Joseph's Annunciation

First to note: today is the Feast of the Annunciation. I brought muffins. The Snack of the Annunciation.

At rehearsal today: Celeste, Chip, Dana, Sharon

When I began playing with these Annunciation ideas a few years ago - Susan Taylor, a choreographer in Tampa who I have known for a long time, and who does real interesting work around mythologies and archetypes and stories, sent me "Joseph's Annunciation" by David H. Albert. In a book, I think called "The Healing Heart". (need to research that)
We began with Dana catching us up on her recent thoughts on Mary, and family - especially in light with stuff going on in her family. A piece of which was to say "No, I'm not coming home for Easter." She did a very interesting gesture of where her heart got taken. We catalogued that gesture.
Chip and Sharon were interested in Mary's family lineage. Where did she come from? Where did Joseph come from? How did they meet? Which segued nicely into the "Joseph's Annunciation" text I wanted to explore.
For the improvisation - I suggested that we take turns reading, and that the others explore the text in movement as it was being read. Chip was encouraged to move in with the dancers, rather than be on the sideline.

The piece begins "He loved her, deeply he loved her, but he didn't believe it. Not a word of it. And he was quite certain she didn't either." I videoed the improv. We can reference as needed. One visual I really liked - Sharon sitting cross legged reading, Chip sat down cross legged facing her, playing the violin in and out of her vocal choices with the reading

Sharon had to leave for a performance. Dana and I worked on the movement phrases from my solo. I wanted to see what would happen if she learned the phrases and then exploded them with a physicality that used more space and gross movement. She learned the material through the wrist rubbing section. She began choreographing a variation, but then we moved into another improvisation.
Chip, again encouraged to be in the action. Dana's task to continue to explore a different physicality for the movement. My task to stick to the more gestural, space confined phrases and loop the movement. What evolved was my continuing the movement phrases, Dana riffing off them, and then an intersection with the language of the basic phrases into a communication between two bodies and violin and violin player.
Highlight moments:
where the "words" where. Where they were found, what happened when they were ingested. Opening a tightly closed "no" jaw, and trying to put the words in. Trying to do it with love, not force.
Observation: Chip observed that he would like to play much more with the intersection of his body, and the body of his instrument (the bow in particular) into the movement motifs.