Brainstorm: Developing Premiere for Philly Dance Performance

Brainstorming titles for last January Night section:

Section 1=Unsettled
Section 2=Sleepless
Section 3=Sleepwalk
Section 4=Morning Bells?

Post rehearsal, thinking about the new section. It's not a dream, but the imagery of birds helped me to find the movement I want. I worked with flocking, gathering the three of us together, then separating us in canon. This has a ragged feel, almost adversarial, like people getting in each other's way. Then there are moments of unity, still and clumped, birds on the branch just before one of them flies off.

Watching this section, it reminds me of mornings, especially cold mornings: the urgency to dress, brew coffee, microwave something hot, stumbling over each other in the kitchen, the blurred pandemonium of toys, muppet songs, words from Maya that get clipped by her unpracticed mouth, breakfast tray, cereal bowls, nesting eggshells, birdfood, fishfood, raisins dropping on the floor...all punctuated by quiet moments of peace, mug in one hand, fork in another, elbow leaning on the counter, eyes out the window tracking the slow cars, speedy pedestrians, wind shivering branches.

Human Landscape Dance hits Philadelphia on Saturday May 29 at 7:30pm and Sunday May 30 at 3pm in the Painted Bride Arts Center. With Philadelphia favorite Anne-Marie Mulgrew and Dancers Company, they present the Philadelphia/Washington DC Exchange. January Night will premiere at this event.