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(Performance flyer I designed for the show, featuring a water color painting that I did back in 2017 going through some dark times within myself)

        

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   Performance video:

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The Journey of the Process 

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At the beginning of this process, few months before the actual rehearsals begin, Joe (sax player) and me got in a rehearsal room to do some experiments, I haven’t planned much, just had one idea of him following my movements with sound, which was quite fun, then I had one idea to make him follow the flow of my Rap in Portuguese, then I was having lots of funny ideas and scenes that we could try…

 

 

 

 

 

 

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We didn’t develop it further more, as we got focused on rehearsals with rappers and singers that we usually work with for an event, this time at the café 1001, which I was producing together with a friend.

After the event, all the artists went to their own side, and we took a small break.

I was thinking about what I wanted to create for my final performance, whether something with 100% my vision or something with the collective. One day in class, we had another room we could book the time to go and try some stuff just to start creating some work.

I found on my phone a recording of a jam we did in a rehearsal a year before, a jam which I absolutely loved the vibe, and wanted to explore more that side of making music with the collective. I booked the room, and I put it on the speakers, alone in a room just to feel the song and move with it. My friend Jamel got in the room, and I said, “man this music makes me want to walk like this” (walking relaxed), Jamel said “and it’s like so sunny”, “Oh, so, I am in Brazil, it’s sunny and raining at the same time, but because it’s hot, it feels good, like washing my soul!” boom! That was the point things were coming together. How important is to bounce ideas with someone you trust.

I started to contact the band, trying to organise rehearsals using doodle to start developing an EP. The collective already was talking about developing its own sound, because we mainly were band for the rappers and singers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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3 weeks until the performance. Building / Adapting a vision.

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By the time we started the RND rehearsals, lots of the musicians were busy, so the first ever session was just Joe and me (sax and, guitar/movement). I had to make it work with whatever I had, even if it was just me by myself. We had our first session exploring feelings of chords, I really wanted some sort of nostalgic feeling on this performance. But I didn’t plan much because I wanted to see what we all could come up with together, and I think it was too open to start with. I wasn’t sure if I would do physical theatre at that point, but as I didn't have all the musicians I had to try different things so I decided to give it a go and starting moving my body.

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                                                              (First rehearsal with Joe, 30th April)

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I was moving with the music, not making the music move with me yet. I also realised that my body wasn't where I would like it to be, with fluidity, bold movements, with contrast, low and high using the space. It took a while for me to watch the videos I filmed on rehearsals back, some sort of resistance wasn’t letting me, because I knew it wasn’t connected the way I wanted to, although watching it now there are a few cool movements to explore. But I had a lot of work and movement research ahead. Specially developing a language with the musicians.

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I was starting to make a graphic with the energy shape that I had in mind for the 15min performance, whilst trying to reach to players to be part of it. So I was lost in what I really wanted to make. But I was trying to put something together with the graphic, to have at least a sense of the shape of the performance.

On the second rehearsal George came, so we were Sax, Trombone and Guitar. Funny combination, however it pushed me to stretch my skills, like, beat boxing, and play guitar at the same time, as we didn’t have a drummer yet, and maybe we wouldn’t have. Then we decided to jam a bit, Joe gave the idea to do my rap, which I even forgot about. The jam felt good, and ideas were coming, the performance was starting to get some sort of shape, with the idea so far that the rap would start the gig, and a movement in the middle, and another song at the end, which is the song that I found the recording on my phone that inspired this Sunshower vibe..
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                             

                              (Second rehearsal, short clip from 15min video) 2nd May

 

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On the way to the third rehearsal I decided to watch the last rehearsal video, and I had a few ideas to change the rap part, giving it more dynamic, I also started to get more into the vibe of the rap increasing my energy and going more for it.

On the third rehearsal, had half rehearsal with George, then he had to leave and Joe arrived for the other half. It forced me to work always with what I had, as annoying it was at times, it pushed me to work on different details with different artists, movement with George, rap with Joe.

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I came to realize that if I want to control the sound with my movement, where is this movement were coming from, I knew I had to do some homework alone, as at rehearsals I wasn’t really connecting as I wanted, or I would connect with many things, but I was to make decisions. So before the 4th rehearsal, I put my phone filming on my own living room and decided to put movements inspired from the brazilian rap I wrote on my first year. That was a KEY moment of deep connection with the rap as it really touches on what I been through since moved to London. The picture on the wall on the video below was also something that took sometime for me to realise it was making totally sense to include it, unconsciously my brain was already putting it all together without I realise. Made me realise later that my works are always coming from that place of transformation. Raw.

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                                                   (Moving at home 7th May)

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I saw that as I knew my lyrics by heart I was easy to keep going and exploring each word with different movements. I had lots of different insights on this session which got me much deeper in the movement. Writings are a good source of inspiration for movement especially as I had a lot of feelings and connection already on those lyrics, and then I reminded myself of the Lion man movement piece which I shared in Nianh (teacher) movement class, which was a battle between my light side and grounded side, Ying and Young, or Female and Male, there are different ways of seeing it, but with the purpose of finding balance and harmony within myself, at that time I also wanted to paint something that also expressed this battle, and it became this painting, which I wasn’t planning at all to paint this bird… it appeared there.

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                                               (Water color paint I made on Dez 2017)

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I was at work, and made some decisions about the flow of the performance and made this graphic on a till receipt, (where I usually write my ideas), with the idea of using this flashback ideas for different scenes…

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On the videos below we can see that the movement is much more solid at this point, I also started to develop some sort of fighting scene inspired on the movement piece I done with Nianth and Painting transformation.
Luke (Bass) came to rehearsal, but arrived after the other guys had left, but we still got to work on some stuff, such his tune “Birds” which was the jam inspiration for the performance, sunshower vision.

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I worked a bit more on the vision, then transformed the graphic into this, and it was much much more easier to work with a plan/guide like that. That was really important lesson, if I had done that from before, would be much easier, but also, I am not sure how the performance would look like, definitely not the same 

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Made a Q sheet for the light design, and for others to follow.

On the 12th of May, two weeks to the performance I found a drummer. A percussionist that plays drum kit. Things were exciting going to a nice place.  We worked on lots of things, such as, a call and response, rap transition to movement, the sound for the fight scene, and birds, the last song. We used one of our favourite songs called “can’t leave the night” to get inspiration on the song structure for “Birds”, it was really helpful. We also used an old tune that I produced, for inspiration for the fight section, in fact we used mainly a Funk Rio groove from it. I recorded a couple of 1h audio recordings on this day.

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I started to work on a solo, which is a big challenge for me to feel comfortable, especially as being self-tough in a music school. I looped the horns section, and was trying some ideas on top..

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About at this point, a few days to the gig, the performance was around 80% ready.
This was on a Saturday and just Aidan Drums was available.

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Some of the final decisions I made literally on the last rehearsal on the afternoon before the gig, which also was with a new Sax player, as Joe couldn’t do the gig. So I gave Luke (bass) the line to start the beat on the rap. We had Eugene Skeef coming up to a couple of rehearsals to help us with the sound, to get it tighter, but I needed also someone from the movement or theatre to give me feedback on my movement etc.. which all of the tutors I knew were busy, and was actually my fault to don't orgonize that properly my mind was just really into the performance madness trying to find players, rehearsing etc. The only feedback I got was from Tash (teacher) on my soundcheck, which helped me at parts that needed more energy, and to use more my voice even.

At the performance time I gave it all, especially on the movement part, and my nail scratched my nose by mistake, on the video we can’t see properly, but blood was coming down, in a way that I even thought that I might have to stop the performance to make sure it was okay, and to clean it… It took a bit of my concentration on the fight scene, but some people didn’t realize it was real blood. This performance was literally blood sweat and tears!!

 

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Reflection after the performance:

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1. Make a decision, even if you not sure, try to get in the zone, and see it appear, or just try something, even if you are scared of doing it, do it then the magic will happen..

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2. Be clear with what you want. People will be glad.

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3. Try something new, what moves you? Then later get feedback from people that you trust.

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4. Trust on your power!

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5. Breath deep 6x

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6. Resistance? Just F* do it! (fearless motivation), what triggers you? Watch performances, research, get inspired with others

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7. Move your body.

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8. Film your performance/rehearsal/experiment and watch it.

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Leandro Guiran Pestana.

02/07/2019

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Phone screenshot from my Evernote.