Staycee Pearl’s dancers are beginning to make their own dances and adding Thursday evening work sessions (starting tonight at 6 pm) to the regular Saturday class schedule.
Part of this process involves studying other choreographers and finding inspiration/meaning for your work. Last week we looked at a clip from Bill T. Jones’ Dancing to the Promised Land (you can watch the entire documentary on Netflix). Jones used the gesture of his mother resting on a hoe for inspiration, divided the part of Eliza from Uncle Tom’s Cabin between four dancers (each of whom connected to the character and the story in a distinctly personal way), and incorporated words/language. So you should be thinking this week about gesture, images, story and language. Please bring an idea with you into our 9 am session on Saturday in room 340, where we will continue our inspiration sessions before dance class.
Here is a clip of Bill T. Jones talking about his work, Fondly Do We Hope… Fervently Do We Pray (a dance about Abraham Lincoln) with Bill Moyers. And here is a link to a longer video of Jones giving a lecture about dance, choreography and life. Take an hour to watch it. You will certainly come away with some ideas.