Let's Dance!
Let's Dance!
How movement sequences in WE were collaboratively created
Click here for WE tickets. Performances October 11 - 20, Brooklyn, NY.
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Yevgeny Zamyatin did not include dancing in his dystopian novel WE. However, as I began adapting the book into a play, two moments in the story presented an opportunity for movement sequences. There isn’t a choreographer in our ensemble and none of us are primarily dancers, so I developed these moments through creative approaches.
The Dance That Got Away
The photo above is from a fantasy sequence that (sadly) is no longer in the production, but it was a beautiful moment while it was with us.
In the novel, the main character, D-503, attends a lecture featuring a concert performance of a piano piece by Russian composer Alexander Scriabin. The setting of the novel is the distant future, and the Scriabin piece is presented as an example of the “uncivilized” culture of the “ancients.” While the audience laughs at what they perceive to be an absurd performance of chaotic music, D-503 is mesmerized by the beauty of the piano player, I-330.
I saw this as an opportunity to theatrically zoom in on D-503’s internal thoughts about I-330 and show the audience what he imagines. I asked the actors playing the “audience” watching the concert to freeze while the actor playing D-503 stood up and walked over to the piano. When he arrived, I-330 stood up and began to dance with him while the music she was “playing” continued.
Instead of choreographing the dance, I let the actors sort out what they were comfortable doing. Once they decided what they wanted to do, they showed it to us. Together we made a few adjustments while also allowing for the possibility that it could be different every time until we found a sequence we would keep.
The Scriabin piece we worked with can be heard here. Following its jarring opening, the dream-like music that follows was gorgeous paired with the simple and intimate partner dancing the actors created. After the two characters danced for a few seconds, D-503 noticed the “audience” laughing at them in silent slow motion. As I-330 sat down, the laughter became audible and the movement changed from slow motion to real time. Upon returning to “reality” D-503 observed the audience was not laughing at him, instead they were laughing at I-330’s performance of Scriabin.
I loved the sequence and desperately wanted to include it in the show. But when I watched it during an invited run-through, I realized seeing these two characters dance together at the beginning of the show killed the romantic tension between them. I was sad to let the sequence go, but cutting it saved some much needed time, restored the dramatic tension between the main characters and eliminated the cost of paying a pianist to record the Scriabin piece for the performance.
The Dance That Remains
In the future society of WE, the authoritarian regime has directed its citizens to strictly adhered to the principles of twentieth century mechanical engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor in a way that essentially turns everyone into the cogs of a machine.
Every day the citizens participate in what’s called the “Taylor Exercises.” Rather than create a boring scene with dialogue that explains who Taylor was and what the Taylor Exercises are, I decided to simply show the exercises. However, I thought it would be tedious to choreograph a sequence in the traditional manner, so I guided the ensemble toward a dance of their own creation. I did it that way because I knew the actors would come up with ideas for movements that they could do well and that they would be excited to perform for an audience.
I asked everyone to find a partner and, in pairs, to take five minutes creating three movements with their partner that could be repeated over and over and that an audience might recognize as a movement which would be seen in a factory.
Once everyone created three movements in pairs, we came back into a circle as a whole group. I asked the pairs to teach their movements to the whole group, one movement at a time.
Then I asked the group to give each movement a name and I wrote the names up on a big piece of paper. The names were simple (e.g. “torch”, “ladder”, “dig”) and they helped us remember each one.
After we learned all the moves and gave them names, I asked the cast to put their moves in a sequence. I asked them to do each movement in the sequence four times and then move on to the next one. I put on music our composer created for the Taylor Exercises and we made our way through the sequence standing in a circle facing each other, calling out the names of the next movement as we made our way through the sequence. We then captured the movement sequence on video for future reference.
A few weeks later, instead of doing the moves in a circle, I turned the actors toward the audience and placed them in various formations on the stage. Then I assigned a movement to each formation (e.g. in formation one, we do “dig”, in formation “two” we do “sunshine” etc.) We then created transitions between formations and, voila, we had a dance!
I’m looking forward to seeing how the Taylor Exercises evolve when we get to the theater in October and add lights and projection design.
We are back in rehearsal this weekend as we enter the final stretch of rehearsals. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes and I’m looking forward to meeting you at the theater!
Click here for WE tickets. Performances October 11 - 20, Brooklyn, NY.
WE is made possible by grant funding from the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR) in the Arts, the Puffin Foundation Ltd., and NYSCA-A.R.T./New York Creative Opportunity Fund (A Statewide Theatre Regrant Program). Production design support provided by the Edith Lutyens and Norman Bel Geddes Design Enhancement Fund, a program of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York (A.R.T./New York).