achèvement

I have just now returned from my final audition here in Brussels. It was simply incredible and so much fun! The choreographers had such a clear vision and knew exactly what they were looking for. It turns out that only 12 dancers were invited to this audition. All were men with the exception of 4 women. They were not at all interested in choreography or technique. It seemed they were searching only for specific qualities of movement and imagination. It was incredible to look around and see how much talent was in the room. I felt so happy to be among them! We were able to watch each dancer's solo and then we improvised with specific propositions they gave us. Eventually we improvised in groups of three as the propositions became more and more specific. Some tasks involved traveling and others were in center. They were most interested in organic and naturalistic impulses. They wanted to see the movement come from the task and not the other way around. This is what I feel I will take with me the most as my next point of departure to investigate when I return to the states. This way of moving is pure beauty! I am very excited that I made it all the way through the audition. They kept me for 3 1/2 hours! Alas, I did not make the final cast but I learned so much! It was just incredible! And it was all in french! I may not be able to speak it very well yet, but I am comprehending more and more! This was my most favorite audition yet, rivaling cedar lake in nyc, of course. 

It has been an amazing journey. I am honored and humbled and ready for more! Thank you all so much! I will spend my last few days traveling around Belgium to discover more of this incredible place.

Gros bisous!!

ShaLeigh

let the auditions begin!

On Tuesday, I found my way to the Brussels International Ballet for an audition with the choreographer Tobias Bausch. According to his website, he studied classical ballet at Ballett Akademie Köln. The audition announcement called for 3 contemporary female dancers for a new production. The audition lasted about 2 1/2 hours and there were no cuts. He first showed us a very brief phrase. The movement was curiously simple and he put us in groups of 3 to dance. We were then invited to show choreography we had learned or to do an improvisation. After the movement portion, we were invited to perform more experimental theater based tasks. It was an interesting experience and quite hard to follow the inspiration I felt with the work at P.A.R.T.S. but it was a good first experience to get back into an auditioning frame of mind.


Today, I received an exciting notice that I have been selected for an audition here in Brussels at Charleroi Dances/La Raffinerie Studio for the CFB 451 company with the choreographers Christian and Prancois Ben Aim. They are holding auditions in Brussels and Paris for a new creation in Autumn of 2011. To be selected, we had to submit a CV and video, so I am really excited! I must now prepare a 3 minute solo and some sort of group proposition.

final rehearsals

I put together a little video of our final rehearsals of rain and drumming. There is much more footage of drumming than rain because I finally found a proper adaptor to charge my camera. The rain footage is of a shortened sequence from the original choreographic phrase. 

The drumming footage shows quite a bit more of the choreographic structures we worked with that were used to generate the piece. It begins with a running pattern from acceleration to deceleration that follows the path of the golden section. We then danced the original choreographic phrase within our own grids. The floor patterns were complex in that some grids were flat and others were shifted which created strong architectural relationships between the dancers. A few of us were chosen to learn the phrase on the left and then teach ourselves the right so that we would be mirror images of the corresponding grids. The movement itself is very percussive and we focused a great deal on suspensions and dynamic shifts of speed while also maintaining a group rhythm without counts. It was an incredible challenge to learn how to become quick and percussive without becoming stiff. There is also a short trio where we created a retro version of the phrase. We were instructed to find a way to be as close as possible to the dynamic of the original, using the same speed and accents. We also created our own versions of the material as short duets which began as close as possible to our partner. At every spacial intersection we would create a new version of the material. Lastly, there is a clip of phase shifting. It is very difficult to see because the camera only shows me, but I am doing a phrase forwards and backwards at different speeds. I begin at the same tempo as the other dancers, and then I begin to speed up and eventually slowly shift back to their speed. This corresponded to a musical structure that Steve Reich used in the score. 

week three contemporary technique

Dominique Duszynski danced with Pina Bausch's dance theatre from 1983 till 92. She is now a choreographer and has been teaching for institutions and companies in Europe. She has been on faculty at PARTS since the school was founded. Based on Pina Bausch' s art of moving, Dominique's class focuses on a dynamic and fluid dance where presence, space and speed have an important role. She also encourages contacts and connections with the floor, with partners and with the space. The research we do in class focuses on the quality of movement, body knowledge, and anatomical and spatial geometry. I am learning a lot about using the direction of weight through alignment instead of force and muscle. My new focus in moving is also to learn how to clearly separate my limbs and different parts of the body while also staying closer to my center or core. In other words, Im learning how to fold the body instead of bend.

drumming

Drumming was created in August 1998 to a composition of Steve Reich. The compelling rhythmicality of the music propels the dancers into a choreography that appears complex and at the same time insidiously simple. Just like the music, the dance proceeds from a single motion phrase, explored exhaustively and unremittingly for an hour through endless combinations, variations and transformations, by reversing it, speeding it up and slowing it down.

the golden section is used as a floor pattern

my contemporary technique classes

Week One: David Hernandez

David Hernandez studied studio music & jazz,  opera and dance in Miami. He worked as an apprentice for a time with the Trisha Brown Company. He moved to Europe with Meg Stuart to help her start Damaged Goods in Belgium, working as a performer, collaborator, training the company and often assistant to Stuart. He left the company to return to building his own body of work in Brussels under the name Edwardvzw. He has created several pieces, solos ande group work. He frequently collaborates as choreographer, dancer, composer, pedagogue and dramaturge with Brice Leroux (France), Labor Gras (Berlin), Rebecca Murgi (Italy), Abnouk Van Dijk (Amsterdam) and Rosas (Brussels). He developed, in collaboration with Meg Stuart & Christine De Smet, the improvisation project CrashLanding(1996-1999). He created several multi-media projects and happenings such as ‘Filter’, ‘Innersections’ and ‘Performance Hotel’  in visual arts spaces and theatres. He developed and directed The Performance Education Program (PEP) in Leuven in residence at the Klapstuk festival. He teaches regularly in Belgium and internationally and has been a core professor at PARTS, teaching technique, composition and improvisation, rhythm and dance and repertory projects.

Week Two: Laura Aris Alvare

Laura Aris Alvarez studied at the Institut del teatre in Barcelona. Between 1996 and 1999 she was part of Lanònima Imperial Dance Company, in Barcelona. She was also associated with General Electrica collective. Between 1999 and 2008 was a member of Ultima Vez/ Wim Vandekeybus for the creations and touring of: Inasmuch as life is borrowed, Scratching the Inner Fields, Blush, What a body does not remember, Sonic Boom, Puur , Spiegel, Menske . She also performed in several dance films directed by Wim Vandekeybus. She regularly teaches workshops related to the Ultima Vez dance vocabulary and contemporary technique lessons internationally. She set up a research project Ejercicios de Duelo, and made choreographies for theatres in Costa Rica and Mexico.

Week Three: Dominique Duszynski

Dominique Duszynski (contemporary, week 2) has been dancing with Pina Bausch's dance theatre from 1983 till 1992. She has been working on creations and pieces such as: 'Blaubart', 'Nelken', 'Kontakthof', 'Arien', '1980', 'The 7 deadly sins', 'Auf dem Gebirge', 'Two cigarettes in the dark', 'Viktor', 'Ahnen', 'Kommt tanz mit mir', 'Renate wandert aus', 'Wälzer', 'Bandoneon', 'Iphigenie', 'Orphée'... Since 1988, she teaches for institutions and companies in Europe. In 1992, she started her own research and collaborated with dancers and actors on the creation of a lot of pieces. She teaches at PARTS since the school was founded in 1995. In 2007, she creates her solo 'Fuga' and in 2008, dances in the trio 'Barroco'. 

Week Four: Roberto Olivan

Roberto Olivan studied at the Institut del Teatre in Barcelona and P.A.R.T.S. in Belgium. He danced with ROSAS which toured all over the world, before becoming the resident choreographer for the theater HET NET in Brugge where he created his first full length choreography, the award winningNatural Strange Days. Roberto has been creating choreographies for dance companies as well as choirs, advising actors, cinema and dance-circus. He has also been prolific within his own company, the ENCLAVE dance company, producing the much acclaimed Homeland, De Farra andMermaid’s Call. Roberto has worked with among others, Robert Wilson, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Josse de Pauw and Tom Jansen and created pieces for the Korean National University of Arts in Seoul, the Ensemble Walpurgis, Vertigo Dance Company in Israel, Iceland Dance Company, Centro Coreografico Galego, E.S.A.C. (Ecole Superiore des Arts du Cirque, Belgium) among many others. In addition, Roberto is the Artistic Director of the International Contemporary Dance Workshop “Deltebere Dansa” (Spain) since 2004. 

rehearsal images of rain