DAI Week Two Part One

All of day six was spent with Ronlin. We discussed the four elements of water, fire, earth, and air then split into groups to become the elements and to become things in the element. We explored earth more in the afternoon through becoming trees and digging through clay. Ronlin talked about the four different movements that correspond to the stages of life. The movements are reaching out, pulling in, holding, and release or sublimation. We also talked about the different intellectual, emotional, and physical parts of the anatomy. We were given the group assignment to create an event physically. I met with my group for drinks to talk about the event. We decided on something to do with the river and walked down to explore our options.

We met with Joe for Daily Practice again Tuesday morning. We did some quick stretching and rolling then had a handstand workshop. I can almost do one free of support from the wall. We worked with Ronlin in the morning. We worked with elements again then with props. We got another group assignment to bring these large stick and paper mache objects to life. We spent the afternoon with Joan working to move the pelvis over the feet. We worked with partners holding ropes around our waists and then along with balancing things on our heads to find resistance and balance. We then worked with full body bags made of stretchy material in the watershed. We talked about these bags as masks and becoming creatures and how they breath, move, and perceive the world. Ronlin revised our group assignments to choose among the three options of the event, the large objects, or the bags. I will stay with the event and add on the bags.

We had another film colloquium Tuesday night. This one was Rhythms of Earth from a study conducted by Alan Lomax for the Smithsonian on the different dance styles of the world. The study was in choreometrics, a field of ethnography, to build a global jukebox of dance. Different parts of the film discussed 1, 2, and 3 dimensional movement, styles of stepping, and how different cultures use the hand and palm in dance.

Day eight started again with Daily Practice with Joe. we did our walking sequence, rolling, stretching, and a handstand workout. We had Joan for the morning and worked more with the bags, observing each other's creatures. We had Stephanie in the afternoon. We worked in 5 levels of energy then individual work with masks Stephanie brought in, building characters on the spot. I met with the bag group and split into 3 small groups of 3. I also met with the event group and we worked out a basic structure for the piece.

More on week 2 later,
Brandon Brockshus