Final Choreographic Script-Wolf Talk

http://vimeo.com/32096438

"What an amazing show, Jen.  Thank you!  Beautifully danced....sorry for all the tears, but it was incredibly moving.  Wasn't ready for it...the ending just blew my mind.  So powerful.  ---  What a wonderful gift, to tell stories like that through movement." - audience member Debbie Rouady-


Title- "Wolf Talk"- a contemporary dance piece inspired by human's relationship with our natural world.

Intention- To share with viewers an experience of being human that is more primal than our everyday way of existing in our world. By exploring the physical qualities of dogs and wolves in movement the piece encourages the audience to feel more connected to the animal world. The text is to demonstrate the lack of connection humans are experiencing with our food chain, consequently feeling more disconnected from our natural world.

Objects and Tools Needed- One male and one female dancer, two musicians, a violin, a drum, , and an in door/ outdoor space to perform.   Branches for the indoor space.

Description- A site specific work performed at Glen Echo Park, Bumper Car Pavilion Sunday Nov 13, 2011. There will be two performances, 12:25pm and 1:55pm, directly after the two morning puppet shows at the Puppet Theatre in the park across the way.  A director of the Puppet Theatre will let audience members know there is a free, kid friendly, dance performance right after the puppet show.

Wolf sounds as well as signs placed around the park will draw the crowd to the performance space. The dancers crawl out into the space to the sounds of wolves howling.  The dancers begin to move and dance and chase, lifting and tossing eachother in a playful puppy manner.  The female gets tickeled by the male and they begin a spoken game of 20 questions about where human's food comes from. They transform into chickens and then back to wolves for a more violent toss that ends in silence.  A slow, painful crawl toward eachother begins the last section of falling, lifing and carrying.  The piece ends in a silent howl, petting the earth and eachother. A bell signifies its over.  The piece is about 15 minutes long.

Evaluation/Conclusion- It went great. I had trouble deciding if we should perform in a grassy space or the bumper car pavilion, but the musicians were pulling for the BCP because of  better acoustics.  Once I brought the branches to transform the BCP I was no longer missing the outside feeling of the grassy spot.  It worked, audience members from the puppet show, as well as other people walking around the park came.  The wolf sounds did attract people, and they were curious about what was coming .  The dance went well, different feeling each show of course, but the content and musicians were strong.  Afterward, I think I should have said something more offiical.  I wish I had planned for that.  I said thank you, and asked them to sign our mailing list, but I was a bit shy about it. Maybe I should have opened it up for question and answer?  I could tell the audience was waiting for something to be said.  Maybe just being clearer at the end about thanking them for coming out.

Reactions from audience- one friend burst into tears, my folks loved it.  The first show a kid got scared and started crying after the violent tossing moment.  My friends said I was so expressive and appreciated the emotional richness.  I think in general folks were really happy they made the trip to see it, especially all of my Bluemonters good friends, who have never seen me dance.  One friend was impressed because she had never seen me move like that.  One friend emailed me and asked why the chicken?  I explained the natural food chain idea, but it reminded me of Maida's questioning.  I'm thinking perhaps in the whole evening work it will make more since.  Again, though, questions of how now am I going to make this a part of the whole evening work.  The discussion part in the middle of this dance, maybe it needs to be more, or less...

Now I feel like I can perform out where I live.  I needed this first big show to be a little farther from home, I wasn't ready for all of my friends, yoga students etc to see me create.  But now after doing this show, I believe I can create and feel good about it.  Even if there are some things I need to work on, I'm still not quite finished with the sounding, painful solo section yet, in general it was a very successful show and all who came seemed to really appreciated it.  The musicians and dancer Brian, were  very happy to be apart of "Wolf Talk".  Thanks to my wolf Daisy for inspiring it all and for this creative process to be a healing process for me for letting her go.  I'm going to make a nice video of the dance and send it to Mission:Wolf  where she lives, and to friends that couldn't see it for a christmas present.

More thoughts a week later- I need to be careful to relax my face.  I sometime's appear to be smiling even where it is inappropriate, like it is a nervous smile or something.  I'm wondering about during the painful solo, if I should have the violinist make scratchy sounds on his violin to add or instead of my sounding.  After talking with a good friend of mine, I realizied I did miss an opportunity to educate the public in terms of discusing why I did this work and sharing my process etc.  Next time I'm going to have a question answer segment, before after, or in the middle of my show to answer folks questions if they have them.

photos by Richard L.Clark