Something Is Missing

I was not satisfied with how my dancer performed my solo during the rehearsal. There was something missing but I could not detect what it is. She did not mess up the movements, she was always on the music and with the counts, she remembered the lights but there was something that was not right. I thought it was the energy, that she did not give her 100% but I was not sure so I spoke with one of my colleagues about it. She told me that for her it seemed that she was too much in her head instead of in her body. In that moment it all started to make sense - she did what she was supposed to do but because she was thinking too much it did not allow her to go fully into the qualities of the movements. My colleague gave me a suggestion - she told me that before the performances I can talk to my dancer and tell her to let go of everything, to forget about everything I said because the qualities are in her body, she knows what she has to do. That is what I did. I told her to really feel the music and go from the body. Now it is her piece, she has to own it. I also did not give her any feedback after the general rehearsal and the first performance as I thought this would make her stuck in her head and put too much pressure. I just wanted her to enjoy being on stage and get into the solo.

3. Teaching The Beginning - How Did I Do It?

• Taught the material in sections - I divided the whole 2min30sec we learned into 3 parts. The first part went until laying on the back, the second one was until the head bouncing and the last section was the floor part before getting up. 
• Taught 1st part, went over it, did it with music —> taught 2nd part, went over it, did it with music, connected it with the 1st part —> taught 3rd part, went over it, did it with music, connected it with the 2 previous parts

I was giving my dancer a lot of imagery to help her understand and perform the quality of my movements. For example, in the transition from the first sleeping pose to the second one I said it has to be more natural and ordinary than dancy because I want to make it look like I am literally laying in my bed. I told her that it feels as if you are sleeping and at one point in your sleep you change the position because the one you are in is uncomfortable. When I was explaining to her the part when I am facing the back and I am trying to get up, I said that it feels like I want to get up, but I am not sure, I am kind of questioning it, that I cannot fully stand up because my body is too heavy so I keep falling back down. I also said that the movement is broken, I do not move in one flow, there are always these small breaks that interrupt the flow. I did not think of these images before, they were coming up on the spot as I was showing my material.

Example Of Feedback I Gave

What worked

• Position in the beginning with the lights - perfect
• Hand with head on the beat - IT WAS TOGETHER !
• HEAD WAS ON THE BEAT! (when sitting on the knees)
• Good floorwork before standing up
• Good, smooth transitions between the different qualities (glued hands, magnets on the knees and the heel into the floor)
• Going into the center into the knot - amazing 
• Moving the knot and unwinding it - great
• Feeling yourself - head was on the beat! + good standing up
• Great transition between the different head bounces = maybe only the one into the groove can be better
• Following the base for the house phrase - works well, the phrase was perfectly on the music 
• Ending (the silence part) - amazing + don’t be afraid of making sounds, it works great especially that now the music is gone

What needs attention

• Flop can be stronger, let go more and really try to flop with the sound in the music
• Can change into sitting on the knees slower - take more time on the floor, don’t roll too fast 
• Going down with the glued hands - make them asymmetrical 
• Glued hands, magnets on the knees - can be more explosive and faster, the movement comes from the CORE and not from the hands, more tension in the core to make the movement more snappy - after this part you should be quite exhausted
• Face the diagonal with the glued hands, magnets on the knees and crazy feet with crazy hands
• Traveling with the crossing on the floor - can be faster, sharper, quicker changes, and the roll at the end should be done in 1 second - it is like the super fast crossings make you fall and the momentum continues with the roll and you stop it with the slap on the floor
• Crossing on the floor on the spot - a bit more to the right (so it’s not directly in front of the stairs)
• Build down longer the crossing before falling into the pause 
• Build up a bit slower going into the center
• Brushing the legs at the end - again go from the core and not the hands
• Can shift the weight more in the last part 
• Fall into the first light - you can make more sound when falling + fall more in the center of the spotlight 
• You can stay in the second position at the end for a bit longer 
• Play more with the elbows at the end - don’t just go once up and the fall, make it similar to as you do it in the very beginning 

Feeling The Music, Looseness & Creating Own Rhythm 

These 3 qualities (from the title) are essential in my solo so I thought it would be good to spend some time on them during the warm up so that she gets a sense on what is needed. I created this plan:

• First song - feel the music, bounce, relax (use what we did with the head bouncing)
• Second song - do not follow the beat by constantly creating your own rhythym with the sound of your feet or hands
• Third song - same task as for the second song but now with a song that you would want to follow the rhythm to

This was one version that we did and another time we did this:

• First song - feel the music, bounce, relax (use what we did with the head bouncing), same song as last time
• Second song - try to catch the various layers of the music by constantly creating your own rhythym with the sound of your feet or hands, same song as last time
• Third song - same task as for the second song but now with a song that you would want to follow the rhythm to, different song - house instead of hip hop

The head bouncing and being loose got a lot better over time so I decided to tackle other qualities we could practice. It was challenging for my dancer to switch from being on the music and really feeling it to kind of going against it and creating her own rhythym on top of it. I did this with two very different songs. “Unknown Trauma” is a crazy song with many layers and sounds which are never constant, it is hard to grasp it because nothing is regular in it. I thought this would be a nice start because she would not have to try hard to go against it. Then I put a song that is nice to listen to and has a constant beat so it would be much harder to go against it. I tried this myself once when I had an improvisation session with some friends - we picked some famous songs such as “The Real Slim Shady” by Eminem or “The Way I Are” by Timbland, Keri Hilson & D.O.E. and the task was to not go with the song, to do something that is completely not what one would expect to see. It was difficult to do that because I knew the songs and I just wanted to vibe to them but at the same time because the beat was so repetitive it was easy to not follow it. This ability of switching from being on beat and ignoring it and following your own rhythym is somehting that appears in my solo quite a few times so it was important for me to give my dancer some time to reasearch and play with this.

Music I used:

"The Passion 1" by Technohead (first song)

"Unknown Trauma" by Two Fingers (second song)

"Killing Me Softly With His Song" by Fugees & Ms. Lauryn Hill (third song)

 "Legacy" by OVEOUS & Don Kamares (third song second version)

Jumps

This warmp up is something I did in my solo process before every rehearsal. I played a song that gives me energy, that gets me moving and I would jump for the whole song (or sometimes I would let it play twice). This warm up worked for me because a) it warmed up my body, b) it got my body moving, c) it gave me some stamina training (which is needed for my solo) and d) it was just giving me energy and motivation to move. I decided to this one with my dancer to show her how I warm up and I actually wanted to have it as a ritual before every rehearsal but that did not happen as I came to a conlusion that there are better ways to warm up that could also serve as a preparation for my solo.

Music I used:

"Muita Doree" by Ed Sangria

"Kitale" by Sam One

Observation - giving, letting explore, giving more

One day there were 3 qualities we had to go through - itching body, magnets on the knees and crazy footwork. We started with itching body and this is more less what I said to her: "it is like your body is covered in mosquito bites, you start slowly, it builds up and then it goes crazy, it is so intense and your arms go all over your body". I let her explore with these words for a bit as I was on the side watching. I could see that she is not doing exactly what I want. I noticed what is missing and afterwards gave her more words. What was especially missing was the sharpness of the movement and being fast. I understand “crazy” as going fast, sharp and really using the dynamics, which I did not see in her. This could be because she understood “crazy” differently, she went slower, more carefully because it was the first time she was exploring this quality (which is also what I do when researching something for the first time, I start slow to find movement and than I add onto it various layers) or I was not clear enough. I told her to be sharper, faster, that it feels like someone is giving you an electric shock and that again there are these interruptions so the movement is not done in one flow but there are these breaks which break down the movement. I also said that I use my upper body a lot, as in that it moves in different directions as the arms are going crazy, and that I have a lot of tension in there to make the movement quick and sharp. I let her explore once again and I could already see a difference. From this I learned that when I give the first words or images and let the person explore them, it might not look like how I want it to look. By watching them I can see and pinpoint what is missing and give them more input. Through observation I can see what I did not say but what might help them.

Observation + doing the movement - adjusting details

Sometimes when watching her I could see that something it not how I want it to be but I could not detect what it is. There is a moment in the beginning of my solo when I bounce with my feet and my hands slowly go towards the sky and the way she was bringing her hands was not the way I want it to be. I thought it was the symmetry - both hands were going up at the same level - so I told her to bring one hand a bit higher so that one is above the other but that was not it. I started to do the movement myself and analyzed what I am doing. As I was searchign myself I was also observing her and that was when I saw it. It was the elbows. I kept mine close to the body whereas she had them open to the side. Observation together with me doing the movement allowed me to see what had to be adjusted.

Questions

I ask my dancer a lot of questions: “How do you feel dancing it?”, “Do you have any questions about any movements or the music?, “Do you feel like learning more or we keep it here?” or “What do you need?”. Asking these questions really helped me because I do not know what she needs and her answers helped me to decide what we are going to do. For example, I asked her if she wants to learn the short house phrase or if we just go through what we already did. I felt like teaching the phrase because it is short and quite easy but we also did a lot so I needed to know if she can manage or it will be too much. She said she would prefer to go through what we did today and connect it with what we did yesterday. I was glad I asked because otherwise I would push her too much. I realized that it is good to have this dialogue with the dancer because then you know where they are, what they need and based on that we can work in a way that does not push them too far. 

Feedback

After each time we went through the material I gave her feedback of what worked and what can she pay more attention to. I saw her immediately applying the feedback which was great to see. What is more, I noticed that she cannot bounce her head to the beat when she has to do move other body parts at the same time. There is one moment when I tap the floor with my hand to the beat and then the head joins. She could do the hand but once the head would join she would loose the beat. I mentioned that to her and she said that she actually struggles with it, to have the coordination, and asked if we can spend some time on that. So the feedback works both ways - I help her and she helps me. 

Darkness

There were 2 or 3 times where at the end of the warm up I let my dancer explore some qualities and practice everything we did in the warm up with the song of my solo in darkness. I thought it would be good if she could already apply the feeling and the qualities we did in the warm up with the music she will be performing to. I also thought that it is good for her to listen to the song over and over again so that she can get used to it, so that she can hear the cues and connect more and more with the song as the music does play a big part in my solo. I was always turning the lights off as I know that for myself darkness allows me to go more into the body and less into the head. Once I asked her if the darkness helps her and she said that it does. I could also see it myself as I saw her taking more risks and being more relaxed and loose with her body. 

Closed eyes

I noticed that when I let her research in the darkness she often has her eyes closed. When we went through the material in silence and with the music she also always started with having her eyes closed. One time she was not in the direction she should be (because she had her eyes closed) and while she was dancing I screamed to face the diagonal because I did not want her to get used to facing a different direction. After the run she told me that for now she does it with eyes closed because it helps her to get into the quality of the movement. That was really interesting because I feel the same way. When I have my eyes closed then I feel more like I am in my body. I was glad she did that, that she took the responsibility and did what was needed to perform the qualities. Having the eyes closed is actually very similar to dancing in the darkness, because in both cases you cannot see. It is good she shared that with me because perhaps many other dancers feel the same way so this can be something I can use in the future.

Repetition

For the last few times I did a warm up that focused on head bouncing, bouncing, being relaxed and loose. I planned to do it only once - when we were practicing the head bouncing - but it was actually a good way to get the body ready for my piece so I decided to continue with that. With time I could see how my dancer was able to relax more and just let her body go. In my solo there are many moments of tension but for her I think the relaxation is the harder one. 

More feedback = new words

As I was giving feedback when doing the material in silence, new words and explanations came to me. For example, when she has to stand up from the floor for the first time, I told her to go against everything you do in floorwork and to piss off the floorwork teacher. That is because when she gets up she is not supposed to use her hands to help herself. I mean she can use them but only the outer surface of her hands which is something that is really against floorwork technique. Another thing that came to me was with the magnets on the knees. There was something wrong with the way she was placing her feet, I felt like it was not sharp enough and that she was not really lifting her feet off the ground so I told her to think about killing spiders, that with every step she she is stepping on a spider. It did help a little bit. I also used the spiders for the crossings, when she is on the floor making sound with her hands. The sound was not very strong and not quick enough so I again told her to think of the spiders and in here it really did work. It is interesting how you give some words and images but they still do not give you what you are looking for and you look for alternatives. I can also see how these simpler and more funny things can help the dancer more than those big words such as interruption or being overstimulated. Complex concept are easier understood when explained with simple vocabulary. 

Creating a spotlight 

In the first part of my solo I am using only a little bit of space, which is clearly given and defined on a stage by a spotlight. This part lasts for around 2 minutes. I saw that she tends to travel in this section to the left so I decided to create the spotlight for her. I got my leggings, fanny pack, hoodie and scarf and created a circle of similar size that the spotlight gives and told her that this all the space she has for the whole beginning. I knew that she would probably stick to the space once we are on stage and do the lights but I wanted her to already practice it a bit. 

First half & second half

After we did a full run through I asked how it was for her to do it for the first time all together. She mentioned that it was a bit weird as now she felt the division between the first and the second half, that it was hard for her to connect the two parts. That made sense because we always practiced it two sections and never as a whole. This is a note for me that splitting everything into sections might not the best idea because then the choreography might feel fragmented. It could have been an idea to first do the first half, then do the first half with the next section, then the first part with the next 2 sections and so on so that step by step we reach the whole piece. It could have been again me planning everything so precisely but what looks good on a paper does not necessary work in the real world.

1. Preparation

6x8 - laying 1st position 

on the 7th eight (2 counts) - change position

6x8 (or 4x8 after the first cue) - laying in the 2nd position

after the cue take 1x8 to change to the 3rd position

3x8 - 3rd position

2x8 - hand 

2x8 - head

4x8 - transition to laying on the back (drop on the cue in music)

3x8 - laying on the back

5x8 - trying to get up and changing to sitting position

2x8 - head bouncing

6x8 - trying to get up

4x8 - getting up

After performing the solo I did not look at it throughout the whole Christmas break. I needed to look back at it and especially refresh the counts so that I am ready for the rehearsal and can just tell my dancer how long each part is instead of checking it on the spot all the time. I did not want to waste time during the rehearsal on anything that I could have done before the rehearsal.

Head Bouncing & Looseness

I noticed that my dancer has difficulties with bouncing the head and coordinating it with other body parts. This was visibile in the begining of my solo where she taps the floor with her hand and then the head joins. As soon as she would add she would lose the beat and the hand was not in sync with the head. I mentioned it to her and she said that she actually struggles with this, that doing bouncing the head at the same time with something else is difficult. Due to this I decided to do a warm up that will focus just on the head bounce so that it would feel more natural for her and she would not have to think about it. These are some of the thigns I did with her:

• Head bounce every 4 counts - bounce, 2, 3, 4, bounce, 6, 7, 8
• Head bounce every 2 counts - bounce, bounce, 3, 4, bounce, bounce, 7, 8
• Head bounce 4 counts and 4 counts pause 
• Head bounce 8 counts and 8 counts pause
• Head bounce continuous
• Head bounce with bouncing
• Head bounce with slow moving - side to side with the legs
• Head bounce with slow moving - random
• Head bounce with the hand tap (like in my solo)

I built it up, it went from 1 head bounce, to 2 to 4 and so on. Later on I added bouncing because it helps me to relax and to feel the music. What is more, finding the beat with the knees might be easier and more natural than with the head. In hip hop, for example, bounce is fundamental and whenever you start dancing that bounce, with time and practice, comes naturally. I thought that this might help her to find the beat and once she has it then I would add the head. So sometimes we only bounced, sometimes we only did the head bouncing and sometimes we combined the two of them. I played around to see what she needs. If I saw that the head is kind of losing it and going off beat then I would go into bounce, if the bounce was good I would add the head. I thought this can be the easiest coordination to practice because when the knees go down the head also goes down so they are moving in the same direction. Then I played with the dynamics - the head continues bouncing, it goes on the full counts, and the body is slowly moving, smoothly flowing through the counts. I put two different rhythms and qualities together as I thought this can be a good exercise for her. Towards the end I added the hand tapping as this is something she was struggling with. I saw that after all this time we have been doing head bouncing, it was easier for her to do it because the head movement was becoming more natural and she could think less about it and focus more to the hand. When it was enough for the head I decided to just bounce, relax, be loose and just feel the music. This quality is important in my solo so I thought it would be good to dive into it as it connects with the head bounce and the music that I used for this warm up.

Music I used:

"Nine O' Three" by Donato Dozzy

"20inch Chrome" by DJ Europarking & Dollkraut

"Along Came Polly - Original Mix" by Rebuke

"Meet Her At The Love Parade" by Vieze Asbak

Second Performance

The performance at 19:00 was the only one that I fully watched. Other times I was busy with doing the lights, filming or analyzing my dancer and seeing if there is anything I can give her feedback on. Watching my dancer and hoping that she will do everything as I want was taking out so much enjoyment from me, I could not just sit and watch her dance because my head was so busy with all the little details. It was in the second performance when I realized that it is my only chance now to witness my solo as an audience member and not as a choreographer. It is the last one and I want to enjoy it and see how I perceive my work.

When the silence part came, I got emotional and I had some tears in my eyes. I think this happened due to a few reasons; 1) I was really proud of my dancer, she performed it very well (she was not in her head like in the general rehearsal) and I could see that she is really in it and giving her all, 2) I was proud of myself for making this solo, there are some things that can be worked on but as a first creation of mine I think I did a good job, and 3) I started to recognize myself and my story. Watching my solo made me realize that this is about me, it made me feel like I am watching myself. I felt that way because I move like this, it is my movement language and because there are certain moments of my life and feelings that are attached to the movements and seeing them was like watching a short summary of my life. It was a surreal experience and I did not expect to feel this way when watching my own work.

2. Guided Improvisation as Warm Up And Introduction to My Solo

• Imagine you are in your warm, cozy bed, you are excited to go to sleep and rest + think about what movements you do when you sleep. Do you change positions? Are your feet moving because they are cold? Maybe there are some sudden impulses? Maybe you are constantly moving because every position is uncomfortable?
• Now it is time to wake up, you know you need to get up but you really want to stay in your bed, you go up and back down, up and down, it is like a fight with yourself
• You mange to get up but you are still in a dreamy state, you are floating and your head is bouncing
• In your dreams the outer surface of your hands gets attached to your body and you cannot loose the connection, it is like your hands are glued to your body
• Your body starts to itch as if it is covered in 1000 mosquito bites and you try to scratch every bite to make the pain less intense
• The itching is more and more intense and your hands go crazy on your body
• The itching becomes less intense, you realize the mosquito bites were just a dream, they are not real
• You slow down and slowly stop moving, it is just you standing in the space

Usually I start my rehearsals with a cardio type of warm up but as this was the first rehearsal after a 2 week break and I was teaching not physically demanding part of my solo, it did not make sense to start with a physicaly intense warm up. Instead I did guided improvisation - the above in bulletpoints - which I prepared beforehand (what I said to her while improvising was planned). Through this improvisation I basically guided my dancer through the beginning of my solo. How I got to it is that I watched my solo and I started to describe what I am doing, think of images yhat can lead my dancer towards my movement quality and that I transformed into this improvisation warm up. I thought that this could already get her into the mood of my piece and prepare her specifically for what we are going to work on that specific day.

4. Learning About Myself

I was a bit scared for the first rehearsal because it is always awkward for me to be with someone 1 on 1, especially when I do not know that person well. I was also scared about how I am going to teach my material because I do not consider myself a person that can teach or express my ideas and thoughts well. I had no plan of how I am going to teach it, how I am going to explain the different qualities, but as I learned from my process, the best things can come when you do not have a plan, so I sticked to that. When teaching, I was both showing the physicality and explaining it verbally - I was giving her words and images that can help her find and perform the quality. During that process I learned more about my solo. Before starting with solo bis I knew what I am doing and what I want to portray but it was hard to put it into words and now searching for the words to help my dancer was like learning more about my quality and what is going on in my head when I am creating. Moreover, when explaining some movements I noticed how for me the movement just comes, it is natural, but I do not actually know and I am not conscious of what body parts are initiating it or help me do a certain movement. That was again when I was laying facing the back and trying to get up. I realized I use my elbows and upper arms to push myself from the floor but that only became clear when I had to explain it to someone because for myself that is already in the body. What I also noticed was that my movement is always interrupted, it never goes in one flow. I never thought of that when creating my solo, I never named it, I was just doing it because my body knew what to do and, again, only when I had to teach it then I was like “aaaaa this is what I am doing”.

Warm Up As Preparation

During the process I realized that doing a warm up simply just to warm up is not very efficient. I came to a conclusion that it can already serve as a preparation for what we are going to do later in the rehearsal. For instance, when I knew that next rehearsal I am going to teach my dancer the diagonal where the main focus is on "crossings" then at some point of the warm up I would introduce this concept to her and let her improvise and research with it. When I knew we are going to work on the "feeling yourself", I would do a warm up that focuses on jacking, grooving, feeling the music and relaxing the body. This means that I needed to plan my rehearsals ahead of time as in I needed to have an idea of what we are going to work on so I can prepare the warm up accordingly. That way I would already prepare my dancer and give her the opportunity to explore a certain quality before it is used in the context of my solo - first research, then refine.

On the left you can see the schedule I have created for the solo bis process. I made this table so that I could see how many rehearsalas I can have in total (after discussing with my dancer her availability) and how I can spread the material of the solo over those rehearsals. I had a rough plan before the rehearsals started and I made adjustments as we were going. This definitely helped me to stay on track and to not stress about the time.

Color-coding:

Black is what the original plan was.

Red are the changes. 

Green is what was done on top of the original plan.

a: warm up                                                                        b: rehearsal                                                              c: light rehearsal