Red Rover
Red Rover was a dance work created on Tulsa Ballet II in the summer of 2017 in collaboration with dancer and choreographer Karen Castleman. For music we used the chorale from Beethoven's 9th Symphony, and structured the piece around the games, rivalries, and innocent romances of a schoolyard recess. The motifs and movements that structured the work were:
1. Recess Bell
2. Jumping Rope
3. Duck, Duck, Goose
4. Red Light, Green Light
5. Tug of War
6. Red Rover
7. Final Bell
The overarching idea was proposed by me, and we worked together to formulate which of our favorite childhood schoolyard games would provide appropriate armatures to build the movement and narrative around. Karen did the heavy lifting of the movement, and I watched and shared my thoughts, occasionally flailing around to share ideas that Karen would translate into dance.