One of the best parts about this whole process was coming up with a list of choreographers and pairing them with their dancer. I worked to pair dancers with choreographers that would meet them where they were at but would also challenge them. I tried to pair dancers with choreographers that might inspire them and help them see possibilities in their own life. I tried to pair dancers with choreographers that had experiences that aligned with the goals I knew the students had. We revealed the dancer and choreographer pairs at our Company Retreat in September, and just days later we began the first part of the rehearsal process.

From that point on, RABBIT HOLE, became a daily part of my to do list. I coordinated the (mostly) remote rehearsal schedule of 26 dancers and 13 choreographers. I emailed choreographers weekly and with that week’s rehearsal schedule as well as a weekly Google form for them to fill out so that I could keep track of their progress and be made aware of any issues with dancers coming unprepared or technical issues. I attended all the rehearsals because they were hosted through my Zoom; that was the most amazing part of this process.

Through the use of breakout rooms I could host multiple guest choreographers rehearsals at once, as well as student choreographer’s rehearsals – because did I mention that RABBIT HOLE was a huge amount of work, but it was not the only creative work we were doing? It was only about 1/3 of the show that we would end up creating, even though it could have absolutely stood on its own. There was one day where we held 6 different guest choreographer’s rehearsals at once, with artists zooming in from both coasts, and all over Texas, and students dancing in their homes, at the same time that 2 students were working with their casts remotely on zoom in 2 other breakout rooms. Incredible. I could have never completed that amount of work simultaneously in the past.

Moving around from one rehearsal to the next and being able to observe these choreographers and the way they worked with the students taught me a lot about each dancer. I got to see which dancers were more comfortable with collaboration and experimentation. I got to see how choreographers communicated with dancers within the confines of Zoom while not being able to physically be with them. I got to see a variety of methods of dance composition and dancer/choreographer collaboration. The students experienced that as well within their rehearsal process, but for me, being able to peek into the rehearsals of all 26 dancers and 13 choreographers was like a master class in creative process.

But the work was not all for me in coordination nor for the choreographers in creation, but also for the dancers in their ownership of the work. I created assignments for students to track their own progress and stay accountable for their own rehearsals independently. Not only did students get more time working one on one with a choreographer, but they had to take responsibility for their rehearsal process, especially once they had completed their 2-3 choreographer Zoom rehearsals. We could rehearse together as a group weekly at the most, but with some assistance through independent rehearsal assignments they were held accountable to regular maintenance of their solo. As I told the students, these solos are just 1 minute, so they better be their best! And that was a challenge they eagerly took on. They rehearsed on their own, watched videos of themselves, spent time thinking about and journaling through their solo and the character they created in that 60 seconds.

Once we were back on campus, at least part of the company, dancers had the chance to show their solos to each other in rehearsal, and it was one of the best things we did. They had so much fun seeing each other’s individual work and cheering each other on. It was incredible to see how the work they did individually, separate from one another, brought them together.

To Be Continued…