Amanda Grace Pool

Senior Project: Mastication of the Sliced Chewce

Dancers: Amelia Hufsmith, Jessie Lesar, Regina Rawlings
Music: Feist-Honey Honey, Thyladomid & Adriatique Deep in the Three Remix by
SYNPSNPOGO
Lighting Designer: Zach Hamersley
Draft One

The beginnings of my senior project started with an inspiration of new movement ideas. I
am currently interested in being able to express different movement than Ive done in the past. I
enjoy the experience of making up choreography that it really weird or odd for lack of better
words. When I was playing with movement I decided to start with this idea of a new movement
style. I wanted to push myself to go far into new ideas movement wise.
Looking back on all my work, I have come to realize that a lot of my inspiration came
from working with Brian Gerke. I was able to work with Brian Gerke throughout the Spring
2012 semester at the University of Montana. Gerke was a guest artist brought in by the university
to choreograph a piece. Because I was cast in the piece, I was able to be in contact with him for
roughly ten to thirteen hours per week. The way he moves with such fluidity and originality
makes me want to do the same. He has a raw sense of movement vocabulary which causes one to
question the bodys capabilities to move in such ways. He is an organic mover in a sense where
the body is natural in feeling. I appreciated his sense of bravery. It takes a lot for a dancer to push
themselves into the realm of not looking pretty or beautiful with long elegant arabesques or a
perfect first position. His movement style was beautiful because of its originality. While working
with him I realized that I wanted to put his concepts into my body but with my own individual
twist. One thing that really stuck with me while working with him was his verbal explanation of
a movement phrase made for me. It was, Pretend there is a bubble coming up through your ribs
and you allow it to bounce through your spine. Then bite the audiences faces off. It was an
interesting concept to play with, but I really found it attractive for me to do on stage. It gave me
an image to picture each time I performed the phrase. I was able to interpret it in a different way
each time. For instance, I could imagine a large bubble the size of my entire rib cage, or a small
bubble no larger than centimeter in diameter. I appreciated the chance to use it in my own way
with freedom. A lot of dancers, at least the ones I know, say that each choreographer you work
with influences all future work. I just feel like Brian influenced me the most and the most
recently.
Throughout the past year or so Ive noticed that I have come into my skin. I have been
more confident with my dancing especially. The most important part for me is that Ive found
my style. I enjoy being odd. I like to perform movement that doesnt look that appealing or
doesnt feel that great. Maturity in my dance style has helped me to learn that its okay to hurt
when dancing and it can still look interesting or intriguing as well as making movement that
soothes the body. Dance is fully ranged with choices that are different from each other. I would
like to classify dance as each persons own interpretation. This same concept goes for creating
choreography. A choreographers response in movement to a tragedy may be completely
different than anothers even though it was the same tragedy which encouraged the two to make
art.
When I realized that I wanted to explore different movement styles and make a dance I
also was intrigued by the idea of humor. It always seems so difficult to do because there is
uncertainty in audience reaction. What some find funny others may find offensive. Humor may
also be found in scenarios which are not intended to be humorous. Being a creator of humor has
to include the consideration of the audience and what they may or may not take from a piece.
While choreographing I found success with humor by trying ideas out. If the idea was funny to
me even after seeing it 5 or 6 times, then I had a better hope for it staying funny with an audience
present. I also found that humor takes a whole lot of being serious. It takes dedication. For
instance, when a comedian tells a joke, he or she aims to nail the punch line otherwise it would
fail.
In intermediate dance composition course I started playing with humor choreographically
with a large group. Being able to work collaboratively in the brainstorm process with others was
helpful because there were new and fresh ideas, things I never would have thought of. When we
moved on in composition to other projects I began to play with a humorous idea in collaboration
with two other dancers. I asked my two dancers to explore choreography that was interrupted by
distractions such as scratching your nose, or an awkward moment during which, for example,
you dont realize that youre staring at someones crotch until three minutes into the stare. This
kind of humor, I believe, happens with everyday life and sometimes, its funny without an
explanation. These awkward moments can be uncomfortable and thats okay. Some people like
to dwell on things that are uncomfortable for them and become embarrassed. Me, on the other
hand, I dont mind being embarrassed. I figure that everyone has had their moments of
embarrassment here and there and Id much rather embrace it and let it go rather than let it ruin
my day. Plus, in my personal opinion, laughing at oneself is therapeutic.
My dancers were chosen out of a large group of talent. As a senior, I have plenty of
understanding of who to choose on the basis of silliness and willingness to be a goofball on
stage. I chose Amelia, Jessie, and Reggie for their talent not only as dancers but that they were
brave enough to be weird on stage. They are all talented beautiful strong women and I was
blessed to have them. When choosing them, I knew that they would work well together as well
as with me and be able to give great feedback on things from the inside perspective. I trust their
opinions and respect their advice.
While working with my dancers I found that they were collaborators all throughout the
process. When we came upon roadblocks, they were able to give feedback and suggest solutions
for how to move forward. They also were open to try new things in which I suggested and see if
they worked or not. When things did not work, they were willing and able to work through it
instead of leaving it all up to me to fix things. This was especially helpful as I am not able to feel
what they feel when performing. I had to rely on my dancers to know if anything became
uncomfortable or unsafe and I appreciate their abilities to be able to tell me these things.
My first rehearsal for Mastication of the Sliced Chewce began with a discussion of
what my dancers thought was awkward in their day-to-day scene. One idea that came up was
from Reggie. She explained that it made her feel uncomfortable when people blinked
unconditionally. She felt that when people blink she simply wants to tell them to stop. Other
ideas were presented such as being hit on at a bar, making weird noises, being expected to make
conversation, hugging people in different positions, and finding oneself in situations where
people are staring at you and expecting you to say something but you dont have anything to say.
We brainstormed through all these ideas and tried to find ways to incorporate them into
dance movement. We came up with a lot of ideas and used a few of them in the piece. The
process of selection was based on whether the idea could be put into choreography form and
display the same meaning. A couple of the ideas that we used included being really close to
someone while they are not aware of it, underwear showing, and interactions with the audience
such as talking to them without their expectations of speaking back, simply looking at them as
this is not common for dance performances, and breaking the barrier between the dancers and the
audience.
Another thing that we brainstormed during this rehearsal was how to make dancing
awkward. We came up with some ideas but developed this idea more throughout other
rehearsals. It seemed that at this point in our rehearsal process we needed to start working
towards making movement. I taught the dancers a movement phrase that was based off of
pedestrian qualities such as hand gestures used while talking, wiping the nose, and placing hands
on the face multiple ways. The dancers were then asked to take the movement phrase and expand
it or condense it to what they wanted and add traveling. From these new phrases, each dancer
kept their own variation. This variation was used in the piece for the opening scene. As each
dancer entered the space, they began going through the movement of their own variation.
As the rehearsal process continued, we began to put some movement together. I had an
idea of having Jessie stand in the downstage right corner going through the original pedestrian
phrase that I taught the group. I wanted her to explore the repetition of the phrase and eventually
speed it up. The phrase was repeated as a whole multiple times, each one quicker in pace. These
devices were added to convey an idea of rushing and being jumbled in thought process. The
phrase ended up being expanded to fit Jessie and her personality by including a gentle attitude
even while being rushed and jumbled. I wanted her to portray a person who was so into what she
was doing that she wasnt aware of what others were doing around her.
Noise was present during all of the rehearsals. These noises were all from the dancers
mouths and bodies. I felt inspired to bring out vocals because there are some great things you can
do with just your mouth, especially as voices differ from person to person. The noises of the
body and voice was an individual expression of each dancer. They had the choice to make
whatever noises they wanted. During rehearsals, if there was a specific noise or sound the
dancers made and I enjoyed listening to it, I would ask them to keep it consistent for each run but
they could place it where they chose. If there were noises that I really liked at specific moments,
I asked them to keep it consistent for each run as well.
Amelia and Reggies phrases that they developed from my original phrase were intended
to be performed extremely close in contact. I had an image of the two of them coming from
upstage left and remain in contact throughout travel. I wanted to see if it was possible to use their
versions of the phrase with my image of contact without taking away from the movement
qualities. We practiced using this idea a couple of times but it didnt turn out the way I
envisioned. Our next idea was to have the two dancers in proximity to one another but not
touching. This idea was much better as the dancers were able to keep the individual qualities
from their phrases as well as my image of closeness.
Amelia and Reggie then went through their traveling phrases across the floor towards
Jessie. I wanted Jessie to be their main goal, their light at the end of the tunnel. I felt that because
Jessie was internally moving and Amelia and Reggie were outwardly moving, the latter two
could break Jessies concentration to the outward. Amelia and Reggie were entering the space
because Jessies concentration was pulling them toward her, like a force of gravity. Amelia and
Reggie wanted Jessie to interact and dance with them.
Deciding where to go from there was a little frustrating. I hadnt had any grand ideas or
thoughts. We ended up fine tuning the beginning section and I had the dancers incorporate
interactions between each other. For instance, Amelia and Reggie were already connecting by
proximity from the entrance of the piece. We also worked with planning certain moments to
happen simultaneously between Amelia and Reggie so that they matched up with choreography.
Reggie and Jessies connection didnt occur until Amelia was already connecting with Jessie
herself. Amelia wanted Jessie to notice her and would do anything to get what she wanted. I
wanted to portray a funny relationship where Amelia just needs attention and Jessie doesnt even
stop what she is doing; again Jessie is stuck in her thought process. As we continued to run the
piece this moment evolved into Amelia becoming very upset with Jessie. Amelia becoming upset
with Jessie caught the attention of Reggie. This is where Reggie stopped in her movement to
watch the interactions between the other two. After a while, Jessie and Amelia realized they were
being watched and turned towards Reggie. At this point Reggie was moving into a new
movement phrase, so Jessie and Amelia watched her dance in return.
During this editing of the beginning section, we worked on Reggies character as well.
Reggie stayed behind Amelia and Jessie and did her own thing. Reggie was instructed to react to
Amelia climbing all over Jessie naturally. I wanted her to imagine that this situation was
happening as if she was the audience seeing this dance and duet for the first time. I liked the idea
of letting Reggie play with her interpretation of being awkward. Reggie is really good at making
things uncomfortable when performing. She is able to keep a straight face through uncomfortable
situations where as others may feel more inclined to laugh or look away. She is humorous and I
wanted to bring that out naturally for her. When I asked Reggie to respond to Amelia and
Jessies duet, the only moment I choreographed was when Reggie points at the duet, because I
felt like it was hilarious. It was funny to me because Reggie was bringing the audiences eyes to
what she was looking at. Reggie was portraying this duet as interesting and wanted the audience
to look at it with her.
For the next chunk of the piece I taught Reggie a phrase in which she was also allowed to
play with the quality of it if she wanted. When Reggie started dancing I had this urge to
incorporate music. I think that after the silence had occurred for the beginning, it was time for
musical support. I found myself wanting to put a pause on the noises and bring up music to
support the dancers for a little while. All along I knew the noises would come back. I found my
music, Feist- Honey Honey, Thyladomid & Adriatique Deep in the Three Remix by
SYNPSNPOGO, online. I was searching for random remixes of songs I knew. I tried running the
piece with the original version of Honey Honey by Feist and it was good but not exactly what I
wanted. While I enjoy the original song, it wasnt as upbeat as I wanted. Listening to the original
made me feel sluggish while watching the dancing and I wanted to feel more excited. When I
introduced the music to the dancers, they felt the urge to get up and groove. This made me
wonder if the audience would feel this way when they heard it and I liked that idea.
The process of moving from silence into the use of recorded sound may have been an
abrupt change, but that was okay with me. Usually, when I watch dance pieces it is distracting to
change from silence into music playing. It is difficult to not notice it while watching the dancers
move, especially if there is a musical cue where the dancers find some sort of unity or
something. For my piece, I didnt feel like it mattered if the audience felt it was difficult to not
notice. I wanted it to be noticed. It was a transition and I didnt think that my transitions needed
to be smooth or discrete. When I was figuring out how to edit the music however, I didnt want it
to just start playing at full sound level. I wanted it to be brought up over five or so seconds. This
need was met and I think it worked out well, disruption noted by the audience or not.While the
music was introduced slowly into the piece, the dancers didnt change their movement gradually
either. I didnt want the audience to be overwhelmed with the shock of silence to loud music
suddenly. I wanted it to be gradually introduced as well as the dancing.
The music was actually over ten minutes long and I only wanted to use the beginning
four or five minutes. As the piece continued to grow, I decided I wanted to take the music and
cut it off suddenly make it uncomfortable for the audience as well as bring back the opportunity
to use voice from the dancers. I had the dancers to continue to move through the cutoff of the
music so that the audience would realize it was intentional and not a technical mistake. This was
done closer to the end of the piece to allow the dancers to use the music for some dancing in
unison.
My thoughts on wanting the dancers to move in unison was based on this idea that
Amelia and Reggie wanted Jessie to stop focusing on her inner self at the beginning and come
dance with them. I wanted to show the progress of the dancers and how they were playing
together and enjoying each others company while dancing. I felt that having them perform a
phrase in unison was a way to show that they were connected and did all want to be together
dancing.
The section where the dancers were in unison came from me playing around in the studio.
I put on the music I had chosen and set up a video camera and then recorded an improvisation.
From there, I watched myself and picked out what I liked the most from the movement and
continued to play with it. I took the movements and added to the beginnings and endings of
them. I would record this new mini-phrase over and over using trial and error of improvisation
and what I liked most. Eventually I ended up with a phrase that traveled around the stage. When
I taught this phrase to the dancers we kept it in its original state at first. It wasnt until Claire
Christensen snuck into one of my rehearsals and gave me some feedback that we used repetition
and speed to manipulate the phrase. There was a section of the phrase that Claire wanted to see
longer. It was the movement where the dancers are coming straight forward from upstage left to
downstage right rotating their arms in a circle while shifting their weight in a second position. I
originally choreographed the section to have three of these specific steps but Claire had
mentioned that it was interesting enough to experiment with more. After we added more, I felt
that it could be pushed even farther. I thought that if I was going to add more I was going to need
to make it go so far that it was on the brink of too much. This is where I asked the dancers to add
thirteen of the steps. I thought that is was enough to intrigue the audience but also make them
wonder as to when they are going to stop. I wanted to keep the audience in question of the
dancers and their actions. This twist of the movement phrase allowed us to keep this idea present.
I wasnt able to get a ton of feedback throughout the process of choreographing because
of time issues and scheduling but the feedback I did get I took to heart. Because there were so
few people to offer feedback, I really tried to focus on what the few people were saying and how
I could use their advice to better my choreography. There were people who would stop by in my
rehearsal to watch the piece so that the dancers had a chance to interact with the audience. I think
that this was the most important part of my piece. It was based off of humor and without
audience reaction it is difficult to go to that extent where the dancers were able to make people
laugh.
The dancers learned a lot from having audiences throughout the rehearsal process. The
dancers had to learn how to act in the moment of the piece and not break character. Sometimes it
is distracting to hear an audience laugh and make comments while dancing. I wanted my dancers
to have practice with this concept and be able to not be distracted but to play off of the
audiences reactions. My dancers even requested to have an audience for rehearsals so that they
may train for the performance. With each practice of an audience present, the dancers were free
to interact how they chose. My only requirement was that they be sure and confident in what
they are doing on stage.
Some feedback I didnt appreciate was from the critique. I made my piece to be funny to
the audience as well as to me. I wanted to laugh and had hopes that the audience would too. My
hope of the audience laughing though wasnt necessarily imposed. I felt that if the audience
thought it was too awkward to laugh then that was acceptable. It was an expression of my humor
and things that make me laugh and if no one felt that same way it was fine. Everyone is entitled
to their own opinion. However, this being said when I got my feedback from Heather Adams I
was under the idea that she was cornering me. I felt as though she thought the piece was funny
but didnt get why I did it or that it was worth anything. It was quite insulting to listen to some of
the things she had to say and I had no interest in explaining my purposes to her. This may have
been because of my past experiences with her where I was in her Jazz class and she would insult
me for things I liked, such as modern dance. Again, I understand that everyone is entitled to their
own opinion, but it I was under unnecessary scrutiny in my own opinion.
Now that I have been given the opportunity of space and time from the critique, I have
been able to see that Heather Adams response to my piece is one opinion of it. I do feel that she
has every right to say what she had to say as well as to ask me the questions she did. If I could
speak to her comments now I would simply say, Thank you for asking, but I believe it is an
interpretation of each individual set of eyes who saw the piece. My choreography for this piece
was not designed to make anyone feel good or happy, it was designed to be interpreted as the
audience chose. It didnt matter that people were judging my work, as long as they were
watching my work and coming up with an opinion of their own, I felt successful.
One thing I did gain from the critique was the feedback on timing and how things felt
unfinished. I agree with this statement. There wasnt much time to work on my piece and I wish
that I was given the opportunity to take it further. That being said, I have been thinking of
moving the piece into dance for the camera genre. Nothing is certain, but I am interested in this
process as I have never done it before. I think that it was be really cool to try something new out
while I continued to work on this humor idea that I began with. I am not sure if this new
adventure will be placed in a dance production or not. It may just be for my own personal
experience but we will see. I just know that I would like to continue working on things.
If I were to make a dance for the camera I would picture it taking place inside a closed
space. I would want many up close shots of the dancers faces in between shots of them working
through the phrases. I think it would be interesting to have the reactions of Reggies face up
close when watching the duet between Amelia and Reggie. I would also like to see close up shots
of the small gesturing movement which each dancer does during the beginning phrases of the
piece and then back out to a full view of all three dancers again. Lastly, I think it would be really
interesting to show the dancers making their noises directly into the camera without their
movements being fully shown. I think that it would make it stand out much more and be
interesting to see the piece change with such a heavy emphasis on the noises.
Some specific things that I would like to change would be to develop each dancers
personality a little bit more. As each performance came about, the dancers explored their
characters for themselves and I would like to be able to direct them more towards a character that
I am attracted to as well. I think that the characters of this piece were partially the dancers
personalities as well as other attributes which they discovered along the way. As far as whom
these characters would be, Im not so sure, but I do know that I would want to discover that in
partnership with my dancers.
The dancers characters which they have already discovered are all different. Amelias
character is spunky and needs the approval and appreciation of others. She also doesnt care what
others may think of her and is willing to do any silly dance moves that she can come up with.
Jessies character, as I have mentioned earlier, is internal in a way where she focuses on her
actions by herself. Her character is a hard worker in that she will practice a dance move over and
over again. Although she is internal, she also gets distracted easily and chooses to join in with
what others are doing. When Jessies character decides to join in what the others are doing, she
does so whole heartedly and without thinking before acting. She jumps into whatever it is others
are doing. Finally, Reggies character is open to all and accepting to all. Her character is aware
of others and the way they are moving. There are times when Reggie responds to others as if
they are interesting to look at, but she doesnt judge them. She observes, makes no opinion, and
moves on to do her own thing.
Another thing that I would like to continue working on would be the humor and the
awkwardness. I would like to hear more reactions of the piece and what specific people felt as
uncomfortable or not. It makes me curious to know the differences in comfort level between
someone who watches dance frequently and someone who doesnt. This performance and
feedback would also be a great tool for furthering the piece. It would be really nice to have the
opportunity to continue working on it.
The lighting design was left mostly up to Zach Hamersley. Zach was able to only view
videos of my piece as he was busy with other important things. Zach was on the ball and willing
to accomplish anything and everything I asked for. He also took to the dancers costumes and
made sure the tone of the lighting wasnt going to mix with the costumes wrong. He also took
this into consideration when looking at the dancers skin as well. I wanted a blackout at the end
after the dancers had finished moving and were just interacting with the audience. I wanted to
play up this idea of the audience seeing the dancers and the dancers seeing the audience. I had
this idea that the audience would want the dancers to continue doing something but they
wouldnt, they just stared. It was the funniest moment of the piece to me because the dancers had
no instruction or restrictions on what they could say or do in this moment. I just told them to stop
dancing and wait for the lights to go out. The timing of the blackout was left to the stage
manager (Katie McEwen) and when she felt it was appropriate to cue the lighting.
There was a night where the lighting was messed up sure made for a surprise and tested
the dancers ability to act on cue on improvise with speech and interaction with the audience.
When this happened, Reggie stated to the audience that its not over. This action was
acceptable to me and I was quite glad that she said that because the audience did begin to clap.
After Reggie made the statement, the audience giggled a little bit and went right back to
watching again. Letting go of the control and handing it over to the designers, dancers, and stage
managers wasnt a difficult choice for me. I didnt mind giving up the power of choice to
someone else. I knew that these people in particular knew what I wanted for my vision and they
respected that. Any choice that they made throughout the performances was made from a good
heart and for the better of the piece. I respected their opinions and trusted them fully.
Costumes have never really been my forte. I decided to bring along my roommate
Morgan Rollins to help me pick out costumes. She is really great with fashion as well as an artist,
so she knows her color wheel much better than I do. I went into the Theatre and Dance costume
stock with an aspiration of finding items that havent been present on stage for a while. Since we
have little to no stock, this was difficult. I ended up finding an off-white lace dress with no under
slip, and a floral skirt. My connecting vibe between the dancers was the bright colored pieces
that they brought from their own closets. Reggie wore the floral skirt with bright blue underwear,
which were visible when dancing, and a floral crop top which clashed with the skirt as well as a
bright purple bra. Amelia wore a brown sweater borrowed from Jessie which had images of
llamas all over it as well as her own bright yellow shorts with her personal striped socks of many
different colors. Jessie wore the lace dress I mentioned earlier with bright green underwear,
purchased by me, and her own personal pink bra. The overall scheme of the costume seemed like
it went well together, but was different enough to be quirky, just like the piece. I wanted the
dancers to be wearing more pedestrian clothing because they were people. They were people
with odd intentions and I think their costumes suggested that.
The incorporation of dancers chewing gum came about halfway through the rehearsal
process. While I was working with Reggie one day, Amelia and Jessie suggested that they should
be chewing gum and staring at Reggie trying to figure out what shes doing. Chewing gum is not
a common thing for dancers to do, especially on stage. Chewing gum loudly can be associated as
rude or impolite, but when a dancer is chewing gum it is not only rude but dangerous. Dancing
while chewing gum could easily lead to choking. I thought chewing gum, carefully, on stage was
a great idea and adopted it. I wanted Jessie to be chewing the gum from the very beginning of her
solo. I wanted her to play with popping it and blowing bubbles to add to the humor and noises
that come with chewing gum loudly. Throughout the piece I wanted Jessie to give the gum to
Amelia and to Reggie when she first interacted with each dancer. This was a method to connect
the three of them as well. The gum chosen was the Bubbalicious gum, a gum that expands so
much that it barely fits in your mouth. Needless to say, we had to cut the pieces smaller before
the dancers were able to chew it and dance on stage safely.
The title of the piece, Mastication of the Sliced Chewce came about from my own
research. I was given the sheet of paper for the program information and needed to fill it out
ASAP. I hadnt even thought of naming the piece up to this point but I suddenly became excited
to do so. Because it was a fun piece, it became a fun piece to name. I wanted to work with a play
on words that gave people the idea of what it meant, but not entirely. I originally came up with
Mastication but then felt like that wasnt enough, so I went to UrbanDictionary.com. I
searched for gum and some results were sliced gum and chewce. I was intrigued by these
because sliced gum was simply described as chewing gum. I didnt think that was quite
enough for me still, so I checked out chewce which is described as already chewed gum. I
added a little creativity and then came, Mastication of the Sliced Chewce which loosely means
chewing of the already chewed gum. Although this translated title speaks for itself, I wanted
there to be some sort of mystery and sophistication that came with the title implied on the piece;
more of a play on words.
Mastication of the Sliced Chewce was about experiencing the awkward and being able
to laugh. Being able to drop the expectation of a certain kind of movement on stage, going into
new territory, working with new people and designers and giving them my trust, as well as
receiving feedback from others was all a new experience. It was a new experience in which I
learned a lot about myself and my choreography. This piece wasnt made to make everyone in
the world laugh or chuckle, but it had hopes of doing so. There were moments of awkwardness,
interaction with the audience, showing undergarments willingly, and speaking without a script. If
some of the qualities of the piece made an audience member happy, then I met my goal. Life
isnt to be taken too seriously and I didnt want my piece to be either. It was light hearted with an
edge of weird behaviors to make anyone tilt their head and respond in a huh. Either way, I was
satisfied with Mastication of the Sliced Chewce and am excited to see where it takes me next.