Popping Up
⊆ July 26th, 2006 by courtney | ˜What an experience to dance on the fringe of the Fringe! Although the Washington Post Weekend classified us in the “Lunatic Fringe” group (Friday, July 21, 2006), we felt quite normal and at home performing on the street. Crowds were friendly, appreciative and generous (yes, we pass the hat).
Some things we learned:
1) It works to open with the same dance all the time: Theme and Variations on Respect. It is a deconstruction of a hip hop piece set to Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto. (?!) It is unique, a crowd pleaser and we love to dance it.
2) Some sites are better than others. Our site locaitons have changed as we have figured out what works, where the street traffic is (affected by Fringe activities) and is not. Check out our web site or the updated schedule on http:\\www.capfringe.org or www.theatermania.org.
3) Most people know what we’re doing but occasionally someone wanders through the performing space, oblivious. This is quite funny and our audience gets a kick out of it. So do we but it is a little annoying. Fortunately this only happened twice in 4 days of Pop Up.
4) Popping Up 3 times in a row is enough. We put out alot of energy and need a rest after 3 shows.
5) We have alot of dance and theater material–enough to vary the shows in case anyone follows us from site to site. No one has done this yet but maybe this weekend…?
6) Performing so often is great for us as individual performers and as a Company. It makes the dances better the more we do them. Some of us have worked together for years and 2 of us are new to the group (but have danced with each other and one Company member before). It’s been terrific to see the group jell.
7) Dancing on the street improves our focus. We have to be aware of more than the usual becasue we have all kinds of things that happen on the street, including the sun, the surface, the surroundings, to keep track of while we are dancing.
So far no one has gotten injured. (I spit in superstition as I write this.) We are able to warm up and treat our bodies well.
9) It has been exhilarating to dance outside, enabling us to see these spaces in a totally new light. Previously we knew them as places to walk by. Now we ahve an intimate knowledge of these public spaces. When we spend time in them we appreciate the beauty and grit of the setting as well as allow our feelings about the space to be expressed in dance, right at that moment. It is so cool!
Come see what we mean! MomentuM Dance Theatre is Popping Up two more Fringe days: Friday night, Saturday afternoon and Saturday night.
Momentum Dance Theat
