Week 4 Extending the performance

On Monday the washerwomen developed a section in Victor's and Yerma's solo in act one. That section includes peeking and at that point we use our baskets to peek through. I suggested we reverse the same phrase yet this idea was not included as it makes more sense if we stay on a low level and carry on our washing and gestural movement. Everything in that section is in 8 counts and should be very easy to work with. It includes canon and dancing in trios.


On Tuesday we had a long rehearsal and carried on with the washerwomen. We have an entire section on the floor that includes bits from two different dances, Yerma's solo and washerwomen's line section. The added bit shows how Yerma's clock is ticking and is making fun of Yerma's concerns. I contributed to the idea of Yerma's clock ticking and used my arm to show the clock and then bend the elbow, bring it down sharply to my stomach and lean forward. I came up with this movement to show the pain of Yerma. As was said in the rehearsals, the washerwomen are very nasty people. I will be making the sounds of crying, shouting and weeping on the stage. We used different choreographic devices that included canon. The intention is to show the washerwomen looking at Yerma and the movement has to be very exaggerated in order for it to work. The canon moves into a unison section followed by two groups of dancers, one group staying on a high and one on a low level. There is also a bit that uses contact work from the workshop we have had. That is rolling back to back on each other.

On Tuesday the rehearsal went well. We used motif development to make the piece longer. We developed the original line section and made it more moving. Later that whole section was dropped. At that point there should be a change in rhythm as the audience have now seen 5 minutes of gestures and gossiping. There will be some salsa that we will be doing on Friday.


On Friday we did some salsa with the washerwomen. We still used the cloth to move around with and I believe it will look very good once we get it. We used elements of basic salsa, ballet, susie que walks, shimmies etc. There is a lot of leaps and hops, turns and the counts need to be sorted out. I was struggling with the leaps and straightening of the legs. I need to practice the jump called assemble. Ballet classes should help me to strengthen and straighten my limbs. We are doing assemble jumps every ballet class.

Dancing with the cloth