Re: choreographer collaborations

Robert Wechsler (r.wechsler@rzmail.uni-erlangen.de)
Mon, 5 Jan 1998 20:31:15 +0100

Nick wrote:

>Let me turn this question round to the choreographers here: how many
>of you, when creating a new work of dance, have reasonably clear ideas
>about the music you imagine while doing so? And how many of you feel
>that this is enough justification to be prescriptive when it comes to
>commissioning a score or entering a collaboration?

We sometimes play music while we choreograph, but when we make the decision
to commission a score we sure don't expect it sound anything like the stuff
we have become used to. I mean no. We certainly do not have clear ideas
what the music "should" sound like. That is part of the fun.

>
>(A further, related question: how do you choose a musical
>collaborator? Is it something to do with how you think that their
>style will fit what you have in your imagination, or is it a desire to
>see how this person's creative process will mesh with your own?)

some of each.

Another question: how much influence or feedback or back and forth
is there in such a process?

Varies quite a lot for us. Sometimes our choreography demands specific
meter, tempi, emphasis, even a specific patterns of notes. Other times --
indeed more often the case -- it is completely open. Composer, come look,
or not look, take notes or not, ask questions or not. See it again or not.
Talk about art... or not. We always love to see what comes out!

-robert
and helena

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