Second rehearsal, 'fosse'-ing.

13:45 - 17:15

Tuesday begins with something brand new. We put aside what we worked on Monday and start working on creating rhythms bi clicking fingers together. It astonishes me how something so simple can become so interesting. He has thought of some rhythms himself and starts the rehearsal by asking the company to do the same thing, while he works with Marthe.

The simplicity of clicking fingers takes me to the reminiscense of Broadway dancing but also the complexity of castañuelas played back home. Alex tries not to go anything like it. I mean he refuses anything that is 'too musical' or 'too flamenco'. That's waht makes it all interesting. The clicking approaches it, but it doesn't become it, and it doesn't become a parody of it either. I learn it is important to realize what you may sound like and try to avoid it, because you're already sounding like it without even trying, and when you try to, it becomes hideous and without any interest. It's kind of like what I said yesterday about trying to 'make funny'.

I'm amazed on the facility he has to compose, I have never seen anything like this in my whole life. In just a second I fins myself in front of a perfectly ordered formation of 23 dancers clicking their fingers at the unison. With the same hability he divides them into different groups and in a minute he has assigned everybody different rhythms and movements that in fact create music and a complex spacial dance.

We work a lot on going over the rhythms. I find out Alexander is very good at analysing his work. He knows when something is good and when something is not that good. He knows if it's coming too fast or too slow, so he's good at making the right changes to improve what he's doing. What I mean here is that he doesn't throw away what he's done but he finds out the way to make the small changes that are gonna make it work.

Marthe leaves and it's late and we're all pretty tired for all the clicking, so Alexander proposes some exercises to the company to make them loose their embarrassement. We all have a pretty good time. It's also a good way to get to know the dancers. I find myself realizing that some dancers I had almost not noticed are pretty good, and get most of my attention.