Rustkias Ephemerales Rehearsal

The last time I wrote for my blog was after I returned from Honduras. Not only was Juticalpa, Honduras a learning experience that taught me that anything that you dream up can become a reality, but it was also breeding ground for the ideas that I have thought up, planned, executed, and still will execute in the future.

Before I left, I had dreamed up a vision of performing a selection of Bartok's Violin Duos with 3-5 modern dancers who would improvise or loosely choreograph movement to the short pieces. Sam, a creative dancer enjoyed the idea and his response was simply "We would just need a space . . . " and I was impressed at the ease of his voice and the lack of limits he put on such a project. The other violinist and I coordinated with Sam and the performance came through but there were no other dancers like I had wanted. We all wore black (unplanned), but there was the promised recital of Bruch's Violin Concerto, a Ysaye violin sonata, and the Bartok Duos with one male dancer. The performance was delightful and well-attended.

I left for Juticalpa two days later. After spending a year in a remote town I gained think time and experience to make connections and develop ideas of dance, music, visual arts, and multi-sensory ephemera. After thinking, I realized that because I am a musician, I organize and experience time, and with time I wanted to immerse the audience in the music and evoke a kind of synesthesia to connect with them by combining other senses and artistic disciplines.

When I came back to Salt Lake City I had made connections via internet and came home with buckets of ideas. For example, play traditional classical music as well as music written by local (living!) composers. Also I wanted to truly  connect with musicians and literally play whatever I wanted with them, because they would have to have the same adventurous spirit and advanced-to-professional skill level. And of course, my idea of Bartok + dance was simply on hold, and I needed to figure out a way to re-create it closer to the way I had previously imagined and look for a venue. Though some people had looked at me funny, or responded questioningly anytime I introduced my ideas, I had to keep going and found ways to take my ideas seriously myself and to find others who would take my ideas seriously and help make them a reality. Suddenly I became a magnet to finding people who wanted to be involved. 

I met these dancers in different situations. I was excited that they were interested and felt challenged in the way that I was different than other choreographers because of course, as a musician of the music, I knew the music more than the movement that I wanted to the music, and didn't know how to articulate what I wanted. But it worked out because it was a true collaboration. I learned from them, and they were challenged by my different set of skills. 

The dancers Emily, Amy, and Katherine and the other violinist Sarah and I worked together. I learned how to describe movement, and explain what I visualized in my mind while playing. This experience was meaningful and abundant with joy and creative construction. At the final loveDANCEmore performance, Mudson at the Masonic Temple, I was nervous because only once had I done something similar to this, but this performance was more important because it was "round 2". There were so many people who attended, I was nervous but knew that whatever happened would yield another potent experience in my mind, and the only thing that would have made it better would have been to watch it, and not necessarily be playing it, while it was being performed. I would have loved to have been 2 or 3 people at once. But, alas, this is not the case, and I have had the opportunity to view the performances on  videos from the internet. 

I still work on this particular piece, Rustikas Ephemerales, in my head. There are things I want to work out. I definitely want it to be performed again, perhaps with a few different dance pieces, and with a few more dancers. I may also have to let go and find a different violinist to replace myself, and though it's hard to feel like I should just sit back and watch because I would love to stay as a violinist for my vision, it might be beneficial to my aesthetic goals to sit back and watch and become part of the performance from an audience's point of view. If and when I get a different venue, I'm sure my role will become what it needs to be when it happens.

In the meantime, while I marinate the thoughts of my third recreation of a selection of Bartok's 44 violin duos, I am thinking of my future projects which will include an audience being taken on a tour of artistic synethesia, an event that will delight all the senses and utilize the fantastic and highly skilled talent which we have in Salt Lake City, Utah.