Each choreographic progress I am in the midst of experiencing is as different as the choreographers are themselves. In Lisa Deyo's rehearsal, we are given every step. She has planned out the movement of all nine dancers and we move at a quick pace learning the material so we can spend lots of time cleaning. This is the way I am used to, being taught exactly what I need to know. Rebecca's rehearsal is more challenging for me. Though she teaches us most of the choreography, the movements of the piece are definitely still in progress as are all of the student pieces- we learn something, then let it go. The style is also more difficult as I am used to classical ballet. For Moon Ja's piece, she expected us to learn the entire dance off of a DVD she gave us at the first rehearsal. This was especially difficult to try to learn by ourselves, reversing the steps from the TV and learning the dance without the other 4 dancers to figure out spacing. Though each process is different, something can be learned from each. I really enjoy the challenge of working to bring these dances to life and I know no matter how we get there, the end product will be great.
Photo: Sara Tollefson
