I've never really seen a huge difference between dance and music. It's not that one is done to / for the other. To me, both are movement in time, using the confines imposed by time to make something out of space, something out of nothing. As a musician who hasn’t really grown up around contemporary dance, I have to admit, I never fully "got" it, but I understood that we were related, somehow. I guess I liken it to poetry – it’s not literal, and it moves you even if you can’t name the ways in which it does so.
Years ago (oh yeah - YEARS), I used to play for dance classes. We weren't equals. I knew my job was one of a support role: to lay down the ground for the dancers to move over. And this was safe for me; from my vantage point where there was no risk, with the added benefit of being consistently moved by what I witnessed. But I never felt that it was a true exchange of voices. The stakes were low, and I knew that I didn’t really have to step up and be present in the way that, say, improvising or parenting or cooking require. Confessions best aired out years later ...
Working with Jen for the ‘Time Now’ project was my first ever opportunity to do just that – to step up and be fully present, to put some music out there and have something come back at me in the form of movement. I responded in kind, and was swept up in a dialogue as it unfolds, without really knowing where we were going. The only thing I can liken it to is to playing jazz with truly great improvisers, or taking the plunge into a body of water and just trusting in both your own ability and that the ‘other’ will hold you up. Time stops being relevant and all that matters is what comes next. It’s hard to explain, but in situations like these - when you're playing with masters of their craft, there's no shortage of ideas and all the time in the world. And when we're freed up from all the ego nonsense and fully committed to that moment, then the exchange brings us each a little closer to some intangible, the one that moves through us all, that is always there even when we forget it. Simply put, it’s spiritual.
Like I said, contemporary dance is not a language I know, but as I found out, you don't really have to know it to play together. Like kids in a playground, or like making your way in a new country where you can't even read the characters of the language, you rely instead on instinct, on your senses, on reading body language, gesturing, smiling a lot and always above all, remembering to be playful.
Thank you Jen for trusting me, for showing me another side of play. I'm honoured to work with you and be included for a brief moment in time, in your language. It's a beautiful and unique one. It was fun, it was terrifying. But most of all, it was exhilarating. - ES
Buy tickets for Stages
Support the production of Stages | Indiegogo
STAGES
September 18-21, 2013 | 8pm nightly
The Winchester Street Theatre, Toronto
Tickets $15/$20 | Gala performance September 18 Tickets $40
kemiprojects.ca
Support the production of Stages | Indiegogo
STAGES
September 18-21, 2013 | 8pm nightly
The Winchester Street Theatre, Toronto
Tickets $15/$20 | Gala performance September 18 Tickets $40
kemiprojects.ca
