One thing that stands out for me about "Jook Gal" is that my first day shooting it was on my 40th birthday. That's right; I'm a bit of a late bloomer. I've loved dance for a long time, but I only started making it a big part of my life in my 30's. I started handstands at 30, floorwork at 35, parkour at 37, and of course, IMP-Style this year.
I used to have a really bad back; I literally first went to see the doctor about it when I was 10. My muscles would spasm easily, my hands were tight and cold, and the doctor called it "childhood arthritis." In my 20's, I found myself getting injured often and with little provocation, muscle pulls in shoulders, neck, back and rear. The circulation in my feet got so bad by 27, that I took the elevator down from my apartment, rather than the stairs, and I had to rub the pain out of my feet every night in order to go to sleep.
When I was 32, my back went out for about 3 months. Couldn't work; I could barely look for work. I remember getting out of my car, with resume and reel to give to production companies, and having to cling to the car door while I waited for my back to calm down enough to stand straight. I had just fallen back in love with dancing, and I despaired that by 40, I would be utterly incapable of continuing with dance.
But the injury turned out to be godsend; it forced me to start paying attention to my body. I took a great class by a gifted teacher who led exercises based on Continuum and Body/Mind Centering. In short, what she taught was paying attention to sensation, and learning about my body from the inside.
I now speculate that my original tendency toward tension and injury was born precisely from my inattention to my body. I grew up with a blood phobia; I was the guy who would pass out in the back of health class when they showed the surgery movie. So I learned to experience my body as gross; even feeling my pulse (e.g. when getting my blood pressure checked) could make me feel woozy.
Added to that were life habits that led me astray: the guy habits of sucking in my gut and sticking out my chest, of trying to walk straight. All those years of trying had ossified muscle habits, so I had a permanently stiff and sore body.
The class I took reversed the trend of shutting down, and the pattern has been one of opening, of becoming youthful, ever since. I have literally stretched and danced my way back to health, and then to a level of health that I've never experienced before. The biggest thing is paying attention to all sensation, including pain, not trying to exclude anything. The next most important part is learning not to fear injury, which of course has led me to parkour and motorcycle riding. Also, letting go of social fear is a huge part of learning; I practice break-dancing at a venue filled with amazing B-Boys in their 20's, most of whom started before they were 10. If I worry at all about looking foolish, then I learn nothing there, but if I can just explore, and see what is currently available to my body, then it unwinds and learns new skills, entirely without me trying. This is all very Zen, of course, and in that same vein, I grow best when I just accept the way things are, rather than trying to force something on them. This is the key to learning props, just play with them without trying, and let them show how they want to interact with me. This is also where IMP-Style brings everything together: I get on my obstacles, without intent of dancing a certain way or attempt at making something happen, and I just pay attention to how the obstacle feels, and trust that the dance will emerge.
Speaking of props, "Jook Gal" gave me the chance to explore a bunch of different kinds of props, especially bent rebar. Not many of them showed up in the final cut, however, because I didn't spend enough time getting to know most of them, and some just weren't very promising visually. My favorite, of course, was the coiled red hose that showed up a few times. I still don't know what it was for, as I just found it in some debris, but I liked its bounce. The following is a montage of some of the prop play that didn't make the cut.
My locations were wide-spread for "Jook Gal", reflecting mostly how soon the sun goes down these days. With standard time, it gets dark about 4:30 right now, so many of my outings were short-lived.
One of the most productive days was when I took advantage of a temporary site, close to home. There was street work being done, including a 50-foot pit in the middle of Beverly Blvd. This was definitely one of the situations in which I needed to just let go of the self-consciousness of being visible, because I was right in the middle of a busy street, dancing on construction gear.
Since it was a temporary site, there was no construction when Google Earth snapped the satellite photo, so you'll just have to imagine the gear there.
I find a lot of great locations near my motorcycle shop, which suggests the unfortunate truth that my bike is in the shop WAY too often (don't buy Chinese motorcycles)! That area is full of railroad tracks, shipping and packing companies, and in this case, a few abandoned buildings with easily accessible roofs.
As always, I'm happy to share my tumbles, because at least then I know they counted for something. The most gnarly-looking one, at the end, was shot on the first set-up on my 40th birthday. I am happy to announce that it didn't hurt at all.
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