We had a crisp clear cool evening at Powhatan Springs Skate Park in Arlington for Breaking Ground. Several male friends joined us at 4:30 on Saturday afternoon and learned the structures we had set for a couple of the sections of the performance. Other sections contain detailed choreography. The dancers had to navigate a landscape of levels, cement, darkness, or the bright light of the projectors. Our new performers had a lot to get used to in a short amount of time, but the number of bodies was a bold move, and I liked having mostly non dance trained males being involved in the physicality of the piece.
Frankly, by the time Saturday rolled around, I was exhausted. There was a lot of delay in getting the final video product, and in my nervousness, I kept trying to move Mac files to work on my PC with an Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 program. There was no success with that, and luckily Julia was able to pull together the DVDs by Saturday morning.
Outdoor performances, particularly in such a large space, are tricky to pull off with video involved. I think most of the people who attended were looking for something different, and here in this large space, they had many different places to look. People first sat on the hill outside the fence surrounding the park. We were waiting, waiting, waiting for darkness. Finally we called everyone inside and people sat around the edges of the park while the piece unfolded. It was almost too dark sometimes, and what can I say, as these things are somehow never in control even when you take so much time in trying to be in control.
Next up our performances at Woolly Mammoth where we'll perform excerpts from Breaking Ground as well as other repertory. We've barely sold any tickets and there is a lot of concern. So ease my mind, please come by on Saturday or Sunday at 8 pm.
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