in the middle

I love the balloon section. It looks great. This is how it happened: Steve wanted to choreograph a solo for someone holding a balloon. On Tuesday we decided to teach it to everyone. I wanted to see how it would work if we combined it with the grid-walking and made it one of the 'options'. We decided to structure it as follows.. 'walk forwards, you may turn at 90 degrees, you may stop when you choose and for as long as you choose. There are 4 or 5 balloons which are passed around between people. When you receive a balloon you may continue walking, turning and stopping, or you may do a small bit of the balloon dance, pass the balloon on when next you come near to someone.' I really liked it to the Radiohead, but we also tried it with Chopin which was cool too. I think the highlight of the rehearsal was when we played KungFu Distruction. Fun games like that are so great to encourage a sense of community and lift everyones mood.
Steve and I have been chatting a lot about the work, it's so great to share the process with someone, and to build off of each others ideas. Tomorrow we will have some new cast members.. we thought some extra guys would be good to balance the gender ratio. We are a bit anxious bringing in performers halfway through the process, but perhaps this will charge the atmosphere with more uncertainty and spontaneity. We also need to work on transitions. I think the cake will help with this, also the clever lighting ideas we came up with late Thursday night.
For tomorrow I must remember to buy cake and balloons. We need to cut the music soon and also figure out how the jumping castle is going to work.