During the rehearsal process the idea of “problem-solving” came up again and again, no matter what piece we were working on.  On a similar note, after the dress rehearsal today Patricia Lent gave a note about not trying to mask where you’re looking or where you’re taking you’re cue from, but instead acknowledging the system that you’re dancing in, and allowing the audience to see the system as well.

While I don’t have the experience to speak for the entirety of Merce’s work, I can say that in what we’ve learned the idea of problem-solving within a given system has been a central aspect of the choreography.  I think his work might be that simple.  Each piece proposes a different system and a new set of problems to solve.  Rather than trying to connect the variation among his pieces to a broader arc in his work I think what is simpler (and more appropriate) is to treat each piece as a separate system, with its own specific inquiries.  There are so many choreographers that get stuck in a certain mode of creating, that after a while you feel like their work starts to repeat itself. Merce isn’t one of them.  His way of creating has been compared to scientific research, each piece is an experiment with its own set of results.  There are constants and variables, and the act of dancing the work is seeing how those elements fit together.

Now I’m asking myself, how can I say that each piece is like a system or a scientific experiment, when my last blog post I compared his work to dancing within landscapes?  I think what each image shares is the emphasis on observation.  The dancers aren’t telling a story or reenacting an event, they are creating a detailed portrait of the land.   The importance of the system isn’t to eventually find the best model; the purpose of the experiment isn’t to cure a disease; Instead it’s about observing what happens within the context of the system or experiment, how do the elements react?

I realize that I’ve strayed away from the intent of this blog post, which is to compare the changes in his work over the years. But again I’d like to emphasize that his work was constantly changing.  If it wasn’t he wouldn’t have choreographed for as long or as consistently as he did.