Glad to be back in the studio—and the present—after several weeks of intensive research, reading, writing and focused thinking about future plans and projects.
After an initial period of focusing on conditioning my instrument, I am also glad that new movement has begun to emerge. It is so new that I have no idea yet whether it will become part of one of the two group pieces I have been wanting to develop next, or whether it will become a different piece altogether.
Grateful for creative renewal in the midst of so much uncertainty about the future of our country and of our planet—and taking heart from the sight of a variety of green plants thriving in the cracks of the tracks of an elevated subway station.
I have returned to the studio with performers Ingrid Kullberg–Bendz and Irene Siegel to prepare for our upcoming performance of The Lemonade Variations. I am choreographing an additional five minutes at the beginning and—as our zeitgeist has changed so dramatically since November—I also am rethinking the section before the ending and considering how these new developments will impact the rest of the piece.
After learning that I have been accepted to show work on Movement Research’s Monday Night Series at Judson Church in the fall (date TBA), I began to visualize more performers onstage for The Lemonade Variations. I invited Ingrid Kullberg-Benz, who has worked with me on previous projects, and Irene Siegel, who has not, to join me in the studio. They are both such accomplished pros that after just two two-hour rehearsals they have pretty much nailed the four-and-a-half minute theme containing many idiosyncratic shapes, gestures, rhythms and dynamics on which the other variations build.
Late one night/early one morning, over a month ago, “Simoom,” the title of a CD by composer Lois V Vierk popped into my head, seemingly out of nowhere.
