Gender in Choreography, Second and Third Rehearsals

This week I continued going to the gym. I had no choice if I wanted to keep up in Chalk Boundaries. We had two rehearsals this week. In the midst of it all, my left quadriceps muscle became overworked and started pulling at my patella tendon, causing swelling in my left knee.  I found this disturbing because I felt like I just started!  Thankfully I was able to see Robin in the Wellness Center. She manipulated the swelling down and determined that I didn't pull any ligaments or tendons.  What a relief!  After solid sleep last night, my knee now feels like 95%.  I'm so relieved.  (I mean - how embarrassing!)

January 13th - Second Rehearsal
This was kind of a bust.  Rehearsal was changed from 7:30 to 7:00, but I didn't get that memo.  Because I travel from West campus following my Interactive Media class that gets out at 7:18, I was extremely late - later than I thought I would have been.  The guys were already in the midst of working on a group partnering section that I couldn't easily slip into.  I felt pretty useless - there wasn't much I could do and consequently, didn't get the opportunity to dance.  I experienced this odd wave of separateness run over me.  The guys were dancing.  I was not.  Was this a conspiracy??? Of course not. But I really wanted the coach to put me in the game. Rehearsals just don't work that way though.  I went home at 9pm and worked another 3 hours towards straining my quadriceps.

January 16th - Third Rehearsal
Aside from being a little tentative about a few movements because of my knee - I felt pretty good.  We were in Studio 1 and were able to use more space, dance bigger and cover more ground.  The guys seemed more receptive to me being an auxiliary member.  Some jokes were cracked about movement vocabulary (things I won't post on my blog) and I did my best not to giggle like a little girl at their guy humor.

Right now I'm in the media lab on a Saturday night blogging about these rehearsals.  Where is my life going - 8pm on a Saturday night - on a three day weekend!

Dante is busy posting videos from rehearsals.  Besides having an all-male cast, he also has an all-female cast.  He comes up with the movement for the men, sets the movement on them and then sets that same movement on the women.  I just happen to be rehearsing with the men to see what the difference is for me physically.  I watched the video from the all-female cast.  Wow!  The quality is so different!  The guys step wider, jump higher - suspending more in the air.  The women are quicker, their steps shorter and their arms seem to float. This is getting interesting!  I can't wait till the next rehearsal!

I have more topics to blog.  Till next time~