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BRIAN GIBBS |
This posts is dedicated to B. Daniells.
This week i start working again on a new project that i am developing. Without giving any details away, i can say that i am in a modern frame of mind concerning the movement. The concept involves very human elements that calls for a departure of the way that i would normally work. Over the past couple days i have been watching some old material of mine while i was still a student for giggles and kicks. One piece that i re-visited titled “Chasing Ghosts” reminded me of an interesting experience that i had a couple years ago watching a performance. I am about to take you down memory lane.
Every Year at The North Carolina School of The Arts all senior modern students are to put on a concert in the spring. It is called “Emerging Choreographers”. The students work on a piece for two semesters with all of the training that we have received in “Comp Improv” class (choreography) over course of 4 years. What makes it so special is that we are given freedom to choose our dancers, music, costumes, lights, sets and whatever else. You then get a full week of having the works performed at the Demille Theatre on campus. Its a right of passage for all of us.
Its common knowledge that i hated for the most part “comp improv” classes throughout the years because i felt too restricted within the confines of the curriculum. “Emerging Choreographers” i was excited about though. I could finally be the captain of my own ship. The process for “EC” helped me establish my own working style while boosting my confidence thinking that “maybe im not so bad after all?” Working with the dancers was a pleasure even when everything that could have gone wrong went wrong for me. The year my class (2004) was up to bat new rules had been impleminted concerning a music lists. Of course “Mxyomatosis” or “Like Spininning Plates” were not included. My dancers were falling out like flies for every reason under the sun. Not too mention that the girl that i was dating was seeing someone else. But even then i was having a good time in the studio cause if not i think that i might have had a mental breakdown (or two).
The work I was producing, I was very proud of cause it came from a personal place. There was something in me that needed to get out and i was able to use the techniques that i had learned almost as a theraputic tool. The last week we had before we had to show our final product my adviser and teacher Brenda Daniells had caught wind that the music that i had selected was not on the list , so she gave me an entire catalog of music to choose from. There is a going joke in my class that if you cant find music “Phillip Glass it is!”. Naturally, i selected the music of Phillip Glass.
What drew me to the music was the haunting score and the subtle arrangements that perfectly matched the mood of the movement. What i had been using before with the music was very hard and driving. Once i switched music i told the dancers to keep the same intensity as before giving the movement a new weight that did not exist before. The new music had set up an atmosphere that takes you into the piece and im allllll about atmosphere. After the piece went up i was pleasantly surprised that it ended up being an audience favorite plus appeasing the faculty. It took long enough for me to get to that point but i had learned so much along the way. I never imagined that i was capable of turning out a product that i would be happy with along with everyone else cause i have such a unique taste.
Fast forward a couple years later:
I am in the War Memorial Opera House getting ready to watch the San Francisco Ballets mixed rep of Jerome Robbins. The piece that i had really wanted to see was “Glass Pieces” because i remember reading about “Glass Pieces” in my dance history class back in school. After the lights dimmed and orchestra started to play i was really excited because i had used the same music for my emerging. This is where things got weird. I thought that i had bit Mr. Robbins style for the first couple minutes! Anyone who has ever seen or performed in the ballet think about the beginning. The corpse dancers walking out silhouhetted on a blue back back drop. Once the solo flutes comes in the ballet introduces a duet. After watching the ballet I was talking with Garen who had just got done performing it about the beginning and how i did the exact same thing without ever even seeing the piece. He agreed because he had seen “Chasing Ghost” and danced in “Glass Pieces. My intro had dancers walking across the stage in silhoutte with a blue back drop and a moon that i was stoked on. It reminded me of “Where the Wild Things Are”. We both found it to be super random that the music of Phillip Glass had inspired two completely different people to have the same vision. I guess that is the power of music that it allows you to not only have an audio experience but you also get the visceral.
Watch below and if you have ever seen the ballet or performed it ,think about the opening intro. Uncanny.
Something that i had find interesting was that no one at school told me that i had created something very similar to “Glass Pieces.” Maybe they thought if i knew i would have changed it. Who knows? Not me. Still I am proud of the product and now the title has a new meaning to it that i would have never thought of.
ps. Please excuse Tom Cruise at the start of the tape. The piece was taken from an old VHS.
