Ida Meftahi : new routes for rooted conventions

Ida Meftahi (choreographer)

Meaghan Guisti, Marlowe Porter (interpreters)

Beginning

Working from a narrative and from a pre-existing “world” (scripted story)

Work was to tell the story with stylized gesture (dance)

Major issue was determining what conventions she should use to stage her dance drama.

Challenges

• To reconcile how pedestrian and theatrical action can live on her stage simultaneously

• To find sophisticated movement material for the dance of the main character

•To share her understanding of the dance’s physical world and her embodiment of the story to interpreters who did not know the material intuitively

Development/Skills

• Crafting dance-drama using known dramatic conventions, and making internal conventions specific to the piece

• Intellectually understanding the choreographic principles operating in the “world” and using that information to build the dance material and the whole piece

• Teaching personal movement to interpreters

• Recognizing interpreters contributions and building on them.

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