what sue says when choreographing: Bebe's Notes
March 18 & 19, 2016
And you’re
Angie you’re here. On one leg here. Just go_____. I want you to....pull in your leg a little bit, and then you look at the audience.
Let me see that.
Pull look pull look pull.... And up.
Oh it’s nice when you.... You can let your eyes wander...
And I want you to....be kind of walking around like this...in line with her..... and Christal you’re going to _______.
Whir whir, whir whir...
[Sue sits and does with her hand what Christal is doing with hers.]
This is like...question, .... Question..
And this is like:....whaddayathink? whaddayathink?
You’re just lookin like you’re just lookin like.....
Christal: More of an ambiguity to it?
Sue: Um hmmm! That’s the word!
And then your other arm. Sue is tracing from fingertip to/ past shoulder & head to other arm. Keep this arm up? I dunno. We’ll see.
Angie does what Sue did. Christal shifts her focus a little inward as Angie gestures. Sue tries it.
....then I toss you over to this hand, then to this hand…
OK, no. All reallyrealllyreally matter of fact. No dynamic.
[Bebe thinks to herself: I think this is like a play. This feels like syntax and grammar.]
C’est bon!
And you’re gonna go...
flibertygibbet.
[Bebe: Narrative-ness: Sue
Story-ness: Bebe]
Don’t worry if you don’t repeat. Is there a way to make it more faster? More .. There’s some melodrama is the body.
Sue typing in the air with her right hand; bopbopbopbopbipbop her weight shifts are tiny and clear.
The timing is all kinda like..... gotcha.
They run it through. Pause, Sue thinks. Ok here’s what I’d like to make.
A jitterbugging thing. They try it twice. Sue fixes:
You disagree, maybe one of you.....Oh nice, yepyepyepyep! The hands facilitate you turning around. They don’t have to stay, don’t have to be droppy.
Sue unravels (or ravels?) the dance from ‘go’. So far (45 minutes in) 90% chronological, some bit of going back to fix. Not much is tossed, or rather what is tossed doesn’t hang around too long in the first place.
She crafts a sort of Angie Dip. Christal tries it: ’do you want to see more of....?’
Sue: I don’t think I want to see it at all.
Sue, while watching a run:
Look at us. Everything is a different mo-o-o-vi-e. Ooh I like that ooh I like that uh huh uh huh uh huh Huh! Holy Cow! Holy Cow! You stopped at the same second, incredible! Don’t get it just right. Don’t get it so that you know what you’re doing.
March 19, 2016
Sue improvised two short passes, videotaped. Angie & Christal made something from it.
Angie’s: yeah yeah! no stop and go whatever. Ok.....bohm bohm bohm.... One more time?
Sue edits the phrase: take out That, and That, and That. There’s something I want you to repeat, can I yell [it] at you?
Christal’s: (Sometimes gravel falls from the ceiling.) Okay, again? The second time you did______ differently. I like the second time better.
Maybe it’s interesting, start too close together, just to see?
Review yesterday’s.
A little softer with the push.
Sue comes in to fix.
A little more sentimental here. Like when Angie looks at the audience in the beginning.
To Christal: Maybe a little less....intense. “The whole thing?” No, just here.
Let’s do the same thing with the arm, Same thing with the walk back; here.
All the timings were just perfect! So, we’re going to mark that Exhibit A. Yay! Clapclapclapclapclap.
[Afterwards, I talk with both Angie and Christal]
Angie: Not to waste resources in judgment, feeling you’re getting it wrong. Calibrate. I can trust that Sue is going to take care of me (of it) from the outside.
Christal: interesting to see what we see.
Reading bodies not minds. She wants to see what’s charged. What are the prospects, the aspects, the phenomena that influence the outcome? The sensory feeling of the room.
Photos: Lila Hurwitz