Collaboration!

For those that know me, I am a sucker for collaboration. Even my solo exploration for my thesis I found a way to work with a live musician. And today, Nita suggested that she create a laugh score for me to do. For our movement pieces this quarter I have been spending a little time with Brett. After our first Laban project, Brett asked me if I would work with him. I was flattered and more than happy to share my expertise with him. However, once we got in the studio, I found him really challenging me and forcing me to raise the stakes.

My movement piece that explored the Laban qualities of Sustained, Abrupt, Pendular and Vibratory became a road trip where I get a flat tire to an intern at a hospital who has to drive from Davis to San Francisco with a donor heart. Yes, there is a car accident and I am forced to attempt to change the tire, but I went from a ho-hum road trip to a drive with a mission. In class, we each show our pieces and I was commended for something and thanked Brett. I got over the fact that he didn't do the same for me, but was a little reluctant to meet with him again today to work for the third time -- on our next assignment.

"Using the concepts of space, time and force, create a dramatic piece which explores and illuminates four stages of development: toddler, adolescent, adult and elder. Try to capture the essence of each stage."

My idea was to do sleep rituals with a person through the stages. When got to Hickey Gym, Brett was meditating so I started working on my own. When he was done I asked if he would like to play for a while and then talk or just discuss our pieces first. We decided to play for a while, but it seemed early on that Brett was stuck. I told him my idea and then his idea was not to portray these characters in different stages, but to be the caregiver of someone in each of those stages. The conversation quickly switched to Brett being the caregiver for all of my characters. We then choreographed the entire piece together. We did that twice and then each showed our part to the other.

-- A father/daughter playing tag with the Dad missing catching the child into story time and sleep
-- A daughter with minimal interaction with Dad, who after IMing with her boyfriend decides to sneak out of the house
-- A husband and wife getting ready for bed. Bathroom rituals that become flirtatious and seductive that leads to undressing and the start of sex before the baby cries
-- The wife and the soothing of the crying baby
-- An elderly woman praying before bed, as her caregiver prepares her evening pills. He administers the pills and tucks her in. He leaves the room to consider his own aging

It's a beautiful little piece. Well, actually it's not so little. It's just under 10 minutes long. We will each show them separately and are curious if we will be asked to show them together. I'm guessing that by the adults the class will totally know it's from the same piece.

I'm excited to see what happens.