Read our latest Q+A with Ruth Mills, Creative/Rehearsal Director for For Now, I am..
1. How did you get involved with Marc Brew Company / For Now, I am..?
Marc and I have been crossing paths for a few years now. With similar interest in youth dance and choreography with integrated companies. What can I say, we clicked! And that is where it all began. So now I am rehearsal director for this new work and loving every second of it.
2. How did Marc’s story / movement inspire you?
Marc’s idiosyncratic approach to movement and composition is what attracted me to working with him. And being close to that process has taught me much about my own dance practice. To be around someone with this depth of understanding of the body and its ability to communicate affirms my reason for being a dancer and a dance maker. His amiable and cheeky personality is one that chimed with mine. His attitude to art making, work ethic and commitment to getting the job done despite hurdles and prevailing attitudes. All these things are like a magnet to a woman like me. It feels liberating and exciting to be involved in such a compelling story.
What is your process of getting from inspiration to the finished piece?
We are telling a story, and composition of that story in movement is very similar to writing a book or painting a picture.
The point of expression is the route to telling the story and in this case that is Marc. His expression of his story. My job is in helping to find the narrative journey, its speed, pace, emotional weight, detail, clarity and point of transformation. Each stage in the process begins with the question: What do I want to communicate? And we move from that point forward.
4. Why do you think people should come and see For Now, I am..?
It is a very fine work from what I consider to be one of the country’s most accomplished choreographers. A rare ability to speak through movement, bring authenticity and meaning to an audience through the abstract, the symbolic. For Now I am.. places landmarks in the journey of life, Marc’s, yours, mine, all of us. To live is a struggle against the restrictions of the physical, the need for expression, for love, acceptance and most of all self agency and independence.