“I can’t help thinking that any theatrical event is only completed when there is an audience to witness it.”
Yesterday was our first studio showing and after three and a half months it is a real pleasure to have an audience and also some feedback from friends!
Laurent recently read out a Dance UK report. Incredibly, a viewer watching something physical has the same part of the brain active as the person actually doing the physical act. Part of this even translates into muscle activity in their own body, as they watch! Maybe this shared experience, to some extent, explains the charge that exists in live performance... who knows?
I can’t help thinking that any theatrical event is only completed when there is an audience to witness it. There is a dynamic created when people are watching, so that energetically it is a completely different experience for the performer.
In the show last night, possibly due to the sheer amount of adrenaline coursing through my body, my awareness became incredibly heightened and I noticed things I’ve never seen before. I also misjudged a couple of moments and found myself doing odd things that never occurred in rehearsal!
Unfortunately Henry has a back injury and was unable to perform last night. It quickly became clear to me that it would be incredibly hard to cover his work. How can another dancer create much more than a pastiche in a short space of time when Henry has invested himself for months in this process? In a way, the fact that it is not as simple as learning steps from A to B is a wonderful thing and highlights the richness of having time to develop work. I think he will be ok for tonight.
Earlier this week, Matteo, after realising that we had unknowingly settled into a fairly conventional use of the music and that Sue’s structural choices were a little too familiar to him, has reordered our music tracks and ‘pulled the carpet’ so to speak. Sound and action have now been shifted out of sync which of course has created new moments that appear to be meticulously crafted and timed although they are completely unplanned. At some point these chance happenings have to be celebrated!
Next week we leave our comfortable roof studio and are off to perform in theatres, its Cambridge first. I am curious to see how lighting and set design come into play and frame and finish the works.
Ps. My feet are torn to bits from running in circles!
