Rehearsals - D-2!

Two days to the premiere!  How I wish we had more performances! Quite luckily, we had three weeks rehearsals in the theatre instead of the usual two, so we could enjoy performing day after day.

Jo is much more relaxed than he was before the premieres of NINA or PLAY 2 PLAY. He’s still honing the lighting design. I spent this past week checking the sound and the mixing in the theatre or in the sound studio. I don’t see much of the day light, but I’m delighted and elated. I really come alive when I’m working.

Soon the next step in this new life of mine will take place: I’ll go to Taipei, look for a flat, get my papers and settle down – if settle down is the right word, for I have the feeling there’s a lot in store for me, much more than I expect. 

As soon as I’ll reach Taipei, I’ll start working on this piece for CloudGate II with Huang-Yi, Symphony Project. Among all the forthcoming projects, this one seems particularly interesting. When I first met this young choreographer last January, he only knew he wanted me to write something for strings, actually, a cello solo piece. Now he has obviously nurtured his ideas and the result is that I’ll be dealing with mechanized strings: the instruments will be ‘caged’ by a robot which will play it and receive the score via midi… The range and possibilities will be limited but the challenge is interesting. Now they’re perfecting the robots. Huang-Yi jokingly said that it can play Little Bee very well… This is reassuring!

Everything is to be created. I must say that I almost wish to start anew from scratch. My belongings will soon be shipped so to reach Taipei by the end of August. Now it’s transitional time. Shall I spend a few days in Tokyo, as I planned? Or should I stay in Niigata, because I have a reason for it… the reason being one of the dancers. It took a few days to make it clear and understood – the Japanese way, one may say. I wasn’t totally sure, yet my intuition was saying yes, yes and yes! So it took a few days of discreet little signs, subtle hidden messages in conversations…

Not the best idea to start a story in Japan… But the heart is everything but sensible. Whatever happens, the best is to enjoy the present moment. I shall go with the flow.

Japan is closer to Taipei than Paris!

Satoshi and me