My voice speaking into a recorder: I got to rehearsal around 2pm. The group has been here since 10am. I walked into a room where everyone is wearing headphones, listening to their own music, and moving. Hannah is jumping up and down, twice each time. Stephanie is, well, now she is changing the song on her ipod. She’s making a movement that is kind of a gesture of confusion and then pausing, taking a drink, motioning to the fact of her insides. Sam is standing still. Then he raises his arms and turns, a jump, kind of a hip swivel. Stephanie just dropped her ipod. Erin has been repeating the same movement since I arrived, a kind of reach up that then reverberates through the rest of her body as she kind of swoops down. Jeff and Rachel are in the corner together doing the same movement. They are the only ones that are talking. They’re counting steps with their hands spread out on either side. They’re going left, right, left, right. There’s some sort of dramatic orchestral music playing in the background.
[I walk over to the sound system so you can hear the music. No one else is listening to it.]Jeff: And then let’s go down, two, three…
My voice: After watching for awhile it is clear that everyone is creating a movement that they are repeating, adding onto it each time. Stephanie is recognizing her insides again. Hannah reaches both hands up her torso and then leaps, spinning. Sam is bent over halfway, using his arms to kind of swim. Erin again is, well, adjusting her ipod, and then starting from the beginning with her hand up swooping motion down to her belly and then to her feet. Rachel and Jeff are still talking. They’re improving something now. Rachel is going first. She’s putting on an ipod now, switching the earbuds from one ear to another. It’s nice to walk into a room where people are just making something. It’s also nice to walk into a room where it has already started happening before you get there.
Stephanie: How ya doing?
Me: Good, how are you?
Stephanie: Sorry I had a Hulk moment.
Me: What?
Stephanie: I’m sorry I had a Hulk moment.
Me: A what moment?
Stephanie: Hulk. URRRRRR—
Me: Halt?
Stephanie: —I got frustrated.
Me: Oh.
Stephanie: Hulk like the—
Me: Oh, Hulk. I liked your Hulk moment.
My voice: Stephanie just had what she describes as a Hulk moment, which involved a face and some arms, kind of clenching fists. I think It’s also, well, it’s nice to enter a room where people are making something and it would also be nice to leave right now and not know when it stopped.