For our half group pieces, I have been out into Gabby and Theia's contemporary piece.
In out first lesson they didn't really have a plan, but just made us 'vibe' to music and get a feel for dancing. Honesty I was really uncomfortable with this because I'm not really confident with just moving it was like freestyle and I just didn't know what to do. In light of this I kind of just went for it, and started moving around the space in and out using different levels, and focusing on using different body parts to try and create new movement ideas instead of the usual ways my body moves.
At first the rehearsals were really long and unproductive, as there was lots of talking and just unnecessary distractions from certain people, and after they had to repeat themselves about a thousand times, it was becoming very annoying and disrespectful towards the choreographers, as all they were doing is trying to create. They allowed most of the movement to be formulated by us just 'moving' so they could take notes and try and get ideas and build upon it. We did this for about the first 4 rehearsals and after awhile it got trying as it felt like we weren't getting anywhere compared to the other group with brought the group morel down. And then when time was getting closer there was so much more pressure on getting things done, and it felt as if we hadn't been doing anything for ages. The concept was based upon the smuggling that takes place with refugee's when they are forced to pay for illegal transport and have to put trust in dealers to try and get their families safely across the borders. We were highlighting the vulnerability of the refugees, and the sacrifices they all have to make, willingly putting themselves into real danger in the hopes for a better life.
When things started to pick up a bit more, and the choreographers started coming with more for us to do, we could then start formulating a piece and sections. There was no order at first so we just kept learning random sections and had to keep them in our heads until they could work on things together. From being an assistant choreographer before I fully understand the pressures of everything, and the struggles when people are not co-operating with you, and not being respectful because it does get really emotional and hard to still see them as your friends. This is why people like myself, and Jemma, Kaya, Aisha, Tash, and Tumi were all trying to keep the piece and get people under control because it slowed our rehearsals down so much, and cause unnecessary arguments between people.
After working tirelessly and coming in for extra lunch and morning rehearsals we had finally got our piece structured (sort of) and were able to start running it properly, and feeling like a show piece. It was lovely to see adaptations of our own movement mixed with their movement and ideas coming together.
Once the piece was finished we just needed to keep running it, and cleaning it to get it just the way they wanted it focusing on intention, direction, and detail to every move.