“So you can yell… 5! 6! 7! 8!”

What is my signature move? I’m a bit giddy as I ask myself this question. I may be giddy be giddy because of the early hour, but more likely it’s because of the fact that I am a inexperienced dancer in a dance workshop taught by admittedly inexperienced dancers. I laugh nervously and look for my signature move that I am sure is hiding somewhere deep inside my body.
Last night I told my fiancée that I was going to go to a dance workshop. She, knowing that I’m not the big dancer type, asked me to show her some moves. I obliged, flapping my limbs wildly, much to her delight. An hour of laughter followed.
My signature move. Hmmm… Well, maybe my signature move might look something like pouring myself a drink, or walking while looking around and smiling (lame), or- Eureka- looking for that thing that I just lost and godamnit I saw it here just a little while ago. I put it together: Hand on hip, step step step, point. My signature move.
I show this to the five lovely women in my group. They, in all seriousness, practice the move over and over again, asking questions like: What foot do you lead with? When do you point?
We add the move to our growing repertoire of moves and assign it a number. This is where the “Chance” in Chance Poetics comes in. We each roll a small die we have been given. The number rolled dictates the order the moves (six in our group) will be put in. We string them together- Voila- we have created a dance.
We practice our new creation to a wide variety of music and (amazingly wonderfully) my signature move has becomes part of an awesome dance.
Thank you Nature Theatre of Oklahoma for giving me the gift of dance and some new creative tools. I’m going to take my dance home, count it off and bust a move. Then we’ll see who’s laughing.
Posted by P.A.Coleman