The Union

I met with Stephanie Robert, in charge of Studio 7, to bring my idea to life.


In order to find participants, we would have to set a specific date and time. Studio 7 was the perfect opportunity to show a work in progress to a public audience. Since the event encourages people to come in on a drop-in basis, the entire project had to be melted into one performance. Together, we decided on timing, lighting, soundtrack, and number of participants. 6 people were to be performing on stage for a total of approximately 9 minutes. They would be teamed up in pairs (one dancer, one drawer in each group), and be given a colorful accessory as visual reference. The participants were given short and concise instructions to follow.

On October 29th, Studio 7 gave its first inter-disciplinary performance.

It began with a fading in of lights and sounds (the soundtrack was a recording of the sound of pencils and markers scratching a piece of paper, paper being scrunched up and torn). The participants slowly began to move: those dancing moved slowly at first, then The Dig began straight away as those who drew inspired themselves from the dancing of their partner, similarly for the dancers who inspired themselves from the movement of the marker on the paper of those drawing. The drawers drew on two pieces of paper scattered on the floor, putting each up on a blackboard with magnets to as to exhibit this to the audience. Once both drawings were finished, those drawing drew on their partners (with the marker cap on). The idea was that to be able to achieve this, those who drew had to dance as well so as to keep up with their dancing partners. After 2 or 3 minutes of this, the lights faded out, and the performance was over. 


Seeing this project finally performed live gave me a good idea of what I wanted out of this project.  It helped me decide what worked, what didn't, and how I could further improve it for future representations.

Here's what worked:

• the performance sparked interest and inspiration among spectators
• certain participants realized the similarities between dancing and drawing
• most drawers and dancers focused on gestural movement
• participants improvised, giving the performance an authentic touch 

Here's what didn't work out so well:

• the movement was not gradually intensifying as the performance went on
• the soundtrack had no nuance, no climax
• the cues were not evident
• the time allotted to each part of the performance was too long
• a few participants were stressed without precise directions
• there wasn't enough interaction between dancers and drawers (they didn't rely much on each other to create the performance)

Here's what to improve for next time:

•  create a soundtrack with nuances and cues for transitions
• get waivers approved by Concordia
• get more participants
• reverse the dancers' and drawers' roles completely

See the gallery for photos of the event