Transcripts of Mara2

(interviewer)  What would be an experience you had where you were really able to use notation in an open way? (Mara)  

[ clears throat ] (Mara)  Mm... Um... Well, I can think of maybe two. (interviewer)  Ok. (Mara)  One is playing with writing these impossible scores, and I... I did a conference presentation where I made a little, a little booklet of impossible scores that were very simple. And they explained what they meant so that if people didn't read notation, on one page it would have a word explanations and on the other it would have symbols. And... And I, so... It gave some instructions that were physically impossible, and then... I just suggested for them to try it there where they were, like in their seats or stand up. And they, like everybody did a different thing in the room. And that felt like using it... That felt like using it in a more in a way that's more open to me.  I don't know. Do you want more specifics about how I used the symbols? Or? (interviewer) Sure. (Mara) Um... I think it... 

[ sigh ] I guess I don't actually remember. 

[ laughs ] But, it was like really simple movement. Or simple simple concepts. Like I think it was putting one direction symbol with one other contrasting thing. Maybe it was like it was like... it was something that wasn't anatomically possible. So it was like one little movement, but it was something that made no sense. I don't know. The other thing that I feel like I'm somewhat using notation in a, in an open way is that I'm setting a piece from the score, from the notation score right now. And it's older, it's from 1930-1933. And... and as I've gone through it most of it... I've been able to feel like I have a definite sense of what the score says as far as like step here or for this long. But there's still two little sections that I don't know what's happening. And... And... I... I'm just working with the idea of... what you do  when you don't know what's happening in a notation score. Or and... putting in... putting in movements in those places cause the dancers have to do something, and they have to have a, kind of a consensus about  what they're doing to get through the dance. And so just like giving them a... working with those open spaces on a continuum of make it something  that's as close to what you see in the symbols as you possbily can, like... take the time to make a very, make your very best guess, and make sure that it doesn't deviate. So I guess basically like... the least open way to approach that would be like don't stop researching until you know exactly what that says, which I'm choosing to depart from right now. And the most open way would be do something totally unrelated to even the rest of the dance. Like point out that you don't know what's going on there. And then somewhere in between would be like do a believeable but not noticeable bit of choreography. And it... So I'm working with the middle to the most open range where I'm just putting in like modern pop dance moves, and... things that maybe are still in the, what I think is the spirit of the dance. So I think it's pretty open cause it's just saying like, "Oh yeah, I really don't have to... I don't have,  we don't have to perform the original dance here cause there is no original." It's gone. Whatever. Is that what you're I dont' know. 

[ laughs ] (interviewer)  Yeah, you're just telling me. (Mara)  Ok. (interviewer)  

[ thump sound ] Could you talk a little about that first experience where you directing from "Mini Quilt"? You said you had the opening section which was improvised. (Mara)  Uh-huh. (interviewer)  Could you, could you talk about what that was like reading it and directing your dancers to do that? (Mara)  Yeah... (Mara)  I guess I mean it's all pretty... It's been a long time. That was like... twelve years ago or something. But I think that what I remember is um... feeling... first getting my little section and being like, "What on earth does this say?" Which is usually my experience with the score, like just how, where do I even start? And then, and it had some little like you all kind of did the same move to get into it,  like the same way of getting to the floor, and then you all rolled but that was improvised. And... just that little to get the the floor taking me like, the little move to get to get to the floor taking me... so long to figure out what that meant and having to like go to Sheila and be like, "So my leg is gonna go like, I'm gonna step back low and be..." and be kind of really stuck. And having, like being continually encouraged. She was continually encouraging me to just like try it. Like try doing it, and then... Ok, so then... and I remember feeling it really halting like, which it also still usually feels like 

[ laughs ] But it's like maybe you are finally like, "Oh!" You just lunge  and then you fall into your right hip and then you start rolling. But then what happens? Like you see this seventeen  measures of squiggle, and you're like... you're like, "But..." Seeing seventeen meaures of squiggle and a lunge to get to the floor doesn't, I don't know how to, you don't, can't go to the dancers and say, "Lunge, go onto your right hip,  and do seventeen measures of squiggle." 

[ interviewer laughs ] There has to be some other language. And... so I guess that's when I started experiencing where you... with directing from a notation score or embodyiing a notation score at all, where you... ...you somehow translate it to how you would think of it as a dancer  cause that's more where I'm coming from Or maybe that's... I don't know. Like that's where it has to make sense to me. That's what I find myself telling notation students now, is like when they're like "Ok so I step back diagonal... and then I step forward..." Like, and they're doing these awkward steps in three different directions and then after they figure it out for a while you're like, "Did you notice that's just a pas de bourree?" And they're like, "A pas de bourree? Oh, it's a pas de bourree!  It's a jazz pas de bourree!" And like no problem at all. So... Um, so that with "Mini Quilt"... It's, it seemed like it felt like... see... starts with seeing it, being overwhelmed, and it's just hieroglyphics, and then breaking it up into pieces or chunks, and then putting the chunks back together and translating them into either... either your understanding as a dancer of their affect on you, or into a word phrase. Lunge, to the floor, roll until this point in the music, or roll and it will feel about this long. Yeah. And then it finally feels less halting when you get to that point. (interviewer)  And how is that for you teaching that to the actual dancers? (Mara)  Oh. Um... I'm trying to remember.  (Mara)  I think that one went pretty well. I think the first time I taught... because in that class you practice by teaching to your friends,  so the first time I taught it to my classmates who were directing with me I just felt nervous about whether I would be coherent and stuff. And very, very nervous and then went fine. And then when I taught the people, it went really well, and I felt like, "Oh this is easy. I got the easy section. I was really lucky." Later doing the directing class again and now directing in this project,  and coming along with with you to that rehearsal to do the "Vivaldiana" thing, all felt... There are a lot of times where I didn't go through that  putting it together process quite enough before I get with the dancers so it feels like I'm still halting while I'm talking to the dancers. Still going to the score and saying, "And then you do... your leg over here..." And so... There are times it doesn't feel quite so easy that... "Mini Quilt" felt a lot easier cause I had such a simple thing.  (interviewer)  Is there any other... .other really memorable experience for you in terms of either writing... writing notation or composing, like writing about dance, or composing choreography? (Mara)  Hmm...   (Mara)  Maybe I guess the only other thing I want to say is if I like I haven't sat and talked about that whole, that whole process from the "Mini Quilt" to... like "Vivaldiana" seems like a kind of a capstone, and then to right now. But if I think about it all, I... I'm struck by like in doing directing later and with a more complicated score  and getting a big huge, meaty section with lots of symbols and stuff experiencing much more of a sense of... ...of familiarity with the process of reading and to some extent mastery. Like... Remembering that... like being given a score and still just having to step spend a long time working out which way to hold the paper, and... and, and then like... with something like reading "Vivaldiana," realizing sometimes like, "Oh I don't have to sort through  which column is the support column any more." My... I'm automatically feeling that with my legs. Like... And it's still so, so much not that I get the score and I feel the movement at all.  And I see a lot of people that seem, that seem to be a little closer to that. I don't really see anybody who gets the score and would just do the movement when they get it. But I see people that seem to feel the whole movement in the score.  I still have to piece it up bit by bit, like build it up. But still like feeling a difference from after taking that series of classes twice and stuff like that. Feeling a huge difference in just like my own clarity or my own ability to build off the thing. 

[ whispering ] Yeah that's probably all.