Trying out some ideas for improvisations... We played with the simple idea of question and answer.
This was this evening in Leblon on the rooftop of an apartment block, my first time dancing on a roof, the stars were out (not that you can see many in Rio) and in the distance (behing the camera) is Chirst the redeemer lit up on the Corcovado looking down over the city.
Something that I love about Rio is that any space is the perfect space... right in the middle of the city I felt very connected to the environment I was in, thinking about all the hustle and bussle going on below us of the daily lives of the city. However with the expanse of the sky above and with the task we set between the two of us I was also able to have a private space, to move and play and be separate from the many different lives going on below us.
After watching and reflecting I would like to play more with time and timing... but please let me know your thoughts...
This was this evening in Leblon on the rooftop of an apartment block, my first time dancing on a roof, the stars were out (not that you can see many in Rio) and in the distance (behing the camera) is Chirst the redeemer lit up on the Corcovado looking down over the city.
Something that I love about Rio is that any space is the perfect space... right in the middle of the city I felt very connected to the environment I was in, thinking about all the hustle and bussle going on below us of the daily lives of the city. However with the expanse of the sky above and with the task we set between the two of us I was also able to have a private space, to move and play and be separate from the many different lives going on below us.
After watching and reflecting I would like to play more with time and timing... but please let me know your thoughts...
Also excuse the watermark... after many dropping of cameras and trying to elastic band camera's to chairs we used a camera where the format of the file is not recognised by my mac so I have had convert it with some free software!
A short clip of our processes so far.... lots of talking, discussing and sharing youtube videos as well as making music and dance!
The lovely Pedro Reis has joined us in our improvisations and collaborations! This was a little something that happend whilst we were waiting for the rain to stop! I know, its rains in Rio too! hope you enjoy it....
So the rain didn't really stop so I decided to join them.....only briefly but it was fun. My favourite part is where I hit the lamp! I meant to do that.... honest! I thought it would make an interesting lighting effect......
Before it started to rain....
Our last rehearsal in Rio was soo lovely, we were joined by Yuri Parkinson who also gave his musical talents to our improvisations. This time we rehearsed at the Senzala Capoeira Academy in Copaleme. This space is the second home for Ruan and Pedro who train there three times a week and also became mine for my time in Rio. The space is very different to the roof top and so was the improvisations. We again focused on the ideas of questions and answers and responding to each other.
Whilst talking and discussing the process we also had a bit of an impromptu game...we realised we weren't recording so had another not so impromptu game!
It was great to play with Ruan in this context and have the question and answer of capoeira within our creative process. Everything we are exploring in our collaboration of music and dance also lies at the fundamentals of capoeira, question and answer, time and distance. It hadn't quite occurred to me until Ruan mentioned it after this game. It seems quite appropriate that this naturally occurred as part of our process...
It was great to play with Ruan in this context and have the question and answer of capoeira within our creative process. Everything we are exploring in our collaboration of music and dance also lies at the fundamentals of capoeira, question and answer, time and distance. It hadn't quite occurred to me until Ruan mentioned it after this game. It seems quite appropriate that this naturally occurred as part of our process...
Quando eu venho de Luanda
This song is famously sung within capoeira circles by Ruan's father. It has a great significance and meaning that I found quite intimidating when improvising...
This posed an interesting question for me to respond to.. I found it quite challenging as this is something that is very much from Brazilian culture that I have only dipped my fingers in...
This song is famously sung within capoeira circles by Ruan's father. It has a great significance and meaning that I found quite intimidating when improvising...
This posed an interesting question for me to respond to.. I found it quite challenging as this is something that is very much from Brazilian culture that I have only dipped my fingers in...
So this concludes this chapter of the work in Rio. I flew back on Saturday after having a brilliant rehearsal and improv jam on Friday. I left feeling very excited and very positive about the work we will do on this project. We shared our culture, time and experience with each other discussing, dancing, playing music and capoeira. This time together has been integral to our process and has set the groundwork to inform our future work that we will continue now I'm back in Wales. We look forward to receiving Ruan and friends in Wales soon!
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