Reflections on Clytemnestra

I am so grateful that we had the opportunity to meet with company members and discuss the characters and themes involved with Clytemnestra before we viewed the full performance. I think the discussions we had with Peter Sparling and Janet Eibler and especially the work we did with individual company members involved with the Name-Calling, was invaluable to my viewing experience. It showed me how to watch Clytemnestra and see beyond the surface of the choreography and the storyline and see deeper into the emotions and tension and dynamics of the entire piece. Even more so it was invaluable to me as a dancer. My group worked with Miki on the character of Iphigenia. Miki spoke about how the choreography of Iphigenia was rather simple. But just because we had simple choreography didn’t mean we were off the hook. The simple choreography was there so that the complicated and intense emotions that Iphigenia experiences could be expressed fully. We had to reach into a place deep inside ourselves, past the movement and into the abstract to embody Iphigenia so that even standing still our energy and emotions could identify us as Iphigenia. Though I have never been murdered by my own father, it was still easy to identify with Iphigenia who is young and innocent and completely beside herself when she finds her whole wold turned upside down. Iphigenia along with many other characters in Clytemnestra and the dance itself will continue to remain timeless because the underlying emotions are part of the universal human experience.