Yvonne: Well, I can say right off the bat
that I came into this situation with certain
reservations about performing during the day
in this huge space with this constant buzz
of museum-goers, but I resigned myself to
it and I thought it was a very good situation.
Ana: People were pretty focused, somehow.
Yvonne: Yeah, look.
Pat: And also, they don't know they're gonna
stand there for five minutes.
They're waiting to see what happens so they're
attentive.
Patricia: Do you direct them to be dead serious
or…?
Yvonne: Yeah, yeah.
I didn't tell them not to blink or, you know…
Patricia: Smile but not to smile.
Yvonne: It's an individual matter how you
stand still.
Patricia: They have to count?
Yvonne: No but they have music to…
Pat: No, they know the music.
They recognize the shift in the music when
they are to begin to run which is…
The shift in the music starts in about 10
seconds.
Ana: You both did it, no?
Patricia: I've never done it before.
Ana: You never did it? No?
Patricia: Never done it, no.
Yvonne: I've done it.
Patricia: Really?
Pat: But you did it barefoot.
That's what interested me.
Yvonne: Yeah, that was the difference.
Pat: The most important thing is to keep the
shape of the clump.
Patricia: But the individuals inside can't
move.
Pat: Can't move around.
They sometimes have to position themselves
that they have a breakaway.
There he broke away really easily right there,
but sometimes it was awkward.
Patricia: Well, every time they came back
into the dressing room when we were warming up…
…they would be, like, you know,
all the difficulties of navigating that space.
Pat: They should be closer together.
Yvonne: See, now here they should be…
Pat: They're too spread out.
Yvonne: …closer together.
Patricia: Whatever were they thinking?
Yvonne: Come on.
Get together.
Pat: Well, it's hard, in a way, to run when
you're in the center because you're just kind of
going around yourself.
Pat: Now these two people, I taught this to them
in Dublin because they were dancers I chose
for Yvonne's performance at the Irish Museum
of Modern Art.
Thomas: Do you think it makes any difference
whether the dancers are people you know or
don't know?
Like, back in the day, these were folks that
you were working with and you knew their work.
I'm just wondering, like, in terms of how
close you get or how far you get.
Yvonne: My own group I've been working with
some of you since 2000…
Pat: 1999, 2000.
Yvonne: Well, Pat...
Pat: Me forever but...
Ana: 1931.
Pat: Yeah, just about.
Yvonne: With new people, yeah, it's a different
situation, yeah, in my experience.
Pat, what's yours?
Pat: Well, it is like you have to kind of
get used to what kind of instructions people
respond to and what kind of instructions they
don't get.
Patricia: Like Mary Kate, I would've
never thought that she would be a Trio A-er.
Yvonne: Why?
Patricia: Because of her training.
She performs in more presentational kinds
of works/choreographers, but she did so great.
Pat: She grasped details of performance and
gesture immediately and retains it.
Patricia: She had, like, an athletic energy…
Pat: Yeah, she has an athleticism that's really
beautiful.
Patricia: …that was so fantastic to see
it.
Pat: Here comes the star.
Patricia: Everybody talked about this coat
to me.
Yvonne: Why?
Patricia: Like, is this character from a French
film?
Yvonne: Why a French film?
Patricia: I have no idea.
Because it's elegant, it's minimalist, it's...?
Yvonne: What does that have to do with French
film?
Patricia: I think there was something communicated
by the costume more this time than ever before
Yvonne: Oh, oh.
Patricia: ...that she was in a train station or something,
you know, running to catch the train.
Like, that was a whole narrative that never
we've had there before.
Yvonne: Well, the other weird thing is you're
not allowed to take your hands out of your
pockets.
You have to get up…
Patricia: I mean it's hard to run, like, in
bare feet and all. But...
I really got in shape.
People applauded the running.
Yvonne: They thought it was over.
Yvonne: Oh, I love this part.
Patricia: You taught me.
You taught me everything I know.
Pat: That smile is particularly bizarre.
Patricia: I mean I've been doing this for
10, 12 years, 15 years.
I remember the first day that you came to
the…it was, like, 2001.
She was looking for somebody who could scream.
Yvonne: In a theatrical setting, she would
get up and…
Yeah...
...and as she turns her head to the left, the lights fade to black.
So, I think I gave you special instructions,
milk it.
Patricia: Use it. Take your time, yeah.
Yvonne: Take your time, yeah.
Patricia: And that was, like, the hardest
part to…
Pat: The hardest thing to do, I would think,
yeah.
Patricia: And because I would see every single
person in the audience.
I would cry.
Yvonne: Oh, this is beautiful.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
It's great as a closeup.
Pat: It's beautiful.
Yvonne: I was involved in repetition at that
time and randomness.
Yeah, it's not choreographed the overall structure.
Each movement has a number.
Pat: Or a letter.
Yvonne: Or a letter.
Patricia: And anybody can call it.
Yvonne: If you want to change a diagonal,
you tap someone and go on a different diagonal.
Pat: This is six.
She's doing nine, which nobody likes to do.
She got abandoned.
This is C.
Yvonne: It's a two
Pat: It's a C.
Patricia: So now David just touched Emily
and they changed directions.
Yvonne: Yeah, and they'd go to a different
corner.
Patricia: And you have to stay moving like
that in the corner.
Yvonne: You do this treading motion.
Ana: And what are you doing, Pat?
Pat: I'm doing random walking.
Patricia: What you see is what you get.
Pat: I just did D3, I think.
And I stopped still which you can do in the
random walking, but you can't move again unless
someone jostles you.
Here comes, Ms. Yvonne.
Patricia: We didn't know Yvonne was coming
in.
Ana: You didn't?
Patricia: No.
Yvonne: No, this is the first time.
I just came in and stood.
Patricia: Everybody's smiling because we're
like, "What is Yvonne doing here?"
Pat: When she started coming out, I thought, "Oh,
she's going to come out and tell us
we're doing something wrong."
Patricia: Like, in the middle of the performance,
Yvonne would be like, "I don't know what three is".
So we would have to do, like, a quick…
Ana: Update.
Patricia: Update, yeah.
Oh, Yvonne, now you joined the group.
Pat: Eight. That was eight.
Yvonne: That's enough of that.
Patricia: The privileges of the boss, you
go in and out when you want.
Yvonne: Now I'm in the group.
Pat: Raise your head, Yvonne.
Why are you looking at the floor?
Patricia: It's really hard to watch yourself.
Yvonne: Oh, dear.
Pat: Three, this is three.
Patricia: "Okay, forget it."
Pat: "I'm over that."
Yvonne: I'm not going to do that.
Yvonne: What am I doing?
Pat: Getting us to come out.
Patricia: And she's out there by herself.
It's like, "Come on out."
Pat: But when we were done, I mean we were
all performing at age a hundred twice
a day.
So we were like, "Okay, we're done," but at
the same time, it felt like it was just the
beginning like there was something happening.
Yvonne: What am I going to do?
What do you want from me?
Patricia: You were happy.
Yvonne: Of course.
Patricia: You were so happy.
Yvonne: Yeah, I was very happy.
Yeah.
[applause]
