Tuesday was the first complete rehearsal day since choreographers Mollie Mock and Jeremy Blair completed their new work REFLECT, which is set to the original ‘ohana track “Hidden”. I had seen enough of the work already to know that they and the cast of seven had something very special going on, but the completed work is a strikingly graceful composition, a dynamic story based on an architecture of carefully interwoven passages.

The whole process of making Dance still mystifies me in many ways. Watching Angela, Caitlin, Carrie, Jeff, Kurt and Megan (Brian returns next week) run the piece Tuesday afternoon, I was, once again, more than amazed at what dancers do, and how they do it. I don’t mean the movement, even when it’s stunning; I mean the cooperation. Time-defying cooperation, to move to where somebody else is going to be, again and again, with perfect focus. But also, the remarkable cooperation that makes it possible for nine people (in this case), who may not even know each other when they start the process, to find a way to schedule, learn, communicate, practice, improve, perfect, and finally perform an original composition of movement.

“Reflect” will premiere July 17, 18, 19 at ThodosDanceChicago’s NEW DANCES 2009 at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn Street, Chicago 60610. For tickets, call 312.266.6255. Between now and then, I’m going to speak to the dancers and choreographers and ask them a little about the process of putting a work like this together.