The Aerial Alchemist

Episode 35: My Choreographic Process (Told Through the Coffin)

• Fallon Voorheis-Mathews • Episode 35

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0:00 | 22:43

Intro & Announcements

4:32 — Exploring the Aerial Coffin apparatus 

11:30 — Choreographing with music and movement

18:40 — Character development and performance

20:56 — Conclusion

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SPEAKER_01

Welcome to The Aerial Alchemist, where movement transforms into magic and stories take flight. I'm Fallon, dancer, aerialist, and storyteller, inviting you into a world where circus and dance meet creativity, resilience, and community. Whether you're here to be inspired, to learn, or to simply dream a little bigger, you found your place. I'm glad you're here.

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to the Arial Alchemist, episode number 35.

SPEAKER_01

My choreographic process told through the coffin. Welcome. Welcome to today. I thought we would talk about that as I am in the middle of a creation process. And I thought prime time, because it's it's right on the top of my brain. Before uh we jump in, uh just two quick announcements. By the time you hear it by the time you hear this Saturday, we will be doing the White Label Whiskey launch event at Ironton Distillery in Louisville, Colorado. Starts at 4 30. Um there's gonna be live music, food trucks, aerial bartenders, and the launch of the Marshall Fire Whiskey, also known as White Label Whiskey. Both thanks. So come check us out. It's a free event, open to the public, no need to RSVP anywhere, just show up. And uh yeah, we'll love to see you there. See you there. Come say hi. And then of course that the retreat flourish is coming up. I'm recording this on the 20th of May, so about a week before you're hearing it. And so I am under a month from leaving the country, and I couldn't be more excited. And uh we have such a great group of people coming, and there's still a couple of slots left. So you can get your last minute, last minute, and let's do it. There is room for you. And uh it's gonna be a wonderful time full of creation and rest and and aerial and pasta and pasta and pizza. We're gonna have a great time, and you should be there with us. Don't miss it. Um, it's I I can't tell you how lucky I feel to be doing this, and also how excited I am to get out of this country right now. So you can too. Come, come. June 19th through the 25th, we'll be there, so yeah, by by the time you hear this, under a month. And full disclosure, the next several episodes, I'm planning to just batch record because I'll tell you what, I will be bringing my computer. I will be responding to a few things here and there just in that first week because I do see this as work, even though there have been people in my my life who've who have alluded that this is not work. I am going and I am teaching things that I have spent decades learning and refining, and I'm teaching that to other people. It is work. It is fun work, and that is the fun part of the work, but it's also work. So will I will be also allowing myself to be on my laptop and responding to some things, maybe doing some social media. I don't want to be recording and editing podcasts. Now, I have thought that uh if when I pack, if there's room for my microphone, that I may I may do that just because I I feel inspired to record something while I'm there, but maybe not. We'll see. I don't know. If it doesn't fit, then that's the first thing to get to to leave the suitcase, is that. Yeah. And then the second week that I am there, when I am traveling with my husband, no computer, no nothing. I'm turning everything, uh, all notifications off. I love doing that. I did that this time last year when I went to the Creatrix retreat with the fabulous Rachel Strickland, and she just announced that she's gonna be doing Creatrix in 2027. So you put that on your calendar. I'm considering doing it again. It was glorious, a life-changing experience, and um and I and I would like to have it again. Anyways, I did that last year. I turned everything off on my phone, every single notification. No texts, no, I think I left phone calls on and that was it, just in case someone needed to reach me for some emergency, which didn't happen. So I literally didn't get a single notification for a week while I was in uh South Carolina, and it was amazing, and I will do that every time I go on any retreat or any vacation from now on. Uh, did I check things? Yeah, but it was on my own time when I wanted to and not blasting me all day every day. And this should be something that maybe I think about to, you know, incorporate more and more more in more of my life. But here we are. So now that I've chitty-chatted about that for a few minutes, let's get into it today. So I am working on a new piece for our upcoming gala circle spook and and walk you through what I've been doing because I've had retreat attendees saying that they want to learn like like the actual like choreographic process and not just and not just here's this game that you can use, which just for the record, that is the choreographic process, but I'll be more linear with it and more concrete with it. So here is what I have done. They know that I have this event coming up. It's Circ and Spook. I have the theme. It's spooky. Spooky is the theme. So it's a loose theme and also not somewhere in the spooky realm, right? And I was like, okay. First of all, I didn't know if I was gonna be performing in it, and uh then I decided, okay, I think I need to. I separately then acquired the aerial coffin. Thank you to Tim at Wolfie Metal Works. If you need a welder, if you need a rig, if you need a lira, if you need any of those things, you go to Wolfie. It's two UVs, not a W. I'll tag it in the show notes. They fantastic. And he'll make you invented apparatus, which is what this is. Now, he did not invent it for me, he invented it for himself, and then I was like, hey sir, could I have that please? And that's what happened. And so I have the coffin that we're gonna be using for bite in October, and I thought, well, well, we should use it for other things because we have it. And I was like, let me play on this. Let me play on this. So I get I get this aerial coffin. I will, you know, I'll be posting some things. So follow the social medias if you want to see what that means. But it's literally like it's just one bar that is in the shape of a coffin. That's it. It's not a 3D apparatus, it's like similar to a Lyra in in its construct, just a different shape. I hope that makes sense as I'm talking it. If you're on the Patreon, you're watching my hands me like make the shapes around it. Anyways, looks like a coffin. It is an amented apparatus, as as they all are, aren't they? And so I don't really know what's possible on it yet, right? Separately, but around the same time, I found this musician, new to me musician, came across my feed on Facebook of all places. I don't like Facebook, but I'm on it because I feel like I have to be. And I know we talked about that last week, and maybe I don't have to be, but I still am. Anyways, happened to come across, and I'm so glad that I did. I don't know that this would have come across any of my other feeds, but here we are with this new artist, new to me artist named Corvix. I'll also tag them. And what they do is dark villainy covers of all sorts of songs, right? And the one that actually came across my feed was Everyone Wants to Rule the World, which is in Bite, but not their version, Lord's version. Anyways. So then I start diving into their discography on the Spotify, and I find uh a cover of Wicked Game. And who doesn't love that song and who doesn't love it in like a dark villainy, you know, vibe. So I was like, oh, this song is so juicy. I need it for something, but I don't know what. But, you know, you see where this is going. So I have these things separately. I really want to use this song for something. I think it lends itself to the vibe of Circ and Spook. So I have it in the back of my mind that I might use it, but I I don't know if it works on this coffin thing. So here's what I do: I get into the studio with this coffin apparatus. No music. I'm just monkeying around on it. I had been on this apparatus a few years ago for a photo shoot, which is why I knew about it. And I had it upright. So the head of the coffin was faced like up towards the ceiling when I did a photo shoot on it. And I liked it, but I didn't love it. There wasn't like a lot that I felt I could explore and do on it because it's quite it's it's five and a half feet tall. So it fits. I'm five three. I fit in it per like it's made just for me. It's hilarious. Christine, she's too big for this coffin. She does not fit in it. This is not where she will spend her eternal summer. So I had the thought, what if we what if I hung it horizontally? And we are planning to play with that for a duo on it later, but I was like, what if I do it for me? And the way that it was working in my studio space, I didn't have the hardware or the equipment to hang it in a safe way from like, you know, both like the head and the foot of it sideways. It was too long. So I hung it from like the middle and the and the head. So it's like just at a slight tip, like a slight angle, but mostly horizontal. And I was playing it on playing with it that way. And I found a fair amount on it and I did enjoy it. But my concern came was if I'm gonna use this at Circuspook, which is at the Savoy in Denver, with a 14-foot ceiling on the portable rig, and I want it, I want to rig things high-ish, like so that the audience can see it better. Is the ebrise gonna be like clanging into the rig? And I thought, well, okay, I like it, but I don't love it for that reason. Cause I I won't know until I get into this space if it's gonna work or not. I don't want to like have created this whole thing and then I have to do it inches from the ground for whatever. So I was like, okay, well, let me see if I can figure out things vertically, because then it will look nicer. And Leah had had the suggestion of like hanging it upside down vertically, but like with the foot at the top, so that you could do a toe hang and have it be the right way. And I was like, Yeah, because there's actually a picture of me doing a toe hang on it, but like my toes are on the head of the coffin and my head is in the foot of the coffin. And I was like, well, I never even thought about it that way. Of course, Leah would think about it that way. I was just like, look at me doing a toe hang in the coffin. Anyways, so I was like, okay, well, let me hang it that way. And what I ended up noticing is I really enjoyed it that way, or I mean, I enjoyed it a lot more that way. I don't know which way I know enjoy it the most yet, but I really enjoyed it that way because the bottom is now wider and and it feels more Lyra-esque. And I felt like I could translate a lot of Lyra things in the bottom, and then the top really is just like a trapeze, essentially. So then that I can use, I mean, trapeze, Lyra, it's all the same at the top, anyways. So I was like, okay, I'm digging this. And I was able to kind of find different things. Now, if you get an invented apparatus, you could just move on it, which is what I did. I just started kind of grabbing plays and seeing what could happen. But if you're an experienced aerialist and you have vocabulary from other apparatuses, then it's nice to see if what translates. So that's what I started doing. Like, obviously, like a lion's gonna work, and obviously, like a man in the moon scissors action is gonna work. And I was like, what about an upside down man in the moon? Does that work? And it does, it's weird. And then my typical way out of the upside down man of the moon is to hook my knee on the top bar of the lira. And I can't reach that when it's five feet away from me. So I had to find a new way out, which was awesome for me. So good for me to find a new pathway was very awkward the first couple of times to try to figure out like where I was going. It tips in all sorts of new ways. So that that was also interesting. The other thing that I was like, okay, well, the side is a pole. What kind of pull skills can I take? And so I'm able to do like a pull sit and a wrist sit. So that's cool. There's also some pole type knee hook things inside of it that are working. So yeah, so I just kind of played around. And then after I did that and I found a few things that like I knew I could do, then I put on the music. Like, meanwhile, I had been, you know, this is not in the course of like a day, right? Like this is a course over a couple of weeks. Um, I had been listening to, you know, when I was driving. So like I kind of know the flow of the song for the most part. I'm not intimately familiar with it yet, but I have an idea of what, like, okay, there's like the few hits here, and and then it gets quiet, whatever. So I put on the song and I get on the coffin and I record myself. And I'll tell you what, like, I basically choreographed the piece in one time. Now, is that gonna happen to a beginner at Arialist? No. But I've been doing this so long that I'm like, okay, I found a flow that like works. Am I still fetzing with it? Yes. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. But do I have the skeleton there? Yeah, I do. Yeah, I have a solid working skeleton, which is fantastic. Yeah, in three minutes, I basically put together the skeleton. Now what I'm doing is I'm looking at the videos, and then I'm like, okay, if I get on the apparatus, you know, five seconds sooner, then I can get into this position five seconds sooner, which means I can hit that music cue where I want it. Okay, so like one am I gonna get rid of in the beginning. And then looking at different things, like I have one pose that I can like balance and get my both hands off. And then there's a nice transition from that into like getting a foot and a and a leg or a foot and an arm off and having another nice shape that is similar but different. But what I found is the transition is nicer in the backwards order. So I'm like, okay, I'm gonna switch that order. And then I went back in the studio last night and ran it again. Also with Leah, I was trying to figure out how to get onto the coffin. I have, I think people fall into ruts, right? Where we're like, this is how I get on the thing. And I'm always trying to get rid of that. I want it to look different every time. So I was like, well, what's a way I can get on this? So what I had been doing was having the coffin in front of me, reaching up and then literally pulling myself up, doing a little pull-up and then sitting down in the bottom of it, which looks nice until it is like just a little bit too high. And then it looks like a real struggle. And the thing is, is we're back to I don't know how high it's gonna be in this theater, right? There are theaters where you know you're gonna be on a pulley line and you can get it within like inches of what you need it to be. This is not that. I'm gonna be within six inches or a foot, probably. So that's like a big height difference. Like, if we're so I'm like, okay, well, this this one's not gonna work. So I worked with Leah and she was like, Oh, what if you pull in backwards and then what happens? And we both kind of explored together. So this was really great to work with a buddy because she was like, What happens if your leg goes that way? And she found a pathway for me that I would have never found on my own because it's not natural for me, but it's natural for her, which is awesome, right? And then she did it. I copied her and it looked completely different because my legs just went in a different way, because my body shaped a different way, whatever. But that's the beauty. Like I'm always just like, this is the beauty of it, right? We can do the same thing. And I'm like, we're we are in the same rap, if you will, but I look very different doing it. And that's okay. I don't look bad, it's just different and it's cool. It's it's just awesome. So we played a little with that. I also taught a private lesson to beginners last night. And this is always such a reminder. As I think for like if you're an intermediate aerialist, I think the trap that we fall into is like, let me put my hardest skills in. And that's great, but it's really difficult for you. It becomes unsustainable as we get older, I think, and and as we acquire more and harder tricks. You can't put all of them in the same act and expect to be able to run it several shows or throughout several years. And so the other thing that you notice is the audience doesn't care. And you can argue this thing of, well, it shouldn't matter. It's my art. I'm gonna make what I want to make. And 100, you should do that. And also, you shouldn't always pander and cater to the audience and do what they want. I don't think that that's the answer either. But as I mentioned last week, when we're talking about performances, it's this dialogue between the artist and the audience. And so if you are only putting in things for yourself all the time and never thinking about who's consuming it, then are people gonna continue to consume it? Some people will, because some people will resonate. But if you if you're never thinking about who you're performing for, then it becomes a one-sided conversation and people will lose interest. So, anyways, my tidbit is that's your reminder to go back to the beginning because also those beginner moves are beautiful in their simplicity, and you can make them look different. Just as Leah and I made one transition into a pose look vastly different, you can make a mermaid look different. And so that's what I decided doing. I I had I had taught these beginners my animal series that I got from Frequent Fliers a million D years ago. I think it's a great series for beginners and teaches transitions very nicely. And it ends in bat, which is just like a candlestick on trapeze sling, whatever. And I was like, uh I could do a bat in the coffin. And sure enough, of course you can. Of course you can on the top. Yep. Probably on the bottom too, but it's not gonna be high enough for me to do that. So I'm gonna do it on top. And since it's spooky, like I'm thinking like batty vampy vibes. So this works. So that's where I'm at in the process. I'm still in this futzing bit and like adding taking away things in this editing bit. And then what comes next is like the character and layering as like the final touch. So I'm still working on what that looks like. I'm starting to get a feel for what this character is now. And then that will inform like my hand gestures or my facial expressions. And are my feet pointed or flexed or flointed? And and does that change? And is there a reason why? And just different things like that. And it may tell a story or it may just be vibes. I don't know. I don't know yet. We're still working, it's still simmering, and I've got a few months for it to do so. And so for me, I feel like I'm in a pretty solid spot for it to take off from there. So that's one way, one way that I choreograph. And this was kind of like the combination of sometimes I'll have like the music and like choreograph to the music. Sometimes I'll have like a sequence and I'll use that sequence and set it to music. Sometimes I'll start with the character. It's always different. So this was kind of like a combination of like I have a bit of a sequence and I have the music and I'm gonna m mush them together at the same time, see what happens. So there's lots of ways of approaching things, and um, there's no there's no right or wrong. Uh it's different every time. It depends on what you're working on and and what it's needing from you. So sometimes I have a just the music, and I mean, honestly, like the music can drive the whole thing, potentially, and sometimes it's the exact opposite. But for for bite, that came from one song. It came from that Lord's cover of Rule the World, and the whole show is based around that one piece of music. It inspired the whole thing, which I think is also just very cool. I had flashes and visions. I was like, I know what this story is. And it can all like you could watch that one piece and have basically the idea of the whole show. It's just uh expanded from there. So, anyways, anyways, I love this stuff. I think it's so cool. I hope you do too. Go out and play, get on something, make something, even if it's not good, just do it. I've made so much bad work. It's important to make the bad work because it allows the opening for the good stuff.

SPEAKER_00

Later. Anyways, so so yeah. If you live in the Denver area, then you can um you can come see what what this piece turns out to be on August 8th at the Savoy. I'll obviously be keeping you posted with details when tickets go on sale. They'll go on sale next month.

SPEAKER_01

So we got some time. And if you don't live here, you can join the Patreon and I will put the show on the Patreon. Afterwards, we'll put the recording on. So yeah, and you'll have access to that. Which would be fun. So yeah. Speaking of Patreon, thank you to my patrons. I got a new one.

SPEAKER_00

I got a new one. Thank you so much. It makes my heart so happy.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it's just I'm very grateful. I'm very grateful for all of my patrons who show up and can give what they can give and help me continue to do the things because it costs money. Right. Uh it helps keep this podcast free from ads. I'd like to never have ads on here. Yeah. If the other thing that helps is If you enjoyed this, please share it with someone who you think might get something out of it. And if you don't mind rating the show or giving us a little subscribe, that also helps reach more people. And uh I really, really appreciate it. I appreciate all of you for being here, for listening to me talk into your earballs for the last 20-ish minutes. And yeah, if you have requests for future episodes, let me know. You can um drop them in the comments here, or you can reach me on all the social medias at In the Wings Ariel or on Patreon at in the wings Ariel. Thank you so much for being here. I hope you have a beautiful week, and I will see you next week. This has been the Ariel Alchemist. Now go create some magic of your own. Happy flying.