photo: cole
Reset.
a thing that was there before which is changed now by what just happened.
I call it the People-Buffer, not sure what they call it:
There are 3 behind 1. 1 finds blowback into wall of 3. 3 drive 1 across the stage.
1 decides what of them blowsback for bufferwall to access. there are limbs and ribs and interwoven passes to catch heads. I remember Michelle earlier noting “the undeniable plane of the floor”. details are untraceable from the outside. later Bebe wonders if the answer (what was the question? what is intriguing?) – ‘if the answer is choreographic’ as she directs them. then 1’s blowback becomes less upawaydone. and more intowardgone… it isn’t what it sounds like as I describe it here.
I don’t know what I’m seeing when I watch BMC work.
I know when it lights me up.
I feel this way about dance that intrigues me:
it is unknowable, like spirit,
I can tell you when I feel it.
and it’s why I make dance.
As each 1 has their turn to blowback across the stage they walk back to reset, determined.
without reaction – no smiles, no talking, no jokes. this is a hilarious room at times, but not just now –
only walking
to the Agreement of Go.
A couple years back in a different room, Angie said (paraphrase)
as a dancer she goes toward what Bebe is looking for.
Yes. I can see that.
i can feel that everywhere i make, teach, and in daily life.
something permeates a room.
as people and animals we can feel intention.
we can sense what wants to be done.
even if people don’t know what they’re looking for.
i wonder how we do that as humans?
“That! What’s that?!”
the room condenses.
a 20minute people-buffer stops on a dime and they go back a few seconds in time to re-make the improvisatory moment. nearly exact. and to those of us who can do this, okay. but this is different. this is family. each of them, with each other. It’s incredible to see their agreement. unseen detail is so choiced. each person knows their relationship in time to the others, to the nuanced action and thought of a moment, and to the seen if not taken opportunity for change. before i can start breathing again the “tone” of the room has “blown-out” (a term bebe uses in classes i’ve taken with her). over an hour they repeat to hone a 7-second quartet of intricate advancement. limb touching secret wall “herding space sandwich”es that is a whirling train of exactness.
time shifts as the space thickens.
she goes.
into their go.
Bebe Miller Company residency at The Ohio State University
6.8.2016 : Morning session : Observations (Part II)
Cole G 