
The endurance of this water as it cycles
Piece Description: our water source
This piece had all started months before, with one body, not eleven. He got out of the water on a June night, and the moonlight lit the smallest sliver of wet skin on his back. A spark of light. A curiosity came over me, forcing me to notice the small and all of its relevance. As the process approached, I watched and observed, a voyeur with an ache to find new miniature fascinations, including those that only come as an external sensation experienced by me alone. Move your hand over a bottle full of boiling water, and though you may not see the steam, you can feel the moisture collect on your skin. Then consider movement initiated inside. The diaphragm pulled up, push the skull, waggle the tailbone. Dancers move big because the impetus is big, but when dancers move small, the impetus is detailed, exact, pinpointed to muscle fibers that can be sensed but never touched. Still big. But then flip that concept on its head, and yield more.
The making of the music on stage
My piece was beautifully scored by Martha-Emily Harvel, who created “The endurance of this water as it cycles” during our collaborative process. We spent the better part of a few months meeting at coffee shops and making sounds we felt would fit the environment we jointly aimed to create. Music lessons during rehearsals, hours experimenting with cacophony and dissonance, two of many elements we wanted our dancers to bring to life, and the sounds came, immersing our audience and dancers into that aquatic world.