-401-5-2October

First Rehearsal All TOGETHER: Raquel, Icaro, Alessandro

Alessandro introduced me to Raquel and Icaro over the summer as they were new in Berlin/Europe and looking to find work and get a residence permit. Raquel plays piano and Icaro percussion, and they get by through playing gigs mostly. When Zohar Cohen said that he wouldn't be able to do music for me for the 401, ALessandro thought this could help me out and Raquel who was needing contracts to show immigration.

I've heard them play in private and in public, and I love their energy and virtuosity and joy for playing. When they play together, I see such a connection between the two...it's a concrete conversation played through the music and their smiles and tensions and jokes as they play the instruments...all non-verbal. I want to learn about improvisation and structure...the tension between these two...from them. They come from a different discipline, but the dynamics are quite similar to dancing...duh, of course.

The fact of them being non-English speakers from Sao Paolo was also exciting for me because I get to feel myself differently through speaking spanish and through not assuming cultural or language things...there is more sensitivity required to communicate, make art, socialize, etc as it's more fresh...from my side at least since them and Alessandro can all just speak in Portuguese whenever they want or start talking about something funny, etc.

Here are scribbled notes from the first rehearsal where I mostly laid out the general desires, questions and ideas for the piece I want to make. I like to work collaboratively as a director and lead the group by being led by the group...to facilitate ideas and desires.

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Capoeira Angola…it’s feminine and water

Bruce Lee is all about being like water
-molds
-accepts and allows

Arcos are instruments made by women
-drums too…they’re of the earth and used in wars and parties

List of Desires for us as a group
--air bath (Raquel has no air)
--to fly
--piano through the wall

The whole piece could just be contrasts like SIN Wave

Bota teu pé no chão.

Trees = feminine
Maternity
Womb=earth

Seeds

Orpheus calming the demon
-this is the music and me

Drumsbirimbaowater
Drum movesliquid moves

Contact mic…to mic the water

Language – free jazz with chords and scales to play
-find words, techniques, structures, ideas, etc to play in (request from Raquel)

Music Tasks for myself…
Honor Alessandro’s Boy

Dance to my parents

Slow timelines and repositionings
--> so that eventually I get going and it never stops

First Official Meeting with Ingrid for 401 at Café Chagall!
--it was right after the rehearsal

I had done an official psychic reading with her in August, so there was already questions I had from that and also updates in terms of how I've been taking her and other's advices for living. For instance, I feel she had given me a confidence-boosting reading...which is to say that her feedback was that I have a lot of potential in many ways and that I should not hold back for fear. It's a combination of going for the things I want and also allowing them to happen! She had reflected back to me some images of my future, and she was saying how the images, themselves, are not important but how they made me feel. I should try to feel that feeling actually (if it was one of love, or fun, or adventure, etc) so as to call it into existence. This applies to the work of an artist who wants to bring forth a vision...especially for me wanting to satisfy the desire to dance and be free, etc.

An interesting note below is that she gave me advices and references on gender. I can look to Virginia Wolf and Oscar WIlde as artists who were more fluid in life and their work. I got the advice that I should have a fun and light attitude in regards to how I play out my own gender...life is a game, and I don't have to be too serious about acting like a man or acting like a woman.

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My Preparation Beforehand
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Preparation notes for meeting Ingrid at Café Chagall. We had done an official Pyschic reading in August.

Questions and comments for Ingrid:

I realize I must watch my energy when thinking and talking to her. Everyone should treat each other with the same consideration.

Images of the future and how time works… there are infinite possibilities, no?

Thinking to take a year=long break from art to work and get money and try something else..

Does she only reflect back positive feedback? How challenging does she get?
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MEETING

Trees take a month to have a thought. Plants take a week and stones a year. Humans take moments.

To leave the body behind because it belongs to the threes and stones and the earth

Our body is chunky and becomes a chunky dead body.

Doing Gender
-Oscar Wilde
-Virginia Wolf
--to be fluid with gender. Must be playful like the child. And be brave to allow the play and exploration

Tips for feeling home (i.e. based on difficulties with housing situation w/ Gabriel)
--make a space
-a circle of salt
-have 3 very personal things in a box on the left side of the bed
--this is my sacred, personal, home space
this also relates to creating space in general and can be applied to having 2 genders…and to allow others their explorations

It takes bravery to reduce on a movement and trust decisions

Astrology for All
Astro.com

In terms of gender…
The director is kinda male and the actor is more female
--in performance too?

Thomas Bernhardt was Austrian and active in the 80s-90s, sarcastic

Play

Process each move through gender and the child…the child exploring or not having obstructions to play

Put the chairs for every role as if the people would actually be there. Chair for the director, etc, and I can sit in the chair when I’m that person.

Come prepared as a director with knowing what I want
-Goals in a timeline

Male is often unitary
Female is networking
-favela matriarchy punishment
-power together

“The Opposite Is Also True” -Wilde?

I complained about how the academic side is too rigid and encapsulating for an art process…that the art is too much and quick for explanation. But Ingrid said that Art is the ability to explain it.
-in the moment one must be a child/channel --> but then must be able to contextualize
---tie this to what Robert Steijn sent me about falling in love!!!

To make decisions means facing fear to show face and be seen