Chaos

Wow...I'm so tired right now, I'm not even sure this blog will be coherent.  As I write this, my costume designer is at my house, sewing machine on my dining table, and making last minute alterations....except...the alterations are much bigger than she expected.

It's past midnight.

Meena, my collaborating performer, is out cold on my couch.  She's going to stay the night because otherwise she would have to bus it back out to Mid City.  Yeah.  She doesn't have a car.  In L.A.  Can you believe it!  She's my hero.  Amazing.

And me?  Well I've just been to Norway and back in the last 6 days.  That's 20+ hour journeys back and forth, with a performance in between.

I am so ready to hit my bed, but we need to get these alterations done because Tiffany is working on the set of a TV show right now, and she has 12 hour days, so there's no other time!

Anyway, it's all coming together, but of course, the last week is going to be a HUGE push.  I hope that everything goes smoothly, but I expect it won't.  I expect the worst, so that I won't get steam-rolled.  I expect the worst, so that my hopes don't get dashed.  I expect the worst, so that I can prepare to put out the best.  And like I said in the last blog, no matter what, the show will go on!

Sing Out Loud!

Community Performer Rehearsal #2!

On Sunday September 16th we had our second rehearsal for our community performers.
It was a bit stressful in the beginning because I got a message from one of the performers that she couldn't make it.  She got a job, last minute and had to take it!  She's a free lancer, and money's been tight.  I totally understood, but it does make my job harder.
Still, we managed.
We just held a space for her in the choreography and will quickly get her up to speed the next time we meet, which is this Thursday for our first and only tech rehearsal!

Anyway, the rehearsal went well.  We reviewed all the material and figured out a system of cueing.  Very high tech...Myrrhia, my awesome stage manager will basically call one of the performers on his cell phone, and that will be the community performers (aka CP's) cue to open their umbrellas.  Then 30 seconds later, she'll call again, and that will be the cue for them to start walking.
There's no other way to do it!  A walkie is too big for the CP to carry throughout the piece, and with the starting point for the CP's all the way out by the ocean, and Myrrhia up by the beach house, the cell phone saved the day.

What was nice about this rehearsal is that we talked a little about "intention" for the CP's.  I wanted to make sure, in the short rehearsal period that we have, that they can connect to the work and understand their role and intention, because that makes all the difference in the performance quality, and in their enjoyment.  We also had a lovely moment after lunch.  While we were sitting in the courtyard, I taught them the song "How Deep is the Ocean".  Some of the older women already knew it.  The rest learned it, and we sang out loud, with people all around us.

I told the CP's to sing with abandon - to not be shy.  Sing in a way that others want to sing with you!  We still have a lot of work to do to get them to that level, but hopefully it will just be there for the show, because we don't have much more time!  This whole process is so compressed.  They are really going to have to just give it their all, whether they feel totally prepared or not.  That's showbiz.  : )

Another really nice thing that happened is that the CP's started taking ownership and coming up with ideas, problem-solving together for the benefit of the show.  That made me really happy.  The team-work aspect is a huge part of doing ensemble performance work, and I'm glad they got to experience the pride of coming up with good ideas and seeing them implemented.

Onward and upward!

Till the next,

Sheetal

Our First Community Performer Rehearsal

On Saturday September 8th we had our first rehearsal for our community performers.  There will be 7 brave and spirited members of the community who are not professional performers, but will be performing in my new piece at the Annenberg Beach House on Sept. 28, 29 and 30!

Rehearsal started at 10am with the "name game".  This is a great ice-breaker and a way for all of us to remember each others' names and get a little movement work-out at the same time!  Basically, we stand in a circle and one by one, we put a gesture to our name.  Everyone learns the name and the gesture, and then we move on to the next person, accumulating  until we have a whole phrase that consists of everyone's name and gesture!  It's really quite fun, and the participants all seemed to get into it!

After that, we did some exercises that help with focus and awareness while moving.  Basically, a lot of the choreography that the community will be doing will be about moving as a group or moving in canon.  So, rather than "dancing to the music", the group will be dancing to each other.  They watch and listen each other to know what comes next!

Eventually, we made it outside where we put our ideas in the actual space.  I gave everyone a beautiful salmon/coral colored parasol, we walked down to the beach, near the water, which is where our performance begins.  Then slowly, with the voiceover of a Rumi poem in the background, followed by me singing the 1930's love song, "At Last" by Etta James, the group moved as a unit, with parasols moving in unison, from the ocean up to the boardwalk.  The group did fabulously, and we got a lot of people wondering what was going on.  "Is it a wedding?"  Of course, I'm sure it looked like a rehearsal for a wedding.  And considering that the theme of my piece is "duality" and the relationship between the Personality and the Soul, between our self and our higher self, between self and the beloved...the metaphor of a marriage ceremony is quite apt.

Standing in the sun isn't easy.  I know.  I've been dancing in it this whole summer.  I've noticed how difficult it gets to focus when outside under the hot sun for too long.  My brain starts to melt.  This definitely happened with our group.  After lunch as we worked on the middle section around the rock and palm garden, I could feel the energy of the group start to wane.  Back were getting sore.  Brains were melting for sure.  They were troopers.  We took plenty of water breaks and sat in the shade whenever possible.  At least the idea to work with parasols had an aesthetic AND practical purpose!

My next rehearsal with the group is Sunday Sept. 16.  We will be reviewing and refining everything that we learned and working with some new material for the motivational talk show scene, when I invite my Soul as a guest on my show.  : )

Meena is in Canada for a couple weeks, so our rehearsals are on hold until she is back.  We made a lot of progress in the last week of intensive rehearsals.  Still a bit to do, including finalizing what happens in the fountain and our scene together in the motivational talk show.

More to come!

Always,
Sheetal

Creating for the Space

In the last couple weeks, Meena and I have been packing in our rehearsals.  We've finally finished the first long dance section, which is about 12 minutes and takes place mostly along the boardwalk and in the rock and palm garden.  It's been a lot of fun working in the garden, tailoring our choices to help show off the beauty of the space.  The next section to work on will take place in the installation of chairs and fences, just in front of the guest house.  Again, for me, the choreography is about showing off the lines and detail of the space that we're working in, and this is definitely a different way of working for me.  As anyone who works mostly in a theater space will tell you, creating a site-specific dance challenges your brain to add a whole new layer, a new dimension, to how you create meaning through movement.  I love it.  Even before working on the beach house residency, I have been drawn to spaces in the environment, and will often see whole dances there, in my mind's eye.  But now, it's even more so!

Musically, Ellen and I have been swapping ideas and drafts back and forth, and we're starting to get a feeling for the arc.  Still, there will be plenty of adjustments to be made closer to the premiere, but it's nice getting a feel for the over-all sound world of the piece.

Costumes, same thing!  Tiffany is working on the outline, or the silhouette of the costumes for Meena and I.  I had to dissuade her (much to her dismay) from using too much chiffon, because with all the hands on/body-on contact we have with the vegetation in the rock and palm garden, our costumes would be hot mess getting stuck on everything!

I won't be on site this week because I'm in Dusseldorf, Germany, but you'll see me again the following week, after Labor Day.  Come say hello!  And then, on September 8th, we'll have our big group rehearsal day with all our community performers!  Can't wait for that.

See you at the beach!

Always,
Sheetal

Hot Pavement, Recording Session, and Panelists...Oh My!

We're moving quickly now.  This last week, Meena and I have been choreographing and rehearsing our main dance scene which will take place on the boardwalk and in the rock and palm garden.
Usually, during the hot, daytime hours, we try to find some cool indoor space to work out the movements.  You might find us rehearsing in the Garden Terrace, or up in the Sand and Sea room, and then in the evening, as the sun sets and the crowds disperse, we try out our movements in the actual space.  It is challenging to dance barefoot on the cement, and we have to be careful of not practicing a move over and over on a floor surface that has no "spring" to it.  Although in India, where I trained in a form called "Kathak", for several months in 1996, there are no sprung floors.  It's very rare that you find that kind of comfort in India, and in many other countries where the resources for the arts are even less than what we complain about here in the U.S.!  After one week of pounding and slapping on the hard floor for 6 hours a day, my feet swelled up to the size of grapefruits!  That won't happen here at the Annenberg Community Beach House,  but still it's a challenge.  Add to that the grittiness of the sand on the boardwalk, and hot pavement, and it's hard not to grimace!  Still, we love what we do, and I am very excited about this piece and about working WITH the challenges in the environment.

This week I hired a costume designer, which is very exciting!  Her name is Tiffany Maxwell, and I get a great feeling about her.  Her work is edgy with very interesting detail.  Of course, she is going to work with our theme and also with our movement and the actual environment that we're in (including a dance that happens in the Splash Pad), so it's something totally new for her and a welcomed challenge!

A couple days ago, we had a great recording session with the composer for the work - Ellen Reid.  I worked with her once before on a multi-media piece for the Artwallah Festival at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica.  She's great to work with.  The recording session took place at my house, and out of the session, a title for the work emerged!!  "I Am You".
I don't want to give away too much about the piece, but we had a good laugh at my various interpretations of a New-Age Motivational Speaker.  Ahhh...I love my job.  I love that I get to make up things in my head and then put them out in the world.  I just think that's the coolest thing ever.  It's like, I never had to grow up!  I just get to keep imagining things.

Anyway, this Tuesday August 21st is my 2nd Public Workshop/Event at the Beach House and I am curating a fantastic panel of artists to discuss, ruminate and answer questions on the topic "The Art of Being An Artist".  I'm so thrilled to bring together this diverse cross-section of directors, choreographers, animators, educators, dancers, composers.  The list includes:  Shyamala Moorty, Anaitté Vaccaro, Jonathan Beard, Jones Welsh, Juliette Carrillo and Adnan Hussain.

Come on out Tuesday August 21st at 6:30pm for juicy discussions, participatory exercises led by the panelists and some refreshments after.  The sun will be setting, and it will be divine.

See you at the beach!

Always,
Sheetal

My MUSE is in the HOUSE!

It's been a very nice week, in terms of getting some creative juices flowing!  I love it when I hook in to the tide of inspiration and the instincts that I have start to get affirmed in the external world.  That's when I know my MUSE is in the HOUSE! (The Beach House, that is).

For example...little things.  I'll have an image of a dance scene, and for some reason, a song will pop into my head.  The title of the song is somewhat reflective of the theme that I'm working with, but the song is so old, I can't really remember the words.  Could it really be the right song to use?  I'm not poring through catalogues of songs to find the right one...I just have the name of this song in my head...could it really be right?  I check it out on YouTube, and...it's perfect.  They lyrics give a different perspective on the theme that I'm working with, which is...?
DUALITY.  I don't have a title for the piece yet.  It will come.  But for now, here's a little about what I'm exploring:

The theme of the work is on the nature of “Duality”.  The piece has poetic and spiritual undertones and is an exploration of the conflict between the Soul and the Personality, the Spirit and the Flesh. That we are ultimately striving to be in tune with our “selves”, to find harmony between the eternal and the physical, the mind and the body, thoughts and feelings, fact and faith - between that part of us that knows everything and the part that is still learning.  From the time we are born, we experience duality in our separation from our mother’s womb. The piece explores the joy in union and the pain in separation, and the inevitable duality of earthly human existence.  The poetry of Rumi may serve as textual and/or imagistic inspiration.  The general theme of Rumi's thought. like that of other mystic and Sufi poets of Persian literature, is essentially that of the concept of tawhīd - union with his beloved (the primal root) from which/whom he has been cut off and become aloof  - and his longing and desire to restore it.

And have I told you who I am primarily working with as my dance/performer collaborator? Meena Murugesan! You'll get to know her more in time as well.  We'll be posting some fun videos of our work together.

So, is this piece a duet?  Yes...and no.  It is a duet, but there is a community aspect to this piece.

Here's the part where I ask YOU, yes, YOU, reader, to be part of this event, this site-specific dance-theater piece!

First of all,  You do not need to be a performer!  

You may also invite your friends or family, if you think they would be interested.  In other words, feel free to pass along this notice, invite others to this blog, email me with questions, etc.!

Before I go into the specifics of how I would like to work with you, I want you to first just imagine yourself on the beach with many others you know and love, and some new folks that you may not know, but who are obviously awesome...

Imagine the particular lightness of being experienced when your routine is unexpectedly broken, add to that the high you get from being outdoors, multiply that by a game of volleyball, a burger at Back To The Beach Cafe (veggie burger offered as well) and a few laps in the outdoor pool, and divide that all by an assurance that your involvement will add a great deal to the success of this performance!

Here's how I plan on working with YOU:

I want the community performers (that's you) to represent "humanity"; the world that we are born into; this earthly existence.  You will carry red umbrellas and at times, move as a group in unison, and at other times, break off as individuals or "families".  You create the visual architecture that frames the piece.  There will be simple choreography, possibly some text or song (if it's appropriate) and improvisation.

Of course, there is a rehearsal schedule and some commitment needed from you.  So PLEASE think it over carefully before you reply with a YES!

REHEARSAL TIME REQUIREMENTS:

Saturday September 8th from 10am-5pm (to learn material)

Sunday September 16th from 12pm-4pm (only if needed)

Tech Rehearsal: Wednesday THURSDAY September 27th, Time T.B.D. (2-3 hours to remember and refine)

PERFORMANCES

Friday September 27th 28th, 6pm (call time is 5pm)

Saturday September 28th 29th, 1pm (call time is 12pm)

Sunday September 29th 30th, 1pm (call time is 12pm)

I need to get RSVP's by August 10th.  Please email me if you're interested at: sheetal@sheetalgandhi.com

JOIN ME ON THE BEACH!!!

Till the next,

Sheetal

Surveying the Scene

I can easily imagine the days of summer slipping by as I sit in my office, window open, looking out onto the blue sea, taking leisurely walks along the boardwalk, dipping my toes in the water, grabbing a latte from the Café, sunnin' my skin to a darker shade of brown (much to the dismay of all my relatives in India)...but wait...what?  WHAT?  I have to WORK?

It's true.  I betta work it, cuz I got dis fly gig...and I'm going to make pretty dance on the beach!  Ok, so maybe it won't always be pretty, but it will be pretty interesting.  Here's my first video blog from a few weeks ago, when I first took a walk around the grounds, seeing what areas inspired me.  I invite you into my process, as I continue to update you on the inspirations and challenges and unexpected moments...and look forward to sharing the journey with you!

Always,
Sheetal