Falling and Flying

Good material at rehearsal last night. Icarus is beginning to take shape. I have realized that we are actually at work on the second section of Icarus. We will open the dance with a runway/takeoff section that moves Amanda from stage right to stage left. This frees me up to boost the tempo in this second section and to trim some of the movement. It feels stronger.

The primary image has clarified for me as well. Amanda does not fly so much as fall repeatedly. She rises and tumbles, jumping from body to body, a bird in the wind. This fits the myth: Icarus is a victim of circumstance. He is exiled because of his father, given wings and told to fly by his father. When he finally takes agency, he lets loose too much, flying higher than his body can support. In life, we are buffeted. We may roll with the forces that propel us or we may fight them. We fall through the sky on fragile wings.

Saturday, we worked hard on the marriage dance. It takes shape more and more. The cloth is the bond between Amanda and Alex. It fills the space between them. A crucial question for me is when to end the dance. As Neil Gaiman says, sooner or later, all stories end in death. Will they end together or apart?

Join us for the premieres of these dances: Wednesday March 23, 2011 at the Kennedy Center Millenium Stage, 6pm, free. The Washington DC/Philadelphia Exchange at Dance Place in Washington DC, Saturday July 9 at 8pm and Sunday July 10 at 7pm, a shared show withAnne-Marie Mulgrew and Dancers Co of Philadelphia, the sister concert to the Philadelphia/Washington DC Exchange in May 2010. 

Photo by Jennifer Mueller.