Make-out session #2

A week-long residency begins in three days. The dancers have just embarked on a well-deserved two days off following another week of pushing and pulling, of turning the kaleidoscope a few more notches to the right (and maybe one or two to the left) as we strive to find the dance's resonant soul in time for opening. Whoever said artists know nothing of the bottom line fail to recognize that the most unforgiving of bottom lines is opening night. Nello and McDaniel remind us that the critics and the audience are in their seats at 8pm. The work better be there, too. "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your patience. The choreographer and dancers are working out a few things and will be with you in a moment. Or not. We trust you are OK with that." As if.
As the dancers rest, the creative and production collaborators shift into high gear. The theater's brick wall, a long-debated bone of contention among us regarding its appropriateness to the work - do we expose it or cover it up - will receive a fresh coat of paint tomorrow morning. Although the topic of wall painting may seem inconsequential to the big picture, the conversations it generated and the listening skills it asked of us, underlie the very nature of a collaborative process. It is but one of many creative elements that we discuss on a daily basis. Someone said (I am quoting from an article by dramaturge Guy Cools) that a group is always smarter that the smartest person in the group. We force ourselves to not only hear but to listen to what is said. From my perspective, this challenges my natural-born instincts as a know-it-all. I love the inner battle that this way of working stirs up in me.
The making of the dance began without a script. It had no known narrative, no characters, no moral imperative. We started from nothing except for a vaguely articulated desire on my part to look at the conventions of the proscenium arch and to deal with curiosities around the value of human interaction in a world view where boundaries, and the comfort they instill, are dissolving at an alarmingly rapid rate. Anne Bogart calls this process 'building a universe from scratch'. It asks that everyone willingly buys-in to collaborative engagement. In less than two weeks, our collective musings, kaleidoscopic manipulations and hours of listening will meet the bottom line. You.