down in each of them. Except the last part, that I felt like I never had time to work on, but actually that was a way of avoiding it. Therefore, a feedforward towards solo trits, is to try and make a score early on, that I can perform over and over again, and for each time I do it, I get more and more details down. Transitions, for example. The transitions were weaker than they should be when Cézanne performed the solo, because she hadn’t gotten enough chances to practice them.

Sometimes, when I watched Cézanne dance the solo, I could feel that something wasn’t right in certain parts, but I struggled with putting my finger on what it actually was. In the future, when I feel this in any work, I want to take my time to investigate what is not right yet. Those are usually crucial moments, and I don’t want to let them go too easily.