Choreographers in training

This showing is going to be much more classical than the previous.

For the others, the kids have had three or four days to put things together, work on them, and what comes out is definitely 'western' with a classical twist, but with just an hour or two to think, set, and practice their pieces, they've had to draw on their training much more heavily.

It's not a bad thing, it's just interesting to notice. I've also been watching how they work with their dancers, how they watch, how they structure things, and it's really quite fascinating.

Across the board, the thing I think is the coolest is that almost everyone has taken real ownership of their work. Usually they ask for notes; this time they haven't. They ask for music with authority. When their piece is being performed, they sit in front and watch very attentively. Sometimes in the breaks, they work to fix things, they ask their dancers to practice.

They are just starting as choreographers, and they've had no time, so naturally their pieces are raw, unfinished. They are just sketches, not really dances yet. They are fairly long -- most of them, in my opinion, too long. If we had more workshop time, I'd like to see them develop, become more precise, and clarify what everything is doing and why it's there.

Some of the pieces are very strong, and I can see the budding choreographers. I'm not really sure how to describe it, but it's a way of working with the movement, a kind of experimentation, the way they structure it and think about it. Their pieces are complex and original.

Maybe it's just that they live and die with their pieces. Sitting in the front, I can see them moving with their dancers, breathing with them, so inside the piece they can't help themselves but move with it. I know that feeling. I've been there, many times now.

Some of them are more clearly dancers, and there's nothing wrong with that. Or maybe it's just that they aren't choreographers yet. One of them, the baby of the class (sixteen, where most everyone is at least twenty) and also my most faithful student (I think he's missed two classes since the first workshop), is an incredible dancer, and his piece is one of the better ones, but he's had to fight to get it there. He has a ton of ideas, but he's not super confident in asserting himself yet, and he hasn't quite figured out how best to communicate what he wants from the dancers. I think he's taken the most time to try and iron out the kinks.  He'll learn, or he'll be a stunning dancer.

Either way, tomorrow is the showing and it's my very last workshop at CLA, which is kind of sad. I'll miss the kids a lot, and am definitely hoping to see them again for my next project...