I have a show going up next week, we began lighting tonight. I did two pieces; one was for Min who is from Beijing and the other was for Yana who is from Bulgaria. Min's piece is an intense quartet with a lot of isolation and when they do interact it isn't always nice. I love this piece. He uses a plastic bag from a grocery store and several times one dancer will put the bag over the head of another, suggesting suffocation. You'd call it a "dark" piece, but my lighting is not dark at all - it is stark. Heavy side lights seem to add weight to the air, some of my cues are three minute crossfades in and out of jagged patterns on the floor, and my light board operator is manually running some lights through out giving an under-current of energy. No color at all; heavy, stark, black background. Min said, "This is pretty cool."

Yana's piece is more playful. Lighting designers get two compliments that are truly meaningful, I think. One is, "I loved dancing in your lights." The other one I got from Yana. I asked her a question about the beginning of her dance and she said, "I want you to do what you do." She wanted my stamp and my deft touch of color and light on her work, completely trusting me to take it to another level. I feel that I like to really chew and gnaw on the rough heavy works but, somehow, my greatest joy is lighting a beautiful piece; bringing color and light and mixing the tones and shadings in the air, floor and on the dancers. I have my hard edge but I enjoy the "pretty lighting" a lot too. Lavenders, golds, ambers, indigos; saturation and highlights: texture, angle, intensity and then pushing it all with the element of time -- pushing those dancers with my crossfades, leading them about the space, building energy....from craft to technique and (with a damn good stage manager) on a good night: art.

Tomorrow night is a greater challenge (and more fun too). A guest artist who just won a huge grant ($75k) is doing a monster group piece with 15 dancers. The other is my favorite choreographer, we've done seven (I think) works together and this one will evolve into a piece he'll do on the Limon Company in New York. I doubt he'll take me with him to New York (one never knows) but I wish the LD of the Limon company good luck because I'm setting the first impression....twenty-four feet of yellow neon on a pipe slowly lowering to the floor over fifteen minutes until the dancers have to move around it and under it. The fragility of the glass should be effing intense. Heh. I hope the Limon company tours it, lol, luck with that!

Finally a bit of giggle humor. Designers who collaborate use funny language. We'll say that we are "doing" a piece. So; in the hallway talking I might say, "I am doing Jeanane tonight." Or even worse, "I am doing Donald's piece." "I did Jody last year." We don't think too much about it, the venacular of art-speak is ingrained. Nonetheless, I have to chuckle when I take it out of context or just listen to the sentence on its own.

Peace.

Sitting in the theater today, I watched 24 dances that will be in a show in a few weeks. That's a lot of dances, especially at this stage of the game. I did enjoy three which I thought I would mention here in this blog. Mind you, it took two and a half hours to watch all of these dance pieces.

The Light

This piece was about an hour into the viewing. Our dancer entered from stage right wearing a business suit. She slowly worked her way across stage, shedding her clothes as if they were a burden from a long work day. Eventually, she was down to her black panties and bra...she slowly walked upstage at the end taking off her bra. I could easily imagine a 12 count fade to black. The light part of it was that after the piece, she had to run about picking up her clothes in just her panties. She was clutching her clothes to her chest blushing and smiling. We all had a nice light-hearted laugh at her antics after the serious material.

The Dark

This piece I was interested in because I has spent about thirty minutes yesterday discussing the use of negative space on stage with the choreographer. Down right was a tall guy playing an upright bass, bowing away. The dancer enters and exits as if checking him out, wanting to meet him. Eventually she goes to the musician and turns her back and leans against the body of the bass. He has to lean his instrument a bit to support her body as she snakes her body down. She sits on the floor at his feet and watched the bow move back and forth in front of her face, (there is nothing really dark about this piece, I wanted to use the chocolate candy metaphor). She sits on her butt and reaches forward to grab the steel post that comes out of the bottom of the bass. He stops playing and looks at her. She leans back until she is on her back and holds this steel post against her belly. He looks her in the eye and they just stare for a moment. Then he begins bowing the lowest notes. I could feel the vibrations (it seemed to me) all the way in the house. They stare as he bows. It was inventive and beautiful and one of the most erotic moments I've seen on stage. Intense.

The Sweet

Another musician. This piece began with a violinist (male) and a dancer (female) in silence. She begins plucking a rose and saying , "he loves me, he loves me not. he loves me, he loves me not, while plucking a petal at a time. She steps away and travels on the diagonal, he begins to play. She travels back and forth getting closer and then stepping away. He plays his violin, sometimes looking at her and sometimes not. The end of the piece, he stops playing and she is on the floor at his feet - picking up each precious petal and saying, "he loves me" to each petal picked up. It was a nice pay off from the cliche and terribly ... sweet! Aw!

Couple of Hallowneen Vids