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Great week of rehearsals! On Thursday, we tinkered with the Marriage Dance and, on Saturday, with Icarus.

"Icarus and Daedalus" is a formidable challenge. Keeping Amanda up in the air taxes Alex, Mary, and I, but also Amanda, who must exert to swoop, climb, flip, jump, and turn within our grasps. I have tended to push the timing, desiring the speed of flight. I'm starting to reconsider. Perhaps, we want to emphasize the flow of flight, which means, I think, slowing the tempo to a moderate pace that will smooth the transitions. I hardly know how to tell my dancers this. I don't want them to just get sluggish. I suppose rhythm is in order. I will experiment with a regular beat and see if this can unify our timing.

What do you think? Below is a version we made at rehearsal Thursday 9/23/2010 to Mary J Blige's "No One Will Do." Which video do you like better and why?

So far, Icarus is too serious. It does not yet portray the playfulness of this character. He does not fall due to determined disobedience; rather, he just forgets himself in the fullness of the movement. I need to remember this as we continue. Icarus is just a boy, not a man.

Human Landscape Dance will premiere "Icarus and Daedalus" at the Kennedy Center's Millenium Stage in Washington DC on Wednesday March 23, 2011, at 6pm, free. If you like the work, come dance with us. I will lead a repertory class at Dance Place on Wednesday evenings from 7:45pm-9:30 starting May 4, 2011, in which I will create a new section of Icarus on movers of any skill level. This class will culminate in our performance, The Washington DC/Philadelphia Exchange, at Dance Place on Saturday July 9 at 8pm and Sunday July 10 at 7pm. This is a shared concert with Anne-Marie Mulgrew and Dancers Co of Philadelphia, the second half of our artistic exchange that began with a Philadelphia performance in May 2010.

Photo by Bill Hebert.