Stop Time Blind

Beginning the last day of my dancing week, and I feel like recording what’s going on.

James is basically done choreographing “Turf”, our new ballet premiering Wednesday with the Minnesota Orchestra. It’s about turf wars and torture, death and redemption, or not. It’s a comment on how things operate now, and what we might still be able to learn.

I play a torture victim, and for much of the piece I’m blindfolded, my hands bound behind me. Even so, I actually still achieve some dancing. The hard-core torture sequences are highly scored, so in theory there will be no surprises. But I truly cannot see, and anything can happen. It’s been a trip, living in my little world of sightlessness. My instincts kick in; sometimes I find myself responding differently to the external stimulous, even though I know what’s coming. There is much trust between me and the other performers. This has to look real, I must experience it in a real way to some degree, and so we all must find a way to “go there”. I still haven’t found the full through-line for myself. I get closer with every rehearsal, with every timing clarification, defining my boundaries so that I can then expand them. I look forward to pulling this off.

Simultaneously to this I’ve been doing my usual intrepid work with Deborah Jinza Thayer, a frazzled genius for whom it’s always a pleasure to work. Plus, submitted a grant and found out my new duet got accepted into the Walker Art Center’s Choreographers Evening! It was a big week.

This AM as I sit in my overstuffed, garage sale chair with my cat on one arm and my coffee on the other, I contemplate a new day of my body expanding through space in its attempt to stop time.