Gravity & Levity

After 3 more weeks in the studio we’re 1 week away from completing the piece that Charlotte is making. I wouldn’t describe it as a smooth running or an easy process (although I haven’t known many of them). Things have grown slowly.

Working aerially and with an ever-evolving set has made it feel like wading through treacle. Everything we do has had to take into consideration the set and the rigging. Ignoring these facets is not an option so progress has been slow.

The difference between Monday and Friday was massive.
On Monday, we tried to stitch together all the snippets of material we had collected. The result was an unimpressive and uninspiring. We had a long company discussion about the problems we were facing and discussed some of our options. Charlotte has made the process very transparent. There’s no mystification about what she wants to achieve or how she’s feeling about developments. I find this refreshing.

On Tuesday, Charlotte started on a completely different track. I really enjoyed the ease with which she binned some of her ideas. The next day saw more unapologetic butchering (excuse the pun, Lindsey). Well-justified cuts have allowed us to end up in a completely different place in just a few days. I like that. By the end of the week I noticed I had started to feel a slight fondness for parts of the piece (I know it could be dangerous, it’s always subject to editing - I could get hurt, stay detached V!)

A highlight for me was wearing my cycle helmet for rehearsals to protect my head from a metal pole whilst being flung around. No dancer (and it applies to many cyclists too) can be taken seriously when their head is enlarged upwards by a foam and plastic layer of protection. Great to laugh in the studio. Also pleased with the slight hardening of the skin on my fingers from pulling ropes as a counterweight, (mostly pleased because a biker male friend of mine digs my now ‘hard hands’ to the same extent that I dig his biker scars, ggggrrrr!)

New found love: liquorice Yogi tea. In true habitual English fashion, cups of tea have soothed our frustrations daily. And if the amount of shared snacks consumed represents an increase in the groups’ necessarily increasing cohesiveness, then we’re now like glue!