I had the privilege to witness Constance Cooke‘s latest choreography rehearsal. The 2 dancers on stage started to move on stage as Constance would ask them to work on this scene based on various themes, checking her notes and writing down more for later conversations with them.
I was watching their bodies intertwining as they moved on the surface of floor. I would hear “the struggle” as one the themes they were working on. They knew what that was related to in the piece. I could only perceive their intense bodily relationship going from left to right, down and up.
I found myself having a lot of pleasure watching their beautiful men’s body movements. I started to photograph them. It created something new.
Something my eyes couldn’t see. I enjoyed the soft colored strokes that the moving red and white shirts imprinted on the digital images.
I liked how the superimposed effect captured the ephemeral essence movement. How it told a story of 2 bodies mixing, convoluting, developing on a single frame, playing hide and seek. How it created a rhythm, sometimes soft colored blurs, sometimes in focus or both.
I showed the series to Heidi who seemed very inspired and ecstatic about the images. She thought they were material for a show. I didn’t think much of them. I didn’t feel like there was something I could do with these photographs that would bring meaning on the table in addition to the pleasure of the process of taking them.
But eventually, some days later, I was inspired to take the same photographs with myself as a model.
