Ah!
It´s all about breaking walls and insisting on the fight.
THAT* moment when you see the music you´ve been struggling with slowly - but surely - starting to give up the fight and letting you IN*. It´s an exhilarating experience as you see ghosts turning into excitement and fears vanishing, giving space for passion. YES: PASSION. I admire whoever can get things done without passion. Life would be so much easier - yet not so tasty.
The first small combination of movements gets me thrilled: I found something (inside me) that is fresh and interesting to myself*! Wow.
Then things start to flow, once the walls and down and the flow-feeling and register of the dance starts to come to life - through my own hands and a great dose of magic*.
The first glimpse of a smile shows up on my face - there is hope, after all!
I sip a bit of my hot tea and try not to loose my mind - completely. I´m a searcher, after all. What do choreographers do? They search: that´s what they do. But then you cannot search forever and ever, can you? PRACTICAL RESULTS MUST be presented so: moving my ass (pardon my french) in a frightening and DEFINITIVE way. Frustration comes - "I could do much better than this!". Oh, yes, you could but tick,tack my lady: RESULTS - we need RESULTS.
Settling for an "honest job" and not for perfection (which does not exist, at least in my worlds) is an important KEY*.
Wonder if all choreographers pass through such a tortured journey. Hoping not. There must be other ways of doing things. Then again I always hear the voice of my dear Mahmoud Reda commenting inside my head: "take it easy...do a little piece of the choreography every time you can...mark the movements that appear, even if you´re gonna change them after...keep cool, Joana - you´re too passionate and that blocks your creativity...(?!)..."
I wish, I wish.:)
After the door is opened it´s time to juggle between my instinct and my brain: I am choreographing a piece for TEACHING - not for PERFORMING and those are totally different things.
If this choreography is for teaching then I must have some GOALS* to achieve with the dancers. I ask myself: what do I want to develop-teach with THIS particular choreography?
For me, it is not a bunch of exciting movements I take pleasure from (although that´s part of it) but a TEACHING MATERIAL from which dancers will benefit.
What kind of things I wish to AWAKEN in dancers with this choreography?
Sense of space? Directions? Different moods portrayed by different movements, expression, levels? Musicality? Ability to change from one dynamic to the other? Interpretation skills? What: what: what? The questions are endless.
The point of teaching choreography is not to make people MEMORIZE a sequence and then repeat it at parties (although they´re free to do it and I´m happy to know they have fun with it) but to GROW DANCING skills and become better dancers, interpreters, creators, free thinkers with this piece of choreography. That´s always my goal: to awaken a LOT of qualities and knowledge inside each dancer.
(Yeah: I´m a pain in the ass.;/)
As it happens on stage, there is a part* of the creation that is borrowed from some divine source I have no control of. Luckily, it always shows up when needed but it´s good to be on the watch out and be grateful for its generous presence.
It´s all about breaking walls and insisting on the fight. THAT* moment when you see the music you´ve been struggling with slowly - but surely - starting to give up the fight and letting you IN*. It´s an exhilarating experience as you see ghosts turning into excitement and fears vanishing, giving space for passion. YES: PASSION. I admire whoever can get things done without passion. Life would be so much easier - yet not so tasty.
The first small combination of movements gets me thrilled: I found something (inside me) that is fresh and interesting to myself*! Wow.
Then things start to flow, once the walls and down and the flow-feeling and register of the dance starts to come to life - through my own hands and a great dose of magic*.
The first glimpse of a smile shows up on my face - there is hope, after all!
I sip a bit of my hot tea and try not to loose my mind - completely. I´m a searcher, after all. What do choreographers do? They search: that´s what they do. But then you cannot search forever and ever, can you? PRACTICAL RESULTS MUST be presented so: moving my ass (pardon my french) in a frightening and DEFINITIVE way. Frustration comes - "I could do much better than this!". Oh, yes, you could but tick,tack my lady: RESULTS - we need RESULTS.
Settling for an "honest job" and not for perfection (which does not exist, at least in my worlds) is an important KEY*.
Wonder if all choreographers pass through such a tortured journey. Hoping not. There must be other ways of doing things. Then again I always hear the voice of my dear Mahmoud Reda commenting inside my head: "take it easy...do a little piece of the choreography every time you can...mark the movements that appear, even if you´re gonna change them after...keep cool, Joana - you´re too passionate and that blocks your creativity...(?!)..."
I wish, I wish.:)
After the door is opened it´s time to juggle between my instinct and my brain: I am choreographing a piece for TEACHING - not for PERFORMING and those are totally different things.
If this choreography is for teaching then I must have some GOALS* to achieve with the dancers. I ask myself: what do I want to develop-teach with THIS particular choreography?
For me, it is not a bunch of exciting movements I take pleasure from (although that´s part of it) but a TEACHING MATERIAL from which dancers will benefit.
What kind of things I wish to AWAKEN in dancers with this choreography?
Sense of space? Directions? Different moods portrayed by different movements, expression, levels? Musicality? Ability to change from one dynamic to the other? Interpretation skills? What: what: what? The questions are endless.
The point of teaching choreography is not to make people MEMORIZE a sequence and then repeat it at parties (although they´re free to do it and I´m happy to know they have fun with it) but to GROW DANCING skills and become better dancers, interpreters, creators, free thinkers with this piece of choreography. That´s always my goal: to awaken a LOT of qualities and knowledge inside each dancer.
(Yeah: I´m a pain in the ass.;/)
As it happens on stage, there is a part* of the creation that is borrowed from some divine source I have no control of. Luckily, it always shows up when needed but it´s good to be on the watch out and be grateful for its generous presence.
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