USB Bracelets
Beginning with the opening night performance of Glassy Essence, Cedar Lake is testing new technology to create unique souvenirs of installation performances. Partnering with All Access Today which specializes in producing USB drives attached to bracelets, live video from each performance will be loaded onto the bracelets which are available minutes after the performances ends. The USB devices embedded in the bracelets contain the unique performance footage that is playable on any computer.
All Access is already producing USB items with artists such as Matchbox Twenty and Ringo Starr. You can read about this new technology in the February 23rd issue of Billboard.
The commemorative bracelets will be given to ticket buyers of the April 24 9PM opening night performance of Glassy Essence.
Photo Stations
Cedar Lake invites you to share photos of your Glassy Essence experience by downloading a copy of them at our photo stations on your way out or by using one of our cameras. We’ll upload your photos to the Glassy Essence gallery and send you the link.
Our second week in the studio has just started. Monday morning tension was there… and slowly abated with the day. Sitting in the theater between two rehearsals, I suddenly realized how much the tempo has intensified since our first day of creation in Norway.
Swan and I got to work with the dancers on Glassy Essence for the first time in the studio of the brand new Dansens Hus in Oslo. It was the last day of our tour in Norway. Despite the fatigue, everyone was excited to start something new and in some ways to be “home again”: the dancers had not worked with Swan for more than a year, and Swan was finally able to work on movements after countless hours spent thinking and talking about it! That day, we had for the first time some music samples from Stefano to work with… really basic and rough sections, but again, it was just good to start for real…
The day prior, Swan and I had walked from our hotel to Vigelandparken, a park Northwest of Oslo known for its hundreds bronze, granite and wrought-iron sculptures by Gustav Vigeland; the park sculptures depict the stages of life from birth to death, one generation to the next. I took pictures of few of them… So much simplicity, and yet richness and poignancy… Art in nature, the kids at play around and on the statues, no separations nor limits set by a museum or a stage… This made so much sense to me…
I like to think that the real start of Glassy Essence between Swan and me took place during our conversation that Sunday in the Park. It felt very liberating to talk about it in the special setting, far away from New York… It felt easy too…and uncensored…
Today, while waiting for the next rehearsal, back in New York and its palpable stress, images of Oslo rushed back… The stroll in Vigelandparken is still echoing in us… quiet, safe, simple… I know that Swan and I will try in the stressful hours to come to go back to this first day…
Over the week-end, I read an article about the French actor, Louis Garrel. While talking about the importance of creating a relationship with his fellow actors off camera, he says: “The film is a residue of a larger life”…
Nick and Jason finally entered the theater for the next rehearsal. I snapped out of my thoughts. Swan and I exchanged a brief look. I smiled. Glassy Essence is a residue of a larger life… one with Francois and his photos, Gilles and his videos, Stefano and his music, and Alexander, and the dancers of course, and New York always… and Oslo… and its Vigeland Park, on a dear Sunday afternoon, in March.
-Alexandra
Glassy Essence rehearsal at Dansens Hus in Oslo Swan at the cafe on the way to Vigelandparken Sculptures at Vigelandparken Sculptures at Vigelandparken Detail on one of the sculpures that we really liked
Looks like Jason beat me to posting about the first rehearsal but I’m going to post this anyway.
I feel like we say this over and over, but the process is really collaborative. Swan starts by teaching us a phrase sometimes making adjustments as soon as he sees it on us. He doesn’t usually give counts but allows us to translate the phrase into our own bodies. After watching us do it, he uses the variations and changes that each person’s body adds to enrich the movement.
We’re working on a phrase with the group posed in that top photo. I think it might be near the beginning of the installation. We’re all walking forward slowly and little things happen. Just small, subtle movements so you don’t really know what’s going on. It could be kind of a mystical beginning to the piece but it could also go anywhere. That’s one of the great parts in creating new work; there are still so many possibilities.
Take for instance my character in Glassy Essence. I know the Swan and Francois have not finalized the story for the characters yet, but in my own mind I like to think of my character as a kind of angel. The ‘Bubble’ could be like a cloud… maybe? It works for me. I’ve always wanted to sit on a cloud. ;-)
I feel pretty good about rehearsal. We’ve been working on different parts of the installation leading up to this; the photo shoots, the flying, the costumes, but it’s great to finally start putting it all together.
Today we had our first real rehearsal for Glassy Essence. It feels like forever since we’re created a piece with Swan. It’s been more than a year since he choreographed Vastav.
We started by generating movement from Francois photos. It was cool to see how the still images turned into movement and out movement worked through the still images.
The first phrase that we worked with today used inversions and a lot of arm work. Swan usually starts with something small then builds as we all become warmed up creatively. By the end I was feeling some burning in my thighs which is probably from all the squatting leg work.
I’m also working on duet with Nickemil. It great because Nick and I have worked with Swan for 4 years now so we all have a good feeling of what each other is going to do. The three of us have great chemistry so things just work. I love the adagio where tremors are running through our forearms and hands while our lower body is calm and still. The music for the duet sounds like a harp with a techno beat. As the beat builds into a layer of sounds it really drives the movement.
We’re still experimenting and trying things and it feels good to finally be in a serious creating mode.
Two years ago I saw my first Cedar Lake performance. I was really impressed with Swan’s work with the company. When I talked with him afterwards we realized that we were taking our work in the same direction. We knew that we had to work together on a project in the future.
Collaborating with Swan is a natural progression for my work. I’ve always been fascinated by dancers and their movement and capturing that in still images. Each book of photos that I make tells a story but I also try to connect them together by using the last image of the last book to inspire the first image of the next book. My last image was of dancers moving through shadows and I wanted to push that image further, to see dancers flying in the air.
My work has always been inspired by stories. Sometimes the stories come from books and novels or sometimes they are stories that I make for myself. My books and photo sets always have a story, a beginning, middle and end. They take you on a journey. I love the way that choreographers are able to tell stories through movement but I like photography because I am not limited by time. I can use as much time as I need to find the right image and place it in a setting.
The photos are an integrated part of the installation. They provide key moments in the story while the choreography tells the parts in between. All the works that we’ve done over the past year have been experiments. We’re exploring and generating material that we will use in our story. We’ve worked with dancers on the ground, in the air and posing in portraits. Through all of this we’ve been exploring what kind of story this installation will tell.
I feel like Glassy Essence is going to be like a symphony. It has a lot of different elements that will start out in different ways but will come together to make one larger beautiful story.
This kind of flying with a harness is different from the kind of hanging stuff that we’ve done with Swan before. He has had us hanging and swinging around on walls, but it’s so different without the wall to push off from. Now that you’re in the middle of the room, once you launch off the ground you can’t really control where you go and how you turn. You just do the best you can to create interesting movement while you’re bouncing off another person.
We use two different kinds of harnesses. Jason and I are in the single line type. You have a lot more freedom but almost no control. Jon is wearing the kind with two lines in the part where he is just hanging there. With that one you can flip upside down, kind of head-over-heals, unlike the single harness. Actually, that’s a lie; I always seem find a way to go upside down in either one.
Swan wanted us to be human, vulnerable and exploring. But once you launch off the ground a lot happens that you just can’t control. But I think it’s like anything in art; you can’t go into it focused on creating something beautiful. If you do, you’ll spend the whole time self-critiquing. You have to just let what happens happen and be true to your intention in the moment. You just have to trust yourself and the choreographer.
We went down to the financial district with Gilles and Swan so Gilles could get footage of us in an urban setting for the installation. He was also taking photos, but I think Ana took some of these too.
The photo shoot was really a chance to be set free in New York and just work in a foreign environment. Swan let us go with a little less direction than usual. He told us to be characters, creature-like, working in these surroundings. Just to use the feeling that we didn’t belong in the setting that we were dancing in. I mean, I wasn’t in a suit with a briefcase; I was dancing on Wall Street in a sweater and skirt. At least I wasn’t wearing a bubble.
It was kind of awkward at first. Most people wouldn’t look at us. Of course, you have the typical jaded New Yorker who just thinks you’re crazy and ignores you. Some people were interested, like in this photo, but most people just wouldn’t interact with us.
I like this one:
We had just been asked to leave the store behind me when and we were going to start walking back down the street. This was right after the part in the video trailer with me looking in the taxi windows. I was looking for more people to interact with but the street was empty. That’s when I saw the scaffolding on the side of the building. I started climbing it while Swan was yelling ‘get down, you going to break it!’
It was a pretty fun day. I mean how often do you get to dance around New York City for work?
