Sept. 27, 2015 Sunday
My thesis is going well. I now have almost 4 minutes which is the whole, of the first piece, Uila. My original visual artist backed out, but I have found an art student who is taking over. We found panels through the theater department and they are on loan for the visual art. He started painting this past Friday. The panels will be painted an antique white, with browns to give vague replication of a breaching whale, hula dancer, and Okinawan drummer. Each on their own panel. Instead of being on rollers, they will have a hinged board on the back to hold them up, and then I will choreograph the dancers in movement with the panels. They are muslin fabric on 1"x4" boards.
Section three is about half way done, at 2:30. It is very tricky to get the dancers in timing with the drums, and so I've done some more chaotic choreography when the drums are chaotic to match. This section is high energy and exciting.
I only had one guy audition, so I asked a guy from the ballroom team to participate, and he agreed. They are both very good partners and movers.
I hope to start section two this week, which is a solo by me. I am still waiting on poetry from Jenna Robinson, but hope to send her some of my movement to encourage her inspiration.
Rehearsals are two hours on Tuesdays, and one on Thursdays, which I might add a Saturday morning time to next week to complete the work.
I need to get costumes ordered this week, and the music was spliced last week. The first piece is an original composition by Nadia Mair, and the third section is a work by Kenny Endo, with his permission. I am shortening it as it is almost 10 minutes.
The concert dates are November 5th and 7th, 7:30 pm, Utah time. The 6th is a huge founder's day celebration that would conflict with having a good audience.
I decided to use this new blog created for my technology class, as it was set up and only had one assignment on it.
Please send suggestions and comments through email. I'm trying to download the videos. I could only use one angle, which is stage left, front corner.
Thanks so much, Jenny
Saturday Oct. 3, 2015
I worked on my solo section of the thesis, section tow, this morning. I was able to complete almost three minutes of it. This past Tuesday we had a great rehearsal and finished the first section. Thursday I was able to add to the third section. It's getting closer, and very exciting. I ordered costumes today as well. Things are coming together. I spoke with the visual artist, Blaine, and he has started on the panels. I told him I need them completed by the 20th.
Saturday Oct. 10, 2015
I worked on my solo. I watched some slam poetry from youtube, and realized I needed more dynamics and passion in my movement., so I used some movement from Radiohead to inspire me. I will download the new video this weekend and post her on Monday. It is videoed from the side. I decided I want the stage half almost dark and half light. Costumes have been ordered. The visual panels are being painted, and hopefully this all comes together in a timely manner. I am very excited. I will finish the third section and solo this week. We have fall break Thursday and Friday and I will get my solo complete then, and I have a two hour rehearsal Tuesday, and will finish the third movement and video both movements Tuesday.
Tuesday Oct. 20, 2015
A really nice rehearsal today. Cleaned details up and ran through sections one and three, three times. I had faculty member PattiJo Hopes come watch and give feed back. She gave some great feedback and thought the transitions looked smooth. She feels like the second section will piece the two together. She noted the first section had a balanced combination of aggressive rigid movement with subtle. The third section she remarked was almost ritualistic with the circular formations and facings. I talked to her about some transitions and then I worked through those with the dancers. I then recorded the movements on one video to download tonight and send. We are rehearsing tomorrow night and Thursday, and we have three rehearsals next week before the show. I am confident as I clean and work with the dancers on timing it will be even clearer in movement, direction, facings, and quality. I am finishing my solo tonight and will start rehearsing it with them.
Friday, Oct. 30, 2015
The men's pants arrived and they are black. They are wearing a black tank top with these pants that look exactly how I wanted. I will take pictures tomorrow and post them. The women's tops have arrived and are a beautiful green color. I am still waiting on their genie pants. The genie pants have a peacock design on them, with green accents which the shirts will complement nicely. For the performance yesterday the dancers wore the green top and black leggings.
I finished my solo Monday, and rehearsed with the group Tuesday. We rehearsed with the panels and silent transitions. It was very exciting.
Yesterday the dance department performed for Convocations, which is a weekly campus event where different artists are invited to perform, both on campus artists and invited artists. Over 400 people were there. It is a 50 minute show. I had the 3rd movement from my thesis perform at the end and it went very well. We are rehearsing tomorrow morning for two hours to fine tune things, and I am rehearsing myself today. I invited faculty member Pattijo Hopes to watch my solo on Wednesday morning. She gave me some great feedback: travel more in the beginning when I push forward, use more downstage in that part as well. I do three forward moving planks and she asked about my focus on those parts, to make sure I'm specific. I decided to look down on the first one, forward, and then down again. There is a movement where my left hand comes up and touches my face and my left leg round de jambes while my right is in plie. She asked if my intention is soft, hard, slapping. I told her it's just a push/moving through the movement intention, so I worked on making that more clear. One section she mentioned I hold a lot of neck tension, so i went through that and realized how it felt and going to relax my neck there. I specifically asked about my dynamics and to watch those. she said there were good dynamics and transitions.
I will record it tomorrow with all three movements. Tech for this piece is on Tuesday, with the other pieces Monday and Tuesday. I took a two hour time slot. Dress rehearsal is Wednesday and the sow Thursday and Saturday. It starts at 7:30 Utah time, which next week will be 4:30 Hawaii time, with the time change this weekend. I am speaking with videographer David Dickinsen about the live stream feed. He will video both nights and I will get DVD of both. I will send in one video of just my piece.
Mahalo, Jenny
