As a fortunate coincidence, the past Thursday we were able to shadow the peculiar dance rehearsal which noted choreographer John Jasperse held in a dance studio at the Thomas Hunter Hall. The reason why peculiar is an appropriate word to describe such experience relies on the fact that John himself was creating something unusual. During the rehearsal he described his dance and choreography to be centered around random details which in turn dictated the purpose of the performance. His randomized organization brought the dance to a level of improvisation with which he tampered and played to create the extraordinary spacial show we were able to witness.
“I divided the body in thirteen sections,” he said, introducing his concept of improvisation. As he developed his idea of pure chance, he exposed themes which I was not able to witness watching Stuart and Simon rehearse. An example would be the concept of a spiral he exposed in his first segment of the rehearsal. Although very explicit and evident, the concept seemed surreal to my mind during the performance. The ability to introduce any theme in a performance and mold intricate movements from that central theme, requires extensive knowledge and skill as well as a visionary imagination capable of creating wonder within the mind. The more surprising aspect of the first segment was the ability to portray the ‘spiral’ theme in connection to improvisation. Using Roman lettering and the physical sections of the body, John was able to dissect the movements into spirals to the left or spirals to the right in particular areas of the body. The impressive concept of improvisation was even more visible as both Stuart and Simon followed the same pattern of movements, but in different settings and positions.
As the rehearsal progressed, John introduced a new and more dynamic performance. This rehearsed bit was filled with excessive thumping sounds either given by purposely passion or the exhaustion of the dancers. Either option emphasized the importance and difficulty of the dance and once again, despite Simon’s and Stuart’s different positions, the performance melded into a unified progress of moves. While sometimes the dancers differed in orientation and position, John corrected their movements into a synchronized concept of emergence.
As he explained his wish to idealize a concept of emergence, John expressed some doubt – the kind of doubt only rehearsals can thoroughly bring forth. He saw some confusion in his intent in showing emergence as a central theme, but yet recognized that it was perhaps due to the improvisation necessary in the dance. Truthfully, the goal of emergence, as opposed to being a central theme of the dances, was instead a repetition of motifs throughout the performance. Whereas a logical goal of emergence would be a final unified set of movements, John used bits and pieces of Stuart’s and Simon’s movements to mold together at different times of the dance. In such way he portrayed his motif of emergence, which made the rehearsal even more pleasant to admire.
Keith (Blog B)
