anticipation... and waiting

Well, illness has kept me a bit out of the loop, but I am on the rebound and ready to return to Roxanaland. No rehearsals this week, while featured dancer Greta Hodgkinson (Roxana)and others perform in Swan Lake with the National Ballet Company of Canada. Sipping my chai eggnog latte and reading the Globe yesterday, I discovered that Greta and others have been doing press for the ballet this week - how on earth do they fit everything in - Greta is recovering from illness herself!? I can't imagine having to get through a day of sniffling and coughing as I've been doing and then running off to dance for two hours in a demanding role. The life of performers!

Though the production team is still very busy, there is a sense of anticipation and waiting... that moment just before pushing off the top of the ski hill. Everyone's concentration and focus are intense. Here are Moze's notes from Monday of this week:
Every day brings us a step closer to shooting…, It was interesting to see a rough draft of the shooting schedule drawn up by our First A.D., Maria Popoff, with all the pieces of the script carved up into little shooting blocks. I looked at it and thought about the two-page proposal I wrote almost two years ago where the whole thing was just a sketch. And here we are today with a team of designers, planners, managers, financiers and technicians working against the clock to make it all happen. How I wish I could know what Defoe would’ve made of all this. (His book is dearer to me now than ever as I’m constantly going back to the original text to solve certain problems pertaining not only to the story but design issues as well.) How is the overall theme of the film manifested in colour and shape? How much do I need to cut without losing the essence of what it’s all saying? Will I be able to pull this off?
Back to Hamilton again tomorrow to see some new locations and revisit ones we’re still considering. We all return next Monday for the last and final week of creating dances before two days of run-through on Thursday and Friday.

It's odd to get the feeling at once of both chaos and stillness: people rushing to attend to the details, while others stand in the wings, waiting for their cue. I'm sure there's a physics term for that kind of simultaneous contrasting energy. For now, we'll call it creative combustion!