Mocean's annual choreographic lab CLEaR Forum, Photo by Kevin MacCormack

Friday 7 April 2017

Creating a dance is like making Craft Beer. We Nova Scotians love Craft Beer.



Like a fine craft beer the process of creating a dance takes time, patience, expertise and a love of the art form. To me, it is a craft honed by many years of trial and tribulation; and when you know it's good, you just know. The Emerge program has offered me the unique opportunity to take this time to learn new skills and experiment with various tools while a mentor guides myself and the chosen dancers through an exciting three weeks of crafting choreography.

First. Mashing
The barley is mashed to release the sugars which will turn into alcohol.
In my case the barley is some old habits I hang on to. From the top of the week I've been mashing out my common tendencies to derive movement that can become the base ingredient of the piece.

Second. Sparging
Rinse the barley to really sift out the sugar.
I know this is not always the most exciting part of creating dance, but sometimes that last bit of sweetness can make all the difference, so I sort through the material diligently; searching for the gold nuggets in all of the chaos of going on creative tangents to create movement.

Third. Boil
Boil the Wort (The liquid created from the first two steps) to kill any remaining micro-organisms. Hops can be added for a unique characteristic.
Is there any trace of my old habits? Is there any material I can let go of? Is there a phrase that contains traces that don't belong? I've hopefully fine tuned my eye and gut instinct so I can extract the unnecessary from the effective. Once I've determined the purity of the material I can now begin to mold it around my stylistic preference, eyeing the aesthetic to really hone in on the piece. In my case a thematic taste will be implemented into the mixture to add its unique flavour.

Fourth. Cool the Wort.
The wort needs to cool so it doesn't kill the yeast when added.
Let the dancers work through phrases so they can grasp them physically. It often takes a few runs through the same phrase for the physicality to settle into the movers' bodies. The dancers are after all, the piece and to care for the dancers so they too can connect to the material is of upmost importance to me.

Josh Moore, Jessica Lowe and Olivia Aubrecht in the studio Friday
during the first week of Emerge.
Fifth. Fermentation.
Add the yeast to release the carbon dioxide and turn the mixture into alcohol.
This is a lengthy process which is particularly important where the structure of the piece is created. Parts are assembled, material starts to make sense and becomes something more recognizable, where you can see that, in fact it will serve a purpose of communication through movement.

Sixth. Carbonation.
This is a very important part of the process where the flat beer is given bubbly life and taste.
This is my favourite part, where once a theme has revealed itself in the material I will breathe life into the material with minute details and compliment it with props, set design and make some final design choices, adding buoyancy to the piece in its entirety.

Seventh. Packaging.
Once the beer is finished it's ready to be packaged and shipped.
The piece becomes a show and the technicalities are put in order, marketing is done to draw an audience and tickets are sold. Time to sit back and simply enjoy.

-Kara Friesen. Emerge 2017 Choreographer
Personal Reflection from Emerge Participant: Kara Friesen

Thanks to: Home Brew Academy "How Beer is Made"

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