Claire French : dancing what's not there

Claire French (choreographer)

Justine Chambers, Brenna McLaud, Heather Laura Gray (interpreters)

Beginning:

Came with an intellectual concept (the moment of forgetting) and a task for the interpreters (learn a phrase, then forget it).

Lots of attention was on Texture (subset of sensation of Action) and Rhythm (subset of Time).

Primary worlds were the internal world of each dancer.

Challenges:

to stick to what the idea IS (moment of forget) not its reverse (not remembering)
to physicalize the theme with internal actual physical performable repeatable actions that give information about the theme. •
to find clear symbols, not semaphoric movement (i.e. semaphoric: action that looks like it’s meaningful but few, or no one, understands).

Development/skills:

identifying physical sensations that dancers can conjure and use as sources for movement development •
when a moment “reads thematically” recognize the how the movement principles are interacting in order to build more clear material.