Mar 17, 2014 - Golden Rectangles

Golden Rectangles

It is a beautiful sunny, warm day in Vancouver. After dealing with several emails, I ride my bike down to the Dance Centre to meet with Karen. We are in the Marcuse Studio on the 7th floor, and as soon as I get into the space, I pull the blinds up. This sheds a stunning light into the studio, drawing stretched out golden rectangles on the floor.

Karen enters the room and tells me she wants to recap the choreography that has already been learnt, to not press forward with learning new material. She tells me that she spent some time preparing for her rehearsal with the collaborators (which I will miss on account of the DTES workshops).

As we begin, Karen specifies that she regards learning from video as though she is learning from an entirely different person, even though the image on the screen is her. The goal is to identify the energy, the weight shifts and where this weight travels that creates the unconscious patterns that Karen is after. It is a painstakingly detailed process.