This past Saturday was a blast. With the help of exactly 39 others, I realized my first mass dance for a large group based on the 1930′s notation score I’ve been researching.

I’ll be sharing more pictures and video as I get them processed. Much of the information for the participants was stored at the quickly-created website for the event.

Now I’m thinking about the next event, scheduled for March 5, reflecting on what happened Saturday. I would like to reuse some of the same strategies. Such as, having an organized system for how people would move in the space, having leaders who know the system, using DIY web and graphic design to communicate something about the event, and also to intentionally obscure exactly who and what is behind the event, which for me has to do with my emerging opinions about how to do historical research.

While I want to obscure some elements, other things just need to be clearer, earlier, to facilitate such a big spectacle, than they were for this German mass dance event. Thus, I will be making more decisions ahead of time and clarifying my own expectations for the volunteers – particularly the core of people that are donating large amounts of time. Also, the German dance event was closely based on a definite score for movement – the 1930′s dance notation score. What type of scores could keep more options open? So that the ultimate performance could be highly organized, yet also indefinite and dependent on the actions of each leader?

Whereas the Feb 12 movement choir took place in the sheltered space of the OSU campus and treated the participants as the only audience, the March 5 event should take place in a public space – the location obviously needs to be kept secret until much closer to the event.