portrait premiere

It is 7:52 on Friday morning. Although we are halfway through our 11 peformances of Tanzabend 1, tonight we have a premiere. The second piece on the program, "portrait", has a cast switch starting tonight. So I, along with 6 of my fellow dancers, have a premiere.



At first glance, the structure of the piece seems simple: 7 dancers, each one dancing solo for 4 minutes to a Phillip Glass symphony. In the last 2 minutes, a table is brought onstage, and all the characters meet for a family portrait around it, under the lamp hanging in the corner. But as we all know, families are never that simple. By the end of 25 minutes, furniture has broken, clothes have been shed, the back wall of the stage is covered in chalk, and one of us is wet.

Since there are two casts of the piece, tonight means not only a different cast but a different family story will be told. Each of us dancers developed our own movement material and character ideas, and then shaped those solos with Johannes. As we put the individual solos together in our two families, very different stories emerged.

The two casts have had the pleasure of seeing each other develop. I've watched my colleagues building movement and characters into palpable human beings. Flair and confidence, smiles and spins rub up against flaws and imperfections, nervous tics, anger. The process of watching this development over the rehearsal period has been totally inspiring. Boy, I keep thinking, they're damned good.

Tonight, a new story begins. Toi Toi Toi, family.

In order of appearance:

Ben


Szu-Wei


Brea


Kristin


Cesar


Mats


Lily