Silent Counting - Large Format
Silent Counting - Medium Format
Silent Counting Panel Discussion
TITLE:
Silent Counting
INTENTION:
To create a dance piece with dancers and non-dancers together in which neither population feels neglected or sidelined. Through a very intense collaborative process involving many assignments and exercises, performers will create a cohesive production together in which all participants feel like they have contributed equally.
INSPIRATION:
The idea behind this piece generated from my fiancé, Mati, who has been bugging me for the past three years to put him in a piece. As someone who has long fought for dance to become more universal, I decided to create a piece with dancers and non-dancers in an attempt to open up the world of dance to those who might not otherwise be able to access it.
PROCESS:
To lead a cast of two dancers (Allison and myself) and two non-dancers (Alexandra and Mati) in a series of rehearsals (twice a week, three hours each) for a month and a half in which we use our personal relationships to movement and various other exercises to compose phrases. At the beginning of the process, I relied heavily on personal stories and memories to serve as inspiration for phrases. Towards the end of the process, as the non-dancers became more accustomed to generating phrases, I relied less and less on these exercises until I was able to simply ask them to create movement phrases regardless of any point of inspiration. On December 4th, we had our first showing of “Silent Counting,” a piece I am continuing to work on for my final thesis project.
DETAILS:
On Sunday, December 4th, 2011, at 21:00, "Silent Counting" was performed at the Pride Center Theater in Tel Aviv, Israel. The piece was approximately 23 minutes long and was followed by a panel discussion about the work. Tickets were 20 NIS.
CAST:
Mati Bardosh
Alexandra Fred
S. Asher Gelman
Allison Shir
I did not hold auditions for this project. I was more interested in creating a group of people who could work well with each other. Mati and my friend Alexandra became involved with the project at my request. I also posted the project information on Facebook, and through a mutual friend, I got in touch with Allison, who I also invited to join the project after meeting with her over lunch. It was very important to me to get a feel for who she was before I invited her into what I thought could have become a very awkward situation, since Mati, Alexandra, and I are all extremely close. In the end, the fit was perfect, and it did not take long before the four of us were getting together outside rehearsal time.
REHEARSALS:
Due to the fact that Mati studies in Haifa during the week, I was forced to hold rehearsals exclusively on the weekends. Rehearsals were on Fridays and Saturdays, 12:00-15:00 in the Pride Center Studio. Because of the six days between rehearsals, I relied heavily on the posting of videos on Vimeo in order so that the dancers would not forget the movement they had generated nearly a week prior. As the project moved forward, the non-dancers became better at remembering movement from week to week and no longer relied on the videos during the long time between rehearsals. Due to my trip to the United States, the dancers held a rehearsal in my absence a week before the performance. I had video-taped the previous rehearsal and gave detailed notes that corresponded to the timecode on the video.
ADVERTISEMENT:
My primary means of advertising this performance was Facebook. I also created a poster which I hung up in the Pride Center, included below.
MUSIC:
I used many different pieces of music throughout the rehearsal process to bring out different aspects of my performers. The final performance comprised of these pieces of music:
King of the Mountain - Kate Bush
Xtal - Aphex Twin
You Belong To Me - Vonda Shepard
Blooms Eventually - Pulse Programming
I Wish You Love - Natalie Cole
COSTUMES:
I chose to keep all of us in simple black, since I did not want to use costumes as a distraction. For this piece in particular, I felt that it was important that the performers themselves create their characters, without any help from costuming. I asked everyone to go home and find black clothing they felt comfortable dancing in to bring to rehearsal. I then selected which items each person wore, because I did not want us dressing too similarly.
DOCUMENTATION:
I set up my video camera in the back of the theater to record the performance. I originally wanted an additional videographer to film close-up shots, but this proved too difficult to arrange, since I was in the US until two days before the performance. I also had a friend of mine, Morten Berthelsen, photograph the performance. Some of his photographs are included at the end of this post. I also created programs, included below.
RESULTS:
33 tickets were sold for the premiere of “Silent Counting," almost completely filling the small theater. Of the 33 audience members, only one of them came from a dance background. All of the audience members stayed for the panel discussion. I got a lot of very positive responses to the work we did.
Several comments I received (translated for your convenience):
- “I don’t like Modern Dance. I don’t understand it. About halfway through the piece, I found myself sitting up in my chair, really focused on the piece and the characters. Really, I couldn’t believe how invested I was in the dance.”
- “I cannot believe you did all of this in less than two months! This was really, really professional! And Mati! Mati was AMAZING!”
- “I am so glad I came to see this. It was totally worth the drive from Jerusalem (about an hour away from Tel Aviv).”
- “Mati needs to switch careers. He needs to become a dancer. I can’t believe he has never danced before.”
- “Not one of you looked like a non-dancer. Everyone looked incredibly professional.”
- “Do you teach classes? I would love to take class with you. I can’t believe you were able to do that with non-dancers!”
- “It was really, really good. I really felt the different stages of a relationship. It was very sensual and very passionate and you guys did a great job. I didn’t understand the story exactly but the emotions came through and that’s what art and dance is about and it was really amazing.”
- “The piece was really intimate, I got a real sense of relationship between the performers and the audience.”
PERSONAL ASSESSMENT:
I am extremely proud of the work we did on “Silent Counting.” The piece really reflected the collaborative work we did together - I definitely felt like more of an arranger than a choreographer, which was my goal. It was really important to me from the very beginning that the piece really belong to everyone, that everyone felt that they had ownership of it, that it was something that couldn’t have been made without them.
I believe the final result exceeded my initial goals. I believe that our performance looked really professional - it did not look like a project of dancers and non-dancers. I was particularly impressed by Alexandra (who last danced 12 years ago) and Mati, who has never danced before. I have known for a while that Mati is a great mover - he has studied yoga with his mother (a yoga teacher) for most of his life and recently began studying gymnastics. That said, I was floored by the work he did in a VERY short period of time. I have never seen anyone transform so fast into, well, anything.
I was also impressed by the turnout for the premiere. Of the 33 audience members, only one of them was a dancer. I also really appreciated that everyone wanted to stay for the panel discussion. I felt that giving the audience the chance to talk about the work furthered my quest to open up the world of dance, because we got some fantastic questions and responses.
I was also really impressed by the small community we created. Although Allison came into the project as a stranger to the rest of us, I feel that everyone involved was very open to each other and it was reflected in the final product.
I am excited to continue working with my cast on the continuation of this project. The work they did was phenomenal, and I am very much looking forward to beginning work on my final thesis project next fall.
Here are a few of the photographs taken by Morten Berthelsen:
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