Sō Si: Sō Percussion’s Summer Institute

In July 2015 we spent a remarkable week collaborating with composer Dan Trueman, Sō Percussion, Mobius Percussion and participants in SōSi during a residency at Princeton University. Together with 9 dancers from the NY cast, Tan Temel from Turkey, and Rhonda Baker from Nova Scotia, we merged the music and dance scores for There Might Be Others. Imagine over 50 percussion instruments, from marimbas to wine bottles, and a hammered dulcimer to iPhones, played and danced by 25 performers. We also collaborated daily with Naomi Leonard, a professor of Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University and her post-doctoral student, Kayhan Ozcimder, who specialize in researching group decision making and collective motion. They are interested in using dynamic models from evolutionary biology to find new ways for the dancers and musicians to be creative in the context of There Might Be Others. Together we worked to create situations in rehearsals that drive the performers to respond in unfamiliar ways both as individuals and as members of the community building a single composition. The week culminated in a jam-packed informal performance with a standing ovation from the exuberant audience. We all look forward to more rehearsals to come!