Butoh Day

It was great to have our first rehearsal with Sonja today. She showed us some butoh walks, and I found that the suspended, imagistic elements of butoh work really well within the space and also with Shawn's soundtrack. (which he personally lugged through the park today and needs a solution for! note to self...) Her perch on the stone bridge with the bucket, and her walk through the bushes was captivating.

In going through individual journeys, it was very interesting to note that people tended to have the impulse to work in isolation (making them extremely difficult to track in the space!) But I think that the 'perspective' theme is coming back quite strongly, and space between people is good.

The bucket and the red streamer seem to be desired props that work well in a variety of ways. We will soon need a bike trailer to lug all of our stuff around in, and just moving bags from place to place is getting pretty hilarious.
Katrina on the rocks= always cute and fun

The deer are always nice, but they are one of my fetishes right now. Am I overdoing it?

Michelle singing her guts out on the bank= could be triple the length, managed to compete with the Edmonton Queen, and always brings onlookers. With her singing, people always know its art and that it is alright to stare. (with the rest of us they sometimes shyly ask what we are doing or if they can take photos...) I still think she needs: an umbrella and a bucket of stones to throw.

Theresa on the road with her pail, walking so slowly was lovely, as was her spontaneous body break downs on the bridge, collapsing when people passed. I missed her tree today. She fished wildly. She engaged in I LOVE YOU runs, much to our pleasure... (those are originally a Ginette Laurin thing)

I caught a great glimpse of an exciting table dance by Jason. But I think the red string web is cut...single string seems more the point, and the entanglement isn't fitting in yet.

Chad's runs are really funny- in the bushes, on the road, in the field. I still haven't found the greatest way to use everyone, so there is a bit of floundering overall. I am not super worried about it, because this is the time when we get to see each other. As long as once a role is established, it gets full commitment, things work out well. (And you won't get to see some people ever again in the piece!)

I am very excited we get to work with Gabe Wong on design! Go see his website:  Gabe Wong
Maybe he will be able to help us come up with something in the space as well...

And of course Sonja coming to the rescue of the drunk man on the riverbank was the cherry on top...

Chad had a dream about convergences of characters on the bridge, and in doing things today it looked like that may just be what happens. We spoke about the difficulty (and perhaps redundancy) of getting off the bridge and back up the hill, of the draw of the river- its in the title after all- and about good endings. I think the hovercraft would be fun! So who knows where it will lead- still many things to be felt out and done, but coming nicely.

Happenings

With Kat, Theresa and Jason today we found a few things that caught interest:
1. a red crepe paper streamer tied to the bridge at its midpoint. 25 metres long. lovely

2. Kat on the rocks washing clothes and spreading them out. in red. installation-type

Things that didn't work:
-dropping dandelions
-person in white in tree
-person in parallel installation on S side of river in white (too receeded and competes with red)

Thoughts:
person in Tree needs tree talk text (theresa working on lung associations)
crepe paper finish line and cheering for joggers and runners is funny
bucket to gather water (25 m string)
Person who only walks on rocks. Another sets and moves them...
anything x 50 people would work. A choir? A school? Volunteers?
Return of the people balancing branches on their heads
Return of the deer in the bush

bears at the picnic table (perhaps before and after)
red,red,red
bikes
golfcarts

Signs or stickers:
No Spitting
No Loitering
No Talking
No Running
No Stopping
No Washing
No Climbing
No Watching
No Dancing
No Stripping
No Fighting
No Drinking
No Eating
No Trespassing
No Returning
No Asking
etc....

the yarnbombing idea was just ok looking- kind of messy and weak...
Now is the time to get some sound and text integrated...

Pics with Ernest