“Committing to
the 24 Preludes”
(notes from work in London)
Early on in the London rehearsal phase I decided to work
with the commitment of using the 24 preludes in their entirety. In order. (whether or not this becomes the final decision it felt
right to commit to it very fully for a couple weeks) The decision came out of a
conversation with Matteo Fargion and Rahel Vonmoos on the first day about the music.
This is the structure I’ve been working with for a long
time, but I’ve been leaving the door open to the possibility of skipping tracks
or using additional Chopin pieces outside of the preludes.
It feels good to commit to the full preludes and embrace
that challenge as part of the work.
The use of this particular piece of music began as an
exercise: A structure to organize within, a frame to push against… At first it
felt temporary – like a necessary first step in assembling an unruly amount of
material, a shell I would shed at a certain point. But I quickly became intrigued by the pieces and the
specific ways they cradled, coinsided and clashed with the content of my
material.
When I show this draft to new people the music is always at
the forefront of the experience and the decision to use Chopin carries weight
and brings up questions.
For the work-in-progress version I’ve been working with for
a while now, I only made my way up to the 17th prelude. At the conclusion of my time in London
I now have a draft of the full 24 preludes.
Embracing the challenge of sticking to this structure in
full and recognizing that as a key component of the dance is so far proving
very helpful. Psychologically and
in practice.
With the intentional limitation I feel like I can address
more specifically the elements I do have in my control and at my disposal.
i.e. Silence (length between preludes), volume, style of the
recording, source of the recording (full sound system, a radio onstage), and
the relationship between my voice my movement and the music… which is a big
one.
