Dear Gus,

The dancers and I followed the instructions on the website. We learned the movements from you and the streaming videos. We rehearsed them often in class, and deconstructed them into fragments. We then made dice and rolled it to determine where the pieces went, who danced them and how many times they were repeated. We now have a very lovely, clear, articulated movement exploration of your work that I LOVE to watch and they love to do. We will perform it as part of our event in March: Rider Dances With the Band. We will have the opportunity to dance to the music of a 4-piece band (clarinet, keyboard,  drums and bass) and now would like to know: "How should we choose the accompaniment?" Would you like to suggest a category of music? Classical? Pop? Jazz? I believe the piece will be about 6 minutes long, and to the tempo of the movement phrase that begins in a box. We are all so excited by this work. The dancer's technique has improved tremendously through the application and the choreographic process delightfully spontaneous and fun. will look forwrd to hearing what you suggest about sound.

Best, Kim

Kim,
Theoretically, any music in the rhythm of the movement could be appropriate or sound that has no obvious rhythm. Esthetically, the most appropriate music would be modern classical, either non-rhythmic ambient sound or something rhythmic like Steve Reich, Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe, etc. I'm eager to see the etude without and with sound.
Gus

Kim,
Accompaniment, part II: Rick made an interesting suggestion. If the musicians are sophisticated enough, you might create a score for them, based on each one playing a line of music randomly interspersed with silence. The musicians would play their random lines simultaneously, so that different numbers of musicians would be playing at any time. Each musician's line would involve, say soft sound, loud sound, and silence distributed along a time line, devised by each musician individually or chosen by random draw, similar to the way the movement was arranged.
Gus

Hi Gus,

Ok, I'll talk to the band about the random lines. they might like that idea. I was also thinking Steve Reich-ish too. We'd love for you to see it. It's live on the mainstage March 3rd, 8pm and 4th 3pm. If you could make it, we would add backflips. We also will record the event and I'll send it with and without sound.

Last night the dancers suggested the dice be rolled onto the stage at some point.
But where and when?

Kim