Having taken piano lessons in my younger days and having played some guitar, I understand how a composer uses musical notation to communicate notes and tempos to the musician. Those black dots scattered on five lines let anyone “read” the music and know what to play. And people have been writing down how to play music for the past 4000 years.

But I’ve never understood how dance movements are communicated from choreographer to dancer. I’ve often asked Kathleen how she lets the dancers know how to move. What is the system to write down and record steps and movements? She usually gives me a look like I just asked how high is up. “I just tell them what to do,” she says. Okay, I pursue, but how do they remember from one day to the next if the steps aren’t written down somewhere? This usually causes her to give me a look bordering on pity. “I don’t know, they just do.”

So imagine my interest when Kathleen gave me this video of her developing part of Unravelling the Tight Weave, part of VIVID4. Aha, I thought, now I’ll see this mysterious choreographic process in action.

Turns out she just stands around and tells people what to do. And this seems to give her a great deal of joy. This bears some resemblance to a typical weekend around our house. So when I find out on Saturday morning that apparently we’re going to spend our Saturday afternoon in the studio wrapping giant balls of yarn, I feel better knowing that she’s not telling me what to do... she’s choreographing me.

Check it out...