Dramaturgy continued

Dramaturgy
We spent most of the day working on dramaturgical questions regarding each piece in the showing, plus a couple more.  Mona and Ravi were here with us during the process, as well as Babli on Skype for an hour.  Here are our notes, preceded by the possible titles we came up with.

duet for one; longing for babli

hidden tamarind

Sunoh remix; skin remix; neon; the matrix

Cyber Chat; Hey are you there?;  Cyber Communications: An Introduction

Silent Cry; Silenced; My Silent Cry; In the Dark; the tears went running, running; All my tears running, running; Dry Mouth, Salt Water

Diss Embodied; EAT ME; Exotic Object; Re-press, Diss member

Fetishized; Fetish; Whip, Chain, Stick; Leather and Snow; Closed Fist, Open Link; Diss Member

The Pleasure of Longing; Love in Separation; Yearning; Someday

Losing My Tonsils, Finding My Voice; Can You Hear Me Now?; The Loudest Voice; Muted; Mute and Unmute

Cliches; Composite Courtesan; Framed!; Show-time; Surface

viva-la-vulva; Crass Seductress; I Want You?/You Want Me?!?; Vagina with Teeth; The Vamp and the Demoness

Guru Shishya; Dressing the Part; Step by Step; Learning to Walk Like Radha; Misfit

I Didn't Say a Word; The Thorn, the Leaf, and the Butterfly; Face to Face; Silent Cry

Sringar; Getting Dressed; Beyond Beauty; You're So Vain; Fading

Tell Me, Sister; Ranri; Bitter Salt; Escape; Journey

SUNOH material, continued.
-Cyn and Anj learned Shy's abhinaya Sunoh phrase.
-Shyamala and Cynthia learned Anj's contemporary Sunoh phrase.
-Cynthia had the idea to compose Anj's textual score to the kathak rhythms used in the SKYPE call  and taught Anj the rhythms (Shy knows them already).  Currently her text consists of the following: "I have something to tell you.  What?  No.  Wait.  You know that one.  Yes.  Always the same problem.  Will it ever get better?  Really!  [sigh]"

Uma Stories
We brainstormed a way to combine the different material related to Uma's story: Shy's face dance, I didn't say a word, and My Silent Cry:

 1. Start with Shy's face dance to live feed.

 2. Anj then enters as Shy's friend, using material from Shy's Sunoh abhinaya phrase to comfort her.  Her hand appears in one live feed, her profile in another.  Shy asks Anj, "Friend, what would you have done?"

 3. Anj considers Shy's question, sits in Shy's chair, and Cyn enters as friend/camera operator.  Shy goes offstage or to the side.  They reposition the chair and camera slightly to face a diagonal.  They start "I didn't say a word" - Anj doing in silence the first time, Cyn reading with her on repetition (as if she, as friend, is interpreting or bringing voice to her story). 

 

4. Shy starts My Silent Cry as Anj and Cyn do full run-through of padam, Anj transitioning into ]wrist[ for 2nd half.  When Anj and Cyn finish poem they reposition their bodies to watch Shy.  When Shy goes to take cloth off their face, they move forward to lift the scrim so Shy has room to run in circle.

skin remix
Carole had some new ideas for the skin remix.  She requested that we each give her "a list of words re: your thoughts about / relationship to / relevance of the list of cliches of the courtesan and/or of being a female dancer w/your specific training, etc."  Here is what Shy and Cyn came up with:

She also offered the following possible score to try out:
CYNTHIA, text on floor
live-feed begins
Loren's music
Sangita's SKIN video begins on back wall
SHYAMALA, ANJALI "chorus" in back layer

SHYAMALA, ANJALI move to front layer start creating word scape with projection and additional words written on torn paper, CYNTHIA joins
group dance
fade in new music track (more upbeat, rhythmic? vocalizations?)

END w/question: "Sisters, what would you have done?" seated, facing backwards

Shy and Cyn combined logomotion duets
we did a 30 min. improv seeing what it would be like to combine some of our material. Here are a few excerpts we found interesting.
password: "logomotion"

cloth logomotion duet from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.