04a / Choreographing Musical Instruments for Dance Crew:
When starting work on a new project, allowing my mind to roam freely, uncluttered by the daily grind of repetitive activities is the most important as well as the most difficult aspect. Sometimes a word or a movement, a musical phrase or a chord, will start the ideas fermenting in my brain cells.
The process by which a Musical Organ produces sound resulting in music is fascinating. Such a rich and powerful voice is produced in such a complex manner. It was not the musical compositions for the organ that interested me but the sounds the instrument itself was capable of producing. With this thought process I approached the composer, Gordon Mackay, to start our exploratory discussion on the new work.
Rehearsal on a very cold day in Cape Town. Photos by Victoria Romburgh
We decided on which instruments we would examine and explore musically. Meanwhile my mind was already churning as regarding how to represent something as complex as an Organ using the human body - itself a complex entity. There is no way to do this literally it had to do with an association of ideas. Organs and stained glass windows are etched in my mind and when light reflects on the coloured glass the sound of an organ seems to shimmer with a similar reflection.
We will be using projections of parts of stained glass products as a backdrop and have kept the costumes simple so as not to distract from the glorious music Gordon has written or the controlled and simple choreography.
Because there is such a wide range of musical instruments we limited our choice to – Strings, Brass and Percussion.
From the String section I chose the Violin to represent in dance form. Using high leg and arm extensions to portray the sweeping movement of the bow this work requires strength, control and precision from the dancers. These are young dancers who are rising to the challenge of this fairly complex work. They have responded to the beauty of this music and are fortunate, at a young age, to have music specially written for them.
With the Percussion the focus is almost exclusively on the footwork and the varying rhythms and speed. I chose to work with different numbers in each group and dancers of different heights.
The Brass is bold and brassy and we decided to let the Trumpet be our instrument of inspiration as well as the ending for this ballet but not before we have the violin and percussion returning to join the Trumpet in a flourishing finale.
This program will include an extended Precious Gems from our 2013 season as well as a short ballet, The Circus, for the young members of the audience.
The program starts in September and continues through October, November and early December. Performances will take place at the Theatre On-Main, Tokai.
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