Can you replace someone’s body?

Sometimes, you have to.  We’re about to take MORE on tour to DC and Virginia.  And dancer Christina Zani is now this pregnant:

Bodily changes are perfectly in keeping with the world of MORE: bodies appear, change, disagree, and go away.

(Ideally, MORE would be performed once a year for the next century.  Dancers would gradually lose their ability to do the movements, then – not to be too morbid – die off.  Six dancers, then five, then four.  The final version would be a solo.)

But because Christina’s due date is during our tour, she can’t perform as Pregnant MORE Dancer.

So we have to replace her. But dancers are not interchangeable, not in our work anyway.

One of the simplest ways to categorize dance and theater artists: how they replace a performer.  Regional theater and big touring dance companies can hold a cattle call audition.  But like most companies that make original work, we don’t just “teach someone the role;” we adapt the role.  Amy Smith volunteered to step in, which helps a LOT, because she went through the whole process of making and performing MORE.

Christina injured her achilles tendon during the making of MORE.  Rather than replacing her (the normal choice in the dance world), we included her injured body in the piece.  She does a duet in a wheelchair, and, later, this solo in the wheelchair that is one of the emotional pivots of the performance:

When you try to “get a dance back,” by running through the movement and looking at video, you have a lot of conversations like this:

NICHOLE: It’s here where we’re usually…..

[PAUSE]

AMY: I remember that.

CHRISTINA: Yeah I think we just…..

NICHOLE: …too make it easier to get the wheels in the right orientation.

AMY: Yeah, that’s the….

[PAUSE]

CHRISTINA: …and making it seem less intentional.

AMY: Yep.

NICHOLE: Ok.

AMY: Cool.

Dancers also vibe off of each other physically.  Put them in proximity and they will start to move together and breathe together.

And after a few rehearsals, Amy is ready to step in to the duet with Nichole.

Since you’re still reading, here’s an image Kate Watson-Wallace (dancer in MORE) sent me:

This is a stunning piece by Doris Salcedo and it captures something about the tone and verb of MORE.

Excess.

Abandonment.

Passing.

Time scales.

It’s so important to know that artists in other mediums (like Doris Salcedo) are making powerful discoveries about the questions I keep asking.

Especially when the questions we are asking – as in MORE – have a lot to with loss.

What’s in more.

IN:

ugly

found objects

things arriving and going away

sitting on the couch

spasmodic repetition

Impossible Unison Duets

responsibility to the internal logic of the piece

performers doing things themselves

music is interrupted

movement virtuosity

actions take as long as they take

entering

OUT:

pretty

built objects

permanence

constant performing

uninterrupted flow

duets as Relationship Metaphor

responsibility for getting the audience interested/excited

Stage Magic

music always plays to completion

Dance virtuosity

actions are practiced for maximum efficiency

Entrances

rules

Every piece has rules.  Here are some for more:

1. Actions take the time they require.
   
2. Dancers don’t conceal or exaggerate effort.
3. Actions do not begin and end with the music.
4. Everything in the space is brought in and out by the dancers.
5. Everything goes away: phrases end without warning, props disappear, worlds are created then abandoned.
6. Individual phrases don’t vary dynamically.  Variation comes from the juxtaposition of simultaneous, stripped down actions.
7. Bodies don’t soften when they meet.  They crash.

tiny more

nature invades man-made space

magic, manic things live in everyday rooms

your body is a workplace

everything goes away

Set designer Maiko Matsushima took some photos of the scale model she built of the set.  (This is the Arts Bank, complete with center door and balcony.)  It’s brilliant having a scale model, and allows you to visualize all sorts of things without spending a ton of money to actually acquire the stuff.

Maiko and I (Andrew) worked on the progression of the space, what happens with the stuff in the space.  Now that we know this, we can move to finalizing the order of the choreography.

1) At the beginning of more, performers bring furniture (gradually) and set up the living room.

2) The living room exists.  For a while.

3) Birch trees are brought in.

4) The living room is taken apart and piled into a heap.  The trees become a horse fence.  The black marley floor is peeled back to reveal a shiny green surface.

5) The peeled back floor with the junk, the dancers, and some dirt.

if MORE was a picture

Maiko Matsushima, costume and set designer for more has been gathering images to help us discuss and imagine the visual world of the piece.  The goal of an “image pull” isn’t to find pictures that look exactly like the set or costumes, but rather to capture the feeling, energy, or tone of the piece in pictures.  Like the difficult process of finding words to describe a piece, finding a common visual language can be hugely helpful for the creators and performers.  Maiko brought in images and Andrew chose these as most relevant to more:

body instructions

Andrew here.  As part of my April 4 piece (HORSES), the dancers and I all wrote instructions for our body.

THE TASK Imagine someone is going to “house-sit” your body for a few months.  Write down everything that person needs to know about how you take care of your body: food, sleep, illness, injuries, sex, appearance, exercise.  Be specific and concise.  Phrase everything in the second person, i.e. “You never got to the doctor, but you should.”

Here’s an excerpt:

To feel your best, eat steel-cut oats with almonds and rice milk in the morning.

Drink a double espresso on ice with half and half.

Drink a gallon of water during the day.

Take a multi-vitamin.

For lunch, eat deep leafy greens and a grain like quinoa or brown rice.

In general, the less time you spend obsessing about yourself, the better.

If you dress up and put makeup on, you get more attention and flirtation, which is nice because you haven’t been single for a while.  So, a little attention is nice.

If you wear jeans and sneakers, people think you’re “cute” and use language like “honey” and “sweetie.”

People have been commenting on your ass your ENTIRE life:
“You have the best ass ever.”
“You’re built like a black girl.”
“It’s so big.”
“Huge for a white girl.”
“Amazing.”
“Where’d you get that?”

During your period, don’t do anything except chill at home.

Take long hot showers whenever cramps start.  Take 3 advil every 3-4 hours.
Don’t drink coffee or wine.

You don’t have health insurance, so it’s all preventative care: acupuncture, going to the gym, getting massages, eating green vegetables, taking Chinese herbs.

Don’t overwork.  Overworking makes you stressed.  Being stressed for too long gives you panic attacks.  Panic attacks leave you depressed and sluggish.

You love cigarettes.  But don’t smoke them.

we went to the silo

(dance retreat space in bucks county)

and here’s what it looked like