Layering of text over movement

For me one of the most intriguing developments in modern dance is the layering of text over movement. I have been excited about speaking in dance since the first time I saw/heard it. I was in high school when I first saw it, but in college when I finally exercised it. I was extremely impressed when I saw Joe Goode Performance Group perform Staying Together and Deeply There (stories of a neighborhood) at The Dance Center of Columbia College in 2007. The next semester I was thrilled to have Liz Burritt as a Dancemaking teacher. From her I picked up techniques and determination in the world of text and dance. It is quite possibly the scariest thing to do on stage for a dancer; dance while speaking. And in my fourth season with The Dance COLEctive, we still continue to create with text.

In our upcoming show we are restaging 13, a comedic dance that explores the oddities of being 13 years old, we are adding the element of text to our movement. This has been both
stimulating and amusing. At one point in rehearsal I felt completely tongue tied, both vocally and throughout my body. We were working on a section improvising our text with our movement phrases. It was a huge challenge for me to think of words, let alone the right words, while dancing. Connecting movement is so natural for dancers. It happens in our bodies and really takes little thought processing. So when we are faced with challenges like improvising text while moving, interesting things happen. I found myself blanking on my movement, stammering my words, and sometimes standing blankly among the rest of the dancers. We have had several laughs, head scratches, and plenty of mess-ups. However, we are all deeply invested and Margi has had patience during this process. It is always a challenge to speak authentically while dancing, but it's such an awesome challenge. The work hits the stage in January and we are all enthusiastic about it.

Submitted by TDC Dancer Shannon McGuire-Edwards on Thursday, December 13, 2012.