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♪
SIPHESIHLE: It’s felt fitting to come back with this piece
because the last thing we did.
It’s just life getting to the root of
what experiencing this life is.
You know, all these moments are fleeting and they’re beautiful,
and we are always constantly trying to stretch them out,
to make them, you know, as beautiful as possible
for as long as possible,
but at the same time, knowing that it will end
and knowing that no memory, no moment
ever comes back the same.
HANNAH: It’s been, like, overwhelming to come back
when everything is so different,
my life is so different,
and things that I’ve experienced since then, like...
the piece itself feels different,
but then when we’re lying on stage and the music starts,
it feels like I’m transported back to 2020
or whenever we performed this.
SPENCER: There are a lot of mixed emotions.
Obviously excitement and joy and eagerness to get back,
but also some fear and doubt.
Kind of leaving things with this piece,
but then also coming back to things with this piece
that felt like bookends of a very strange time.
JENNA: It’s just been very demanding,
and it’s just like... coming back to it,
but I think it’s also helped me come back well,
I feel like, because it is so emotional, it is so demanding.
It requires thought and effort and feeling,
and it’s never surface.
♪
[indistinct conversation]
♪
[indistinct conversation]
CRYSTAL: Hi! DANCER: Hi.
♪
CRYSTAL: Hi, guys. [dancers clapping]
CRYSTAL: Oh, nice to see you!
Ah, I wanna hug you all! Mwah, mwah.
How are you doing? HARRISON: Great!
CRYSTAL: Yeah? Good!
DANCER: [inaudible] CRYSTAL: Aw, nice.
I’m thrilled to see you.
So happy to see you again.
We were just saying it feels like 8 minutes ago
that we were all together.
I mean, ideally, I would have the whole cast here right now,
but I’m thinking, if I tell you, you can tell your friends,
and there’ll be a kind of like osmosis.
So what we’re starting with is a feeling of loss,
like just kind of an extreme feeling of shock and sadness
and the feeling of kind of glitching over
the same traumatic moment.
And so this little pulse is about that.
It’s about saying, get up, get up, get up, get up, get up,
get off the floor, get up, get up, get up, right?
So it wants to feel that in your chest.
Yeah, the urgency of trying to bring Siphe back.
It wants to feel like it’s supercharged.
And the energy between the heels of your hands and your forehead
is just zinging, yeah? [inhales swiftly]
And then again, we want to kind of glitch over
the same moment, the same sad moment, right?
Of, "Oh, no." Oh, you know, so we’re sort of--
we’re taking in the image and we’re responding to it.
We’re taking in the image and we’re responding to it.
And again, so we’re just kind of scratching over
that same moment in time.
And then what happens? Then...
By the time they’re swinging back and preparing
to come forward, the story is in your hands there.
What happens over here?
CRYSTAL: I usually start every creation I do
by building choreographic material.
So a bunch of choreographic phrases that everybody learns,
it becomes like the language of the piece.
It becomes like a shared language.
CRYSTAL: Okay, great.
So from here, again, you want to feel the weight
of the world on your shoulders.
You want to feel like the only reason you’re standing at all
is because you’re helping yourself by having your hands
on your knees. Right?
I mean, the weight of my head and the shape of my shoulders,
the feeling of like needing, you know, needing a moment,
that’s inherent in that image.
The relationship of our head to our shoulders,
it tells a lot about how we think
or what we’re searching for
or how we’re thinking or how we’ve,
you know, if we’re retreating.
So all of this, just even the head alone in relationship
to the shoulders, it’s already so much story in it.
So I guess just after, you know, so many decades of staring at...
at people and staring at bodies and understanding
all those mechanics and relationships, I...
yeah, it’s a kind of language that I speak quite fluently.
It’s just about putting these things in combination,
in a certain combination to try to get an idea across.
Hands too.
Hands are so much-- there’s so much story in our hands.
So I’ve been learning a lot over the years about how the fingers
can create the appearance of pain, or fear, or...
There’s so much just in our hands alone.
I really enjoy pulling those things apart
and finding meaning in all those gestures and postures.
Mm.
CRYSTAL: [murmuring rhythm]
CRYSTAL: That’s it! Yeah.
[whispers] What else was there?
I kind of just got lost in it just then.
I was just kind of enjoying it.
I didn’t really have a lot of--
wasn’t really using my critical eye.
I was just, like, so touched to see you dance
and just to be here. It’s already a lot.
Thank you so much, everybody.
So satisfying to see you in real life.
Yeah, dancing so beautifully.
Wow.
SIPHE: I was lucky enough to have been part of the creation
of the piece, and I think that really helped me develop
in the work because we got to explore together.
So it was really a moment to kind of get in touch
with how we wanted our bodies to move.
Every part of your body is alive at all times.
Every part of your body tells a story,
and they all have a role to play in making the dance happen.
And I think that’s what Crystal’s work for me is doing.
You know, your whole being has to be in it.
CRYSTAL: Right, we have a whole note there.
It’s gonna be so good.
I think you should start the whole business
of pulling him a little earlier.
Like, your timing’s good.
Before you lift your chin.
JENNA: Okay. CRYSTAL: Yeah.
So, you see that and then you look out forever.
And then I would say you don’t have to look at everybody again
on the way back.
Then you’re just busy with what’s ever holding onto you.
Yeah, so spend your time seeing all the losses, all the losses,
and then out beyond, up the hill.
And then immediately your attention comes
to your left hand, and you look down to this one.
JENNA: It asks for extreme focus,
and it’s so detailed in where your fingers are placed
and where your eye focus is and where you initiate
the movement from.
It’s so intricate, and that’s what makes it so special
and moving.
And that all comes from an emotional place.
CRYSTAL: I have to stop. I have to stop, right?
Sorry, time.
Thanks very much, everybody. We’ll see you tonight.
Thank you. Thank you.
[dancers clapping]
DANCER: Oh, sorry. DANCER 2: Oh, I’m so sorry.
SPENCER: It feels like you’re kind of dancing on the edge,
a little bit.
To do her work well, there has to be
a certain element of risk to it.
And so with risk comes uncertainty.
SPENCER: Maybe I’ll step a little bit less--
GENEVIEVE: And I’ll step a little bit more.
SPENCER: A little bit more, okay.
GENEVIEVE: In the middle. SPENCER: Perfect.
GENEVIEVE: Perfect. Cool.
Can we ask for notes?
SPENCER: Maybe we’ll linger.
GENEVIEVE: Yeah, we’ll linger and be like,
"Can we get some notes?"
CRYSTAL: What did you just think of that just now?
CHELSY: Yeah, I should just really let the air totally...
CRYSTAL: You won’t overdo it.
CHELSY: I know it’s important. CRYSTAL: Only under-do it.
CHELSY: I know it’s important.
CRYSTAL: It’s gonna be great.
The longer you stay, the better it’s gonna get.
CHELSY: Thank you. CRYSTAL: Thank you!
CHELSY: Thank you for trusting me in this moment!
CRYSTAL: Of course! I’m excited to see you do it.
CHELSY: Yeah. So thank you!
CRYSTAL: See you in a bit.
CRYSTAL: Hey!
SPENCER: Genevieve and I were just wondering if you had any...
CRYSTAL: I do, but I don’t want-- am I allowed to...?
SPENCER: We’re volunteering time.
CRYSTAL: Okay, should I just talk to you backstage for a sec?
SPENCER: Sure, yeah. CRYSTAL: Okay.
CRYSTAL: I was thinking in the last duet...
SPENCER: Mm-hm.
CRYSTAL: ...I wondered if there may be a couple more
opportunities for you to see each other.
Is there a place or two in that zone
where you could actually see... GENEVIEVE: Yeah.
CRYSTAL: ...Spencer for a moment?
I bet there is. GENEVIEVE: Yeah.
CRYSTAL: I can’t think of what they are.
GENEVIEVE: Probably when I come down to the knee here.
CRYSTAL: Yeah. Yes, yes, yes, yes!
That’s another spot, yes.
In this lift, when he gets his hands underneath,
and you’re in the corner,
keep the feeling of corner in your body.
Sometimes-- it’s actually probably more you.
It swings this way a little too soon.
And then you can go bigger with your head.
Yeah, you can go farther with this.
Yeah.
And then you want to feel it in your knees.
Yeah, so you’re all in the head, head, head, head,
and then your knees give out. GENEVIEVE: Okay.
CRYSTAL: And that’s why you go down, weakness.
Yeah, and then once you hit the floor,
I feel like you can think of peppering the improv
with a little bit more...
so a little more jaggedy edges and a little more pain.
So, you have a beautiful sense of your feet,
the complexity of your spine, the relationship of your feet
and your head, gorgeous!
But I feel like your hands might--
could animate a little bit more.
Like the way maybe your elbows could hit the ground,
that there’s a feeling of...
You know, like you’re-- GENEVIEVE: Yes.
CRYSTAL: There’s an awareness in your hands of pain,
or of losing, failing, suffering, yeah?
And when it’s soft in your hands and it feels almost like
you’re in a good place, but you’re not.
So I think we just sort of jaggedy...
I think pain in your hands,
sometimes you can think even like your hands are...
are an outward reflection of some pain
that’s happening inside.
You know, like we do.
GENEVIEVE: Yeah. CRYSTAL: Ow, ah!
Right? So I think if we add that in,
I think we’ll get the sense of...
of suffering, a little bit more.
Yeah.
That’s gonna be beautiful.
[indistinct conversation]
CRYSTAL: The light itself has this... intelligence.
It seems chaotic
and it seems benign
and it seems otherworldly.
I wanted to draw a line of meaning between the ephemerality
and the unknowable forces of that light, to...
to choreography itself, to the dancing body.
And there’s something in the movement of the light,
this kind of mercurial movement
that connects me to what dance actually is.
That it’s a heightened experience
of the present moment.
CRYSTAL: Hey, guys, do you think you’re pretty much done?
I think we’d love to just kind of wing the rest
if you’re close to finishing.
I don’t know if there’s anything else.
HANNAH: I’ve known Siphe since I was 13.
I feel like our relationship, it’s ebbed and flowed,
and we’ve watched each other grow,
not only personally but artistically.
So to share in such like an intimate moment and piece
with him, it reminds me of like everything we’ve gone through.
It’s like this through-line that we’ve had our entire lives
of knowing each other.
SIPHE: The different groups coming in and leaving
and the lifts and the movement
and watching it all happen.
It’s almost like a flock of beings moving,
finding their space, you know, leaving each other,
finding each other, supporting each other, connected.
There’s a synergy in our individuality.
CRYSTAL: When the personal and the universal can be held
in a kind of tension, then I feel like that’s the place
where I do the choreography,
that’s the place where I create the piece,
in trying to reconcile those two things,
things that just feel like they come from within myself
and things that are impossibly far and colossal.
I also like working in a form
that is always in a state of disappearing.
I like how it brings our attention to the present moment,
to what’s important,
and how kind of tenuous and ephemeral it all is.
I think there’s something beautiful there.
I feel like our bodies are our location,
and when we dance, we’re just fully engaged in being there.
CRYSTAL: There’s something fiercely defiant
in the dancing body.
So even though dancing is always in a state of disappearing
and that the dancers are just temporary,
there is something very powerful in seeing people striving,
seeing people full of effort,
full of longing, full of energy.
[dancers breathing heavily]
DANCER: Oh, no! DANCER 2: Shit.
DANCER 3: I need to sit.
I need to sit. I don’t think I’ll stand again.
[dancers breathing heavily]
♪
CRYSTAL: There’s this play between our instincts
and our intellects when we’re dancing.
The tension or the conversation between instinct and intellect,
inside that space, there’s some
possibility for transformation.
A little glimpse of something that’s bigger than us.
And when I see a dancer giving in to what they
know through their instincts,
giving in to gravity or inertia
and just writing all the work that they’ve done,
they feel like they’re just being danced.
They’re being danced by unknowable forces,
but they’re also being danced by the choreography itself.
They’re being danced by gravity and inertia
and momentum and effort.
I really love trying to get at that.
Trying to cultivate that in dancers.
Has to do with being in a state of striving
and being in a state of listening
at the same time.
I think.
It’s trust also.
A sense of... of release.
Yeah. Of giving oneself up
to all those possibilities
that come from...
from a body in motion.
I didn’t say that very well at the end there.
That didn’t really work very well.
I was trying to say it differently.
Mmm.
You’ll-- you’ll piece it together.
It’s not just like, you know, like,
"Hoo, just release and like hope that..."
No, it actually comes through intense, rigorous
striving and effort and work
to try to create the conditions for that to happen.
Um...
I’ve seen that over and over again.
It’s, um...
I know it in myself as a creator,
but I also know it in the artists that I work with.
When I see them at their limit, I see them just at the limit
of what they can handle physically...
then I feel like that’s the place where we really see...
see glimpses of something bigger than us.
♪
[classical music playing in background]
SIPHE: [counting to himself]
[classical music playing in background]
[classical music playing]
♪
[indistinct conversations]
CRYSTAL: I’m gonna go. I’m not gonna linger, then.
SIPHE: Yeah. [chuckles]
CRYSTAL: Okay. Toi toi toi, everybody.
Have a wonderful time out there.
I’ll see you on the other side.
Thank you so much.
Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.
I know I will.
Okay, I’ll see you soon. Okay, thanks.
[dancers clapping]
HANNAH: When I’m, like, really present,
it’s...
very emotional and overwhelming,
and this, like, feeling of...
yearning for something or somebody, or like this pain.
♪
SIPHE: I don’t really think about it that much
when I’m performing.
But again, it’s just that fight that
as your breath is leaving you and you’re fighting to, like,
catch it, you know, and it’s just like...
[inhales]
...you’re trying to catch it,
and it just slowly dissipates.
And that image lives, I guess, in my mind.
♪
I started this thing with the dancers where we all take
two deep breaths together
before we lay down to begin the piece.
That’s the most important part of my preparation,
the fact that we can all breathe as one and carry that into
where we sit and where we lay down,
and then hopefully as we dance,
you know, that’s something that connects us throughout the work.
GENEVIEVE: When we were all laying on the floor
on the first night of the show, I know I felt that, like...
there’s that moment of watching almost like our very own
light show, and I feel like
it’s like a private moment almost,
but we were all doing it together.
HANNAH: When I’m lying there, I’m thinking of my parents.
I can’t imagine what it will be like when my parents are gone.
And that kind of feeling of like losing somebody, or...
HEATHER: Honestly, when I’m laying there,
I’m thinking of a lot of the people that
I don’t get to see anymore.
And I think of the people who are maybe watching over me
and, you know, I’m hoping to do my best, but I’m like,
"Just watch out for me."
Kind of like ask for a little, like...
moment of their time, kind of thing.
JENNA: Maybe we just want a little bit more time
on this Earth.
That’s sort of the feeling that I see.
Like just...
Or spirits, or feelings descending on us,
washing over us.
That’s the feeling I get at the beginning of the ballet,
seeing the dust, if you will, settle.
♪
[sound of dancers breathing]
[breathing heavily]
♪
[applause]
[applause continues]
♪
CRYSTAL: Ah, okay, that’s the first section.
End of bell.
Okay.
[indistinct conversation]
♪
CRYSTAL: See what you see.
Looks amazing out there, right?
Yeah, right?
It’s enormous!
I don’t think I’ve ever stood here and really looked up
all the way.
It’s epic.
Did it seem quite full last night when you were here,
when you looked out?
Lots of people out there?
SCOTT: Especially the... NOAH: The energy was great.
CRYSTAL: What’s that?
SCOTT: The standing ovation at the end.
CRYSTAL: Oh, right, yeah, yeah.
I have a little experiment to do.
I’m gonna do it with you, and then if it works,
we’ll spread the word when the others arrive.
I’m gonna tighten up a little bit the timing of, um...
So this is towards the end of O Magnum.
And you have...
You have this change, and then you have, [sings note].
This, this thing.
So, um, I want to go...
Ah.
DANCER: [laughs]
CRYSTAL: That’s right. "Ah," that’s it.
Because right now what we’re doing is, "ah,"
and then we have to put a whole bunch of this stuff in,
and I’m not quite getting the stillness and silence
that I want to get.
There’s this cool thing that’s happening in the background...
[voice fades out]
♪