On Doing Synapse

I’d like to sit back and reflect on Synapse, however, I was never able to take a step back and observe the activities happening in the program. I was so immersed into the program and into my choreography that I never really got much time to make observations and foundational conclusions.
Upon making the auditions for my choreography, and after we auditioned dancers, I realized how tight the situation was. Since Synapse was the small show this semester, we basically only had seven rehearsals until our performance with each rehearsal being an hour long. That meant we had seven hours to put on the performance. For this reason I chose dancers who, may not have had the best technique, but show determination in their movement—those who attacked the choreography without questioning themselves too much, for self-thought can destroy a performer.
The dancers agreed to fully commit to the dance, and also agreed to attend rehearsals outside of school (because seven hours just isn’t enough time). We got started. The choreography was very hard for them as it demanded a lot of strength, so over time I simplified it and made it a bit easier. Then, I threw the house choreography at them which was completely unexpected to them due to the fact that audition times were relatively short and I was only able to show them the modern phrases. They had a very hard time with it, though some managed to pull it together alter in the semester. While doing this I had the idea of teach house dance in the near future.
Because of the many choreographers, but such limited space, we spent much time swapping rooms. Not only did it force us to change our learning space (one of which had no mirrors), but it also cut our rehearsal time down to about 45 minutes due to the time it took to travel from one space to another. By the time the dancers could barely get a feel for the choreography, it was time to go.
My afterschool rehearsals included meeting in the hallway, at the park, and going to people’s houses. Rarely did I have all the dancers at the same time, so I had to put in a lot of work to make sure everyone got it. It boiled down to who really knew the choreography and executed it the best when it came time to select dancers for their parts; I wasn’t as merciful as I was last semester.
“Never Be Alone”, my piece from last fall, taught me a lot. One of the things a learned was to come prepared, and to commit to the theme of the piece. Over the winter I developed the choreography, and made sure to have an understanding of the technique I was teaching, therefore I started going to house dance classes considering that it was the form of dance I was choreographing, and that I didn’t know much about it.
On that same note, my game plan was the following: modern dance on Tuesdays and house dance on Thursdays. I thought it better to dig a tunnel from both ends of the mountain and eventually have both sides beet together halfway.
My dancers were in distress for awhile, but we pulled through. I didn’t waste any time, and I tried to make myself as clear as possible. Even in the midst of doubt, I couldn’t allow myself not to make my vision manifest. Langston Hughes taught me better than that as “there’s liable to be confusion when a dream gets kicked around”.
One thing I learned, too, is to have your choreography ready before teaching it. Because my movements are quite unfamiliar to others, it doesn’t help for me to make it up as I go along, because I won’t be able to clarify the technique. It also confuses me and causes me to forget choreography. I also tried to keep myself from making too many changes, especially at the last minute. Once the choreography was set, I tried to keep it as so. All changes were simple or minimal, and thus all the dancers were quite familiar with everything considering the complexity, and difficulty of the choreography under such time pressure.
My biggest challenge was getting the dancers to see the piece as a whole. When in rehearsal I was always teaching or going over choreography, so only a few dancers actually understood the blocking and progression of the piece. It wasn’t until our first run through that the dancers got to figure out what was going on. Once our rehearsals were done and it was time to perform, the piece was a mess. I had doubts that it would be ready to be performed in time, and so I modestly accepted the status quo and reckoned that the piece be continued at a later time.
Some parts were still undone, so I decided to use what I have a simply let them be. Thankfully, all the major bulk of the choreography was done, and I was able to insert simple fillers into what ever gaps remained. Our first performance or two were a bit disastrous. I truly doubted the piece was ready for performance until our rehearsal at Lincoln Middle School. It was like a night and day difference. The piece may not have been perfection yet, but it was good enough to be performed.
And it made me glad. I invited my parents to come. All who saw it told me they liked it. Paul and Assad, my peers, said some very heartwarming things to me about it, and their commentary was especially penetrating being that they were in my piece last semester, have an awareness of hip hop culture, and have seen me get down. The only things is, I HAVE NO IDEA HOW IT LOOKS BECAUSE I WAS IN IT! I want to see it so much! No one knows how much I am containing my excitement!
Applied knowledge it wisdom. I truly feel that I gave my all into this piece this semester; having started developing the choreography since late fall. I hope to have inspired others to house dance, or just try dance in general to find out how deep they can really get and unlock their abilities. For now I don’t plan to choreography anymore pieces anytime soon, but I would instead like to spend more time working on “Deeper” and “Never Be Alone” when given the opportunity to do so. When I think about my choreography’s progression so far, I feel that it still hasn’t progressed enough to reach its potential intention. I don’t think it has gotten to the point where it has fully expressed what I wanted it to express, nor is the choreography as tight as I want it to be. Compared to my complete ideal, the piece remains to be a bit of an expediency; not yet fully completed nor felt through. I am not yet satisfied with it (though I am content). There is still more I want to do with the piece, and hopefully I will have to opportunity to do so.