REHEARSAL 9 - 24/05/2024

For this rehearsal, my plan was to choreograph the ending speeding up section into the dragging/weighted section and plot out all our choreography to the music. I didn't necessarily need the dance to be fully cleaned or for the dancers to have memorised the order, but I wanted to get a grasp on it for myself.

We started off by recapping from the end of the first song to make sure the movement worked when doing it full-out and then added on to reach the end of the second song. They ended Tilly's Train of Thought duet crossed-legged and back-to-back, so I asked them to push over onto their knees and repeat their kneeling solos there. Then I asked Emily to get up and start doing her solo, with Tilly noticing and then doing her replication of Emily's material. 

Video of End of Second Song:

This definitely needs some cleaning and clarification on timings, but the timing of it and the movement content are definitely right for this section. There is this idea of awareness as they're sat back to back doing their kneeling material, being a very clear visual for two physical sides of a self in their positioning. I want to add a bit of a contact back-to-back moment replicating one of their positions from the leaning diagonal (see below). This will add a bit of physical awareness and knowing that they are there for each other before they start doing their own thing as the duet ends slightly abruptly. This position is further repeated in the end dragging/weighted section and I think it would be an interesting image to see a switch from the calm support of Emily leaning on Tilly to Tilly leaning on Emily in comparison to the end where Emily tries to lean on Tilly and Tilly immediately shifts the weight back to her as Tilly has no energy to take the weight of the Internal Self (Emily) anymore. 

Next, we moved onto the end of the piece, which I wanted to get set timings for and choreograph the last section so all that was left to do after was some joining up of big sections. We recapped the speeding-up material and how many cycles each of them needed to do in order to get the point across of Tilly working herself to exhaustion. Tilly does 4 regular cycles and then gradually speeds up to do 8 more, and Emily does 8 regular. 

Video of Speeding Up Solo Cycles:

Later in the session, we changed it to be that Emily does 6 regular cycles of Tilly's solo, then 2 cycles of her replication of Tilly's solo material and then 1 regular cycle again. The idea behind this is that in the first 4 cycles, she is moving with Tilly as a system, the 5th and 6th cycles are her continuing at the 'correct' steady pace and then she notices that Tilly has sped up, so she changes the movement to her replication to try and combat that speed with softness. When Tilly subsequently gives up, she goes back to 1 cycle of Tilly's material after she's stopped to try and encourage her to join back in at the normal speed. When she realises this isn't working I then have her help Tilly physically in doing the movement for 1.5 cycles (which I also need to clean up in terms of how she exactly is doing this), before Tilly gives up again. 

This then leads into the dragging/weighted section that we choreographed in this rehearsal. They both ended the Speeding Up Solo Cycles on the floor kneeling so I prompted them to create movement from that starting point in the same way we choreographed the opening section: testing out movement and every time they got stuck going back to that starting position. We ended up sticking to this task less than when we created the opening, but it was there as a framework to return to if needed. Instead, it became a bigger collaboration between myself and them as they were creating it rather than me developing a sequence after they'd created it. Before we started I gave them the prompt of incorporating some of the leaning positions/movements from the diagonal but spinning them to be all weighted on Emily in some way, being conscious of her injury. 

Video of Dragging Section Creation Process:

Video of Dragging Section:

We then put the two sections together with these changes to the Speeding Up Solos to see how long that took so I could add it to the timeline. 

Video of Speeding Up Solos into Dragging:

I gave the dancers a bit of a break whilst I did the breakdowns of the timings for this section. I didn't properly plot them onto the timeline yet as there might be choreography that comes after and before it still but I wrote the order and timings out. 

Lucía was then coming into the rehearsal later on to watch a full run, so we had a look at what costume options we had and changed into them. We also had a look at what movement we hadn't put into the piece and added both of their Train of Thought solos into the piece before the Speeding Up Section as a representation of the two selves slowly separating as they mirror the duets in the second song. this also starts building the chaos for Tilly going into her solos, like she is starting to spiral a little bit then decides to try recentering herself with her solo motif material, but even that starts spiralling until she has exhausted herself. I also like the idea that when Emily joins Tilly's solo material, it's like the Internal Self has become invaded by how other people see them and everything that's happening on the outside is bleeding into the mind, trying to match the energy of the external to create a new normal but Tilly just keeps spiralling. We also added a much slower cycle of Tilly's solo before she starts doing the Speeding Up Solos section to give time for Emily to finish her movement off with her calm quality before noticing Tilly and trying to centre her by joining in. 

Lucía then came in and we did a full run for her. I asked her give us feedback on their relationship, the contrast of qualities, and what sort of emotional narrative she got out of watching it. I will confess that I forgot to start recording until about 3 minutes in, so the run starts from part-way through the diagonal line.

Video of Full Run:

Lucía's feedback:

• The whole beginning needs to be slower in establishing their relationship - so I will have a bit of silence at the start where they are just breathing together before the music starts and comb through the opening section for bits that can be slower/more gentle contact rather than changing levels so quickly
• For the dancers - Soften, and finish all movements, for example, Tilly's head roll at the start
• Clarifying qualities what are they and why - I am going to sit down with the dancers and go through my notes on the narrative and find out what they see the piece as (maybe a freewriting task?) to get them more familiar with their 'self' and their intentions
• Speeding Up Solos Section - Tilly needs to develop her speed gradually and Emily needs to make sure she's definitely staying on the original pace
• Don't look angry - At the end, Emily's emotions need to be more introspective rather than angry at Tilly, hopefully going through the narrative will help

We then talked about the ending and how it needs to have more impact. Instead of just immediately getting to the position we're going to play with the idea of Emily finally isolating herself from the weight of Tilly and becoming fully introspective. Tilly tries to rest separately as well but it doesn't feel right because she no longer has the kinaesthetic knowledge of who she is on the inside (she is separated from Emily physically), so she drags herself closer and keeps trying to rest until she returns to rest on Emily, this idea of magnets having a constant connection that grows stronger the closer they are together. Once they are back together, their breathing from the start resumes and they can slowly build their energy back up together.