So that went well!

This past weekend was the premiere of Ten Little Waltzes at Southern Arc Dance’s spring concert, and it went well enough that artistic director Paulo Manso de Sousa commented that he could see bringing it back in the future. (And when I asked if he wanted more music from me, he immediately replied, “Something with violin,” so add that to my list of vaguely defined commissions.)

The thing I wanted to talk about today was my suggested scenario for the pieces compared to the actual results. If you go and look at that linked post — the scenario is at the bottom — you’ll see that I was pretty specific for some waltzes and very very vague for others.

Of the ten, I’d say that numbers 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, and 10 were close to what I had in mind, while the other four were completely different.

Does this mean that I think Paulo failed to live up to my vision? Of course not. The thing I most want to get across here is that my list of scenarios were essentially shinyperfects that I shoved onto him. He used what was practicable for the dancers and reinvented the rest, and the result was completely satisfying.

Note: I don’t have a lot of photos and there doesn’t seem to have been an official video, but I’ll post whatever pops up in the next week or so.

Waltz No. 1: Invitation | at the end, the teen dancers help the babies mirror their 5th position.

The adult ballet class takes on Waltz No. 2: Romance

I got to work with the Dance Without Limits class in choreographing their waltz and it was the best time ever. These dancers are all special needs adults, and their enthusiasm is infectious. They are funny, alive, and thrilled to be there. As you can see in the photo below, they’re not exactly coordinated, but that didn’t matter. Their joy in performing “Mr. Dale’s” music was enough.

Dance without limits performs waltz No. 3: Tranquillo

At the Sunday matinee, I was shoved onto the stage in front of the curtain after Ten Little Waltzes to talk about the piece, mostly as a way to stall for time backstage. I talked about starting the suite as a way to begin to learn Dorico as my main music program, since it was only the one instrument, but then as I began to work my way through it became apparent to me that it would totally work as a ballet suite — and that informed the last four or so waltzes, particularly the Finale.

I went over the Lichtenbergian concept of ABORTIVE ATTEMPTS and the idea that no artist, not even the really good professionals, ever creates their work from start to finish without having to struggle with the shinyperfect and the roadblocks that come with the process. I gave them my favorite response to the question of how I’ve done all the things I’ve done: “No one told me I couldn’t.”

And, I finished up, “I’m telling you that you can. Get out there and do it.”