First rehearsal, electrelane.

13:45-17:15.

I have troubles finding the school so they're already working when I get there. The dancers are showing Alexander a bit of a piece Marthe, who is an incredibly beautiful woman, taught them before our arrival. What I first notice about Alex is his concern about every little detail. He stops the rehearsal every now and then to ask the dancers to be more 'into it', to focus on their eyes, to look at something every time they move their heads from one side to the other.

The piece consists of little movements made by duets on a phrase that keeps growing everytime it begins. He thinks it's very important to be exact on each movement, otherwise it looses it sense. He asks the dancers to freeze on the precise positions they're suposed to, so he's emphasizing on the fact that every movement doesn't only have a begining but it also has an end, and sometimes the ending of the movement can be even more important than how it begins.

I loved it when he said (and I'm quoting): 'In general, you have to work on being relaxed; try to find a flow on the preciseness'. I find Alexander a very good director to be under the orders of. He substitutes his warm and quiet tone for an excited and enthusiastic one, and he reminds the dancers every correction he has made before doing it all over again.

I remember yesterday we talked about making funny pieces and how it can be more difficult than making a tragic one. This comes out on the rehearsal again. He asks the dancers to believe in his work, to believe on the stupid things that he does, because if they try to go funny, the work becomes overacted, and looses it spirit.

They then continue with another bit of the piece that consists of the dancers making a lot of sound when they breathe, creating rhythms and movements with it. It's absolutely impressive. It makes me feel kind of dizzy while I'm not even doing it! Again he insists on the precision of each breath and the movement that goes along with it. He is very concerned that the movements are not very 'choreographed', so he asks the dancers to do them on their own way.

After going over this two pieces he brings up something new. He teaches them a weird way of running. He's fast. In two minutes he has the 20 dancers that showed up today runing orderly back and forth across the stage on the track of 'Eight Steps' by Electrelane.